IntroductionWelcome| 00:00 |
(music playing)
| | 00:04 |
Hello, I'm Tim Gray.
I spent quite a few years helping
| | 00:06 |
photographers master the tools and
techniques of digital photography.
| | 00:10 |
And in this course I'm going to help you
produce images that reflect a much wider
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range of tonal values, than your camera
is able to achieve in a single
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photographic image.
The process I'm referring to is called
| | 00:22 |
High Dynamic Range Imaging, or HDR.
It involves capturing multiple images
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with different exposure settings.
So that between those multiple captures
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you've recorded the maximum amount of
detail in the scene.
| | 00:33 |
Special software then allows you to
assemble those images into a single final photo.
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That includes far more detail then you
could possibly reveal with a single capture.
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We'll start off exploring the basic
concepts of High Dynamic Range Imaging.
| | 00:47 |
So you can apply those concepts to
different tools and techniques as you
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learn to master HDR.
I'll show you some of the techniques that
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I use to sort and organize the individual
frames of an HDR.
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And then use Photoshop as a starting
point for creating our final image.
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In addition to Photoshop, we'll also
explore other software tools that enable
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you to assemble HDR images.
Along the way you'll learn some valuable
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skills and you'll get a better sense of
the creative possibilities.
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So join me as we explore the unique and
fun results you can achieve through the
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use of High Dynamic Range Imaging.
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1. HDR BasicsCapturing an HDR image| 00:02 |
High dynamic range photography, or HDR,
provides us with an opportunity to
| | 00:06 |
capture a very unique look at the world.
Many photographers think of HDR as
| | 00:11 |
providing a more realistic look at the
world.
| | 00:14 |
In some ways that's true, but our human
visual system actually does not have a
| | 00:18 |
very high dynamic range to begin with.
The reason that we seem to view the world
| | 00:23 |
in a relatively high dynamic range is
that our eyes are constantly adjusting
| | 00:26 |
their exposure.
So when we look into a dark area our eyes
| | 00:30 |
adjust for the dark and we can see in
those areas.
| | 00:33 |
And when look from a relatively dark area
to a relatively bright area for example
| | 00:37 |
our eyes automatically adjust on the fly
and so, we're able to adjust in fact our
| | 00:41 |
exposure to see a wide range of tonal
values.
| | 00:46 |
In photography, we're generally
relatively limited.
| | 00:49 |
Many cameras are only capable of
rendering a range of around six or eight
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stops of light.
And of course, many scenes can include a
| | 00:57 |
much wider range of light.
With HDR photography we're able to
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capture a very wide range of tonal values
and then effectively compress them into a
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single image.
That allows us to have a photograph that
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contains far more detail in the shadows
and the highlights than we otherwise
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might be able to achieve.
In many cases, such as with this
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photograph it can also create a
relatively surrealistic effect.
| | 01:21 |
It creates this almost artificial
appearance.
| | 01:23 |
The waves here, for example, are
essentially hyper realistic.
| | 01:27 |
We're able to see more detail than we
normally would.
| | 01:29 |
We've got some very interesting contrast
and texture.
| | 01:31 |
The colors are a bit more vibrant.
Overall it looks artificial, it's very
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obvious that there's something unique
about this photograph.
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Capturing a high dynamic range image
actually requires that you capture
| | 01:43 |
multiple images.
We want multiple exposures, each with
| | 01:46 |
different settings so that we're
capturing the full range of tonal values
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in the scene across multiple captures.
Before you start capturing those multiple
| | 01:55 |
images, I suggest that you take a picture
of your hand or just take a picture in
| | 01:58 |
manual mode with the lens cap on.
In short, take a photograph that will
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obviously not be a real photograph, so
that when you're browsing your images,
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you're able to see very clearly where
your HDR set begins.
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You can also then take a photo of your
hand after you've captured a series of
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HDR images so that you'll know when the
set is complete.
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In many cases, it's very obvious where
the set begins and ends.
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But this practice can help you stay a
little bit more organized.
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Then you'll want to capture a series of
images with different exposures.
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I'll go ahead and switch between these
three images captured of the horse at
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sunrise on the beach.
And if you watch below the histogram
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display you'll see that the ISO setting
remains at 400 for all three frames.
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The focal length, of course, stays the
same as well.
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We want to capture the exact same frame
for each of our exposures.
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And the aperture will also remain fixed
because we want to make sure we're going
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to achieve the same depth of field for
each of our exposures.
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So the only thing that's changing is the
shutter speed.
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And in most cases, I'll photograph in
manual mode and adjust the shutter speed manually.
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You can also use exposure bracketing
which can be especially helpful if you're
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shooting handheld.
And in this case, the images were, in
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fact, captured handheld.
You'll notice that the horse itself is
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moving, but, because I was using exposure
bracketing, I was able to achieve
| | 03:17 |
consistent framing.
There may have been a slight amount of
| | 03:20 |
movement of the camera, but overall, the
only movement you see is objects within
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the frame that were actually moving the
rider, the horse and the water for example.
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You'll generally start with either the
darkest exposure or the brightest
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exposure and generally you're trying to
achieve a result where, between the
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images you capture, you're containing the
entire tonal range in the scene.
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So, here I captured an exposure that was
very dark, at a 2000th of a second, the
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next exposure at 1000th of a second and
the third exposure at one 500th of a second.
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And between each of those I have a
pretty good range.
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Not the entire range of tonal values
within the scene but a pretty good range.
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In this case I didn't want to get too
much detail in the horse because I was
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looking for something of a sillhouette
effect.
| | 04:03 |
But with a lot of detail throughout the
waves and as much detail as possible in
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the sky.
In most cases, as with these horse
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photographs, I capture the images at
intervals of one stop.
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So I was going from a 500th of a second,
and then one stop dark at a 1000th of a
| | 04:18 |
second, and one stop darker at 2000th of
a second.
| | 04:23 |
In many cases, you can get away with two
stop difference between the exposure but
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generally, you'll get the best results
with no more than one stop difference
| | 04:29 |
between each frame.
And of course, once you've captured a
| | 04:33 |
series of images.
You're ready to use special software to
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process those photos to create the final
high dynamic range image.
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| Reviewing and organizing HDR images| 00:02 |
High dynamic range imaging is obviously a
specialized form of photography, and it
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requires some special attention to detail
in terms of reviewing and organizing your images.
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Obviously much of the work of high
dynamic range imaging takes place with
| | 00:15 |
the original captures, making sure that
you're capturing the full range of tonal
| | 00:18 |
values within the scene.
When you get the images into the
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computer, you can then review those
photos to make sure that you've achieved
| | 00:26 |
a good starting point for your final HDR
image.
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That includes the nromal things that you
would consider, such as making sure the
| | 00:33 |
image is in focus, but also making sure
that there's no movement within the frame
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or that that movement is minimized.
In other words, if you had two sets of
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HDR images of the same subject, choosing
the set that had the least amount of movement.
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You can evaluate the overall exposure.
So here is a very bright image.
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Obviously looking at the histogram we can
see there is some clipping.
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But this is the brightest frame of my
overall HDR sequence.
| | 01:00 |
The most important thing for the
brightest frame, assuming that I'm
| | 01:03 |
interested in achieving as much tonal
range as possible, is that there's no
| | 01:07 |
clipping at the black side of the
histogram.
| | 01:11 |
That there's a gap between the left edge
of the histogram, and the first data point.
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And we can see that for this image we've
achieved that.
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I'll move to the next image.
And it looks like in this case, we've
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actually still retained full detail in
the shadows.
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Looking at the photo itself, I'll go
ahead and zoom in on the lamp here for
| | 01:28 |
example, it looks like we might have a
tiny amount of clipping.
| | 01:32 |
But overall the histogram suggests
otherwise.
| | 01:35 |
So quite possibly we could actually do
without the first frame.
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But I would probably included in any
events, just maximize the range of
| | 01:42 |
information that's available when
creating the hdr photo.
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All then move through to the exposures
here and you notice on the right side of
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the histogram was starting together more
and more information pulled in still some
| | 01:53 |
clipping will.
But now starting the clips some details
| | 01:57 |
in the shadows, some of the darkest
values have lost information.
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So for example there is not going to be
quite as much information in the lamp.
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Because that's one of the darker areas of
the scene.
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And continuing through the additional
images, we'll ultimately start to see
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more and more detail in that background.
And eventually I get to the point with my
| | 02:16 |
darkest exposure where there's actually a
gap between the brightest area in the
| | 02:19 |
image and the white point in the
histogram.
| | 02:23 |
So we can see that we've lost no
highlight detail.
| | 02:26 |
We've lost plenty of shadow detail, but
none of the highlight detail has been lost.
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So, in the clouds, for example, we'll
have full detail.
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So between all of the images here, we've
achieved a full tonal range.
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Every tonal value within the scene has
been captured in at least one of these photographs.
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That tells me that I have a good starting
point for a high dynamic range image.
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But I also want to make sure that I stay
organized.
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I can tell just by looking at the film
strip that this is obviously a sequence.
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I can even see the gradations in terms of
the exposure values.
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But I also want to make sure that it's
easy for me to find these particular
| | 03:00 |
frames later.
Both, because presumably I'll like the
| | 03:04 |
final hdr image, at least I hope I will.
And also because in the future I might be
| | 03:08 |
specifically looking for individual
frames with which to produce an HTR final result.
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And I'm going to assign some additional
metadata, now I happen to be using
| | 03:17 |
Lightroom here, you can certainly use any
other application for adding metadata to
| | 03:21 |
your digital captures.
In the case of light room, I need to be
| | 03:25 |
in the grid view to update multiple
images at once.
| | 03:28 |
So I'll go ahead and switch to the Grid
view.
| | 03:30 |
And then I'm going to add a color label
because that happens to be one of the
| | 03:33 |
ways I stay organized with my images when
they're part of a sequence.
| | 03:38 |
Specifically I use a yellow color label
to indicate images that are part of an
| | 03:42 |
overall composite, they are part of a
set.
| | 03:45 |
And that would include composite
panoramas, high dynamic range images or
| | 03:48 |
composite depth of field images.
Any images where I expressly want to
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assemble multiple frames into a single,
final image.
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So, I'll go ahead an add a yellow color
label by pressing the number seven on the keyboard.
| | 04:02 |
That just happens to be the system I use.
You could certainly use a different color
| | 04:06 |
label or a different system all together,
but, I also like to add a keyword to the
| | 04:09 |
individual frames in an HDR image.
Again, so it's very easy to locate those
| | 04:14 |
images later.
So, in Lightroom, I can add keywords by
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scrolling down on the right panel in the
Library module I'll go ahead and click in
| | 04:20 |
the Keyword field in the Keywording
section.
| | 04:24 |
And I'll simply type HDR as a keyword and
press Enter or Return on the keyboard.
| | 04:28 |
So now all of these individual frames
have HDR added as a keyword.
| | 04:32 |
So in the future if I want to locate HDR
images, I can navigate to a particular
| | 04:36 |
folder for example, and then simply
perform a search by filtering with just
| | 04:40 |
the key word HDR.
Now of course I happen to be using
| | 04:45 |
Lightroom to demonstrate some of the
principles of reviewing and organizing
| | 04:48 |
your HDR images.
You could use virtually any software tool
| | 04:52 |
that provides some of these basic
capabilities and these concepts will
| | 04:55 |
apply equally.
The key is to evaluate the individual
| | 04:59 |
frame so of your HDMR image to make sure
you have images that will produce a good result.
| | 05:04 |
And to take steps to make sure those
images stay organized.
| | 05:07 |
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| Maximizing detail in a single image| 00:02 |
Creating a High Dynamic Range Image
requires that you capture multiple frames.
| | 00:06 |
But what about a situation where you want
to maximize detail in a scene but you
| | 00:09 |
only captured a single exposure?
Here, I have a photograph of a waterfall
| | 00:14 |
and you can see that there is a fair
amount of contrast.
| | 00:18 |
The shadow areas are relatively dark and
the bright areas are quite bright.
| | 00:22 |
And that looking at the histogram it
looks like we don't have any clipping at
| | 00:24 |
all or maybe just a tiny amount of
clipping.
| | 00:27 |
So what the scene certainly looks a bit
contrasty, there is a fair amount of
| | 00:30 |
detail there that we could work with.
By applying some basic tonal adjustments,
| | 00:34 |
you can actually maximize the level of
detail in a photograph like this.
| | 00:39 |
In Lightroom, using the develop module,
on the right panel you'll find several
| | 00:43 |
adjustments that allow you to maximize
highlight and shadow detail.
| | 00:47 |
We can, for example, reduce the value of
highlights, and that will darken up the
| | 00:50 |
brightest areas of the photo.
And we can also Increase the Brightness
| | 00:54 |
for shadows.
So you can see, just by moving a couple
| | 00:57 |
of sliders, we can really change the
overall appearance of this photo.
| | 01:01 |
Maximizing the amount of detail we're
able to see in both the brightest and
| | 01:04 |
darkest areas of the scene.
I'll go ahead and reset the adjustments
| | 01:09 |
here to go back to the original image.
And then, we'll take a look at how we can
| | 01:12 |
use Photoshop to achieve a similar
result.
| | 01:15 |
With the photo selected, I'll go to the
menu, and choose Photo > Edit In and then
| | 01:20 |
Edit In Adobe Photoshop.
When I choose that command, the Edit
| | 01:24 |
Photo with Adobe Photoshop CS6 dialog
comes up asking me exactly how I want to
| | 01:28 |
process this image.
I can choose to Edit the original, Edit a
| | 01:32 |
copy or Edit a copy with Lightroom
adjustments.
| | 01:36 |
In this case, I want to create a copy,
and I don't want any Lightroom
| | 01:39 |
adjustments to be applied.
I want to start with the original
| | 01:42 |
appearance of the photo, in this case.
So I'll go ahead and click Edit, and then
| | 01:46 |
Photoshop will launch if it was not
already running, and the image will be opened.
| | 01:51 |
I'll then go to the Image menu and choose
Adjustments, followed by Shadows Highlights.
| | 01:55 |
And that will bring up the shadows
highlights dialog.
| | 01:59 |
In the Basic mode, we have simply a
Shadows amount slider and a Highlights
| | 02:02 |
amount slider.
So, we can darken down the highlights and
| | 02:05 |
brighten up the shadows to the extent
that we want to.
| | 02:09 |
We can also work in a more advanced mode
by turning on the Show More Options checkbox.
| | 02:14 |
And this allows us to not only adjust for
example the amount of adjustment to apply
| | 02:18 |
to the shadows but also the range of
tonal values that we want to include as
| | 02:21 |
part of the shadows or the highlights as
well as the radius.
| | 02:26 |
The amount of transition between those
shadow areas and the rest of the image.
| | 02:31 |
This allows us to focus in the effect to
adjust the areas that really need it for
| | 02:35 |
example or to broaden the effect into
other tonal values in the photo.
| | 02:39 |
Once we've adjusted the overall shadows
and highlights we can also apply Color Correction.
| | 02:45 |
This will allow us to increase the
vibrance of colors in the photo.
| | 02:49 |
In most cases, if you have relatively
strong contrast and you've opened up the
| | 02:52 |
image a bit, then you're going to end up
with colors that are not quite as
| | 02:55 |
saturated as they had been.
And so color correction allows you to
| | 03:00 |
compensate for that, we'll also see an
overall loss of contrast in the photo.
| | 03:04 |
We're darkening the highlights and
brightening the shadows and so overall,
| | 03:07 |
the image will not appear to have as much
contrast.
| | 03:10 |
So typically, you'll want to increase
contrast at least a little bit using the
| | 03:14 |
Midtone Contrast slider.
We can also specify how much clipping we
| | 03:19 |
want for blacks and whites, but generally
I leave those at the default of .01%.
| | 03:24 |
So I'll fine tune my adjustments here a
little bit.
| | 03:27 |
I want to reduce the effect in the sky.
