(Tutorial) High Dynamic Range - HDR

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7/23/2019 (Tutorial) High Dynamic Range - HDR http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/tutorial-high-dynamic-range-hdr 1/14 HDR Tutorial: How to create ‘High Dynamic Range’ images using Photomatix If you want to know how to take photos such as these, then read on. View More Contents What’s new? Aims of this tutorial What is HD? !ools "eeded #tep $% #ource Ima&es #tep '% (eneratin& a HD ima&e #tep )% !one Mappin& eal World *+amples Issues with HD *+tras o (eneratin& a HDI from a sin&le AW file o $ AW s ) AW’s o -hotoshop s -hotomati+ 

Transcript of (Tutorial) High Dynamic Range - HDR

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HDR Tutorial: How to create ‘High

Dynamic Range’ images using Photomatix

If you want to know how to take photos such as these, then read on.

View More

Contents

• What’s new? 

• Aims of this tutorial 

• What is HD? 

• !ools "eeded 

• #tep $% #ource Ima&es 

• #tep '% (eneratin& a HD ima&e 

• #tep )% !one Mappin& 

• eal World *+amples 

• Issues with HD  

• *+tras 

o (eneratin& a HDI from a sin&le AW file 

o $ AW s ) AW’s 

o -hotoshop s -hotomati+ 

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o HD from -(s 

o emoin& */I0 

• 1onclusion 

• 1redits and 2inks 

What’s New?

I’e reor&anised this &uide to include more on -hotoshop’s HD feature and why I feel that

-hotomati+’s is 3etter. !he latest ersion of -hotomati+ will detect if your !I00’s hae the

same */I0 info and it will ask you to confirm which ima&es hae which e+posure settin&s.

!his means you don’t hae to remoe the */I0 from them anymore. A &reat feature.

!his &uide has also 3een featured in the "oem3er issue of -rofessional -hoto&rapher . I think 

that’s an official stamp of approal from the photo&raphy industry that HD is indeed &reatfor photo&raphers world wide. It can produce nice 3alanced ima&es on harsh sunny days, or it

can create arty pictures of already stunnin& landscapes.

Aims o this tutorial

!he main aim of this tutorial is to help people use HD techni4ues to produce photos with a

hi&her dynamic ran&e than they normally &et in a standard out of the camera photo. I will

show you how to take a shot from the one on the left, to the one on the ri&ht.

What is HDR?

HD means 5Hi&h Dynamic an&e’. 6sin& software like -hotomati+ you can create ima&es

with a more detail in the hi&hli&hts and shadows than you can with a normal photo fromtodays di&ital cameras. Its similar to the old techni4ue of e+posure 3lendin&. !akin& one photo

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for the sky and one for the &round, then mer&in& them 3oth to&ether in -hotoshop. HD takes

it a step further 3y increase the amount of detail in the ima&e and allows you to create some

uni4ue photos. 7ou can use it carefully to create natural lookin& photos or you can use it

creatiely to create atmospheric and emotie photos. !he choice is yours as to how you

 process the end result.

Tools Nee!e!

A AW editor such as Aperture, aw#hooter, or -hotoshop. #econdly, the HD pro&ram. I

use -hotomati+.

"te# $: "ource images

!here are two main ways to create the source ima&es needed for HD. 7ou can either use

A*8, auto e+posure 3racketin&, on your camera to take ) ima&es while you are out, or you

can use AW to take $ ima&e and then use a AW editor to produce ) shots 3ack at yourcomputer. I shall start with auto e+posure 3racketin&.

Auto %x#osure &rac'eting (A%&)

!he main adanta&e with A*8 is that you can &et 3etter source ima&es with less noise. 0or

e+ample, a sunset. 7ou would normally &et really dark shadows and enhancin& them later

from $ sin&le AW file would increase the noise. With A*8 you can take a completely

seperate ima&e for the shadows and one for the hi&hli&hts to presee the detail and keep the

noise to a minimum. !he disadant&e to this approach is that anythin& moin& in the ima&e

will 3ecome 3lurred and repeated as it moes across the ) ima&es. !o start with you will need

a camera that has the A*8 mode and a tripod. 7ou will also need a tripod so that the ) shots

you take can 3e perfectly ali&ned later. (o to the menu on your camera and set the A*8 mode

to 9' : ;' stops.

