HDR Tutorial

[Worm324]

I've been noticing a large growing interest in the HDR techniques some of us use, but it's hard to explain everything in a few words. I finally got some spare time and put this together for all that are interested. This is my usual work flow for creating an HDR image.

Special thanks to Jfrancho for sharing his knowledge in a few tutorials. I learned a huge amount from them an applied several things to my work flow. Some of those tips I learned from Him are in this tutorial as well. You can check out his killer tutorial on a product shoot and sharpening Here

Ok, a few of you all have expressed interest in the HDR technique's I use on some of my images. So I created this tutorial on how to create an HDR image using Photmatix and then Photoshop CS3. A lot of these techniques can be used for a variety of things, but in this tutorial they are specifically focused on creating an HDR image.

Please feel free to point out mistakes I made in this tutorial. I'm sure there are a few Also if you need more info/ pictures to explain things better, just let me know. This is meant for people who have some knowledge of Photoshop or an equivalent program

Also, please keep in mind that Photoshop is extremely powerful!! Everything I'm showing you here is fairly simple stuff and can be improved upon by using masks, selective sharpening, Noise filters ect.. My goal was to give a good Fundamental start to creating a high quality HDR image.

Here we go!!!

Step #1

Taking multiple images at different Exposures in order to capture the full Dynamic range available. You can use I think up to 12 images, but in this example I'm only going to use 3. 1 thing to keep in mind is that the clouds move!! So you can snap 3 images off really quick if you use AEB (auto exposure bracketing), but the small amount of cloud movement will show if you try an take another 3 images. Not all HDR images apply to that, but the ones with clouds do

Here is the 3 I'm going to use for this tutorial:


Notice the difference in Exposure's. There really isn't a bright version, because I'm going for more of a darkish scene with cool clouds.


Now for photmatix:
Open it up and click on Generate HDR:


Navigate to your desired images and select them and hit ok:


Next select align your images then ok:


You will see this box come up as photmatix does it's thing


Next you will see the HDR composite that photmatix generated for you:


Now go to HDR Tone map or hit ctrl +T:


That will bring up this screen:


This is where all the magic happens!!

Next you will want to select 16-bit and adjust the sliders to make the image look it's best. A few things to note, The white clip slider you want to adjust so it doesn't hit the right hand side. You will see when it goes to far as a black line will raise up alone the right side edge. This indicates you have blown out the highlights. Be careful and patient with the sliders. Only move 1 at a time and only move them a little bit at a time. Eventually you will get something like this:


Click ok when your happy with it and photmatix will generate the 16-bit Tiff image:


Now save that someplace and then open the new HDR 16-bit Tiff image in Photoshop


First step in photoshop for me on all my images is to run the TLR Professional Sharpening tool kit. Thanks Jfrancho!!

Once you install the script it will sharpen your image with incredible control and precision. You can also use your regular unsharp mask techniques if you want, but I prefer this tool



Jay

[Worm324]

So once you run that (it will take a minute or 2 depending on the resolution of your HDR) you will be left with 3 new layers:


The 1st layer is for the light edges, second layer is for the dark edges, and the top layer is for the surface. You can turn these layers on 1 at a time while zoomed in to 100% or so. You can then adjust the opacity of the layer to fine tune the sharpening Pretty cool tool right?? Now flatten your image so it's back to 1 layer.



Next I'm going to use another tool called TLR professional sharpening toolkit Creative sharpening. This is part of the same sharpening script pack from above. This time we are going to use the anti-haze tool. This will help the contrast in the sort of foggy looking areas.


You can see in this example what this tool does. the image on the bottom has the layer turned on, the image on the top (left) has it off. It looks pretty subtle, but at full size it's very noticeable!! Again Flatten the image.


Here is what I got so far:



Ok now were going to do some levels adjustments using the threshold adjustment layer This takes a minute to do, but helps get an accurate adjustment!! Just click the adjustment Layer Icon on the layers palette and choose Threshold. Your image will suddenly change drastically to Black and white. White = the Brighter areas, black = the dark areas. The goal is to find the Brightest spot and the darkest spot in the image and mark them with a target.


Slide the adjuster to the left to find the darkest area: once you find it, click ok. Then select the target tool and mark the dark spot. Repeat the process by double clicking the threshold layer to re-open it. Now push the adjuster to the right to find the bright spot and mark it.




next we are going to use those targets we just made to adjust are image using a Curves adjustment layer. Create a new curves adjustment layer and select the little black eyedropper icon. bring the little eyedropper to the dark target you created and click right in the middle of it. The blacks are now adjusted DO the same for the white eyedropper. Note that the image may shift in color drastically during this process, don't worry about it will fix it in a second.



Now change the Curves layer blending mode to Luminosity. That will take care of the color changes if any, and just constrain the adjustments to the brightness levels


Next were gong to try and give the sky a little more POP. Flatten the image and then hit ctrl + J that will duplicate the background layer. The go to Image> Adjustments> Shadow/ highlight: By default the shadows amount always seems to be to high, so lower that way down. Click the show more options check box and tweak the settings to your liking. The image below is how I adjusted mine for this HDR.