I don't want it to be too dramatic up there.
| | 03:31 |
And I'm also going to open up the shadows
just a little bit more, that looks pretty nice.
| | 03:35 |
I'll go ahead and click OK to apply the
change and then I'll simply choose File >
| | 03:38 |
Save, from the menu followed by File >
Close.
| | 03:42 |
And now the image has been saved and
updated and it is being managed in Lightroom.
| | 03:47 |
So we can see the edited copy of the
photo as well as the original image and
| | 03:50 |
both are grouped together as a stack
within Lightroom.
| | 03:54 |
The key thing to keep in mind is that its
not always necessary to photograph a
| | 03:58 |
scene multiple times in order to capture
a full dynamic range.
| | 04:02 |
Very often, a single exposure will
accomplish that.
| | 04:05 |
In any event, when you only have a single
photo of a scene, you can still apply
| | 04:09 |
some adjustments that will help you
maximize the amount of detail in both the
| | 04:12 |
shadows and the highlights.
| | 04:15 |
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| Simple single-image HDR| 00:00 |
As you get more involved working with
high dynamic range imaging, you may find
| | 00:04 |
that you start to like the overall
appearance of an HDR image.
| | 00:09 |
And especially that you like some of the
more artificial looks.
| | 00:12 |
Some of the more creative appearances
that you can achieve with an HDR photo.
| | 00:16 |
For situations where you only have a
single frame, you might assume that
| | 00:19 |
you're not able to achieve that HDR look.
And yet it is possible to achieve an HDR
| | 00:24 |
look from a single photo using the HDR
Toning Feature in Photoshop.
| | 00:29 |
This particular photo for example was
captured on an overcast day, and so the
| | 00:33 |
contrast is not very strong to begin
with.
| | 00:36 |
Capturing multiple frames in order to
create a HDR image really won't be all
| | 00:39 |
that advantageous, because there's not a
significant tonal range within the scene.
| | 00:44 |
So, for a situation like this I can
simply use HDR toning to produce the look
| | 00:47 |
that I'm after.
I'll go ahead and choose Image and then
| | 00:52 |
Adjustments followed by HDR Toning from
the menu.
| | 00:55 |
That will bring up the HDR Toning Dialog,
and as you can see at first glance here,
| | 00:58 |
I'm not really having much of an effect
on the image.
| | 01:02 |
It certainly changed in appearance, but I
wouldn't call this an HDR type of effect,
| | 01:06 |
but I can use a different preset to
achieve a more interesting result.
| | 01:11 |
I'll go ahead and choose a preset that
I've created for myself called Tim Grey
| | 01:15 |
Painterly HDR.
And that looks like it's going to give me
| | 01:18 |
a more interesting starting point for
this image.
| | 01:21 |
I can certainly continue to adjust the
settings as well, or choose a different preset.
| | 01:26 |
I'll take a look at some of the various
presets that are available here.
| | 01:29 |
Photo Realistic is obviously not going to
give us much of a change at all in the
| | 01:32 |
image, since the photo was already pretty
photo realistic I'd say.
| | 01:36 |
We can also take a look at some of the
other Options, though.
| | 01:38 |
Saturated gives the colors a little bit
of a boost, but we've got several other
| | 01:41 |
Options to choose from as well.
Let's take a look at Surrealistic, for
| | 01:45 |
example, or Surrealistic Low Contrast,
that's a little bit of an interesting,
| | 01:49 |
dreamy sort of effect.
We can basically go through all of these
| | 01:53 |
different options and see which gives us
the best starting point, and then fine
| | 01:56 |
tune the settings as well.
So, we can adjust the amount of glow on
| | 02:01 |
the edges for example as well as the size
of that glow effect.
| | 02:05 |
We can determine how much detail we want
visible, the exposure, the overall gamma,
| | 02:09 |
which is in essence the midtone
brightness curve.
| | 02:12 |
We can also specify how much we want to
brighten or darken the shadow details.
| | 02:17 |
In this case, I'll move the dialog out of
the way just a little bit more, and I
| | 02:19 |
think brightening up some of those shadow
details actually works kind of nicely.
| | 02:24 |
And we can also determine what we want to
do with the highlights.
| | 02:27 |
In this case I'll leave them relatively
dark.
| | 02:29 |
I will boost the colors maybe just a
little bit more just to give us a little
| | 02:32 |
more of that sort of artificial
appearance.
| | 02:35 |
And I think I'll reduce the strength of
of that edge glow, perhaps, just a little
| | 02:39 |
bit, or maybe enlarge it.
Basically just playing around with
| | 02:43 |
different settings here to figure out
what's going to produce the most
| | 02:46 |
interesting effect.
And right around there, maybe strengthen
| | 02:49 |
it up just a tiny little bit, that's
looking to be pretty nice.
| | 02:53 |
So, I have this, sort of, surrealistic
type of effect, the colors are rather
| | 02:56 |
vibrant, we've got a lot of texture, the
texture in this lock over here, for
| | 02:59 |
example, has really come up quite a bit.
And ultimately, we've created what looks
| | 03:05 |
to be an HDR image, even though we
started with a regular photograph.
| | 03:09 |
I'll go ahead and click OK to close the
HDR toning dialog.
| | 03:12 |
And then I'll press Ctrl+Z on Windows, or
Cmd+Z on Macintosh to undo the effect.
| | 03:18 |
And then I'll press Ctrl+Z or Cmd+Z again
to go back to the adjusted image.
| | 03:22 |
Then I can continue pressing Control or
Cmd+Z to switch back and forth between
| | 03:25 |
the original and the final version.
But as you can see, we have what I would
| | 03:29 |
definitely call an HDR type of effect
without even having to create HDR captures.
| | 03:35 |
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| Assembling from Adobe Bridge| 00:02 |
Using Photoshop to create a high dynamic
range image requires, of course, that you
| | 00:05 |
identify the individual images that you
want to use to assemble the final result.
| | 00:11 |
One of the easiest ways to get started
with that process is to take advantage of
| | 00:14 |
Adobe Bridge, which is included with
Photoshop.
| | 00:18 |
You can navigate to a folder that
contains the frames you want to assemble
| | 00:21 |
into a composite high dynamic range
image.
| | 00:24 |
In this case, I have several exposures
captured in a wine shop, and I want to
| | 00:28 |
assemble all three of these into a single
final result.
| | 00:32 |
So, I'll go ahead and choose the first
image by simply clicking on its
| | 00:34 |
Thumbnail, and then hold the Shift key
and click on the last image in the sequence.
| | 00:39 |
And that will select all of the images in
that sequence.
| | 00:42 |
Here just three images, so I click on the
first image and shift-click on the third
| | 00:46 |
image and all three of those photos then
are selected.
| | 00:50 |
In this case, I think the color
temperature is a little bit off,
| | 00:52 |
especially in the center photo you can
see that the color is a bit too yellow, I think.
| | 00:57 |
So, I'd also like to apply some basic
adjustments to these images before I send
| | 01:01 |
them into Photoshop.
Keep in mind that when I send these
| | 01:05 |
images to Photoshop in order to create an
HDR image.
| | 01:07 |
The images will be processed based on the
current raw conversion settings.
| | 01:12 |
In this case, I've not applied any
adjustments, so I want to adjust the
| | 01:15 |
image first using Adobe Camera Raw.
And I can do that effectively right
| | 01:19 |
within Bridge.
I'll go to the Edit menu and choose
| | 01:22 |
Preferences, on Macintosh this would be
Bridge Preferences from the menu, and
| | 01:26 |
that will bring up the Preferences
dialog.
| | 01:29 |
On the General Page, I'll make sure to
turn on the double-click Edits Camera Raw
| | 01:32 |
setting in Bridge check-box.
And what that means is that when I
| | 01:36 |
double-click on a photo, instead of just
opening in Photoshop it will open with
| | 01:40 |
Adobe Camera Raw directly in Bridge, so
that I can fine tune the appearance of
| | 01:43 |
the photo.
I have that check box turned on, and so
| | 01:47 |
I'll go ahead and click OK.
And now with all three images selected,
| | 01:51 |
I'll go ahead and double-click on the
Thumbnail of one of those images.
| | 01:54 |
And all three will be opened in Adobe
Camera Raw.
| | 01:57 |
I'll go ahead and click on the second
image, because I want to use that one as
| | 02:01 |
the basis of my adjustments.
And then I'll click the Select All button
| | 02:05 |
at the top of the filmstrip in Adobe
Camera Raw.
| | 02:08 |
And then I'll come over to the Adjustment
controls, and in the basic section I'll
| | 02:11 |
adjust the Color Temperature shifting it
down a little bit toward blue.
| | 02:15 |
And I think also shifting the tint a
little bit more toward green, it seems a
| | 02:18 |
little bit too magenta in this case.
And I also think I'm going to reduce the
| | 02:22 |
vibrance of the image, and in fact maybe
also take down the saturation just to
| | 02:26 |
tone down those colors a little bit.
I can always boost them a little bit more
| | 02:31 |
during the HDR process.
But in this case, I'd like to start with
| | 02:35 |
something a little bit more muted.
I'm pretty happy with that adjustment,
| | 02:39 |
I'll tinker with the color temperature
just a little bit more.
| | 02:42 |
Maybe get rid of some more of that yellow
from the photo, and that will do just fine.
| | 02:46 |
So, I will go ahead and click the Done
button.
| | 02:49 |
Noticed that I am not going to open the
images, I am simply going to save the settings.
| | 02:53 |
So, I'll click Done, and I am right back
in Bridge and the adjustments have been
| | 02:57 |
applied to those three images.
So, now I am ready to actually assemble
| | 03:01 |
the HDR based on these raw caterers.
So, I'll go to the tools menu and then
| | 03:05 |
choose Photoshop, followed by Merge to
HDR Pro.
| | 03:08 |
And when I choose that command, Photoshop
will launch, if it's not already open,
| | 03:12 |
and the images will be processed and
assembled into a basic HDR.
| | 03:16 |
And the HDR Pro dialog will appear
allowing me to fine tune the overall
| | 03:20 |
adjustments for the image to create the
final result.
| | 03:25 |
And so you can see we have the merged HDR
Pro dialog now.
| | 03:28 |
We can fine tune all of the settings for
our HDR image, and then simply click OK.
| | 03:33 |
In this case I'll just leave the default
settings for processing the image, and
| | 03:37 |
that will cause Photoshop to process with
HDR Pro and create my final HDR image.
| | 03:43 |
So, you can see the process is very, very
simple using Bridge to identify which
| | 03:46 |
images you want to assemble.
And then sending those over to Photoshop
| | 03:50 |
with instructions to create an HDR image.
| | 03:53 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Assembling from Lightroom| 00:02 |
If you're using Lightroom to manage your
digital photos, and Photoshop to assemble
| | 00:05 |
your high dynamic range images.
You can actually use both of them
| | 00:09 |
together to make your workflow more
efficient.
| | 00:12 |
Here, I have several photos of a horse at
sunrise on the beach.
| | 00:16 |
And I'd like to assemble them into a
single high dynamic range image.
| | 00:20 |
So, I'll go ahead and click on the first
image on the Filmstrip.
| | 00:23 |
And then I'll hold the Shift key while
clicking on the last image in the
| | 00:26 |
sequence on the Filmstrip.
And that will cause all of those photos
| | 00:29 |
to be adjusted.
I could obviously apply some basic
| | 00:31 |
adjustments to all three images if I
wanted to with the develop module.
| | 00:35 |
But in this case I think I'll just
process the images as they are.
| | 00:38 |
So, now I can go to the menu and choose
Photo > Edit in, followed by Merge to HDR
| | 00:43 |
Pro in Photoshop.
When I choose this command, Lightroom
| | 00:47 |
will process each of these images, and
then send them to Photoshop.
| | 00:51 |
Photoshop will launch if it wasn't
already running.
| | 00:53 |
And it will then process each of the
images and assemble them into the initial
| | 00:57 |
HDR image, and bring up the HDR Pro
Dialog.
| | 01:01 |
Once the HDR Pro Dialog appears, I can
fine tune the settings in order to alter
| | 01:05 |
the overall appearance of the photo.
For the moment I'll just leave the
| | 01:10 |
default settings as they are.
When I'm finished adjusting those
| | 01:13 |
settings, though, I can go ahead and
click the OK button, and Photoshop will
| | 01:17 |
finalize the processing to produce the
final single HDR image.
| | 01:22 |
Once that image is created, I can then
save the image and close it, and it will
| | 01:25 |
still be managed in Lightroom.
I'll go ahead and choose File Save, from
| | 01:30 |
the menu for example.
And then choose File Close, in order to
| | 01:33 |
close the image.
And now I can switch back to Lightroom,
| | 01:36 |
and you can see that the HDR image is now
on the Filmstrip.
| | 01:40 |
So, I have both the original images, in
this case three frames that I assembled
| | 01:44 |
into a basic HDR.
In this case not actually processing the
| | 01:48 |
image and trying to make it look it's
best but, rather just using the default
| | 01:52 |
settings to illustrate the workflow here.
But the point is that we were able to use
| | 01:57 |
Lightroom to send our images over to
Photoshop, so that they can be merged
| | 02:01 |
with HDR Pro.
But then that image can still be managed
| | 02:05 |
within the context of Lightroom.
| | 02:08 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Choosing a conversion mode| 00:02 |
When you're using HDR Pro in Photoshop to
assemble your high dynamic range images,
| | 00:05 |
one of the first decisions you need to
make is which mode you'll use for
| | 00:08 |
converting the image.
The mode you choose determines which
| | 00:13 |
specific adjustments are available to
you.
| | 00:15 |
Let's start off by taking a look at the
Bit Depth option.
| | 00:19 |
Our choices include 32-bit, 16-bit and
8-bit.
| | 00:23 |
I recommend never using the 8-bit option
because it simply doesn't give you as
| | 00:26 |
much fideility, there's a higher risk of
posterization and you won't retain quite
| | 00:30 |
as much detail throughout the shadows and
highlights in the final image.
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So generally speaking, I would work with
16-bit; that gives us a much wider range
| | 00:39 |
of tonal and color values to work with
And helps reduce the risk of posterization.
| | 00:45 |
I think of 32 bit as a specialized
option.
| | 00:48 |
If you're working in 32 bit mode, you'll
only have the option to adjust the
| | 00:51 |
overall white point for your final image.
So that doesn't give you much flexibility.
| | 00:56 |
Generally, I would only use 32 bit if I
were going to do some specialized
| | 00:59 |
adjustments later.
Such as with a third party application
| | 01:03 |
for HDR toning.
If you're working in the 16 bit or for
| | 01:06 |
that matter 8 bit mode you can also
choose which particular mode you're going
| | 01:10 |
to use for processing the data in your
image.
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The default and the option that I use for
all HDR images is local adaptation and
| | 01:17 |
that gives us the maximum number of
controls for fine tuning the overall
| | 01:21 |
appearance of your HDR image.
The Equalize Histogram option doesn't
| | 01:27 |
give you any controls at all.
It's simply applying its own math to
| | 01:31 |
obviously equalize the histogram to
distribute the tonal values somewhat
| | 01:34 |
evenly within the photo.
Sometime you might like the result of the
| | 01:38 |
Equalize Histogram option but you don't
have any options for adjusting the
| | 01:41 |
appearance of the photo other than to
work on the image after the fact in Photoshop.
| | 01:47 |
The next option is Exposure and Gamma,
and as the name implies, this option only
| | 01:51 |
gives you two adjustment controls.
The Exposure control, and the Gamma control.
| | 01:56 |
So, you're only able to adjust the
overall white point, as well as the
| | 02:00 |
overall brightness using a mid-tone
curve.
| | 02:04 |
These adjustments are also available when
you choose the local adaptation option
| | 02:07 |
and so I don't tend to use Exposure and
Gamma.
| | 02:11 |
And finally, we have Highlight
Compression.
| | 02:13 |
And here again, we don't have any
adjustment controls and so I don't intend
| | 02:16 |
to use highlight compression either.
Although it's not a bad idea to take a
| | 02:20 |
look and see if it's an effect that you
like for a particular image.
| | 02:24 |
So that means, in most cases, you'll
probably find yourself, like me, using
| | 02:27 |
the local adaptation option in
conjunction with the 16 bit per channel mode.
| | 02:33 |
You can then use all of the various
adjustments in order to fine tune the
| | 02:37 |
image and create your final HDR.
| | 02:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using presets| 00:02 |
One of the easiest ways to get started
creating HDR images in Photoshop is to
| | 00:06 |
take advantage of presets in HDR Pro.
Here I've assembled three images using
| | 00:11 |
HDR Pro, and I'd like to find the best
way to convert those images.
| | 00:16 |
The way that I find to be most pleasing
for this particular scene.
| | 00:20 |
You can see that the preset right now was
just set to default, which basically
| | 00:23 |
means very little adjustment is being
applied at all.
| | 00:27 |
We're just getting a fairly basic HDR
conversion where we have a pretty good
| | 00:30 |
amount of detail.
Simply because we're blending a
| | 00:33 |
relatively bright exposure with what you
might think of as a normal exposure, and
| | 00:37 |
a relatively dark exposure.
