Matt Kloskowski is a HDR Convert

[Joe M]

Matt K. recently (last week and this week) did a two part tutorial on HDR in both Photoshop and Photomatix on the NAPP site. He went as far as to say he is a HDR convert. This will probably do more for HDR and the sale of Photomatix than anything else has so far.

I took a bunch a pictures this weekend. It was very windy at the coast so my HDR images are somewhat limited but I was able to take some. Here are a couple:

This is a horse barn near Oriental, North Carolina. The caretaker was very nice and let me go inside to take some pictures. The barn is even bigger than it looks in this picture. This is probably not the final image. I may make a few changes.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1PFKvvHkCITmvyLHnhDMsqUAX85Q00_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1PFKvvHkCITmvyLHnhDMsqUAX85Q00)

This is an old boat in Pamlico County, North Carolina. I took a picture of this boat about 7-8 years ago. I was surprised it was still there. This is a final image. I may even convert it to BW and see how it looks.

Thanks for looking.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1S9CT66PzYf4vZUGuMjopA53DPoeoV_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1S9CT66PzYf4vZUGuMjopA53DPoeoV)

[SharLamb]

I just love both of those photos, but especially the boat. I don't know what HDR is (guessing High Definition Resolution???), but probably don't need to know, as I don't even use an SLR these days (I need something tiny that will fit into my small purse!). It's almost embarrassing to be on this forum since all of you are Super-Photographers and I'm just a scrapbookin' grandma. I do seem to have a good eye for photography, but am not in the position to pursue it seriously ($$$). Doesn't stop me from wallowing in the beauty posted here. Thanks for sharing. Shar

[Joe M]

I just love both of those photos, but especially the boat. I don't know what HDR is (guessing High Definition Resolution???), but probably don't need to know, as I don't even use an SLR these days (I need something tiny that will fit into my small purse!). It's almost embarrassing to be on this forum since all of you are Super-Photographers and I'm just a scrapbookin' grandma. I do seem to have a good eye for photography, but am not in the position to pursue it seriously ($$$). Doesn't stop me from wallowing in the beauty posted here. Thanks for sharing. Shar

Thank you for the nice comments. HDR is High Dynamic Range.

Shar don't ever be embarrassed on this forum. There are people here who know much more about photography than I do or probably ever will. I just enjoy participating and learning from everyone.

My Wife who is also a new Grandma takes better pictures than me and she uses a little P&S Canon. She has an artists eye and it never fails that we'll come back and compare our pictures and she has done much better than me. She doesn't follow any rules, she just takes pictures. Here is an example of one she took that I just love.


http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1JcTD70Sl0mxld3KSFmvBphFpl8C01_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1JcTD70Sl0mxld3KSFmvBphFpl8C01)

[SharLamb]

Oh I like that picture too. My DH and I ride "comfort bikes" together, and he and one of our sons have been avid cyclists for years, so I'm always looking for great bike shots (& have taken a few too). Although my Canon has more capabilities than P&S, I mostly use it as a P&S. I think you have The Artist's Eye as well, based on the two shots above. Thanks for the encouragement. Shar

[vawitt]

Joe - love the barn picture. Brings back many happy high school memories when I was an avid horsewoman...

~Val in cloudy IL

[GaryK]

Joe

I'm sure you have mentioned before, but I am in slacker mode and don't feel like searching through threads.:D

How many shots are you taking for your HDR transformations?
Do you just bracket -2,0,+2. Is photomatix able to do jpegs?

I saw Matt's video as well, mind you I have always thought your shots were great so his video wasn't needed to get me thinking about it.:)

[mljrbg]

Joe, great pictures. I think the boats would be great in BW. Your wife has a very keen eye too. I really like the bicycles.

Mary Lou

[lisabee]

Joe,

both of those are fantastic, it's like you are really inside the barn, very very cool :)

Lisa

[JulieM]

Absolutely love those, Joe!

[mrod]

Aside from a cool picture, I'd love to hear the story behind that shack & boat!

[robpendragon]

Hmm, now I have to decide if I want to buy Photomatix or buy an old PS with hdr merging in it. I found HDR presets for lightroom but I can't use them yet:rolleyes:

[jjvera00]

Great job with the pictures!

The Spring issue of Digital Photo came with a trial copy of the Photomatix software. Haven't loaded it yet, because I am waiting to take some photos to use them in HDR.

Also, Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 has an HDR merge option in it as well. Hopefully the next version of Elements will as well!

[billz]

Has anyone tried to modify a single .jpg for conversion to HDR? What I mean is open an existing jpg, duplicate the layer, change the blend mode to screen and save it as a second 'overexposed' jpg, reopen the original, duplicate the layer again, change the blend mode to multiply and save it as a third 'underexposed' jpg.

Would the three images be candidates for a succesful HDR conversion?

