The Future of HDR – III

Blue Mountain

©Joe Bridwell

The direct sunset already gave a splendid HDR ~ two planes crossed above the clouds. But, simply by turning south, the sky was in half tones. The almost shimmering distant mountain reminds one of scenes in the movie Cold Mountain.

HDR (high dynamic range) Has Been on My Mind Lately...

There's controversy over how your workflow should go when you put together an HDR image. There are different amounts of EV range to capture, there's the choice of which photos to use for the best 32-bit HDR image, there's the choice of which software to use to create that 32-bit image, and, then there is the choice of how you tone map for the final image to please your emotional palette.

You ask, "Well, isn't there one simple way?"

Not really; for various reasons, neither your eye nor your camera can see the full range of color available. While it's clear the camera doesn't have the range of your eye, there are some questions about what your brain automatically does to a scene before/as it stores it in your memory. Without getting into all the biophysical reasons for that statement, let's just discuss limitations from software's viewpoint.

HDR Approaches

Let me take three photographers, John Doogan, Matt Kloskowski, and Tom Till, and highlight differences in their HDR approaches.

Doogan (Fellow New Zealand Institute of Professional Photographers and Adobe Ambassador) uses Lightroom 2 and CS4. John selects images in Lightroom, performs emerge to HDR, then tone maps in CS4. John addresses some of the subtleties an HDR image can capture while showing advanced workflow in CS4. Some of his efforts suggest other intriguing ways one may think of additional steps to really enhance the tone map image. John’s example shows an EV range of -2.64, 0, +2.64 (Calculated by CS4).

Kloskowski (NAPP) uses Photomatix Pro. Matt selects images in Lightroom, uses the Lightroom/Photomatix plug-in to create the 32-bit image, then tone maps in Capture NX2. Photomatix converts the 32-bit to the 16 bit image. Matt will do a little bit of correction in Lightroom but prefers capture NX2 for his final tone mapping. Matt shot 5 images, then just used -2, 0, +2. I think Matt is a bit overzealous when he decries, "Everybody uses Photomatix..."

Till (Till Galleries, Moab) has only recently begun HDR and promises more discussions on his presently in frequent blog. Tom prefers 0 and -2, -4,\ EV images, but has been known to use a 4EV ND filter as well. At present, Tom has not given a full-blown blog indication of his preferred HDR workflow. However, Tom is well known around our planet for some of his incredibly splendid Four Corners sunrise/sunset shots.

I've used both Photomatix Pro, Lightroom 2, CS3, and (for me, soon to be) CS4 for my HDR imaging. At present, I'm using Lightroom 2 and CS3. With the enhanced flexibility of nondestructive local adjustment brushes in Lightroom (and CS4), I can let LR2 and CS3 create the 16 bit image, then do some processing in Lightroom. Because I spent the time and energy to learn CS3, I can instinctively appreciate superior advantages of the coveted CS4. Clearly, that's the reason to elevate to the level of CS4...

About Blue Mountain…

The image above is a sample -1, 0, +2 EV range, brought into LR2, Merge to HDR in CS3, return 16 bit tif to LR2, and successively tone map with local adjustment brushes. I followed the basic Adobe Camera Raw workflow advocated by Bruce Fraser in Real World Adobe Camera Raw for Photoshop CS3. In essence, Bruce said, ”Go down the Develop module ~ tweaking sliders in Basic, Tone Curves, Detail (Landscape Sharpening using preset [particularly using the Masking] and Chromatic Abberation), before finalizing more subtle changes in HSL (Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity).

What are the advantages of this approach?

This approach does away with some of the superfluous histograms produced by Detail Enhancer in Photomatix Pro. Superfluous; DE will take a normal bimodal distribution for your sunset histogram then create its own shape - creating an 'overblown' HDR effect. It often creates sky halos.

The LRx/CSx approach lets you work with raw files, PSDs, and ultimately JPEG's in Lightroom. It does away with major histogram redistribution. It lets you take serious advantage of a much deeper range of brush capabilities provided by Photoshop for some serious, yet subtle tone mapping.

Enjoy...