So now were looking pretty good!! We came a long way from those lame raw images We now need to fine tune the image and clean-up any messes that may have been created in the sharpening process and/or ghosting, stuff like that. Also Lens dust needs to be fixed ect... This can be done at any time btw, but I just decided to do it now

Take a look at this ghosting. I'm zoomed in to 400% and you can see this in a few spots here and there. I'm not 100% sure if the alignment was off a tad, but that would be my guess. Easy to fix though with the clone stamp tool!!


Fixed in about 2 seconds:


Be sure to carefully examine your whole image for this type of stuff. In a perfect world this shouldn't happen, but the slightest camera shake can cause this. Plus over sharpening can cause halo's and stuff that you may need to fix.

Now I'm going to crop this to give it a more panoramic look. Personally preference of course


Next were going to give the image even more pop!! Select your background layer and press ctrl + alt + shift + ~ all at once and you will select all the highlights in the image. You will see the marching ants indicating the selection. Next hit ctrl + J and it will jump that selection to a new layer.


Change the layer blend mode to Softlight and fine tune the layer with the opacity slider for the desired effect. This will also add saturation to the image so keep that in mind! You may have to add a Hue/Sat layer to lower the saturation a tad.




Thats pretty much it for the HDR process The next few steps are part of my personal work flow so if you care to see here it is. Basically I'm just adding my large shadowbox frame and signature. You can get my frames here if you wish.





And here is the final result:


I hope you found this tutorial helpful

[Wes]

Great in depth tutorial. Thank you for sharing!

[brisomphotography]

man that rocks, is there anyway you could put that whole thing in a pdf?

[270weatherby]

Thanks for sharing! You pointed out things I didn't think of doing. Thanks.

[Jandybean]

Wow, why did I stay at Phototakers so long? Very interesting, thank you so much for sharing!

[dgs]

Very nice indeed. Thank you for sharing!

thanks,
Danny

[jfrancho]

Awesome work!!! This is very nicely done. The Anatomy thread you talked about is here: http://www.photocamel.com/forum/imag...ts-images.html, and is linked to in the the Image Editing Sticky: http://www.photocamel.com/forum/imag...ial-sites.html. Speaking of which, I'll add a link to this thread there as well.

My only comment would be that I convert my bracketed captures (3 or more raw files) to 16 bit/channel tiffs. The I can try different tone curve generation. I don't know what, if any advantage this offers. I guess I'll have to try it your way next time, and you can try it my way - probably doesn't make a difference though.

Super, Super good post.

[Jimmyz]

Thanks Jay
Great tutorial you are a master at this.
I really want to try HDR I just have to find something to shoot.
JimmyZ

[Fymoh]

Jay, Thanks man - incredible work. Really appreciated.

[Worm324]

Thanks all for the nice comments It was fun putting this together! I kind of made me really think about what I was doing

Brisom, I'm not sure how to make a pdf, but I'm sure it could be done pretty easily?

Jandybean, Welcome to the Camel!! We try and share our knowledge here best we can The goal for all of us is to get better!! This is the place to be if you want to learn about photography

Jfrancho, Thanks buddy I think that converting the raw images to tiff's is a great way to add flexibility to the the HDR process. It's just another variable to improve your work IMO All those little extra steps add up to a better picture in the end.

In the Range interior shots, they did come out a little better using that method, but I can't say for sure if it was the tiff conversion or not. I did use slightly diff settings in Photmatix from the original effort? Either way, the ability to pre-tone the images certainly gives you more power/ control I would have to think! Plus photmatix converts way faster when there not raw files I noticed

Thanks again for all the positive feedback Now lets see some HDR's!!

Jay

[Fusion]

Excellent tutorial Jay, good work. Ian

[Lionello]

Thanks so much for this thread, looks like there's a few things I need to add to my work flow .

[JDArt]

Fantastic work.

[Paul Shields]

Originally Posted by Jandybean

Wow, why did I stay at Phototakers so long? Very interesting, thank you so much for sharing!

Don't forget to let your phototakers friends in on our secret .

Excellent work as usual Jay. A candidate for post of the year.

[Worm324]

Thanks for all the comments everybody Really makes it worth while when you see people are getting something out your efforts

If anybody is interested in another tutorial of some kind, just let me know. I was thinking of doing a layer blending tutorial of some kind. Similar to Goofups, but with a few different techniques for blending.

Thanks,

Jay

[expensive_hobby]

Thank you Jay!!!!!

Check me out: My First HDR!

[diver46]

I have a silly question, when you download the sharpening programs, how do you get them to load into scripts in cs3? I have tried and they do not show up.

Thanks for the help.

[Worm324]

The should install with no problem? When it prompts you to select the install directory, make sure you navigate to the correct directory.

Mine is located here:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Presets\Scripts

Let me know if you have an issue

Jay

[Chieffie]

Originally Posted by Worm324

Brisom, I'm not sure how to make a pdf, but I'm sure it could be done pretty easily?
Jay

It can: You have to download a small free program, not sure what it´s called because I am at work and can´t check, then you put your tutorial into a Word file and then you click ´Print´ and in stead of your printer you choose the PDF-program, and it makes your Wordfile into a PDF.