And you can click on each of them in turn
| | 00:42 |
to get a preview of what that preset will
do to your image.
| | 00:46 |
So, here for example we see a little bit
more contrast aversion of the photo.
| | 00:50 |
I can take a look at one of the
monochromatic versions of the image.
| | 00:54 |
And in general, just explore a variety of
different options for the photo.
| | 00:59 |
And as you get more familiar with HDR
Pro, and fine-tune the adjustments for a
| | 01:03 |
particular image to create an effect you
like.
| | 01:06 |
Then you can also save your own presets.
For example, I have a preset that I have
| | 01:09 |
created called Tim Gray, Painterly HDR.
And that creates a relatively dramatic
| | 01:14 |
image and I use this as a starting point
for many of my HDR photos.
| | 01:19 |
And of course, you'll find a variety of
different ways you like to interpret HDR
| | 01:23 |
images, and as you do, you can create a
new preset.
| | 01:27 |
For example, let's assume that I want
another preset where the Edge Glow is not
| | 01:30 |
quite as strong.
Once I've adjusted the settings the way I
| | 01:34 |
like them, I can go ahead and click the
button to the right of the preset popup
| | 01:37 |
and choose Save Preset.
Since this is based on the Painterly HDR
| | 01:42 |
Preset, I'll go ahead and just modify the
file name for that.
| | 01:46 |
I'll just type less glow as part of the
file name there, and then I'll click the
| | 01:50 |
Save button.
And then, you can see on my Preset popup
| | 01:53 |
that I have both the original Painterly
HDR Preset, as well as the new variation
| | 01:57 |
on that preset with less of an edge glow.
So in the future, when I process one of
| | 02:03 |
my HDR images, I can choose any of these
presets as a good starting point.
| | 02:08 |
In some cases, you might find that the
preset produces exactly the effect you
| | 02:12 |
want for a particular photo.
But in other cases, you might want to
| | 02:15 |
play around with the settings.
But regardless, presets provide a great
| | 02:21 |
way to quickly and easily get started
Creating HDR images with Photoshop.
| | 02:28 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
2. HDR Pro Adjustment OptionsRemoving ghosts| 00:00 |
Because an HDR image is comprised of
multiple individual frames, if anything
| | 00:04 |
at all is moving within the scene, there
can be some problems with ghosting.
| | 00:11 |
In other words, you'll have part of a
subject in one area, and part of the
| | 00:14 |
subject in another area.
Or you might have the subject multiple
| | 00:17 |
times with some fading effect, a ghosting
effect.
| | 00:20 |
In this particular photo, of course, you
might assume nothing would be moving at all.
| | 00:24 |
After all, it's a photograph of statues
in a plaza, with some buildings nearby.
| | 00:28 |
And yet, if we take a closer look, we'll
actually find that there were some moving
| | 00:32 |
subjects in this case, specifically, some
pigeons that were on one of the statues.
| | 00:38 |
And you might also notice that we have a
ghosted pigeon.
| | 00:41 |
So we have one pigeon that appears pretty
much normal, and another pigeon that is
| | 00:45 |
just a faint glow here.
We've got just a faint shadow of the
| | 00:49 |
pigeon, because this pigeon was moving
around during the exposures and so it was
| | 00:52 |
in a different position for each of those
exposures.
| | 00:56 |
But in HDR Pro, we're able to remove
those ghosts.
| | 00:59 |
I'll turn on the Remove Ghosts checkbox.
And we can see that that ghosting has now
| | 01:06 |
disappeared, so now we have just the one
pigeon without that ghosted pigeon over
| | 01:10 |
to the right of it.
In this case, the pigeon was moving quite
| | 01:14 |
a bit and so in each frame it's actually
in a different position.
| | 01:18 |
In some cases, just with it's head turned
and in other cases actually moving around
| | 01:21 |
the statue a little bit.
When you turn on the Remove Ghost option
| | 01:26 |
in HDR Pro, it needs to use a single
frame as the key frame for determining
| | 01:29 |
where the object should be.
In other words, which area of the image
| | 01:34 |
represents ghosts.
That key frame is identified with a green
| | 01:38 |
box around it, but we can also change the
key frame.
| | 01:42 |
If for whatever reason we feel that we
want the moving subjects to be rendered
| | 01:45 |
in a particular position, we can switch
to a different key frame.
| | 01:49 |
So I'll go ahead for example, and click
on the next frame to set that as the key frame.
| | 01:54 |
And once the preview updates, you'll see
that the pigeon is in a slightly
| | 01:57 |
different position.
You'll also note that the clouds moved a
| | 02:00 |
little bit.
I'll go ahead and click on the next image
| | 02:03 |
as well, and you can see the pigeon
turned its head.
| | 02:06 |
And we also have another pigeon, or at
least a part of a pigeon over on the left
| | 02:10 |
side of the frame.
So we could navigate among the various
| | 02:13 |
frames here to decide which frame we'd
like to use as the key frame.
| | 02:18 |
And that will of course affect how the
image is interpreted, and what the final
| | 02:21 |
result looks like.
So, here, for example, we can see the
| | 02:25 |
head of the pigeon has gone missing.
And so you can go through each of those
| | 02:28 |
frames and find which one represents the
best key frame for that remove ghosts feature.
| | 02:34 |
In this case, I think that exposure
there, the one with the even exposure
| | 02:37 |
value, is probably the best option.
So I'll set that as my key frame.
| | 02:42 |
But as you can see the Remove Ghosts
option works pretty well.
| | 02:46 |
And we do have that extra flexibility of
being able to determine which frame will
| | 02:49 |
be used as the basis of that ghost
removal.
| | 02:52 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Edge glow effects| 00:02 |
From my perspective there are two basic
types of HDR images.
| | 00:06 |
The first type is the natural type of
image, one where you're attempting to
| | 00:10 |
produce an image that looks like a single
photograph, but with greater detail.
| | 00:16 |
I would say that this image, with its
current settings for example, qualifies
| | 00:20 |
as a natural HDR image, in that it
doesn't look incredibly artificial.
| | 00:25 |
Most photographers would probably
recognize this as an HDR image, simply
| | 00:29 |
because there's a little bit more detail
than we would normally expect in a single photograph.
| | 00:35 |
The other type of image is the hyper
realistic, the exaggerated image, with
| | 00:39 |
lots of contrast and lots of saturation.
Many photographers are not fond of that
| | 00:44 |
hyper realistic appearance, but it is
another style of HDR photography.
| | 00:49 |
One of the key things that differentiates
this more natural effect versus a more
| | 00:53 |
exaggerated effect, is the Edge Glow.
I'll go ahead and switch to a preset that
| | 00:58 |
includes a fair amount of Edge Glow, a
more artificial appearance for the photo,
| | 01:02 |
and you can see now we have something
rather dramatic.
| | 01:06 |
There are, of course, a variety of things
that are different about this
| | 01:09 |
interpretation of the photo, but one of
the key things is the Edge Glow.
| | 01:13 |
For the Edge Glow, we can adjust the
radius and the strength.
| | 01:17 |
Obviously, the strength is pretty
straightforward.
| | 01:19 |
Do we have a very strong glow, a very
bright glow or do we have a more subdued glow?
| | 01:25 |
I'll go ahead and leave the Strength
relatively high so that we can get a
| | 01:27 |
better sense of radius.
The Radius is, quite simply, the size of
| | 01:31 |
the glow, and the size relative to
existing areas of contrast.
| | 01:36 |
Looking at the image, you can see that
the glow appears where there is contrast
| | 01:39 |
in the image already, so ddges
effectively, in the photo.
| | 01:44 |
If we reduce the Radius you'll see that
that glow gets a little bit smaller.
| | 01:47 |
I can continue shrinking it down and now
we have almost an over sharpening type of effect.
| | 01:53 |
And if we increase the Radius the glow
gets larger.
| | 01:56 |
And this can create sort of a play of
light type of effect that can be
| | 01:59 |
interesting in the photo.
The key is to adjust the Edge Glow, first
| | 02:02 |
of all to your liking.
But also in a way that suits the image.
| | 02:07 |
So for example, if there's lots of fine
detail then you might use a relatively
| | 02:10 |
small radius and if there's more subtle
detail in the image, you might use a
| | 02:13 |
larger radius.
But of course there's some creative
| | 02:17 |
considerations here as well.
In addition to the radius and strength
| | 02:21 |
sliders there's also an Edge Smoothness
check box and this determines whether
| | 02:24 |
those glows will transition relatively
smoothly into the rest of the image.
| | 02:30 |
Now, I have a bit of an exaggerated glow
here, so you're certainly seeing a very
| | 02:33 |
clear indication of that glow.
But if I turn off the Edge Smoothness
| | 02:37 |
option you'll see that things get a
little bit more abrupt.
| | 02:40 |
I'll reduce the size of the glow and
increase the strength a little bit.
| | 02:44 |
And then I'll toggle that Edge Smoothness
On and then Off.
| | 02:48 |
And you can see that we get a little bit
more transition with the smoothness
| | 02:51 |
turned on.
Whether or not that's a good thing
| | 02:54 |
depends on the image itself as well as
the overall settings that you're using
| | 02:57 |
for that Edge Glow.
In most cases, I prefer to have the Edge
| | 03:01 |
Smoothness option turned On simply
because it usually creates a little bit
| | 03:05 |
more subtle transitions in that edge glow
throughout the image.
| | 03:09 |
So I'll go ahead and tone down the
Strength in this case.
| | 03:12 |
Maybe increase the Radius just a little
bit.
| | 03:15 |
I think for this image it might be fun to
create a little bit of a more dramatic effect.
| | 03:19 |
And so right about there, is looking
interesting.
| | 03:21 |
I think I still need to apply some
adjustments that affect the overall image
| | 03:25 |
as far as tonality and other details.
But I'm happy with this basic Edge Glow effect.
| | 03:31 |
So as you can see, working with the Edge
Glow adjustment is very, very simple.
| | 03:34 |
We just have two sliders and one check
box.
| | 03:37 |
But of course the real interesting part
comes in trying to find just the right
| | 03:40 |
settings for each image you're working on
in HDR Pro.
| | 03:44 |
But with practice I think you'll find
that these adjustments come very
| | 03:46 |
naturally, and you'll be able to really
have a significant impact on your HDR photos.
| | 03:51 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Tone and detail| 00:02 |
One of the key considerations in HDR
photography is of course the exposure.
| | 00:06 |
In this example I have six exposures in
fact that I am blending into a single HDR result.
| | 00:12 |
And since we are dealing with multiple
exposures and a wide range of total values.
| | 00:16 |
It makes sense that we were going to
want to pay careful attention to our
| | 00:20 |
overall tonal adjustments for an HDR
photo.
| | 00:23 |
In HDR Pro, we have the Tone and Detail
adjustments as our primary tool for
| | 00:27 |
affecting the overall tonality in our
images.
| | 00:31 |
We have a Gamma slider, which is
essentially a mid-tone brightness slider.
| | 00:35 |
We also have Exposure, which in large
part is a white point adjustment.
| | 00:39 |
And then we have a detail adjustment, and
this one you can sort of think of as
| | 00:43 |
being like a sharpening effect or a
Clarity adjustment.
| | 00:47 |
We can increase or decrease the level of
detail in the image.
| | 00:50 |
I generally start off with the Exposure
adjustment, increasing or decreasing, the
| | 00:54 |
overall exposure.
So, I'll drag the slighter to the right
| | 00:57 |
for example to increase the Exposure, and
drag it to the left, to decrease the exposure.
| | 01:02 |
But the emphasis here is on the white
point.
| | 01:04 |
So, in effect, were establishing a white
point, for the image.
| | 01:08 |
So, we want to pay careful attention to
highlight detail for example.
| | 01:12 |
In this case, I think I'll tone down the
Exposure just a little bit, so we'll go
| | 01:15 |
into a minus value, so that the bright
areas aren't too bright.
| | 01:20 |
Then I'll take a look at the Gamma
slider.
| | 01:22 |
And by moving the slider to the right,
we're essentially reducing the overall
| | 01:26 |
contrast, but bringing out a little bit
more shadow detail.
| | 01:30 |
And dragging to the left, we're
increasing Contrast, but also losing some
| | 01:34 |
of that shadow detail.
So, in general you can think of this as
| | 01:37 |
mixture of a Brightness and Contrast
adjustment.
| | 01:41 |
And you can fine tune to determine the
level of detail and the overall luminance
| | 01:44 |
in the photo.
Once I've adjusted Exposure and Gamma,
| | 01:48 |
and I'm relatively happy with the result
I'm producing.
| | 01:51 |
Then I'll move on to the detail slider,
in this case the detail is maximized at a
| | 01:56 |
300% value.
I can reduce the detail to create sort of
| | 02:00 |
a soft ethereal glow type of effect.
But in In most cases, you'll probably be
| | 02:04 |
somewhere in between.
So here, you can see we have much less of
| | 02:07 |
an impact as far as the contrast and the
overall level of detail in the image.
| | 02:12 |
Once again, with a High Detail setting,
we get a little bit more of an almost
| | 02:15 |
sharpening type of effect.
So, we can fine tune to get just the
| | 02:18 |
right results for the photo.
And mostly this comes down to, are you
| | 02:22 |
looking for significant impact?
Are you looking for something that's more
| | 02:26 |
photo realistic?
Or are you looking for something that
| | 02:29 |
looks a little bit more ethereal?
And that will determine if you want a
| | 02:33 |
high, moderate, or low setting for
detail.
| | 02:36 |
For this image I think a little more
impact might be nice.
| | 02:38 |
I don't want too much Contrast, but I
think I'll increase the Detail a bit.
| | 02:43 |
In this case up to a little over 200%.
And then I can continue fine tuning the
| | 02:47 |
Gamma and Exposure sliders as well in
order to optimize the basic tonality in
| | 02:51 |
my HDR image.
| | 02:54 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Advanced adjustments| 00:02 |
For many of your HDR images you'll likely
find that choosing a preset and the
| | 00:05 |
adjusting the edge glow and tone and
detail adjustments will provide all you
| | 00:09 |
need to produce a great HDR image.
But in some cases you might want to take
| | 00:14 |
a look at the Advanced Options as well.
Here we have a slider for Shadow,
| | 00:19 |
Highlight, Vibrance, and Saturation.
The first two relate to tonality.
| | 00:24 |
Specifically to detail levels in the
Shadows and the Highlights.
| | 00:28 |
And the last two, Vibrance and
Saturation, relate to the intensity of
| | 00:32 |
colors in the photo.
I'll start off with the Shadow slider.
| | 00:35 |
If I increase the value, you'll see that
I'm opening up the shadows a little bit,
| | 00:38 |
I'm getting more detail in the shadows
and brightening up those shadows just a
| | 00:41 |
little bit.
If I reduce the value for shadow, I'm
| | 00:45 |
darkening up the shadows and giving up a
little bit of detail in the process.
| | 00:50 |
In many cases, I find that its helpful to
reduce the value of shadow using a
| | 00:54 |
negative shadow value in order to add a
little bit of density to your shadows.
| | 00:59 |
Because in many cases you will find that
with an HDR photo, you end up with a
| | 01:02 |
little bit too much detail, almost.
You're losing contrast in the overall
| | 01:06 |
scene, because your rendering so many
tonal values in a relatively narrow range.
| | 01:12 |
The Highlight slider is very similar.
It's just focused on a different portion
| | 01:15 |
of the photo.
And the question is do we want to
| | 01:17 |
brighten the highlights or darken the
highlights?
| | 01:20 |
And the basic concept is very similar to
shadow and the thought process, I think,
| | 01:23 |
is similar as well.
In essence do we want to increase the
| | 01:26 |
value of the highlights, possibly even
blowing out some detail in those
| | 01:29 |
highlights in order to create something
of a more realistic or natural effect in
| | 01:32 |
the image.
In other words, if the scene we were
| | 01:36 |
photographing had a relatively high
dynamic range.
| | 01:39 |
Very bright highlights and very dark
shadows, loosing a little bit of
| | 01:42 |
highlight detail might actually look more
realistic.
| | 01:45 |
But of course in many cases you might
also want to tone down those highlights
| | 01:48 |
so that you have a little bit more
information.
| | 01:51 |
You've got a little density even in the
highlight areas.
| | 01:54 |
Just be careful not to reduce highlights
to much because that can create a very
| | 01:57 |
washed out and very gray sort of
appearance in the brightest areas in the photo.
| | 02:02 |
So in most cases I'll work with a
moderate setting.
| | 02:05 |
I might shift a little bit to the left to
a negative value if I want to tone down
| | 02:08 |
the brightest areas of the photo a little
or a little bit to the right if I want to
| | 02:11 |
brighten up those highlights.
