Adobe’s eSeminars

This morning, I took part in a free, hour-long CS4 for Photographers class. Using hi-speed Comcast web technology, Adobe broadcast their first eSeminar Live using Adobe Flash Player. This one is on Cs4; Adobe plans to have 3 additional Connect Pro Meetings in the next month or so. You can find the info here.

And, yes, after working hard on the reinvigorated laptop for several busy days, I am watching Adobe live, listening to their intro Beethoven on it right now …

After synchronizing Flash Player and determining connection speed, when Connect Pro comes up, it takes Internet Explorer 8 over, creating a full screen (Argh…). CTRL-ALT-DEL lets me log onto Task Manager to get the Start menu back ~ so I can do other things while waiting for the extravaganza to start. Ahh, Beethoven…

Bryan Hughes Bryan Hughes began the session a few moments after 1000 Pacific time – I could actually post these remarks on Google Blogger as I write – But I’d rather watch and listen to Bryan…

Here’s the Most Amazing Part…
Bryan’s composite pano image above is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen CS4 do…
Bryan took 2 different hand-held panos. When I first saw the original images, they were in no particular order in Bridge. That’s to say “They were mixed together”. He merged them (without stacking – 2 sets of different pano images), and displayed them on screen.
Result: Both panos appeared - separately, mind you - from the input melee...
I simply did a screen capture to commemorate this unique CS4 feature (the image above)…
Now, that’s quite a stunning technology feat!!!

Some 50+ minutes in, somewhat saturated, I had learned several Tips and Tricks which I would not normally find in textbooks or on DVDs.

I encourage you to register with Adobe and watch over the next few Thursdays (July 23 - Aug 30) as their eSeminars whet your appetite for ever sharper Lightroom, Bridge, and CS4 workflows…

Thanks, Bryan and Adobe…

Apples to Oranges

Cottonwood Narrows North

©Joe Bridwell
Before and After of shadowed, early morning scene where rocks stand on end. Cottonwood Canyon, Utah.

Apple of My Eye – Orange of My Camera
“I found several recent references to statements about the ethics of combining exposures for increased dynamic range, improved depth of field etc. primarily focused on the 'fact' that such images don’t represent what the human eye sees.
“Let’s be very clear here: cameras don’t see like people do. If you were to travel through life with eyes closed, opening them for a fraction of a second at a time, then closing them again, then such statements might have merit.
“In reality a brain image is perceived from a stream of information as eyes constantly move and adjust to gather information about various parts of the scene.
“In a sense you can think of the way the brain creates an image as constant stitching and blending of multiple frames in rapid succession. Seeing allows a person to be aware of detail in extreme highlights and shadows, swiftly covering an area far greater than a single ‘eye exposure’ could.”

Guy Tal, Blog, 6/29/09

Brain Teaser
Tal's comments have proved rather evocative.
While I'd read many pieces about the camera versus the eye, they were never stated in such a clearly contradictory anagram - Apple of My Eye – Orange of My Camera.
Sometimes, a word picture eventually takes me back over recent images. Something clicks, "Ah, now I can 'see' this image sequence in a new light!"
Often, this process occurs during rim sleep - that early morning, half awake state where the Muse comes to sit on my shoulder to help me create.

Cottonwood Narrows North
Cottonwood Canyon is northwest of Page, Arizona. A part of the Colorado Plateau flexed long ago; one side up, the other down. Along the long flexure, now Cottonwood Canyon, originally horizontal beds may become vertical. If they are multicolored, so much the better. If taken in a highly contrasting light, so much more the better.

Orange of My Camera
A static photograph starts off at a significant disadvantage when attempting to represent the process of seeing. In the Cottonwood Narrows case, it's the picture on the left (above). That's raw file capture of a Nikon D300.

Apple of My Eye
With 4 more images (-2 EV to +2 EV), I also captured high dynamic range. Using Merge to HDR in Photoshop CS4, I created an HDR image, then carefully tone mapped the high contrast rocks using tools of the Adjustments panel.
The dominant rock was red, but there were greens in the shrubbery and blue in the sky. In the initial raw file capture, these RGB colors seem muted.
But after tone mapping, the richness, the suggestive saturation, and the strong tonal patterns created an evocative, dramatic effect.

