One of the problems of overdoing the HDR effect is that the result looks far too obvious. There is literally very few blacks and whites which tend to suggest that the software has been stretched to produce an unrealistic effect. One of the tools inside Photomatix Pro that can be held responsible for this is Details Enhancer. Details Enhancer can sometimes create those really weird over-the-top results that go against the whole concept of a contrasting yet realistic landscape photo.
For editing landscapes, choose the Tone Balancer tool inside Photomatix Pro. This produces the sort of results that are realistic and looks good. Of course, under each of the tools, you can adjust the sliders to produce a more tasteful result. Just as with everything else in photography, HDR effects too, depend on the personal taste and preferences of a photographer. So, overdoing the effects can have disastrous effects. One of the latest features of the software is the ability to blend in a hitherto unedited frame with an HDR image.
This basically gives one more option to the photographers to produce a slightly more contrasting result. This can, however, be adjusted. You can change the opacity to ensure a result more to your taste. This prevents the overdone effect. Still, on the new features of the software, Photomatix 6 has a new Brush tool feature.
This brush tool allows you to make adjustments to specific areas of a photo. The Brush tool is available under Color Settings. The brush tool works for even the blending tool. A new Detect Edges tool does a great job of knowing where the edges of the photos are and that takes care of any unintended application of the brush tool. While most HDR software would require that you shoot from a fixed platform, such as a tripod so that the alignments are uniform across all the images, Photomatix does not have any such requirements.
Another tool that may be useful, depending on whether you are coming from Lightroom or Photoshop or using Photomatix Pro as a standalone product, is the Straighten tool. The Straighten tool allows you to straighten things like a straight line or the horizon line or a straight building which may appear curved due to imperfections in the lens.
Ideally, if you are using Lightroom or Photoshop, then these tools are more than enough for you to take care of these little adjustments. Image Source: Photomatix, get more sample images here. Finally, a word on the User Assisted Ghost Removal tool.
If you have dabbled a bit in HDR photography you would no doubt know that taking multiple images in an urban environment will definitely capture one or more moving elements in the frames. A person or a car or a bird. All good HDR software does come with a built-in ghost removal function. Using this feature you can mark out the area that you need to be corrected.
You can even select the frame that you wish to use. Try Photomatix Pro for Free. I personally feel that is a bit over-exaggerated. The software is developed as a joint collaboration between Trey Ratcliff and Skylum , a company that produces a lot of utility image editing software. This software was only available for the Mac, but now a Windows version was released Aurora HDR is now available , incl. The most instantly gratifying application is the HDR Look.
This is the slider that increases or decreases the HDR effect. Overdo this and you will end up with results that are completely over the top.
There are a number of options to add custom textures, bracketing the HDR mode as well as adding back some of the original images into the frame. Just like Photomatix Pro, there is an option to selectively include or exclude areas that will have the effects of these adjustments. With Aurora HDR you can import the RAW files directly into the software or export them through Lightroom with or without the changes you have made quite easily. With Photomatix Pro, however, if you wish to open RAW files you will have to find them on your hard drive and then open them directly in Photomatix Pro by going around Lightroom.
There is a Photomatix Pro plugin for Lightroom. However, you can only export TIFF files. The same goes for Photoshop. Both this software saves any change information in a separate sidecar file and Photomatix Pro does not have access to that file. Additionally, after you are done with the adjustments in Photomatix Pro you will have to reimport the finished photo back to the Lightroom library.
One more aspect where Aurora HDR wins is the interface. Definitely, with the new interface things have become a lot more responsive and intuitive. Comparatively, the Photomatix Pro interface is cumbersome and not as responsive. Nik has always been a company that produced fantastic filters and presets for Photoshop. Still quite nascent in terms of existence, this new software brings a third perspective to the growing HDR market.