But usually I won't apply to strong of an
| | 02:16 |
effect with the Highlight slider.
The vibrance and saturation adjustments
| | 02:21 |
in both effect the intensity of colors.
If you increase vibrance, it will adjust
| | 02:25 |
the colors that are not very saturated
more than it adjusts the colors that are saturated.
| | 02:31 |
And if you reduce the value for vibrance,
it will reduce saturation for colors that
| | 02:35 |
are very saturated without much of an
effect on colors that aren't saturated.
| | 02:40 |
In most cases, I found the vibrance
adjustments is the better of the two for
| | 02:44 |
adjusting colors.
If I am looking for a strong impact in
| | 02:48 |
the image I might increase vibrance and
if I am looking to torn down the create
| | 02:51 |
for muted effect then I will reduce
vibrance.
| | 02:55 |
In either case if I want little bit
stronger but even if felt across the
| | 02:58 |
entire photo then I will find in
saturation.
| | 03:02 |
Increasing the saturation will increase
the saturation of all the colors equally
| | 03:05 |
throughout the photo.
And reducing well of course reduce the
| | 03:08 |
saturation for all colors within the
image.
| | 03:11 |
And reducing the saturation all the way
to minus 100 will give us a black and
| | 03:14 |
white interpretation of the photo.
In this case I think a little bit of
| | 03:18 |
vibrant color might be helpful so I'll
increase the vibrance by a relatively
| | 03:22 |
large amount and the saturation by just a
little bit.
| | 03:26 |
As you can see, the advanced adjustments
can really help you fine tune the overall
| | 03:30 |
appearance of an HDR image.
Shadow and highlight, help you adjust the
| | 03:34 |
intensity of the darkest and brightest
areas of the photo.
| | 03:37 |
And vibrance and saturation help you
adjust the intensity of overall color.
| | 03:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Curves adjustments| 00:02 |
In addition to the various sliders that
are used to adjust the appearance of your
| | 00:06 |
HDR photo in HDR Pro, there's also a
Curve adjustment.
| | 00:10 |
And this allows us to fine tune the
overall tonality in the photo.
| | 00:15 |
I generally find that I like to add at
least a little bit of contrast with the
| | 00:18 |
curve adjustment.
Because in most cases when we assemble a
| | 00:22 |
basic HDR image, the result doesn't have
very much contrast.
| | 00:26 |
We've compressed a huge dynamic range in
the scene we photographed, into a
| | 00:29 |
relatively small space, and we often lose
some of the contrast in the process.
| | 00:35 |
What that usually translates into, is a
basic S curve and that's exactly what I
| | 00:38 |
have applied here.
You can see that I have an anchor point
| | 00:42 |
that is darkening the darker areas of the
photo.
| | 00:45 |
And another anchor point that is
brightening the bright areas of the photo
| | 00:49 |
with a middle tone anchor point that is
just stabilizing the values for mid-tones.
| | 00:55 |
I'll go a head and make a dramatic
adjustment here just so we can get a
| | 00:58 |
better sense of exactly what's going on.
In this case really brightening up the
| | 01:02 |
darkest vaules of the image.
And you can see the effect is not very
| | 01:06 |
pleasing in this case.
But it'll at least make it a little more
| | 01:09 |
clear exactly how the curve adjustment
works.
| | 01:12 |
The anchor points essential defined
before and after values.
| | 01:16 |
The bottom gradient represents the before
values and the vertical gradient
| | 01:20 |
represents the after values.
So, in this case we're taking a
| | 01:24 |
relatively dark value and brightening it
up to a lighter value.
| | 01:29 |
We're leaving the midtone values
approximately unchanged and we're also
| | 01:32 |
brightening up the brighter areas.
So, you can see a shade of grey that's
| | 01:36 |
about halfway between middle grey and
white has now gone up to a little bit
| | 01:39 |
higher value.
We can adjust the position of those
| | 01:42 |
anchor points to change the relationship
and therefore change the appearance of
| | 01:45 |
the photo.
So, if I wanted to darken up the shadows,
| | 01:49 |
I can Drag an anchor point downward
toward the left side.
| | 01:52 |
And that will give us a darkening effect
in the darkest areas of the photo.
| | 01:58 |
Anchor points can be added simply by
clicking on the curve.
| | 02:01 |
For example, if I want to brighten the
brightest areas of the photo, I can move
| | 02:04 |
up toward the right end of the curve and
then Click and Drag, to add an anchor point.
| | 02:10 |
Dragging it upward to brighten or
downward to darken, for example.
| | 02:14 |
And at any time I can also reset the
curve, I'll go ahead and click the Reset button.
| | 02:18 |
And you see that we get back to a curve
with absolutely no curvature in it.
| | 02:22 |
Its a straight line going from the bottom
left to the top right and that represents
| | 02:26 |
no change in the image.
So, if I wanted to apply a very basic
| | 02:30 |
adjustment for example, darkening the
overall photo or brightening the photo.
| | 02:34 |
I can add a single anchor point, but I
can also get more sophisticated by adding
| | 02:38 |
additional anchor points.
So, once again, creating an S curve, for
| | 02:42 |
example by dragging the left portion, the
dark end of the curve downward a little bit.
| | 02:47 |
And then dragging the right portion of
the curve, the highlights portion upward
| | 02:50 |
in order to brighten those areas of the
photo.
| | 02:53 |
So, we're brightening the highlights and
darkening the shadows in this case which
| | 02:57 |
is adding contrast especially for the
middle tone values in the image and
| | 03:00 |
giving the photo a little bit more
impact.
| | 03:03 |
You can also adjust the behavior relative
to an individual anchor point.
| | 03:08 |
The currently active anchor point is
filled in with black, whereas the other
| | 03:11 |
anchor points are an outline.
If you turn on the corner check box, then
| | 03:15 |
the current anchor point instead of
having a smooth transition, we'll have an
| | 03:19 |
angular transition.
And that will cause a little bit more of
| | 03:23 |
an abrupt change within the image.
So, you can see as I turn the corner
| | 03:27 |
check box off or on, we get a little bit
more abrupt transition among tonal values
| | 03:31 |
with that Check box turned on.
Generally speaking, I'll leave the corner
| | 03:36 |
check box turned off, but it certainly is
another option available to you, if you
| | 03:39 |
prefer the effect.
And in this case I think I'll darken the
| | 03:42 |
midtone values just a little bit.
So, I'll add another anchor point and
| | 03:46 |
drag it downward, releasing to update the
preview so that I can evaluate the result.
| | 03:51 |
An that's looking to be pretty good.
So, as you can see, the curve adjustment
| | 03:54 |
allow us to lighten and darken specific
ranges of tonal values within the photo
| | 03:58 |
in order to really enhance overall
tonality.
| | 04:02 |
We're able to adjust both brightness and
contrast relatively easily and with a
| | 04:06 |
high degree of control, thanks to that
Curve adjustment.
| | 04:09 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Producing a realistic HDR image| 00:02 |
I can certainly appreciate a creative or
even a wildly dramatic interpretation of
| | 00:06 |
a scene using HDR.
But in many cases, especially when the
| | 00:10 |
scene is a little bit more of a
traditional landscape for example, I
| | 00:14 |
prefer to produce a more natural effect.
I want to maximize the amount of detail
| | 00:19 |
and highlight some shadows for example.
But I don't want the image to look like
| | 00:23 |
an obvious HDR.
And I certainly don't want it to look
| | 00:26 |
like an artistic interpretation as
opposed to a photographic image.
| | 00:29 |
Here you can see a wild interpretation of
this natural scene.
| | 00:33 |
A lake with some mountains in the
background, clouds in the sky, and, of
| | 00:36 |
course, the mountains here were a little
bit back lit, so there's a lot of shade there.
| | 00:42 |
And not a lot of detail, and the clouds
were very, very bright, so overall a
| | 00:45 |
rather high dynamic range scene, but one
that I would like to interpret in a more
| | 00:48 |
photorealistic way.
Let's take a look at some of the
| | 00:52 |
adjustments you'll want to think about
when you're looking for a more natural interpretation.
| | 00:58 |
One of the things that makes this image
look somewhat artificial is the Edge Glow effect.
| | 01:03 |
And generally speaking, when you're
looking for more natural effect with an
| | 01:07 |
HDR image, you'll want to use a low
setting for strength, and you'll probably
| | 01:10 |
also want to use a relatively low radius
setting.
| | 01:14 |
This will help to accentuate details in
the image and provide some more
| | 01:18 |
transitions for the highlights to shadow
areas, for example.
| | 01:22 |
But it won't create such an artifcial
appearance.
| | 01:25 |
I'll also tend to leave the edge
smoothness option turned on so that we
| | 01:28 |
get a little more gradual transition
between the areas that are being effected
| | 01:32 |
by that glow and areas that are not.
But its not a bad idea to toggle back and
| | 01:37 |
fourth between the two to see what you
like best.
| | 01:40 |
In this case I'll leave edge smoothness
turned on because it produces a smoother effect.
| | 01:45 |
So for example with Edge Smoothness off,
you can see quite a bit more definition
| | 01:48 |
in the rocks in the foreground.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing,
| | 01:52 |
but it does make the image look a little
bit more artificial.
| | 01:55 |
So I'll leave Edge Smoothness turned on.
With Gamma typically I would probably be
| | 01:59 |
looking at a relatively neutral value if
I'm trying to produce a more photo
| | 02:03 |
realistic effect.
So somewhere close to 1.0 the default
| | 02:07 |
value in HDR Pro and exposure I would
also tend to leave at a value that is
| | 02:11 |
relatively neutral.
A zero value in this case.
| | 02:16 |
You can fine-tune these settings
certainly, in order to adjust overall
| | 02:19 |
brightness and contrast, but I would use
relatively modest adjustments.
| | 02:23 |
For this image, I think certainly
increase exposure a little bit will help.
| | 02:27 |
It's a relatively dark interpretation of
the overall scene.
| | 02:31 |
And I might fine tune Gamma as well just
a little bit.
| | 02:34 |
Either taking things down a little bit or
up, depending on whether I'm looking for
| | 02:38 |
more detail or more contrast, and in this
case I think going down.
| | 02:42 |
Now that actually happens to be a
positive value or a higher value.
| | 02:45 |
But moving to the left actually produces
a little bit more realistic contrast in
| | 02:49 |
the image.
I'm seeing a little bit of detail in the
| | 02:52 |
hillsides here, for example, but not an
excessive amount of detail.
| | 02:56 |
And I think that's just a more natural
look in this particular case.
| | 03:00 |
Another key consideration for a more
natural appearince in an HDR photo is the
| | 03:04 |
Detail slider.
A very high value will give you a lot of
| | 03:07 |
accentuated detail.
Its almost like a sharpening type of
| | 03:11 |
effect and will really accentuate every
nook and cranny throughout the photo.
| | 03:15 |
And so if you want a more natural look I
would tend to use a relatively low
| | 03:18 |
setting for for detail.
You don't want to go too low because then
| | 03:22 |
you start to get a very smooth and almost
ethereal type of effect in the photo.
| | 03:27 |
But typically somewhere around 100% I
find is pretty good for an image you want
| | 03:31 |
to keep with a natural look.
Finally, taking a look at the advanced
| | 03:37 |
settings, I would typically leave the
shadow value at a relatively moderate setting.
| | 03:42 |
In this case I think I'd like a little
bit of a negative value so that we darken
| | 03:45 |
up the shadows just a little bit.
But I don't want to go too far.
| | 03:48 |
With highlights, I also don't want to
take things too far because then we
| | 03:51 |
really start to tone down the bright
areas of the image.
| | 03:55 |
The specific setting you'd use for shadow
and highlight will really depend on the
| | 03:59 |
particular captures, the.
The subject matter, and your aims for the
| | 04:03 |
photo, but usually when you're trying to
produce a more natural look, you'll use
| | 04:06 |
somewhat moderate values, relatively
close to zero.
| | 04:10 |
Sometimes a little bit below zero, as in
this case, where I've got negative values
| | 04:14 |
of around 50 percent, and sometimes
positive values.
| | 04:17 |
But more often than not, I think you'll
find that you'll want to use values of
| | 04:21 |
around zero, down to a negative number,
that is not too terribly small.
| | 04:25 |
But in general I think you'll find that
you want to use values of around zero,
| | 04:28 |
and maybe a relatively small negative
value when you're creating a natural look
| | 04:32 |
in your HDR images.
And you'll also want to not use too high
| | 04:37 |
a vibrance or saturation value.
Now which of these two sliders is most
| | 04:41 |
important depends a little bit upon the
image itself.
| | 04:44 |
If the colors are all of the relatively
same saturation levels, then you'll
| | 04:48 |
probably end up using the Saturation
slider.
| | 04:51 |
Where as if you have a mix of relatively
highly saturated colors and colors that
| | 04:54 |
are not very saturated then you'll
probably want to use vibrants.
| | 04:58 |
But for more natural look you'll want
both of these to be at a relatively lower
| | 05:03 |
value somwhere between 0% and typically
around 30% on the high end.
| | 05:09 |
It will vary quite a bit depending on the
contents of the image.
| | 05:12 |
In this case, for example, I might
increase saturation just a little bit and
| | 05:15 |
maybe even bring up vibrance a little bit
more in order to try to bring out some
| | 05:18 |
more of the colors in the foreground.
But I'll pay careful attention to the
| | 05:23 |
sky, making sure that doesn't look too
artificial.
| | 05:26 |
So by paying careful attention to each of
the settings and a particular target
| | 05:30 |
range for each of their values, you can
really work very easily to produce a more
| | 05:34 |
natural look in an HDR image.
And that works especially well for
| | 05:38 |
situations where you're just trying to
maximize the range of detail in a scene.
| | 05:42 |
You're taking a very high contrast
situation and trying to produce an image
| | 05:46 |
that doesn't have quite so much contrast.
That doesn't lose as much detail in the
| | 05:50 |
highlights or the shadows.
So that calls for a little bit more
| | 05:53 |
moderation in terms of the settings
you're using.
| | 05:56 |
But as you can see, it's quite
straightforward to be able to produce a
| | 05:59 |
more natural look with an HDR image.
| | 06:01 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a black-and-white HDR image| 00:02 |
When you're capturing an HDR image, you
tend to be a little bit more focused on
| | 00:05 |
lighting than you might otherwise in a
photographic image.
| | 00:08 |
For example here, I wanted to capture as
much detail as possible, but I was
| | 00:12 |
concerned about the picket fence.
There was a lot of light being reflected
| | 00:16 |
off the front side of the fence there.
And so that was going to cause a loss of
| | 00:19 |
detail in the highlights.
And so an HDR, of course, was a good solution.
| | 00:24 |
I'm able to recover a lot of detail, for
example, even being able to see the door
| | 00:27 |
through the screen and the shaded porch,
and some fine detail off in the
| | 00:30 |
background here.
But when I'm thinking a lot about
| | 00:34 |
luminance values, and about the
brightness values within the scene, often
| | 00:37 |
times I think about a black and white
interpretation of the photo.
| | 00:42 |
Obviously, we could convert the black and
white after creating our initial HDR image.
| | 00:47 |
But it can be very helpful to instead
convert the black and white in the HDR
| | 00:51 |
conversion process, so that you're then
able to apply all of the various
| | 00:54 |
adjustments in HDR Pro here for example,
based on that black and white interpretation.
| | 01:01 |
And that can be done very simply by
reducing the Saturation to a value of
| | 01:05 |
minus 100%.
At the moment this image is looking
| | 01:08 |
pretty much like a normal black and white
photo.
| | 01:10 |
In fact, you probably would never even
assume that it was an HDR.
| | 01:14 |
Other than the fact that the fence is
very bright and we have a fair amount of
| | 01:17 |
detail in the background.
But that detail is relatively flat at the moment.
| | 01:22 |
So, I'd like to apply some adjustments
that will really maximize the overall
| | 01:25 |
texture and detail within the photo.
And I think in this case I'd like to
| | 01:30 |
exaggerate things a little bit.
But again, the key is to reduce that
| | 01:33 |
Saturation, so that we can evaluate the
final result based on a black and white
| | 01:36 |
interpretation of the photo.
I'm going to start off by increasing
| | 01:41 |
Detail, because I think I definitely want
to see a little bit more information
| | 01:44 |
within the photo.