I'll probably try it later, but I was curious if anyone else had any experience with the idea.

Bill

[ljameso1]

Bill, that would work but minimize the # of times open/close the original jpeg by making dupes to keep the quality up. I love photomatix! HDR needs a minimum of 3 exposures to combine and there is no upper limit. Get each exposure 1 stop apart. Photomatix can also merge or average 2 exposures for scenes that don't have a large dynamic range.

[billz]

Thanks for the quick reply Linda. I'll have to give it a try.

Bill

[Joe M]

Thank you again Shar.

Thank you Val. That is a great compliment when a photo can bring back childhood memories.

Thank you Gary. I use 5 shots at +-2 EV. So I end up with the darkest shot at -4EV and the lightest shot at +4EV and one at 0 EV. I have found that at dusk or dawn it's better to use 3 shots as Photomatix may have a hard time if the darkest shot is completely black with no info.

I also suggest using Aperture Priority so the only thing that changes is Shutter Speed.

Yes you can use JPEG's in Photomatix. Personally I use RAW files with no processing before they go in Photomatix.

Thank you Mary Lou. I've been trying to get my Wife to read and post on the forum. Maybe after school lets out. She did say after this trip that she needs more ZOOM. I'm going give her a little class on the Canon S5 I have and let her start using that.

Thank you Lisa for the nice compliment.

Thank you Julie. I think I'm a LR convert!

Thanks Mike. I bet there is cool story about the boat and how it got left there. We use to keep our sailboat in Oriental and drive down 2-3 times a month when the weather was good. Every time we passed that boat we'd talk about it. There was another one similar to this one that's gone now. I would have loved to have gotten an HDR photo of it.

Rob, there are some codes online you can find that give a little break on the price of Photomatix. But even at $99.00 it's well worth it if you do a lot of HDR.

Thanks Johnny. The trial version is a full version that just applies a watermark until you buy it. You can remove the watermark after you make a purchase.

Bill I can't add much to what Linda said. There are several tutorials around that can help with doing pseudo HDR.

Thanks everyone.

[neelmcc]

I have been using a HDR Simulation filter for several months now and find it an acceptable alternative to other HDR conversion techniques. It may not be perfect, but does an adequate job and as I remember the price was either $12 or $16. Works with PSE 5 and 6. I am not affiliated with the company.

http://www.mediachance.com/plugins/redynamix.html

Neel

[robpendragon]

The Spring issue of Digital Photo came with a trial copy of the Photomatix software.


Rob, there are some codes online you can find that give a little break on the price of Photomatix. But even at $99.00 it's well worth it if you do a lot of HDR.



Thanks guys, I grabbed a copy of Digital Photo with the trial cd & I'll check it out online as well.
As I mentioned before I downloaded a bunch of hdr presets for lightroom (sets exposures & highlights for proper hdr merging) so when I get home I'll give it a shot.
Thanks again

[billz]

Here's my first somewhat satisfying HDR image ... there have been many previous 'not so satisfying' attempts.:rolleyes:

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1USfLHZM3QV3DapPchTZCJnsk0823l0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1USfLHZM3QV3DapPchTZCJnsk0823l0)

Thanks in advance for any honest criticism and suggestions.

Bill

[JulieM]

Hi Bill,

I like it! Great detail and color. I can almost feel the slipperiness of the mossy rocks and the splatter of the water. You know, to my eye, the Pixentral version looks more contrasty and vivid than the one in your gallery. Are they both processed the same way?

[GaryK]

Bil

Very nice.

Did you do the psuedo (software) bracketing or did you bracket in camera?

[billz]

Thanks Julie and Gary -

The images on pixentral and in my gallery are the same ... and I noticed the same thing Julie. Another of life's mysteries.

Gary - The photos were taken a couple years ago with a point and shoot. I was playing with shutter speeds to soften the water, so I guess I had the p&s equivalent of a three exposure bracket.

Thanks again for the comments. I promise not to beat this to death, but here's another. I took this one today ... three shots with a 2 exposure bracket.

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1iMBDeWiRTh4E23dE9JG0n2lDQCz_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1iMBDeWiRTh4E23dE9JG0n2lDQCz)

Bill

[JulieM]

Bill, that is fantastic! I love what this technique does to boost texture in images and it works so well on old things. Please post more - it is great to see the effect on different types of images.

[Joe M]

Bill your images look great. I have a feeling HDR could do great things for images of old cars, and sort of old cars. Especially I think it would be good for interiors.

Keep showing us pictures. I personally love seeing the images others come up with. I know most of the people on this site do also. We never get tired of looking at pictures.

I don't know what color space you work in. But there is definitely a difference when you post something in the Village gallery and Pixentral. I work in Adobe RGB 1998, when I post something to the Village gallery I convert it to sRGB and boost the saturation a little. Otherwise it will look much different than what you intended.