Standing Rocks
The combination of colors, the filigree of shadow and spire, the rich, red texture of the vertical rock layers, the slight flare of sunlight highlighting green shrubs - these are strong, provocative elements which become subtle Apples of My Eye.
Rather than identifying the final image by place-name (a geological custom), why not use its genesis for a name?
Me - I like Standing Rocks... a pleasure of enhanced tonal measure.
Now, all I have to do is learn to stop thinking of my camera as an Orange Crush!

Enjoy...

Issues in HDR Tone Mapping

Candyland Sky
©Joe Bridwell
Convoluted, chocolaty red rock shapes contain subdued white sandstone stringers. Long sky cloud stringers subtly emphasize the point-counterpoint red rock surface. I find God's handiwork quite artistic...

What's the Best HDR Software for Noise Reduction and Chromatic Aberration? We've compared Photomatix and CS4 for Magic Hour HDR. When you use Lightroom to remove noise and chromatic aberration before HDR, Photomatix returns an image with chromatic aberration - though you requested it be removed.
CS4 provides a clean image; although processing may be more convoluted, when the end result is printed on large printer, I feel it's worth using CS4.
We describe the entire CS4 process to achieve complete tone mapping. It's an experimental but reproducible process; one where you learn more and get better as you do more of it.

HDR Capture
Five high dynamic Range images were captured at +/- 2EV. The negative EV range contained Noise; images also contained Chromatic Aberration. One might expect such behavior when shooting at Magic Hour, that hour around dawn and dusk.

CS4 vs. Photomatix
With Lightroom 2, we globally eliminated dust smudges, reduced noise, and reduced chromatic aberration for each image before submitting them for high dynamic range processing.
When Photomatix created a 32-bit Tone Compressed HDR result from these images, chromatic aberration was present. When CS4 created a 32-bit Local Adaptation HDR result, chromatic aberration was absent.

Tone Mapping in Several Stages
When CS4 receives images to Merge to HDR from LR2, it may take a little while to create a 32-bit file. We recommend you save that 32-bit file because you may want to work with it later.
Image> Mode> 16 Bit brings up the HDR conversion routine in CS4 to create a 16-bit tif file. Use the drop-down menu to choose Local Adaptation, set Radius about 90 pixels, choose Threshold about 1%, and carefully map the Tone Curve. Martin Evening has pointed out that tone curve mapping of an HDR image is both complicated and different from the normal tone curve choices for a single image.
The HDR result may same bland; little distinctive color, sort of soft.

Mask Sky and Ground with Color Range
Magic Hour is enhanced by dramatic clouds. It's usually easier to select sky and clouds to create a mask between sky and ground. For this task, I use Color Range. By setting small values for Fuzziness and Range, the mask selection usually fits the boundary fairly well.
It's a very good practice to examine the image at 2:1 (200% zoom). Although keystroke techniques differ between LR 2 and CS4, this scan size lets you look for various effects which would be immediately apparent on a large print. In particular, you quickly get to see if Color Range selected portions of the sky and ground which need to be corrected in the mask.
When you've completed the Sky mask, duplicate channel, invert the channel, and name it Ground.

Hue/Saturation Color Adjustments with Masks
Create 2 adjustment layers using Hue/Saturation. Attach the Sky mask to one, then find the right sky color using Hue. Attach the Ground mask to the other, then find the right ground color using Hue.
When appropriate colors are found, vary Saturation and Lightness until the colors reflect nearly true colors from the 0 EV image on the initial capture.

Final Tone Mapping in Lightroom 2
Lightroom 2’s close connection with Adobe Camera Raw provides easy Basic, Tone Curve, and Details tabs for final, accurate touch up. We pay particular attention to contrast, clarity, and vibrance. We apply the landscape preset then carefully enhance the masking portion of sharpening to finalize our image.

Finale…
I thank Bob Weber for a very enlightening session where, among many other topics, we dealt with fringing and correction of chromatic aberration. It prompted me to prepare a more detailed workflow describing how to use LR 2 and CS4.

Enjoy…

HDR - Tips & Tricks ~ Autostacking

Spring Monsoon
©Joe Bridwell
When monsoon season comes to New Mexico, some Sunsets are beyond gorgeous!
These flamboyant colors were captured as high dynamic range (HDR) about 15 minutes after sunset. 