I'm also going to be working for some
| | 01:47 |
more Contrast.
I think I'll reduce the Exposure just a
| | 01:50 |
littler bit in order to try to retain
some more detail in the fence.
| | 01:54 |
And you can see, by adjusting Gamma in a
relatively strong way, we're able to
| | 01:58 |
achieve a significant difference in the
image.
| | 02:01 |
Now, bringing the Gamma over to the right
to a lower value is obviously not going
| | 02:05 |
to be very helpful.
In this case, it's an interesting
| | 02:08 |
interpretation of the photo, but not
exactly what I'm going for.
| | 02:11 |
I want a bit more Contrast, so I'm going to
move that slider over to the left.
| | 02:15 |
I'll also take a look at the Edge Glow
Effect.
| | 02:17 |
I'll increase the Radius a little bit, so
I can see more clearly, and I will
| | 02:21 |
increase the value for Strength.
And now we're starting to get a little
| | 02:25 |
bit more of what I had in mind.
The image is not looking especially
| | 02:29 |
artificial, I'm just getting more detail,
more contrast operating at localized
| | 02:33 |
areas within the photo.
I'm going to adjust the shadows and
| | 02:37 |
highlights next.
In particular, I'm thinking I might want
| | 02:40 |
to open up the shadows just a little bit
more, to bring out some more of that detail.
| | 02:44 |
And maybe tone down the highlights,
because I'm still seeing quite a bit of
| | 02:47 |
lost detail in the foreground.
With the increased Contrast, that fence
| | 02:51 |
is not really quite as much of a problem
I'd say, and I still have some of the
| | 02:54 |
texture showing through.
But it might be good to reduce the value
| | 02:59 |
for the highlights.
The thing to keep in mind, and I think
| | 03:02 |
this is especially important with a black
and white interpretation.
| | 03:05 |
Is that if we take the highlight level
down too much, we'll start to see some
| | 03:08 |
hazy grey areas within the photo.
So, I might want to bring back a little
| | 03:13 |
bit of detail, but not so much that
things start looking really artificial.
| | 03:17 |
I want those areas to look a little bit
more like they have shade cast upon them,
| | 03:20 |
rather than that they were painted grey,
for example.
| | 03:24 |
The Vibrance Adjustment is obviously not
necessary since there aren't any color
| | 03:28 |
values left in the image.
But overall, I think we're in good shape.
| | 03:32 |
I've got a lot of detail here, thanks to
the HDR effect, and I have a nice
| | 03:35 |
contrasty effect in my black and white
interpretation.
| | 03:39 |
I might play a little bit more with some
of these settings, especially perhaps
| | 03:42 |
Edge Glow, taking a look at what a very
High Strength might do to the image.
| | 03:47 |
And what perhaps a little bit Lower
Strength might do.
| | 03:49 |
In this case I think a moderately high
value works pretty well, I can continue
| | 03:52 |
fine tuning the Radius Setting.
For this type of an image though, where
| | 03:57 |
the details are relatively small, I'll
use a relatively small radius as well,
| | 04:00 |
because I want that glow to operate at a
size that's appropriate for the size of
| | 04:03 |
details within the photo.
So, I'll continue fine tuning just a
| | 04:08 |
little bit, I'm going to reduce the
strength just a little bit more for that
| | 04:11 |
Radius, and right about there I think is
looking nice.
| | 04:14 |
I've got a lot of good shadow detail
coming through and good overall Contrast.
| | 04:19 |
So, I think in this case I've got a
pretty good interpretation of my black
| | 04:22 |
and white version of an HDR photograph.
| | 04:25 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Assembling a creative HDR image| 00:02 |
From time to time I like to have a little
bit of fun with an HDR image.
| | 00:05 |
Especially when the subject is especially
unique or whimsical.
| | 00:09 |
In this case I photographed a caboose
that had a lot of graffiti on it and so I
| | 00:13 |
tried to capture an interesting scene.
I have Three exposures here, trying to
| | 00:18 |
get as much detail as possible and I'd
like to interpret this image in a very
| | 00:21 |
dramatic way.
A way that does not really even look
| | 00:25 |
necessarily like a genuine photographic
image.
| | 00:28 |
Rather a purely artistic interpretation
of the subject that happens to be based
| | 00:32 |
upon photographic images.
I actually have a pre-set that I created
| | 00:36 |
that provides, in most cases, a good
starting point for these more adventurous
| | 00:40 |
HDR images.
So from the preset pop up, I'll go ahead
| | 00:45 |
and choose Tim Gray Painterly HDR.
And once the image is processed, you can
| | 00:49 |
see that the results are rather dramatic.
I have a fair amount of saturation in the
| | 00:54 |
colors, lots of contrast, and just
overall a rather interesting image.
| | 00:59 |
Not what you would expect in a normal
photograph.
| | 01:01 |
Well, let's take a look at the particular
Settings and see how we might modify them.
| | 01:05 |
Or what we might be looking for, in
particular, when we're trying to create a
| | 01:08 |
more dramatic interpretation of a photo.
One of the things that can really set
| | 01:12 |
apart an HDR image is the edge glow.
So, I'll take a look at turning off the
| | 01:17 |
edge smoothness, because, depending on
the image, sometimes that can create an
| | 01:20 |
added bit of drama.
In this case, I think I'll leave edge
| | 01:24 |
smoothness turned on.
And I can also increase the strength and
| | 01:27 |
the radius.
For me personally, I generally prefer to
| | 01:30 |
use a relatively low radius setting With
a moderately high strength.
| | 01:34 |
But of course that will vary a lot
depending on the particulate image and
| | 01:37 |
what I'm trying to accomplish.
In some cases, a very high radius will
| | 01:42 |
create an interesting, sort of modeled,
pattern throughout the photo.
| | 01:46 |
It doesn't really apply in this example.
I'll increase the strength so we can get
| | 01:50 |
a better sense here.
I have a very large glow, but because I
| | 01:53 |
have a lot of clean edges, I'm just
getting glow surrounding those edges.
| | 01:57 |
But at times you might find that a very
high radius with a moderate to high
| | 02:00 |
strength can create an interesting
lighting effect within the photo.
| | 02:04 |
For this image, I think I'll work with a
relatively low radius setting.
| | 02:09 |
But I'll also work with a moderatly high
strength setting.
| | 02:12 |
So in this case I think even making it a
little more dramatic.
| | 02:15 |
I don't mind if I have a very obvious
glow here, for example.
| | 02:19 |
I can take a look at the overall exposure
and gamma and I think I might torn down
| | 02:22 |
the exposure just a little bit to see if
i can get more detail in the sky.
| | 02:26 |
The problem is then we end up with not as
much detail in the mid tones.
| | 02:30 |
And I can certainly fine tune that after
the fact.
| | 02:33 |
But I think for this image, I am not
quite as worried about the highlight
| | 02:36 |
detail, I want to make sure the sunburst
pretty obvious.
| | 02:40 |
But I am more concerned about just
overall contrast and so continue find
| | 02:43 |
tuning that.
I think I'll brighten up the overall
| | 02:46 |
image in a moment as well and then maybe
revisit the final settings here.
| | 02:51 |
Taking a look at detail in this type of a
situation, I will almost always maximize
| | 02:56 |
detail to the full 300%.
At a moderate value, you'll see that we
| | 03:00 |
get just a fair amount of detail without
too much of that sort of sharpness type
| | 03:03 |
of effect.
And with a negative value, we get this
| | 03:06 |
hazy type of look in the photo.
For this image I will most certainly use
| | 03:10 |
the maximum value.
I think I would like to open up the
| | 03:12 |
shadow details just a little bit,.so I'm
going to increase the value for shadow.
| | 03:17 |
I don't want to darken up the shadows too
much.
| | 03:19 |
I do want to make sure that dark areas have
enough intensity so that they look some
| | 03:22 |
what realistic but tI would like to see
little more detail on this particular photo.
| | 03:27 |
And I am not going to brighten up the
highlight someone infact keep the
| | 03:30 |
highlight slider alll the way to negative
100 value.
| | 03:33 |
In order to minimize the brightness of
those highlights.
| | 03:37 |
And I'll keep the vibrance and the
saturation relatively high.
| | 03:40 |
Vibrance is going to, for the most part,
bring up the level of colors that are not
| | 03:44 |
very saturated, so that they're closer to
those colors that already were saturated.
| | 03:49 |
And then, saturation will increase or
decrease, if I were to reduce the value,
| | 03:52 |
the overall level of saturation in the
photo.
| | 03:55 |
So, I'll increase both and, in this case,
I want the effect to be a little bit artificial.
| | 04:00 |
I do want to brighten things up a little
bit, so I'm going to go to the curve
| | 04:03 |
adjustment and I'll start off with the
mid-tone adjustment and also the shadows.
| | 04:08 |
So, I have three curve anchor points
established here, and I want to overall
| | 04:12 |
increase contrast and brighten certain
areas and darken others.
| | 04:17 |
Overall trying to achieve good contrast
without losing too much detail.
| | 04:21 |
So you can see in the shadow areas below
the caboose here, we have a really good
| | 04:24 |
amount of contrast.
Things are a little too hot in the
| | 04:28 |
background, so I'll take a look at
reducing the overall brightness values
| | 04:31 |
for the mid-tones.
And I might even tone down those
| | 04:34 |
highlights just a little bit in order to
try and achieve.
| | 04:38 |
A result that will not be quite as blown
out in the background.
| | 04:41 |
I don't mind the strong contrast and I
don't mind the halo effect from that edge
| | 04:44 |
glow, but I'd like to retain just a
little bit more detail in those areas if possible.
| | 04:51 |
And I think I might actually even
brighten up the overall mid-tones and
| | 04:53 |
shadows just a little bit more with the
curve adjustment here.
| | 04:56 |
And then play around with the gamma
adjustment to see if I can get a better
| | 05:00 |
overall effect.
So I'm essentially brightening up the
| | 05:03 |
image, or mostly the shadows anyway, with
the curve adjustment.
| | 05:06 |
And then increasing the degree of
contrast a little bit with the gamma adjustment.
| | 05:11 |
Trying to find a good balance between the
two.
| | 05:12 |
I do think I'm going to tone down the
Exposure adjustment as well.
| | 05:17 |
I want to have good detail in the shadow
areas but I don't want to sacrifice too
| | 05:20 |
much detail in the highlights.
But as you can see just sorta playing
| | 05:25 |
around with the image a little bit,
trying to get a better sense for where
| | 05:28 |
I'd like to take the image.
And figuring out which particular set of
| | 05:32 |
adjustments are going to create the best
result.
| | 05:35 |
And bear in mind that each of the
adjustments you apply will be affected by
| | 05:38 |
other adjustments.
And so once you've gone through and made
| | 05:42 |
some of your tonal adjustments, for
example.
| | 05:44 |
You might want to go back to the edge
glow settings and experiment around with
| | 05:47 |
some different options there.
Maybe increasing the radius and fine
| | 05:51 |
tuning the strength for For example, I
think here actually a higher radius.
| | 05:55 |
And maybe a little bit stronger effect
will work out very nicely for this photo.
| | 06:01 |
I might even go back and bring in just a
little bit more saturation.
| | 06:04 |
Jsut to really bring out some of those
colors.
| | 06:07 |
I think in this case I actually would
like them to be a little bit artificial looking.
| | 06:11 |
So you can see there's some color element
coming through in some of the white paint.
| | 06:15 |
The sky is looking rather artificial.
And we've even got the warm glow, the
| | 06:19 |
sort of yellow light that was in teh
undercarriage here.
| | 06:22 |
Coming through a little bit more.
I think I might increase the brightness
| | 06:25 |
for the shadows and that'll help to bring
out, especially down underneath we've got
| | 06:29 |
this dark area.
And I'll go back to the curve as well and
| | 06:33 |
fine tune.
Trying to brighten up the side of the
| | 06:36 |
caboose here just a little bit as well.
And I think somewhere around there is
| | 06:39 |
going to work very nicely.
So, a very dramatic interpretation of the
| | 06:42 |
image, but sometimes this sort of
interpretation.
| | 06:45 |
Taking things to a wild extreme, almost,
can be a lot of fun.
| | 06:48 |
Especially with certain subjects.
And I think this caboose was a lot of fun
| | 06:52 |
to see, a lot of fun to photograph.
And so this interpretation of that scene,
| | 06:56 |
really, I think.
But suits the subject.
| | 06:58 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Using Nik HDR Efex ProUsing HDR Efex Pro with Photoshop| 00:02 |
I find that HDR Effects Pro from Nik
software is a very easy to use tool for
| | 00:06 |
creating HDR images.
Let's take a look at how we can use HDR
| | 00:11 |
Effects Pro directly from Photoshop in
order to process and create an HDR image.
| | 00:17 |
To get started I'll go to the File menu
and choose Automate followed by Merge to
| | 00:20 |
HDR Effects Pro.
When I choose that command I'll get a
| | 00:24 |
dialog where I can specify which images
I want to assemble into an HDR result.
| | 00:30 |
I'll go ahead and click the Select button
and you can see I can navigate to a
| | 00:33 |
particular folder.
And select the Individual raw captures
| | 00:37 |
that I want to blend into a single HDR
image.
| | 00:40 |
With those images selected I'll click the
Open button.
| | 00:43 |
And you can see that they're added to the
list to be processed.
| | 00:46 |
If I had added an extra image
inadvertantly I can select it and then
| | 00:49 |
click the Remove button.
But in this case all three of these
| | 00:52 |
images should be processed.
I'm not going to take advantage of the
| | 00:57 |
Open As a Smart Object option that can be
helpful in terms of being able to fine
| | 01:00 |
tune and be more flexible in your work
flow.
| | 01:03 |
But it can also create some challenges
with a layer based workflow.
| | 01:07 |
For example when you're using seperate
layers to apply some image cleanup work.
| | 01:11 |
I will however leave the Alignment and
Ghost Reduction options turned on and
| | 01:15 |
I'll set the ghost reduction to the
global method with a high strength.
| | 01:20 |
I find that, that usually produces the
best results if there was anything moving
| | 01:23 |
within the scene.
With those options established I'll go
| | 01:27 |
ahead and click OK.
At this point Photoshop will open each of
| | 01:32 |
the raw captures and process them and
send those images into HDR Effects Pro.
| | 01:42 |
Once that process is complete, the HDR
Effects Pro dialog will appear where
| | 01:48 |
you can fine tune all of the settings for
your HDR conversion.
| | 01:55 |
When you're finished with
that process, you can simply click the OK
| | 02:01 |
button at the bottom right of HDR Flex
Pro.
| | 02:05 |
That will cause the images to be
processed based on the settings that you used.
| | 02:10 |
And the final resulting image will be
opened in Photoshop.
| | 02:14 |
At that point you can continue applying a
variety of different adjustments.
| | 02:17 |
And then of course, Save the final
result.
| | 02:19 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using HDR Efex Pro with Lightroom| 00:02 |
While Lightroom doesn't include the
ability to generate HDR images natively,
| | 00:05 |
you can use a variety of different tools
in conjunction with Lightroom to produce
| | 00:09 |
an HDR image.
Here I have 3 images that I'd like to
| | 00:13 |
process to create an HDR result, and I'm
going to use Nik Software's HDR Efex Pro
| | 00:17 |
to process those images from directly
within Lightroom.
| | 00:23 |
I'll go ahead and click on the first
image on the film strip and then hold the
| | 00:26 |
Shift and click on the last image on the
film strip in order to select all 3 of
| | 00:29 |
those photos.
I'll then go to the File menu and choose
| | 00:33 |
Export with Preset followed by HDR Efex
Pro.
| | 00:38 |
That will cause Lightroom to
automatically process all of these images
| | 00:42 |
and send them over to Nik HDR Efex Pro,
so that we can apply a variety of
| | 00:45 |
different adjustments to create the final
HDR version.
| | 00:50 |
Once the HDR Efex Pro dialog appears, you
can of course fine-tune all of your settings.
| | 00:57 |
And then click the Save button so that
HDR Efex Pro will process the image with
| | 01:02 |
the settings that you've established and
then save the result in the catalog in Lightroom.
| | 01:10 |
So as soon as all that processing is
complete, you'll see that the HDR result.
| | 01:15 |
In this case, you can see that HDR has
been appended to the original file name
| | 01:18 |
for example.
And that HDR image, that final result in
| | 01:21 |
this case saved as a TIFF file, is
included as a stack with the first image
| | 01:25 |
in the set of original captures.