The thing about HDR Efex Pro is that the software is built to function as a plugin for your choice of photo editing application. Thus, when compared with something like Photomatix Pro, you have a different workflow. Some people may like the convenience, of not having to move back and forth between two software. Others might not like it. Then adjust the tone mapping tools to get a realistic effect. Much of the interface looks similar to Lightroom and Photoshop, making tools easy to find and use.
The software also includes basic layers for masking and color correction. This is great for photographers who do a lot of HDR conversions. Real estate , landscape , and artistic photographers use HDR software to adjust images with wide dynamic range.
But be careful! Too much HDR can make an image look cartoony and fake. A level of restraint is necessary to use this process. There are many free options available. Some work as plugins in programs like Lightroom, others are standalone programs.
Programs differ in their flexibility, ease of use, and how realistic the final HRD image is. Try them out, and see which one works best for you! Share with friends Share. Show Comments 3 Hide Comments. Related Articles. How to Improve Landscapes with Mist and Fog Photography If you have ever wanted to know one sure way to make your landscape photos stand out, it is to photograph them in mist or….
The problem is that there are countless Photoshop landscape tutorials available. To get you started,…. What comes to mind? Most of you probably think of scenes of fresh green leaves, newly bloomed flowers, and a verdant…. See all articles in Landscape. Curves and Leading Lines Add interest and intrigue for a more dynamic image. Framing Add depth and context to your image with frames. If there are blowing leaves or running water in your image, click on the gear to the left and from the dialogue, switch on Ghost Reduction.
Step 3: Your computer will now spend some time combining the photos together, and the speed will be determined by the number of photos, the resolution of your camera, and how fast your computer is. Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly powerful tool. There are two main methods:. Step 3: You will then be presented by the Merge to HDR Pro dialogue window in Photoshop where you can decide whether you want to Remove Ghosts good for leaves blowing in the wind and moving water , along with some other options to refine the image.
Once complete, you can save it or carry on with your editing. Step 3: Your computer will take a moment to combine them. You can then choose whether to Auto-Align and set the level of Deghosting. Step 1: In the Develop module, highlight the three or more files that you want to merge.
Step 3: Lightroom will then spend some time merging the images together. Once complete, the dialogue box will allow you to decide whether to Auto-Align and to define the Deghost amount. Focus bracketing follows the same process but this time changing the focus between shots. Using a tripod is critical for getting good results. Be careful not to bump the camera between shots as this can make the set of images difficult to merge later on. Step 2 : Focus on the foreground interest and take your first photograph.
Step 4: Focus on the background — perhaps a mountain on the horizon — and take your third photograph. However, you may need to shoot more than three if you are:. Step 4: Photoshop will then spend a little time working some magic. Bracketing means taking several photos of the same scene with slightly different settings for each one.
These can later be blended together to get the best possible exposure or detail across the whole of the image. You are allowed to see the tonal image and make alterations to the merger of the original images as it happens. Edit at any stage, for example, change the white balance and remove halos even during the final stages of work. The tone mapping is enhanced compared to the algorithms other HDR freeware uses.
After choosing one of the 3 methods, adjust gamma, saturation, brightness, contrast and compression level settings become available.
Unfortunately, FDRTools does not offer any presets for tone mapping and cannot perform ghost removal, unlike the previously tested programs. By combining the images, you can adjust the saturation and the level of the curve range. In addition, you can fix image distortion, depth perception, and do some more complex work on readjusting the photo. I am pleased that in the latest update, there was introduced support for the selective brush and global blending applicable to the original image with its edited version.
That could possibly end up with excessive HDR rendering but Photomatix avoids this trap with its new tone balancing feature. It is worth mentioning that the program is limited in export variants, it does not send the results to other programs or exchange functions.
In photography, HDR stands for the high dynamic range. Dynamic range refers to measuring the diapason of light intensity from darkest to lightest. It allows you to blend several photos together to get light and shadow details that you can't get in a single photo.
Today many software have the ability to merge HDR photos but which ones do it the best?
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