It should look like the ri&ht ima&e after the chan&es. 1ompose your shot, and set the camera

up as your normally would to take a picture. "ow after you take a picture you will see the

e+posure compensation leel drop down to 9'. !ake another picture and you will see it &oes

up to ;'. 7ou will notice the shutter speed or aperture chan&es too. !his allows you to &et the

three shots for the shadows, a 3alanced ima&e and for the hi&hli&hts. 7ou now hae the )

shots re4uired to produce a HD ima&e.

*sing a RAW %!itor

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!he other way to produce the ) shots needed is to take $ photo and ad<ust in a AW editor

such as Aperture, -hotoshop or aw#hooter. !he main adanta&e to this is that you can

 produce a HD shot with moin& su3<ects such as people or cars. !he disadanta&e is that if

you use an ima&e with ery dark shadows and you’re tryin& to 3oost the e+posure, the result

will 3e 4uite noisey.

2oad your photo into the editor, then set the e+posure leel to 9' and sae the ima&e as a $=3it

!I00 without any metadata such as */I0 info. !his is the important part. If you sae it with

*/I0 info you will find that -hotomati+ relies on that info to produce the HD shot. !he

 pro3lem with this is that the shutter speed and aperture alues will 3e the same across the )

ima&es and -hotomati+ won’t know which ima&e is 9', > and ;'. #et the e+posure leel to >,

sae that and then set it to ;' and sae that ima&e.

!his is how it looks in Aperture. 7ou will now hae the ) ima&es needed to produce a HD

ima&e.

"te# +: ,enerating a HDR image

pen the ) ima&es into -hotomati+. 0rom the HDI menu select (enerate HD. -hotomati+

will ask you if you want to use the ) opened ima&es or load in some. Make sure it has @6se

opened ima&es selected and click ok. "ow -hotomati+ will confirm the e+posures for each

ima&e. B out of $> times it will &et it ri&ht, 3ut <ust incase make sure that each ima&e has the

correct e+posure settin&s. In the case of this &uide they should 3e ;', >, 9'. 1lick ok, then

check that @use standard response cure is selected. If you are usin& ) ima&es taken at the

scene tick the @Ali&n 2D ima&es 3efore &eneratin& HD ima&e option <ust so that

-hotomati+ ali&ns the ima&es for you. 1lick ok and after a few minutes you will see your

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HD ima&e. It won’t look e+actly ri&ht <ust yet. #ome areas will 3e sli&htly oer9e+posed and

it’ll look odd.

"te# -: Tone .a##ing

!his is the ma&ic part. 6sin& the !one Mappin& feature in -hotomati+ will conert your HD

ima&e into somethin& usa3le. (oto the HDI menu and select !one Mappin&. 7ou will see

how your photo looks more like a standard HD ima&e. !he sky will 3e nicely e+posed, as

will the &round. !he trick now is to ad<ust the settin&s to &et a nice 3alanced ima&e. 7ou could

 3e creatie and &o for somethin& a little more fun if you feel like it. 0or the ima&e in this

&uide I wanted somethin& special and yet not too far from the real world. I’ll start with a

4uick run down of the arious options.

/uminosity

Ad<usts the 3ri&htness of the shadows. Moin& the slider to the ri&ht has the effect of 3oostin&

shadow details and 3ri&htenin& the ima&e. Moin& it to the left &ies a more natural look tothe tone mapped ima&e.

!he optimal alue depends on the ima&e and the effect you want to achiee.

"trength

1ontrols the stren&th of local contrast enhancements. A alue of $>>C &ies the ma+imum

increase in local contrast.

!he optimal alue depends on the ima&e and the effect you want to achiee.

Color "aturation

1ontrols the saturation of the (8 color channels. !he &reater the saturation, the more

intense the color. !he alue affects each color channel e4ually.

White Cli# 0 &lac' Cli#

0rom watchin& the way the histo&ram chan&es, the white clip ad<usts the hi&hli&ht contrast

and the 3lack clip ad<usts the shadow contrast.

.icro0smoothing:

8asically this settin& should 3e called @How arty do you want your shot? At > you can &et

the cool arty style HD ima&es with all the detail in eerythin& from walls to clouds you

didn’t know where there. Howeer, if you want a nice simple 3lended e+posure photo set it to

)>. BC of the ima&e should 3e perfectly e+posed as if you spent hours puttin& them to&ether

in -hotoshop. !his is a &reat new addition to -hotomati+ as it allows people to use thesoftware as they see fit. If they want a nice photo that is perfectly e+posed then they can &et

that <ust as if they used "D (radient filters on their lens. Howeer, if like me they want

somethin& a 3it more uni4ue they can drop the micro9smoothin& down and &et somethin&

dramatic.