So, I have the 3 original raw captures,
| | 01:30 |
plus my HDR result, all being managed
directly in Lightroom.
| | 01:35 |
I can then, of course, continue applying
a variety of different adjustments,
| | 01:38 |
adding keywords, and otherwise doing
everything with this HDR result that I
| | 01:42 |
could do with my original raw captures,
all directly within Lightroom.
| | 01:47 |
So I'm able to take advantage of the full
workflow in Lightroom, but utilizing HDR
| | 01:51 |
Efex Pro to process and create an HDR
image from multiple captures.
| | 01:56 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using presets| 00:00 |
One of the fastest ways to get started
creating HDR images with HDR Effects Pro
| | 00:04 |
is to take advantage of Presets.
At the top left of the Dialogue, you'll
| | 00:09 |
see a variety of Preset categories.
You can choose anyone of those categories
| | 00:14 |
to see the specific Presets that are
included in that category.
| | 00:19 |
Or you can choose the All option so that
you can see all of the available presets.
| | 00:23 |
You can then scroll through the
thumbnails and to apply the effect of a
| | 00:26 |
preset, simply click on the thumbnail.
That will immediately update your overall
| | 00:30 |
image to reflect the settings that you've
chosen.
| | 00:34 |
There's also a favorites category.
I'll go ahead and switch to the favorites category.
| | 00:38 |
And you'll see that I don't have any
favorites established just yet.
| | 00:42 |
But I can go back to one of the other
categories.
| | 00:44 |
I'll go ahead and just choose all, so
that I can see all of the available presets.
| | 00:48 |
And if I find a preset that I
particularly like, I can simply click the
| | 00:51 |
star next to the title for that preset.
And that will add it to the favorites.
| | 00:56 |
So now that I've assigned Granny's Attic
a star, if I go to favorites, I'll see
| | 01:00 |
that preset as well.
So, this provides a very quick and easy
| | 01:05 |
way to get to your favorite presets.
You can also create your own presets.
| | 01:11 |
So, let's assume that we started with
this version of the image as a good
| | 01:13 |
jumping off point but then decided I
wanted to enhance it just a little bit.
| | 01:18 |
I'll just make some arbitrary adjustments
just to make an obvious change in the image.
| | 01:23 |
I'll reduce saturation for example, and
increase structure, just getting
| | 01:26 |
something that looks a little bit unique,
so that we can see a difference between
| | 01:29 |
this version of the image and the
original with the Granny's attic effect.
| | 01:34 |
I'll then go ahead and click the Add
Preset button down at the bottom of the
| | 01:38 |
left side of the HDR Effects Pro dialog,
and I can type a name for this preset.
| | 01:44 |
Since this was based on Granny's attic,
I'll go ahead and just call this Granny's
| | 01:48 |
Attic Low Saturation.
And then I'll click OK in order to save
| | 01:54 |
that new preset.
Then if I go into the custom section
| | 01:57 |
rather than the presets section, I'll be
able to see my user presets.
| | 02:02 |
The presets that I've created on my own.
You can also import presets, for example,
| | 02:06 |
presets that you download from the
Internet.
| | 02:09 |
And those will appear on the second list
here under custom.
| | 02:12 |
So in most cases I think you'll find that
you'll either have some favorites in the
| | 02:15 |
preset section, or under the custom
section you'll use some of your user presets.
| | 02:21 |
But in either case, using these presets
makes it very easy to review a variety of
| | 02:24 |
different possible ways to interpret your
hdr image, and to apply the affect very
| | 02:28 |
quickly and easily.
| | 02:31 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making global adjustments| 00:02 |
While there are a variety of Presets to
choose from in HDR Effects Pro, and you
| | 00:05 |
can also create your own Presets, you'll
likely find that for a given image.
| | 00:10 |
You want to fine tune the overall
adjustments in order to produce the
| | 00:13 |
result that you're happiest with.
So, while you'll start with the preset
| | 00:17 |
over on the left side of the interface,
you'll likely then jump right over to the
| | 00:20 |
right side so that you can fine-tune the
effect.
| | 00:24 |
Let's take a look at the various basic
adjustments that are available to you in
| | 00:28 |
HDR Effects Pro.
The first slider is Tone Compression, and
| | 00:32 |
this determines how much your compressing
the original version of the scene into a
| | 00:36 |
final photograph.
So, we're taking for example a very high
| | 00:40 |
dynamic range scene that we photographed
with multiple images, and then producing
| | 00:44 |
an HDR result.
And we can determine how much we want to
| | 00:48 |
compress the tonal range within the final
image.
| | 00:52 |
Moving the Tone Compression slider to the
right will reduce the dynamic range of
| | 00:55 |
your final result, so the highlights will
be toned down so they're not quite so bright.
| | 01:00 |
And the shadows will be lightened up so
they won't be so dark.
| | 01:03 |
So, if you want what you might call a
more realistic effect, you might reduce
| | 01:06 |
the Tone Compression.
So that you're not seeing quite as much
| | 01:10 |
of a compression of that dynamic range.
In other words, you'll see more contrast
| | 01:14 |
in your final HDR image.
And that means you might for example,
| | 01:18 |
lose some highlight detail, or not have
quite as much detail in your shadows.
| | 01:21 |
Whereas if we increase the value, you'll
tend to see a lot more detail.
| | 01:25 |
In this case, for example, that'll help
us to see a little bit more of the shadow
| | 01:29 |
detail, as well as some of the details
around the sunburst.
| | 01:33 |
Next, we have our Basic Brightness and
Contrast Adjustments.
| | 01:36 |
The Exposure Adjustment is really more of
a white point adjustment.
| | 01:40 |
So, increasing exposure will certainly
brighten the image, but it will also
| | 01:43 |
likely lead to losing detail in the
highlights if we take it too far.
| | 01:47 |
And reducing Exposure will darken the
image, but it will also make our
| | 01:50 |
highlights look a little bit muddy.
So, you want to be very careful with the
| | 01:54 |
overall Exposure adjustment, depending on
the look you're going for in the image.
| | 01:59 |
We can also adjust Contrast.
Moving to the right will increase
| | 02:02 |
Contrast in the image, and moving to the
left will reduce Contrast.
| | 02:06 |
In most cases, I'll leave the value
relatively close to zero.
| | 02:09 |
I've achieved most of my contrast desires
with the Tone Compression slider, and so
| | 02:13 |
the Contrast slider itself, in my mind,
is more of a fine tuning effect.
| | 02:18 |
So, if I want to bring up Contrast just a
little bit or maybe tone things down just
| | 02:21 |
a little, that's where I'll go.
But usually, most of that work has been
| | 02:25 |
done with tone compression.
Saturation is obviously relatively straightforward.
| | 02:30 |
If we increase the value, the colors will
get more vibrant.
| | 02:33 |
And if we reduce the value, the colors
will get more muted.
| | 02:36 |
going all the way down to a nearly
perfectly grey-scaled image, for example,
| | 02:39 |
depending on what we're looking for in a
photo.
| | 02:43 |
Many times increasing saturation will
help to produce more of a traditional HDR
| | 02:47 |
effect where the colors really jump out
at you.
| | 02:50 |
But obviously, you'll want to adjust to
taste.
| | 02:53 |
In this case, I think I'll leave the
saturation at a moderately high value.
| | 02:56 |
I like having those colors really boosted
within the photo.
| | 02:59 |
Structure is somewhat like sharpening.
In essence, increasing structure will
| | 03:04 |
increase detail, and reducing structure
will reduce detail.
| | 03:08 |
If we go too far to the negative with
structure, we'll start to see sort of a
| | 03:11 |
hazy, almost dream-like effect.
And if we go too high, we'll start to see
| | 03:16 |
a very crunchy, very contrasty version of
the image.
| | 03:19 |
I generally like a moderately high
structure value because it really starts
| | 03:22 |
to bring out some of the details within
the photo.
| | 03:25 |
But of course, the best value will depend
upon the image and your personal tastes.
| | 03:30 |
Next, we have the Blacks slider.
And increasing the value will increase
| | 03:33 |
the degree of black, and reducing the
value will reduce the value of black,
| | 03:37 |
essentially opening up shadow detail.
So in most cases, you probably want a
| | 03:41 |
negative value for blacks in order to
maximize the amount of shadow detail.
| | 03:46 |
But of course, that will depend upon what
your aim is for the photo.
| | 03:50 |
In some cases, you might want to use a
positive value to create more density in
| | 03:53 |
the blacks and to produce a more dramatic
result.
| | 03:56 |
But for this photo, I'd like to open up
a bit of that shadow detail, so I'll use
| | 03:59 |
a relatively low setting for black.
So, I want to have good density in those
| | 04:03 |
blacks, but I also want to retain as much
shadow detail as possible.
| | 04:07 |
And similarly, we have a whites
adjustment, where we can brighten or
| | 04:11 |
darken the whites values.
Now, you might be tempted to reduce the
| | 04:14 |
whites values fairly significantly in
order to maximize the amount of detail in
| | 04:17 |
the bright areas of the photo, such as
these clouds.
| | 04:21 |
But you need to be careful not to create
too flat an appearance in those whites.
| | 04:25 |
In many cases, it can be helpful to have
just a little bit of lost detail in the
| | 04:28 |
highlights in order to produce a more
realistic final result.
| | 04:33 |
And finally, we have the Warmth slider.
And of course, dragging that slider to
| | 04:36 |
the right will warm up the image and
dragging it to the left will cool down
| | 04:39 |
the image.
So this is a good way, for example, to
| | 04:43 |
add just a little bit more of a golden
lighting type of effect by adding a
| | 04:46 |
slight positive positive value for
warmth.
| | 04:50 |
Between starting with a preset, either a
custom preset that you've created
| | 04:53 |
yourself, or one of the presets that is
included HDR Effects Pro.
| | 04:57 |
And then, adjusting or fine tuning all of
the basic adjustments that are available
| | 05:01 |
to you, you'll very likely be able to
produce a great result that you're very
| | 05:04 |
happy with.
| | 05:06 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Choosing an HDR method| 00:02 |
One of the unique features of HDR
EffectsPro, is that you're able to
| | 00:05 |
actually access the underlying
algorithms, to some extent.
| | 00:09 |
And change the HDR processing method.
Below the basic adjustments, you'll find
| | 00:14 |
the HDR method section.
And here we have a popup where we can
| | 00:17 |
choose the particular style of conversion
that we want to use.
| | 00:21 |
The default is natural, and I find in
most cases I prefer using that option for
| | 00:25 |
my images.
But we have a wide variety of other
| | 00:28 |
options that you might like to explore.
You can choose each of them in turn to
| | 00:33 |
see what the effect will look like and
whether it works for this image or your
| | 00:36 |
particular tastes.
You'll see for example that some of these
| | 00:40 |
are a little bit dramatic, some of them
lighter, some of them darker.
| | 00:45 |
Fresco, for example, creates something of
a painterly type of effect, but in this
| | 00:49 |
image it's not working very well, as far
as those sky tones.
| | 00:53 |
And the illuminate option, as its name
implies, is very very bright, and yet
| | 00:57 |
without bright highlight detail.
So, here with the sun in the frame.
| | 01:01 |
That doesn't work all that well.
But of course, we could continue fine
| | 01:04 |
tuning our other global adjustments in
order to find the best results for the photo.
| | 01:10 |
But I do encourage you to at least play
around a little bit with these various adjustments.
| | 01:15 |
Here, for example, this sharp HDR method
really creates a more dramatic effect in
| | 01:19 |
the image.
But if you feel that it's a little too dramatic.
| | 01:22 |
For whichever HDR method you have chosen,
you can tone down the strength of that method.
| | 01:27 |
The method strength slider allows you to
fine tune that effect.
| | 01:30 |
So, I'll drag this over to the left, for
example.
| | 01:32 |
And you can see that the effect gets
significantly toned down.
| | 01:35 |
So, I can dial in exactly the degree of
adjustment that I would like, based on
| | 01:39 |
that HDR method.
And I can still go back to all of my
| | 01:42 |
global adjustments and fine tune those as
well.
| | 01:46 |
But as you can see, having access to the
HDR Method Setting here in HDR Effects
| | 01:50 |
Pro really gives you a lot more
flexibility in interpreting your HDR photos.
| | 01:55 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Making selective adjustments| 00:02 |
For most images you'll probably find that
the various adjustments available in HDR
| | 00:05 |
Effects Pro, that effect the overall
image, the global adjustments are all you
| | 00:09 |
need to produce an image you're happy
with.
| | 00:13 |
But in some cases you might want to apply
an adjustment that effects a specific
| | 00:16 |
area of the photo.
Let's take a look at the ability to apply
| | 00:20 |
targeted adjustments with the Selective
Adjustments Section found on the right
| | 00:24 |
panel in HDR Efex Pro.
To get started, I'll click the Add
| | 00:28 |
Control Point button, that will activate
the Selective Adjustment tool.
| | 00:32 |
And then I can move out into the image,
to define the area that I'd like to adjust.
| | 00:37 |
Let's say I want to adjust the sky up
near the top of the image.
| | 00:40 |
I'll click and that will add a Control
Point that I can use to fine tune this
| | 00:44 |
area of the photo.
I have adjustments for Exposure, Contrast
| | 00:49 |
and Saturation, and they will be focused
in this particular area.
| | 00:54 |
So, if I reduce the exposure, for
example, you can see that I'm getting a
| | 00:57 |
dark area up at the top of the image.
But I can also adjust the the size of
| | 01:01 |
that area.
So, if I'm trying to create something of
| | 01:04 |
a gradient type of effect, where the top
of the image is darkened, but the rest of
| | 01:08 |
the image is not affected.
I'm able to accomplish that by reducing
| | 01:12 |
Exposure, in this case.
But I could also adjust Contrast,
| | 01:16 |
Increasing or decreasing Contrast in that
area, as well as increasing or decreasing Saturation.
| | 01:23 |
In addition to those basic adjustments,
if you click the downward pointing arrow,
| | 01:26 |
you'll have a set of additional
adjustments that will affect.
| | 01:29 |
Once again, just the specific area that
you've identified with your Control Point.
| | 01:33 |
And that includes structure, which is
something of a Sharpening or Clarity type
| | 01:37 |
of adjustment.
We can adjust the Black Point, the White
| | 01:41 |
Point, the warmth of this area, as well
as the method strength.
| | 01:45 |
So, for example, if we've defined a
method for converting the HDR image, but
| | 01:49 |
we want to modify the strength in one
particular area, we can accomplish that
| | 01:52 |
with a Control Point.
And of course I can add multiple Control
| | 01:57 |
Points, I'll go ahead and click the Add
Control Point button.
| | 02:01 |
And I'll click down at the bottom of the
image and perhaps brighten this area up
| | 02:04 |
and increase the size of this area just
to brighten that foreground maybe a
| | 02:08 |
little bit.
Maybe even increase the Saturation for
| | 02:12 |
this area, for example.
In this case applying some relatively
| | 02:16 |
arbitrary adjustments.
But you get the idea that we're able to
| | 02:19 |
apply specific adjustments to specific
areas of the image.
| | 02:22 |
And of course we can always go back to
these Control Points in order to fine
| | 02:25 |
tune them.
You can see the button for my Control
| | 02:29 |
Point up at the top of the image, I can
simply click on that to activate that
| | 02:32 |
control again, and fine tune the
adjustments.
| | 02:35 |
Or click on the Lower Control Point or
add additional Control Points at any time.
| | 02:39 |
And in fact if I expand the Control Point
section here.
| | 02:43 |
You'll see that I'm able to select the
individual Control Points and make
| | 02:46 |
adjustments to them.
I can delete a Control Point, or even
| | 02:49 |
duplicate a Control Point, if I want to
have variable effect in a certain area.
| | 02:54 |
As you're reviewing those targeted
adjustments, you can turn on the Mask
| | 02:57 |
View using the check box at the far right
of a Control Point.
| | 03:01 |
And that will show you which areas of the
image are being affected by that Control Point.
| | 03:06 |
I'll go ahead and turn off that Mask
View, and you can continue fine tuning
| | 03:09 |
each of those Control Points as desired.
And at any time even turn off the effect
| | 03:14 |
of your selected adjustments, just by
clearing the check box for the selected
| | 03:17 |
adjustment section, and turn it back on
to see the effect in the image.
| | 03:22 |
So, off for the before version and on for
the after version.
| | 03:26 |
So, that you can evalutate your results
and make adjustments as needed.
| | 03:29 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Finishing adjustments| 00:02 |
Once you're close to finalizing the
effect for your HDR image in HDR Efex
| | 00:05 |
Pro, you might want to take a look at
some of the finishing adjustments that
| | 00:08 |
you can apply to the photo.
