Comments on: HDR technique

By: Hugely Distorted Reality – Fernando Gros

Hugely Distorted Reality – Fernando Gros — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 09:21:46 +0000

[...] What I didn’t do here was use the product of the HDR process as the final image (as some do). Instead, I blended the HDR image with a normal image, a process I started playing with after reading this article, HDR Done Right. [...]

By: Tom K.

Tom K. — Fri, 27 May 2011 20:20:10 +0000

Barry,

I have never worked with Photoshop Elements so I am at a loss as to how to approach this problem.
Best of luck.

Tom K.

By: Barry Doig

Barry Doig — Fri, 27 May 2011 08:03:01 +0000

This is the best article on HDR I have found to date. But I only use Photoshop Elements so the reference to Smart Objects goes over my head. Can you help a peasant to produce a work flow that gives the same results as yours?
Barry

By: Tom K.

Tom K. — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:10:07 +0000

Vicente J.,

The colors I am getting in the examples above are muted. This is due to the top layer being in Black & White and the bottom layer being in color.

Basically with the top layer being Black and White and the bottom layer being color the Overlay mode blends the two layers together which in this case reduces the color by half.

I’m colorblind and it’s easy for me to work with this method as opposed to getting full “natural” color.

As far as tweaking the layer under the Black & White layer…..that is done to do things such as adding a bit more contrast or perhaps making the image a bit brighter or darker.

Once you get the hang of this method it will open a world of possibilities for you to experiment with.

Best of luck to you,
Tom K.

By: Vicente J.

Vicente J. — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 15:39:18 +0000

Hi Tom.
I like your method for HDR but I get the colors are not very real. I do not get good color as your images.
Two questions:
1-When you make adjustments in the top layer in ACR are seeing in black and white, because you have saturation at -100 (or HSL / Grayscale). Then click OK to see the result in color in Photoshop. Is this OK?
2-I do not understand when you say “Then do the Same thing to the layer under that … just tweak the image to add even more contrast.”
Thanks.

By: Tom K.

Tom K. — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 04:49:31 +0000

Thank you SD Smart. The “Pre-Finished HDR” is saved as a 16 bit tif file.

By: SD Smart

SD Smart — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:56:03 +0000

Your results are outstanding. Thank you for sharing your method. I’m keen to experiment a little. Can I please clarify: When you save the ‘Pre-Finished HDR’ in Photomatix are you saving as a jpg, 8 bit or 16 bit tff?

By: High Dynamic Range – Fernando Gros

High Dynamic Range – Fernando Gros — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:33:50 +0000

[...] I’ve found the process of creating HDR photos a little underwhelming. Thankfully, on Neil van Niekerk’s blog there is a great guest post from Tom Kaszuba, outlining a different … than one I had been using. Tom Kazuba also uses Photomatix Pro, but in a very basic way, then [...]

By: Dusan Smolnikar

Dusan Smolnikar — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 06:42:21 +0000

Really love these. Such great work in bringing out the details, but not looking overdone. I will reconsider trying some HDR myself after reading this. Thanks, such a great article!

By: Kris

Kris — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:22:43 +0000

Tom, fantastic tutorial, thanks. When I look at the examples, I see that you are doing incredible stuff with HDR.