/ight smoothing:

 "eer set this 3elow > as you will &et horri3le results.

.icrocontrast

1ontrols the accentuation of local details. !he default alue EHi&hF is the optimal alue in

most cases. Howeer, this control may 3e useful in the case of a noisy ima&e or when the

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accentuation of local details is not desira3le Ee.&. seams of a stitched pano in a uniform area

may 3ecome isi3le when local details are too much enhancedF.

Real Worl! %xam#les

 Natural Feel 

#ettin&s usedG

2uminosity ;, #tren&th 'C, 1olour #aturation =C, White 1lip >.''>, 8lack 1lip >.>

 Natural Feel 2

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2uminosity 9', #tren&th >C, 1olour #aturation =C, White 1lip '.')>, 8lack 1lip >.JB>

 Being Creative

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2uminosity ;, #tren&th C, 1olour #aturation =C, White 1lip J.)>, 8lack 1lip $.$J>

As you can see, when you increase the stren&th, luminosity and clippin& you increase the

isi3le detail in the ima&e. 7ou can see more detail in the 3uildin& and the clouds.

1ssues

#hootin& on hi&h I# will increase the noise in the ima&e. 0or e+ample, usin& I#$>> can

 produce a noise ima&e like I#J>>. #o if you use I#J>> it will 3e ery noisy. Don’t een

think a3out I#>> or $=>> unless you are desperate and hae a &reat noise reduction

techni4ue. I find that "oiseware doesn’t do a thin& a&ainst the noise in a HD shot, 3ut "oise

 "in<a can. Howeer usin& "oise "in<a will soften the ima&e.

Halo effects around 3uildin&s and people can occur too. I’e read that this can 3e due to

lowerin& the luminosity 3elow >.

%xtras

,enerating a HDR1 rom a single RAW ile

6sin& the latest ersion of -hotomati+, '.).$, you can load a sin&le AW file and &enerate a

HD ima&e. #imply &oto 0ile 9K pen and then select the AW file. -hotomati+ will load the

ima&e and &enerate a HD from it. 7ou will still need to tone map the ima&e after. I tried it

 3ut I didn’t really like the results. !he ima&e was too noisy and had some corruption in certain

areas. !he 3est method is still to take ) 3racketed ima&es on site.

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$ RAW 2s - RAW’s

!here is a lot of talk on the We3 a3out true HD ima&es. 2ots of people ar&ue that a HDI

from $ AW file isn’t a true HDI. I personally 3eliee that the end result is all that matters.

If you sell a print in a &allery is the 3uyer really &oin& to care if its a true HD ima&e or a

@HD ima&e? Are they really that 3othered a3out how many 3its of colour there are or <ust

how much data there really is in the ima&e? -ro3a3ly not. !hey may ask how you created it

out of a passin& interest 3ut are they really truely &oin& to care? I dou3t they will. !hey’ll take

it home and han& it up and look at the end result. !hey will en<oy the end result. Its all a3out

the end print in my opinion, not a3out how nerdy the process was. ut of interest I decided to

 produce a HD ima&e from $ AW and ) AW’s to compare the end result.

HDR rom $ RAW ile

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HDR rom - RAW iles

As you can see from the photos they are fairly close. !here is more detail and 3etter colour in

the ima&e produced from ) AW photos. !he ri&ht hand side wall isn’t 3urnt out like on the $

AW ima&e, and neither is the 3lue wall to a lesser e+tent. !here is also more detail in the skyand the whites aren’t as &rey. !hin&s like this can corrected to a certain e+tent in -hotoshop so

I wouldn’t worry too much. I did find that reducin& the @1olour #aturation for this ima&e in

the @!one Mappin& settin&s did produce a nicer shot. !here was more detail in the 3lue

sections and the wall on the far ri&ht wasn’t 3urnt out as much. 0or the most part the ima&es

are similar and it does show that a $ AW HD ima&e can produce a strikin& result. It may

not 3e a true HD shot and its not a 2ow Dynamic an&e ima&e 3ut what it can 3e is a

stunnin& photo with a little effort.