I'll go ahead and scroll down on the
| | 00:13 |
right panel in HDR Efex Pro, to the
finishing adjustment sections.
| | 00:18 |
And here we have options for a vignette
and for levels and curves.
| | 00:21 |
I will start off with vignette.
I will click the pop up here, and you can
| | 00:25 |
see we have a variety of options
available to us, I could create a black
| | 00:28 |
frame for example.
Or I can use a lens vignette with a
| | 00:32 |
variety of different options there, but I
can also customize the details for that vignette.
| | 00:38 |
I'll click the button to expand the
details section, and we can define a
| | 00:41 |
specific center of the image.
So, I can click on this tool, and then
| | 00:45 |
click within the image to define exactly
which point I want to be the center.
| | 00:49 |
So if I want the vingette to be centered
around the sun burst for example or at
| | 00:53 |
the horizon, I can do that simply by
clicking directly on the image.
| | 00:58 |
I can then adjust the amount for the
vingette, a positive amount will lighten
| | 01:01 |
the edges and a negative amount will
darken the edges.
| | 01:05 |
And obviously the stronger the value, the
stronger the effect.
| | 01:08 |
The transition is essentially a
feathering.
| | 01:10 |
How smooth do you want that transition to
be between areas being affected, either
| | 01:14 |
darkened or lightened and areas being
left alone.
| | 01:18 |
We can also adjust the size of the
effect.
| | 01:20 |
So if I reduce the size for example,
we'll only see the darkening or
| | 01:23 |
lightening effect around the very edges
of the photo.
| | 01:27 |
And if I increase the size that will move
further into the center of the image.
| | 01:31 |
And we can also define the overall shape.
Do we want more of a circular shape or
| | 01:35 |
more of a rectangular shape.
I'll go ahead and make the amount a
| | 01:38 |
little bit more exaggerated.
I'll reduce the size and then I'll move
| | 01:41 |
closer to circle, and rectangle so that
you can get a better sense of that effect.
| | 01:46 |
So, something that's more circular, going
around in an oval shape for example, or
| | 01:50 |
more of a rectangular effect.
So we're just getting the outer edges of
| | 01:54 |
the image affected.
I'll bring my amount back up now and that
| | 01:58 |
gives us an interesting vignette effect,
that's working pretty well.
| | 02:02 |
I can also adjust overall brightness and
contrast with a Levels and Curves adjustment.
| | 02:07 |
I'll go ahead and expand the details
section so that we can see the options
| | 02:10 |
that are available, but we can work
directly from the pop up.
| | 02:14 |
So if we're looking for a contrast effect
for example, or if we're looking for more
| | 02:18 |
of a vintage effect, we can achieve those
just by choosing an option from the pop up.
| | 02:23 |
But we can also fine tune the curve
itself.
| | 02:25 |
So I can brighten up the shadow areas by
moving the curve on the left end, the
| | 02:29 |
black end upward.
Or darken the shadows by moving the left
| | 02:33 |
end of the curve downward.
And the right end of the curve I can
| | 02:37 |
brighten or darken the highlights.
If the curve gets more steep, for
| | 02:40 |
example, you can see in the center here,
we've got a curve that is more steep than
| | 02:43 |
a straight line going from the bottom
left corner to the top right corner, then
| | 02:46 |
that means we have more contrast.
So if I were to brighten up the shadows
| | 02:52 |
and darken up the highlights, for
example, you'll see a result that has
| | 02:55 |
much less contrast.
Where as if I brighten up the brighter
| | 02:58 |
values, the highlights, and then darken
up the shadows, you'll see that we get
| | 03:02 |
more contrast.
So you can fine tune that curve.
| | 03:06 |
But in many cases, I think you'll find
that simply choosing an option from the
| | 03:09 |
popup will give you a very good starting
point, and actually might be all you need
| | 03:12 |
as far as that Levels and Curves
adjustment.
| | 03:16 |
But these finishing adjustments can
really help you add a little bit more
| | 03:19 |
impact to your HDR image before you
finalize the process.
| | 03:23 |
And once you are finished with processing
your HDR image, you can simply click the
| | 03:27 |
Save button.
In this case, I had started from
| | 03:31 |
Lightroom to create an HDR image using
HDR Efex Pro.
| | 03:35 |
So when I click the Save button, this
version of the image will automatically
| | 03:39 |
be saved and added to my Lightroom
catalog.
| | 03:43 |
So you can see I have the final version
of my HDR image which was assembled by
| | 03:47 |
HDR Effects Pro, starting from Lightroom,
sending the images over to HDR Effects Pro.
| | 03:53 |
Processing to fine tune the image, and
then the result is saved automatically in
| | 03:57 |
my Lightroom catalog.
So I can continue managing this image,
| | 04:01 |
optimizing this image, and sharing this
photo in a variety of different ways,
| | 04:06 |
directly within Lightroom.
| | 04:10 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Using PhotomatixUsing Photomatix from Lightroom| 00:02 |
When it comes to assembling the
individual frames to produce a high
| | 00:05 |
dynamic range image, I consider
Photomatix from HDR Soft to be one of the
| | 00:08 |
best tools available.
And Photomatix is available for use with
| | 00:12 |
a variety of imaging applications, in
addition to being available as a stand
| | 00:16 |
alone application.
In this case, I'll be using Lightroom as
| | 00:20 |
the basis of my Photomatix workflow.
I have a series of images here that I
| | 00:24 |
would like to assemble.
And so, I am going to click on the first
| | 00:27 |
image on the film strip, and then hold
the Shift key and click on the last image
| | 00:30 |
on the film strip.
And that will select all of those images
| | 00:34 |
so that I can assemble them with
Photomatix.
| | 00:37 |
I'll then go to the File menu and choose
Export With Preset followed by Photomatix Pro.
| | 00:43 |
That will bring up a dialog, where we can
establish the settings that we want to
| | 00:46 |
use with Photomatix.
First off, we want to make sure to have
| | 00:50 |
the Align Images checkbox turned on, even
if it doesn't seem there was any movement
| | 00:54 |
whatsoever in the scene.
It's best to have those images
| | 00:58 |
automatically alligned to ensure the best
results.
| | 01:01 |
I also prefer to turn on the Crop Aligned
Result checkbox, so that the resulting
| | 01:04 |
image will automatically be cropped.
You also have the option of how you want
| | 01:09 |
that alignment to be performed.
And you can see here I have the By
| | 01:13 |
Correcting Horizontal and Vertical Shifts
option selected.
| | 01:17 |
And that's generally the best approach
provided the images were all captured
| | 01:20 |
from the same exact location.
If you have any issues where perspective
| | 01:24 |
might have been a problem, then you can
choose the By Matching Features option.
| | 01:28 |
And in that case, I do recommend having
the Include Perspective Correction
| | 01:32 |
checkbox turned on.
But in this case, the images were
| | 01:35 |
captured on a tripod, there should have
been no movement whatsoever.
| | 01:38 |
So I'll leave that first Option selected.
I'll also want to turn on the Reduced
| | 01:43 |
Ghosting Artifacts checkbox.
In this particular situation, there
| | 01:46 |
didn't seem to be anything in the scene
moving.
| | 01:49 |
But I want to make sure that if there was
any movement, it will be corrected for automatically.
| | 01:54 |
So I'll turn on that checkbox, and then
I'll choose the Width Selective
| | 01:58 |
Deghosting tool.
This allows me to identify specific areas
| | 02:02 |
within the image where I think ghosting
might be possible.
| | 02:05 |
And we'll see that Option momentarily.
When I'm assembling images from
| | 02:08 |
Lightroom, I typically do not use the
Reduce Noise option, because instead, I
| | 02:12 |
will have applied some noise reduction
within Lightroom's develop module.
| | 02:17 |
But if you were using a different tool,
for example, you could turn on the Reduce
| | 02:20 |
Noise checkbox.
And then specify whether you want to
| | 02:24 |
process all images, only those with a
normal or under exposure, or only the
| | 02:27 |
under-exposed images.
Generally speaking you'll see the most
| | 02:31 |
significant noise with underexposed
images.
| | 02:34 |
And so I would use that Option at a bare
minimum, even if you were shooting at a
| | 02:38 |
100 ISO setting.
If you're shooting at a higher ISO
| | 02:41 |
setting of course, you might want to use
the All Source Images option as well.
| | 02:45 |
But in this case I'll turn off Reduce
Noise because these images were captured
| | 02:49 |
at a 100 ISO setting, which is the
minimum for the camera that was being used.
| | 02:53 |
And I've applied a little bit of Noise
Reduction within Lightroom.
| | 02:57 |
I will however turn on the Reduce
Chromatic Aberrations checkbox because in
| | 03:00 |
this case, I did not apply Chromatic
Aberration Correction to the images in Lightroom.
| | 03:05 |
This will apply automatically in order to
remove colored halos along high contrast
| | 03:09 |
edges in the scene.
We also have the option to view the
| | 03:14 |
intermediary 32-bit HDR image.
This is usually not terribly useful for
| | 03:18 |
normal purposes and so I leave that
checkbox turned on.
| | 03:22 |
The 32-bit HDR image is not going to have
what we consider a normal tonal range,
| | 03:26 |
and so previewing that does not help in
most situations.
| | 03:32 |
If you're an advanced user though, of
course, you might want to take advantage
| | 03:34 |
of that option.
Once processing is complete, I want the
| | 03:38 |
HDR image to automatically be brought
into Lightroom catalog.
| | 03:42 |
So, I'll leave this first checkbox turned
on to automatically re-import.
| | 03:46 |
And I'll also keep the next checkbox
turned on, which will cause the resulting
| | 03:50 |
HDR image to be included in a stack with
the first image that is selected in this
| | 03:53 |
range that we're assembling.
We can also adjust the file name.
| | 03:59 |
In this case, I'll just change the
portico name to include the term HDR on
| | 04:02 |
the end of it.
So I'll go ahead and select this latter
| | 04:06 |
portion of the file name and type HDR,
and I'll use as my output format the TIFF
| | 04:10 |
file format with 16 bits per channel.
With those settings established, I'll go
| | 04:16 |
ahead and click the Export button.
Lightroom will then process all of the
| | 04:20 |
images that I've selected, and send them
to Photomatix.
| | 04:23 |
Photomatix will then come to the
forefront, and we'll be able to fine tune
| | 04:27 |
the settings for our HDR capture.
An intermediate step that we'll need to
| | 04:38 |
deal with is to deghost the image, and
you'll recall that I chose the Selective
| | 04:42 |
Deghosting option.
This allows me to specify particular
| | 04:46 |
areas of the image where I think ghosting
might be a problem.
| | 04:49 |
Sometimes that's obvious.
For example, if you had foliage in the
| | 04:51 |
scene and it was a little bit breezy,
then you'll be able to see some ghosting
| | 04:54 |
of the leaves on that foliage.
Here, you might assume that since there
| | 04:58 |
were no moving objects in the scene, that
there should be no ghosting at all.
| | 05:02 |
There are statues in the background and
some buildings, there's obviously a
| | 05:05 |
building over our head here.
And yet there actually is a little bit of
| | 05:09 |
blurring in this image.
You might notice that the lamp here does
| | 05:12 |
not appear entirely sharp, and that's
because we have a little bit of a blur, a
| | 05:15 |
little bit of a ghosting.
I'll go ahead and zoom in, and we'll be
| | 05:19 |
able to see very clearly that there is a
little bit of a ghosting.
| | 05:23 |
We have some redundancy in the lamp here.
You can see a little bit of a halo
| | 05:26 |
affect, essentially.
And in this case the lamp is hanging, and
| | 05:29 |
so obviously there was just a little bit
of movement back and forth, during the
| | 05:32 |
individual captures.
I've turned on the Quick Selection mode,
| | 05:36 |
and that means that I can simply identify
areas of the photo where I think ghosting
| | 05:39 |
might exist.
And they will automatically be marked as
| | 05:43 |
ghosted areas, and that way Photomatix
will be able to process those areas that
| | 05:47 |
I've specified.
So I'll go ahead and Click and Drag on
| | 05:50 |
the image in order to draw a Marquee
around the area where that ghosting may occur.
| | 05:56 |
It is now automatically marked as a
ghosted area.
| | 05:59 |
I can click the Preview button to see a
preview of that deghosting effect.
| | 06:04 |
And you can see that we have a much
sharper version of that area.
| | 06:07 |
I can then switch back to the selection
mode and zoom out as needed, and review
| | 06:10 |
other areas of the image for example.
But in this case, I think that's the only
| | 06:14 |
portion of the image that exhibits any
ghosting.
| | 06:18 |
So I'll go ahead and click the OK button.
Once Photomatix has finished processing
| | 06:26 |
the image, it will bring up the initial
HDR result.
| | 06:29 |
I can then apply a variety of different
adjustments, and then simply click the
| | 06:33 |
Save and Reimport button.
And this image will be processed into the
| | 06:37 |
final HDR result, and the image will then
be included in my Lightroom catalog so
| | 06:40 |
that I can continue managing it there,
optimizing it, and of course, sharing it
| | 06:44 |
with others.
| | 06:46 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using presets| 00:00 |
Photomatix is a very sophisticated
application.
| | 00:02 |
And so you might feel a little bit
intimidated at all of the options that
| | 00:06 |
are available.
But getting started with Photomatix is
| | 00:10 |
remarkably easy, because there are
variety of presets that are included with
| | 00:14 |
the application by default.
You can use the Preset popup over on the
| | 00:19 |
left side.
But they aren't an entire collection of
| | 00:22 |
presets available there.
So instead, I recommend using the preset thumbnails.
| | 00:27 |
If you go to the View menu you can make
sure that the Preset Thumbnails are
| | 00:30 |
enabled by making sure the View Preset
Thumbnails option is turned on.
| | 00:35 |
You can see that I have the presets over
here on the right side.
| | 00:38 |
And so I can click on the first preset
for example that's the Default preset.
| | 00:42 |
And then use the Arrow keys to navigate
among the various options.
| | 00:45 |
And each of them will have their own
strengths and weaknesses.
| | 00:48 |
And certain ones will work better for
certain images, and certain of them will
| | 00:51 |
simply appeal to you personally more.
And so it can be a good idea to go
| | 00:55 |
through most, if not all, of the presets
to get a better sense of what your
| | 00:59 |
options are.
For example with this image, I think that
| | 01:03 |
one of the Smooth Effects, specifically
Smooth number 2.
| | 01:07 |
Is a little bit interesting, it has a
nice surreal look to it.
| | 01:10 |
There's a little bit of a warm glow,
there's not too much detail or texture.
| | 01:14 |
So that I think is one possibility for
this particular photo.
| | 01:17 |
I think Monochrome is also somewhat
interesting.
| | 01:20 |
But again it's a good idea to scroll
through all of the thumbnails here to see
| | 01:24 |
which presets might work for a particular
image.
| | 01:27 |
And of course which particular presets
suit your feelings about a particular photo.
| | 01:33 |
This one seems like a reasonably good
starting point for example.
| | 01:36 |
It's a little bit too contrasty I think,
and maybe the colors are a little bit too vibrant.
| | 01:41 |
But it is I think one of the options that
I might consider.
| | 01:45 |
I also think that some of the painterly
options here might be interesting.
| | 01:49 |
I need to find one that's not too strong
from the start.
| | 01:52 |
You can see that each of these various
Painterly options has a little bit of a
| | 01:56 |
different look to it.
But I think that overall, if I had to
| | 01:59 |
choose one, that Painterly 4 is probably
the candidate that's most interesting to me.
| | 02:05 |
I really like this texture up in the
ceiling of the portico for example.
| | 02:09 |
I think the buildings look nice.
I might want to fine tune the lamp and
| | 02:12 |
the sky in the background for example.
But overall this is a good starting point
| | 02:16 |
and I could stop right here if I wanted
to.
| | 02:19 |
I could simply click the Save and
Re-import button and process the image
| | 02:22 |
just as it is with this preset.
Or I can could continue fine tuning all
| | 02:26 |
of the various options.
And if I do fine-tune all of the various
| | 02:30 |
settings to adjust this HDR image.
I can save those settings as a preset,
| | 02:35 |
that I can use again in the future.
