HDR and post - Lightroom Tutorial

- [Instructor] All right so I'm in the Library Module. If I were in Development, remember again, to get back to Library I could either hit the Library tab which would take me back here. And that's perfect for this next part, which is HDR or High Dynamic Range. Which you would think would be in the Develop Module but that's actually in the Library Module and that's what the Library Module is all about, is doing things with multiple images. So let me just give you an overview So as I did before, you can see the image here but I want you to see more of it so I'm going to get rid of the panel on the left and now you can see it full frame. So with this image, I've underexposed it and the benefit of underexposing it is that is gets all of the detail in the bright sky. With the next image it's a little more neutral. This is probably close to what the camera suggested. Looks a tiny bit dark to me. Maybe it's a stop underexposed. With this next one, this one's interesting. I think this is exactly what the camera's meter suggested The problem with this image is So this is a common problem with HDR. You're merging different images. It's opened all of that up. with a lot of detail in the shadows and the highlights. Now not all images need this but certainly an image like this does. I think that an HDR capture done correctly just looks like a great exposure. Okay, so I'm going to hit G to get my Grid View and I'm just going to multi select these files. I'm going to hit Shift to select them all and there's a couple different ways to do our merge here. One of those is to come up to Photo, Photo Merge, HDR. The other and faster way is to just right click or context click on one of those images or context click on one of those images and, as you see, we have a lot of different options and one of those is HDR. Now it used to be that you went over to Photoshop Now it used to be that you went over to Photoshop to do this and that was a little slower, different output. The real benefit to doing it here, not only do I not have to leave Lightroom, but what I'm left with is a true raw file. We're going to merge these files and we're going to be left with a raw file that we can continue editing in the Develop Module. So a couple of things that you almost certainly want to have on, Auto Align and Auto Tone. Without Auto Tone, you're going to have to do all the work. With Auto Tone, it's going to make it's first guess. Deghosting, you might notice there is no person in here, there are no birdS in here. If that were set to None, here's the guy, here's his legs and his back, here's his head and his backpack, here's the bird. So with an image like that, you're going to want to override it So with an image like that, you're going to want to override it OR change it and get a different idea of the image. It does such a nice job, I have yet to see this fail. You could be throwing a ball, you could have a plane moving through the sky, you could have grass moving around. I find that almost every HDR landscape I find that almost every HDR landscape has some moving content and this is a great way to get rid of it. So at the point, IF I like What I see. So at the point, IF I like What I see. I'm going to click Merge. It's going to take just a moment because it's combining four full-resolution images because it's combining four full-resolution images and it's building another one. and it's building another one. And you'll see we'Ve got our dark image, slightly lighter, slightly lighter, slightly lighter, and then at the end, here's the one that we made of all of them. Now right out of the gates, it looks so much better. Now right out of the gates, it looks so much better. It looks better than any of those images. It looks balanced and, what I love about it, is it doesn't look like an eye bleeding, candy colored, HDR. The HDR has kind of gotten a bad rap. A lot of the time it doesn't look great. I'll tell you guys something. A lot of the time when you see an HDR that has a lot A lot of the time when you see an HDR that has a lot of excessive colors and excessive editing, it's to camouflage the ghosts that are in the image. That fringing. But by using the deghosting that we just used we're able to avoid that. we're able to avoid that. So I really like the image here but let's go into the Develop Module with this. I'm going to hit D and remember this is a raw file. The merge is a raw file so I can do all the stuff The merge is a raw file so I can do all the stuff that I love to do with a normal file. that I love to do with a normal file. When we hit Auto Tone back there in the dialogue, When we hit Auto Tone back there in the dialogue, it took care of all these tonal adjustments for me. it took care of all these tonal adjustments for me. If I want to take it even further, If I want to take it even further, I can of course do that myself. I can of course do that myself. So, if I want to make it crazy, candy HDR, So, if I want to make it crazy, candy HDR, I can use Clarity or I can use it just a little bit. I can use Clarity or I can use it just a little bit. If it's important to me that I have a little bit more If it's important to me that I have a little bit more of the highlight detail, and you can see it's already at minus 100, I can pull the exposure down little bit. at minus 100, I can pull the exposure down little bit. And in fact what I'll often do is I'll pull that down and then maybe I'll bump the Shadows up a little bit. and then maybe I'll bump the Shadows up a little bit. So that actually looks much, much better there. If we look at that, before and after, night and day, If we look at that, before and after, night and day, toned versus untoned. HDR's really easy and what you're left with is just the same as what we went through before, which is using your basic adjustments there to adjust tonality and of course it's a raw file. You could adjust temperature or anything else in the image as well. Remember, if you put Auto Tone on when you're in the dialogue, when you're in the dialogue, it's going to save you a ton of work once you come out of it. Any of these changes are just going to be minor additions, minor tweaks to the image. So hopefully this changes your perception of what HDR is and you realize that it's really easy to do that. So on the capture side, if you want to take HDR images, So on the capture side, if you want to take HDR images, just take at least three, underexposed one, overexposed one, shoot one somewhere in the middle, and if you have a really broad dynamic range like I do here, maybe consider shooting four or, in some cases, even five images. There is a point where it just becomes too much. I'd say four is more than enough for most cases. So have fun with HDR. I know I'm having a blast with it.