Photosho# 2s Photomatix

With -hotoshop you can create a HD ima&e from ) AW files ery easily. #imply open

them in -#, &oto 0ile 9K Automate 9K Mer&e to HD. It’ll ask you where the source ima&es

are and then &enerate the HD. It will then display the ima&e on screen so you can ad<ust the

histo&ram to make sure the ima&e isn’t oerly dark or too 3lown out. nce you hae done that

&oto Ima&e 9K Mode 9K $= or 3it and it will 3rin& up another dialo& 3o+. 0rom the drop

down select @2ocal Adaption. 6sin& this you can tweak the leels in the ima&e. 7ou hae to

 3e careful as it can cause the ima&e to look horri3le. !he end result will 3e a well 3alanced

ima&e that you can further edit in -hotoshop. !he results are 4uite natural lookin& and don’t

feature any of the e+treme looks that a lot of HD ima&es do. 0or more information read this

e+cellent &uide on -hotoshop’s HD feature.

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7ou can achiee a similar result usin& -hotomati+. 1onert the AW files to $=3it !I00’s and

&enerate a HD ima&e usin& this &uide. nce in the !one Mappin& interface set the stren&th

to $, Micro9smoothin& to )>, luminosity to >, li&ht smoothin& to > and micro9contrast to >.

!he ima&e will then 3e similar to -hotoshops. I found that -hotomati+’s result was 3ri&hter in

the shadows, 3ut this was 3efore playin& with the @2ocal Adaption feature in -hotoshop. !he 3enefit of -hotomati+ oer -hotoshop is that you hae far more control oer the end ima&e.

7ou hae control oer the luminosity, micro9contrast, li&ht smoothin&, micro9smoothin&, etc.

#o you hae the a3ility to tweak the ima&e further than you can in -hotoshop. How far is up

to you.

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As you can see they are irtually the same. Howeer, usin& the features in -hotomati+ you

can create stunnin& pieces of art like the followin&G

HDR rom 3P,s

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I’e ran a test usin& my dancer ima&e and it seems that you can &et <ust as &ood a result usin&

) -(s instead of ) !I00s. Its pro3a3ly 3etter to use !I00’s as they will store more detail, 3ut

if you want can use -(s well enou&h. !here is a definite difference in usin& -(s and !I00s.

I prefer the !I00 look. -(s seem more saturated and noisier.

Remo2ing %415

!his is now redundant as the latest ersion of -hotomati+, '.).$, will now detect if the */I0

info is the same and will ask you for confirmation on the arious e+posures of each shot.

Howeer if you need to you can use these tips to remoe the */I0. If you’re hain& trou3le

remoin& the */I0 from a !I00 I’e found a couple of thin&s you can use. 7ou can copy the

!I00 into a new document as sae it. 6seful when you don’t want the lossiness of sae for

we3 Le& -#Ds or !I00s and you can create an action to do it as a 3atch function. !here is

also a pro&ram called, IrfanView that can supposedly edit */I0.

0or Aperture users, when you e+port ersions click on the e+port preset drop down, then edit

 presets. If you select the full siNe !I00 or -( preset then click ; it will duplicate that. !hen

make sure that @include metadata is unticked and click ok.

Conclusion

#o that <ust a3out wraps up my HD &uide. I hope you found it interestin& and a startin& point

for your own HD ima&es. #ome people see HD as <ust another fad 3ut I really 3eliee that

it could hae plenty of real world applications. I’m already e+hi3itin& a couple of my shots in

2ierpool. It definitely has its uses, 3ut as with eerythin& too much of a &ood thin& can 3e

 3ad for you. 0eel free to check out my other HD photos.

Cre!its an! /in's

!hanks to stollerdos for directin& me to this &reat tutorial on HD  that e+plained the sin&le

AW file trick.

• 2uminous 2andscape -hotoshop HD !utorial 

• Hi&h Dynamic an&e Workshop 

• How to create professional HD ima&es usin& -hotoshop 

• HD from $ -( 

• !he Definitie (uide to ealistic Hi&h Dynamic an&e Ima&es 

• How to 1reate Hi&h Dynamic an&e Ima&es 

• Modern HD photo&raphy, a how9to or #aturday mornin& rela+ation 

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•  "ature#capes% !he HD 2andscapes !utorial