I'll go ahead and click the Presets
| | 02:40 |
popup, and I could choose Save Preset,
and then enter a name for that preset.
| | 02:45 |
So, for example, I might call this Tim
Grey, since this is my preset.
| | 02:49 |
And I'll call it Painterly Starting
point, because this is a starting point
| | 02:53 |
for a sort of painterly effect that I
might want to apply toward other images.
| | 02:59 |
I'll go ahead and click the Save button
and then that preset is available to me.
| | 03:03 |
I can go to the My Presets tab here on
the presets popup and that will allow me
| | 03:07 |
to access those settings very, very
quickly.
| | 03:11 |
So as you can see, using presets can make
Photomatix very, very approachable.
| | 03:16 |
And provides you with a quick and easy
way to apply an interesting effect, to
| | 03:19 |
any HDR image.
| | 03:21 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Basic adjustments| 00:02 |
When working with Photomatics to proces
your high dynamic range images.
| | 00:06 |
You'll likely find that in many cases
using one of the presets will give you a
| | 00:09 |
very good starting point.
But you'll very likely then want to fine
| | 00:13 |
tune the overall image and you can get
started with that processing using the
| | 00:17 |
basic adjustments that are available.
The first decision that you'll want to
| | 00:23 |
make is whether you want to apply Tone
Mapping or an Exposure Fusion.
| | 00:27 |
The Exposure Fusion option will allow you
to blend multiple exposures essentially
| | 00:31 |
fusing different areas together.
But generally you'll want to use the Tone
| | 00:35 |
Mapping option.
This is the more typical HDR effect where
| | 00:39 |
we're essentially remapping the tonal
values from the original exposures into a
| | 00:43 |
single image.
You can then choose the method that you
| | 00:48 |
want to use.
The tone compressor will literally
| | 00:51 |
compress all of the tones into a single
dynamic range that can be presented in a
| | 00:54 |
photographic image.
In most cases, that's going to produce a
| | 00:58 |
little bit more realistic effect.
And an image that you won't necessarily
| | 01:02 |
have quite as much detail in.
So, in most cases, I use the Details
| | 01:07 |
Enhancer option.
Keep in mind, of course, that much of
| | 01:10 |
this effect can be fine tuned, so really
you're just establishing the starting point.
| | 01:14 |
The Strength slider determines how much
detail enhancement is going to be applied.
| | 01:19 |
With a high setting, here I have the
maximum value for example.
| | 01:22 |
You'll see a tremendous amount of detail
in the image, and a fair amount of
| | 01:25 |
contrast as well.
If you move that slider to the left,
| | 01:29 |
you'll see much less detail and texture
within the photo.
| | 01:32 |
And a little bit more of a natural
appearance in the image.
| | 01:35 |
The default value in Photomatix is 70, so
that's usually a reasonably good starting point.
| | 01:41 |
But keep in mind that all of the settings
that you use here in Photomatix build
| | 01:44 |
upon each other.
So, you'll get different results
| | 01:47 |
depending on what all the other settings
are established at.
| | 01:51 |
I encourage you to go back and forth,
therefore, between all the individual adjustments.
| | 01:55 |
Until you find just the right settings
for the image you're working on.
| | 01:59 |
For this particular photo, I'd like a
relatively high degree of detail.
| | 02:02 |
I like some contrast in this particular
scene.
| | 02:05 |
And so I'm going to leave the strength up at
the maximum value of 100.
| | 02:10 |
The Color Saturation option, of course,
allows you to intensify or tone down the
| | 02:14 |
colors in the photo.
A high value gives you very vibrant
| | 02:17 |
colors, where a low value gives you very
muted colors.
| | 02:21 |
All the way down to essentially a black
and white interpretation of the photo.
| | 02:25 |
For this image, I think a little bit of
vibrancy in those colors will be nice.
| | 02:29 |
The portico ceiling here is mostly
greyscale.
| | 02:32 |
There's not a lot of color going on
there.
| | 02:34 |
We have a little bit of warm tone in the
walls, in places.
| | 02:37 |
But the color in the background is rather
vibrant.
| | 02:40 |
And I'd like to intensify that just a
little bit.
| | 02:41 |
So, I'm going to use a relatively high
saturation level.
| | 02:45 |
The Luminosity slider affects the
compression of the overall tonal range
| | 02:49 |
within the image.
As a result, it has a fairly significant
| | 02:52 |
impact on the overall luminescence levels
on the photo.
| | 02:57 |
In this case I think I'd like to brighten
things up just a little bit so I'll use a
| | 03:00 |
relatively high luminosity value.
But you can of course fine tune based on
| | 03:04 |
the desired effect within the photo.
Next we have the Detailed Contrast slider.
| | 03:09 |
And I think of this as something like
sharpening.
| | 03:12 |
The higher the detail contrast, the more
detail you'll be able to see within the image.
| | 03:17 |
It will stand out a little better.
Whereas with a lower setting, you won't
| | 03:20 |
have as much contrast and so overall
textures will appear a little bit smoother.
| | 03:25 |
Here, I think I'm going to increase
contrast just because it really helps to
| | 03:28 |
enhance some of the texture especially in
the ceiling here.
| | 03:31 |
So, I'll use a relatively high value
there.
| | 03:34 |
And then finally we can take a look at
the lighting adjustments.
| | 03:37 |
And essentially this is allowing us to
decide whether we want a relatively
| | 03:41 |
natural appearance or a more Surreal
effect.
| | 03:45 |
Here, you can see, for example, the play
of light within the photo, making it look
| | 03:48 |
a little bit more dreamlike.
So, a value over toward the left, a
| | 03:52 |
negative value will have a little bit
more realistic look to it.
| | 03:56 |
Whereas a value to the right, a higher
value, will have a little bit more of
| | 03:59 |
that play of light and shadows type of
effect.
| | 04:02 |
We can also turn on the Lighting Effects
check box if we want to apply essentially
| | 04:06 |
some preset lighting effects.
The Natural options will be, as the name
| | 04:10 |
implies, a little bit more natural and
Surreal will usually be a little bit more intense.
| | 04:15 |
Again, depending on the particular tonal
values and contrast ratios within the image.
| | 04:19 |
And Medium, of course, gives us somewhere
in between.
| | 04:22 |
It's a balance between both of those
lighting options.
| | 04:25 |
But in most cases I leave the lighting
effects option turned off.
| | 04:28 |
And then I'll fine tune the overall
effect with the Lighting Adjustment slider.
| | 04:33 |
Here I think I'll keep the setting at a
relatively low value.
| | 04:36 |
Maybe in the minimum value here because I
don't really want to have that play of
| | 04:39 |
light going on.
I like the texture that's showing up
| | 04:41 |
based on the adjustments that I've
already applied.
| | 04:45 |
So, you can see those basic adjustments
give you quite a bit of control over your image.
| | 04:49 |
You're able to fine tune the overall
luminance the overall contrast, the
| | 04:53 |
detail and the color intensity with just
a few slider movements.
| | 04:57 |
So, you can really get your image looking
very, very nice with a minimal amount of effort.
| | 05:02 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| More options| 00:02 |
Once you've applied the basic adjustments
for your HDR image in Photomatix, you
| | 00:05 |
might want to take a look at the More
Options.
| | 00:09 |
If you click on the Show More Options
button, a set of additional options will expand.
| | 00:13 |
You can then scroll down as needed to
view those individual adjustments.
| | 00:17 |
Let's take a look at what these options
have to offer.
| | 00:20 |
First is Smooth Highlights, and this
allows us to reduce the degree of
| | 00:24 |
contrast in highlight areas of the image.
So, as I increase this value, you'll
| | 00:29 |
notice that the brightest areas get
smoother.
| | 00:31 |
That doesn't necessarily mean they'll
have more detail you can see for example,
| | 00:34 |
that I've lost a little bit of detail in
the clouds.
| | 00:37 |
But they won't have quite as much of that
dramatic lighting effect.
| | 00:40 |
So, with the Smooth Highlights down at
zero for example, the clouds look a bit
| | 00:44 |
artificial here.
Whereas if I increase that value, things
| | 00:47 |
smooth out in those highlights.
In this case, of course, that looks a lot
| | 00:51 |
better I think.
We can also adjust the white point for
| | 00:54 |
the image so we can bring the white point
downward if we don't want to lose quite
| | 00:57 |
as much detail in those highlights.
In this case, looking at the histogram,
| | 01:02 |
you can see that I still have quite a bit
of highlight detail that's been lost.
| | 01:05 |
Even though I've already reduced that
white point a bit.
| | 01:08 |
So, I might want to pull that down a
little bit further in order to retain detail.
| | 01:12 |
In this case, particularly in the clouds.
I can also adjust the black point.
| | 01:16 |
So, I can darken that black point or
brighten it up a little bit, essentially
| | 01:20 |
determining how much detail I want to see
in those blacks.
| | 01:24 |
Whether I want to create, for example, a
silhouette effect or perhaps darken up
| | 01:28 |
the shadows just for intensity or drama.
In this case, I'd like to have a little
| | 01:32 |
bit more of a black point in the image.
I haven't clipped any details with the
| | 01:36 |
current setting.
You can see the histogram is not clipped.
| | 01:39 |
So, I might increase that black point in
order to get a better distribution of
| | 01:43 |
total values within the photo.
I can then take a look at the Gamma
| | 01:48 |
slider, and the Gamma slider is,
essentially, a mid-tone adjustment.
| | 01:52 |
So, I can adjust the overall brightness
of the mid-tones within the image, which
| | 01:56 |
will have an affect on the perceived
contrast in the photo as well.
| | 02:00 |
In this case, I think I'll darken the
image down just a little bit with that
| | 02:03 |
Gamma slider in order to produce a little
bit more dramatic effect.
| | 02:08 |
And then finally, we have the Temperature
slider.
| | 02:10 |
And here, we can drag the slider to the
right to warm up the image or to the left
| | 02:13 |
to cool down the image.
I'll go ahead and increase the warmth
| | 02:17 |
just a little bit by going into the
positive range there.
| | 02:20 |
There's already some nice warm tones in
this particular image, and I'd like to
| | 02:23 |
enhance those just a little bit.
So, just a minor increase in the
| | 02:27 |
temperature to warm up the image to make
it appear just a little bit more yellow I
| | 02:31 |
think will produce a nice result.
So, as you can see, the more options
| | 02:36 |
section here really contains some very
important adjustments that you'll likely
| | 02:41 |
want to a look at for just about every
image you process with Photomatix.
| | 02:47 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Advanced options| 00:02 |
Some of the more significant fine-tuning
adjustments for HDR images in Photomatix
| | 00:06 |
are found in the Advanced options.
Over on the left panel, you'll notice
| | 00:10 |
there's a Show Advanced Options button.
If you click that button, you'll expand
| | 00:14 |
the Advanced options.
You can then scroll down as needed to
| | 00:17 |
view the various sliders that are
available here.
| | 00:21 |
The first option is Micro-smoothing and
this allows us to reduce contrast in very
| | 00:25 |
fine detail areas of the image.
In other words, where the transition from
| | 00:29 |
a light to a dark area happens across a
very small number of pixels.
| | 00:33 |
So as I Increase Micro-smoothing, you'll
notice that a lot of the finer detail in
| | 00:37 |
the image disappears, essentially
creating a smoother appearance.
| | 00:42 |
This can be great for smoothing out the
sky for example.
| | 00:45 |
And in fact can be very nice in
situations where you want a smoother
| | 00:48 |
appearance in the photo.
You can see the ceiling of the Portico
| | 00:51 |
here, looks quite a bit smoother with a
higher Micro-smoothing Adjustment.
| | 00:56 |
I think in this case I prefer to have
more detail there so I'm going to use a
| | 00:59 |
low setting for micro-smoothing so that
we get quite a bit of detail in that Portico.
| | 01:04 |
I think that texture is very nice.
We can also adjust the Saturation levels
| | 01:09 |
independently for the highlights and the
shadows.
| | 01:12 |
In this case, we don't have tremendous
amount of color in the highlights.
| | 01:15 |
And so, increasing the saturation
highlights values is not going to have a
| | 01:18 |
huge effect in the image.
You can see some portions of the
| | 01:21 |
buildings in the background certainly get
more vibrant.
| | 01:24 |
But most of the areas in the ceiling
here are more of a midtone value.
| | 01:28 |
And there's not much color there, to
begin with.
| | 01:31 |
So we're not going to have huge effect
for saturation highlights, other than the
| | 01:34 |
brighter areas of the buildings in the
background.
| | 01:37 |
In this case I'll leave that value at a
relatively high setting, because I really
| | 01:40 |
like the color in those buildings.
We can also adjust the saturation for shadows.
| | 01:45 |
So I'll increase saturation for shadows,
and then reduce it.
| | 01:49 |
And you'll see that for the most part in
this image, there's not a lot of color in
| | 01:52 |
shadows, and that' actually relatively
common.
| | 01:55 |
Usually when there's not a lot of light
in an area, you're not going to see a lot
| | 01:58 |
of color.
And sometimes you'll actually want to
| | 02:01 |
reduce color.
For examples, if the shadows, appear a
| | 02:03 |
little too blue.
In other cases you might want to
| | 02:05 |
accentuate the color in the shadows.
Here about the only area that's really
| | 02:10 |
getting any effect is the darker areas of
the lamp and some of the darker portions
| | 02:13 |
of this column here.
And so I think I'll use a relatively high
| | 02:17 |
setting for Saturation Shadows just to
bring out some of those colors.
| | 02:21 |
Next we have a Shadow Smoothness slider.
This is somewhat similar to
| | 02:25 |
Micro-smoothing, it's just specifically
focused on shadow areas.
| | 02:29 |
So if I increase this value, you'll
notice that we get less contrast in the
| | 02:33 |
shadow areas of the photo, that evens out
the overall tonality.
| | 02:38 |
In this case, it means that we're not
really accentuating those textures that I
| | 02:41 |
like and so I'll use a relatively low
setting for this particular image for
| | 02:44 |
Shadows Smoothness.
And the final slider is Shadows Clipping.
| | 02:49 |
In effect, you can think of this as a
silhouette maker.
| | 02:53 |
It will block up detail in the shadows.
The only time I would typically do this
| | 02:57 |
is if I'm trying to create a silhouette.
Or if I want an especially dramatic image.
| | 03:01 |
Or if there's a lot of noise in the
shadows and I am trying to essentially
| | 03:04 |
cover it up.
But in most cases I'll leave that
| | 03:07 |
clipping set to the default value of 0.
We also have a Check box for a 360 degree image.
| | 03:14 |
If you're working on a 360 degree
panorama, you would want to turn this
| | 03:17 |
option on to avoid any blending across
the seam of that panorama.
| | 03:22 |
But obviously, that's a specialized
situation.
| | 03:24 |
But overall, these advanced options can
really be very helpful in order to
| | 03:28 |
improve the fine details.
Mostly those shadow details, in this
| | 03:32 |
case, but some of the very fine details,
as far as texture in the image, and
| | 03:36 |
specific controls of color.
So some very helpful features indeed.
| | 03:41 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Finalizing the image| 00:02 |
Once you've established the settings
you're happy with for a particular HDR
| | 00:05 |
image in Photomatix, you're ready to
finalize the result.
| | 00:09 |
In this case, I was using Lightroom as
the basis of my image processing.
| | 00:13 |
I've selected the images in Lightroom,
and then used the Export with Preset
| | 00:16 |
option to send those images automatically
over to Photomatix.
| | 00:21 |
I then established all the settings that
I felt were appropriate for the image as
| | 00:24 |
I wanted to interpret it, and now I'm
ready to finalize the result.
| | 00:29 |
So I'll go ahead and Click the Save and
Re-import button.
| | 00:32 |
That will cause Photomatix to process the
image and assemble the final result.
| | 00:38 |
Once that processing is complete, the
image will be added to my Lightroom
| | 00:41 |
catalog, and it will be added in a stack
with the images that I selected to create
| | 00:45 |
the HDR in the first place.
I'll go ahead now and select that image.
| | 00:51 |
And now you can see that this final image
has been added to my Lightroom catalog.
| | 00:55 |
So now I can continue to manage this
image.
| | 00:58 |
Adding keywords, for example, or star
ratings, or other metadata.
| | 01:02 |
I can continue optimizing this image with
additional adjustments in the Develop module.
| | 01:06 |
And of course, I can also share the image
in a wide variety of ways using the
| | 01:09 |
various features available in Lightroom.
What that translates to is essentially
| | 01:13 |
the best of both worlds.
I'm able to manage and optimize and share
| | 01:17 |
all of my images directly within
Lightroom and yet take advantage of the
| | 01:20 |
powerful features of Photomatix to create
high quality HDR images.
| | 01:25 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
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