HDR Capture
You find a good vantage point, set up your camera on a tripod, attach the remote, set auto exposure bracketing to 5 images (0, -2, -1, +1, and +2), and fire away.  In a few seconds, you've taken those 5 exposures.
Of course, you may not be taking simple HDR's.  What do I mean by simple?
Last night, a long stretch of clouds 100 miles away caught the dying embers of sunset.  To successfully capture the subtle, yet breathtaking beauty, it was also necessary to shoot an HDR panorama.  Naturally, that meant collecting five images at one orientation, rotating the camera to leave 25% of image on whichever side you choose rotation, then ultimately combining four or five stacks.

Auto-Stack




Back in the studio, there's a trick which simplifies your HDR workflow.  In Lightroom 2, once you've uploaded the images, simply choose Photo> Stacking> Auto-Stack by Capture Time.  Then wiggle the slider until you get zero unstacked and whatever number of stacks you had on the CF card.  Presto, change-o, your stacks appear in library mode, grid view, as if by magic (shown above).
In this example, although it seems like a flash when taking photos, it looks like each picture takes about a second to shoot.  You will want to play around with the slider; in this case, I got 35 stacks and left 1 unstacked.  A key to the slider selection is ~ if you can see five pictures selected as a stack (that’s what the camera did), you're probably doing pretty good on your time.  You may still have to go through and refine stacks after the split of an airy step.

For Bridge gurus, I suspect you can find the same sort of workflow.  Matter of fact, just check out Scott Kelby's Photoshop CS4 book and see if that's not so.

Image Processing
Images processed by Lightroom 2 to Photomatix 3.1.3 using Tone Compressor (default settings).  Composite image - 6 sets of 5 HDR images.  Panorama created using CS4 (Settings – Cylindrical, Blend Images Together, Vignette Removal, Geometric Distortion Correction).  Noise reduction in CS4; color balance in Adobe Camera Raw 5.3.

Enjoy...

CS4’s Adjustment Panel – a Cross Road

Cross Roads

©Joe Bridwell
Symbolically, two planes cross.   On another plane, CS4 has also reached a cross road.  Its new Adjustment Panel allows up to some 90% less mouse motion to get the job done right…

It's the end of a long day.  I've been working through CS3 for hours, perfecting an image.  Make an adjustment layer, create image enhancements, choose a blend mode, modify the opacity, click OK... and I'm one tired old dawg.

For about a week now, John Nack, Adobe, has been following the theme Adjustments and the Future of the Photoshop UI.  This morning, Bryan Hughes dug a little deeper:
"Adjustment Layers are non-destructive and re-editable (think history that lives with your file); they offer unparalleled creative control with 25 blending modes and 100 levels of opacity; and they can be easily shared, duplicated and repurposed. The problem: in order to enjoy benefits of adjustment layers, you need to know where they are, how they work _and_ a series of secret handshakes to leverage their power.
"Moving from one’s image to an Adjustment panel beside it is far faster than combing through various menus and dialogues - the Adjustment panel experience uses up to 89% less mouse travel than the old, menu-driven, modal method.
"For CS4 we took a page out of Lightroom’s book and brought on-image editing to Curves, Hue and Saturation in the new Adjustment Panel. Talk about fast and easy ~ you just click on the desired area and pull (up and down for Curves, left and right for Saturation, add the Command modifier for Hue)."

Gadzooks...!
Now I've got more time to be out shooting...
Enjoy...

The Future of HDR...

Credit: John Doogan, FNZIPP

With advent of Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4, new Tone Mapping twists are beginning to be applied to high dynamic range (HDR). An exhaustive Google search provide only a few tutorials; nevertheless, they were quite illuminating. John Doogan, Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, and Ben Willmore each have a new direction in HDR. Doogan works with LR2 and CS4; Kelby and Kloskowski work with Lightroom 2; Willmore likes some of the advanced masking tools in CS4 (his book HDR and Beyond in CS4 is available in March).

Regardless of how the cookie crumbles, one can choose either Photomatix or Lightroom and Photoshop to assemble a 32-bit HDR. After converting to a 16-bit tiff file, paths and workflow techniques differ. Doogan shows both CS4 and LR2 working paths. Kelby and Willmore proceed to use Camera Raw sliders for global changes. Then, techniques differ for localized changes. Personally, I prefer nondestructive local adjustment brush changes - either in Lightroom or CS4 - based on Adobe Camera Raw 5.3.

To get this sense of future direction for HDR, Doogan’s videos bring LR2 and CS4 to life. Kelby has six pages in his new Lightroom book describing the process. You can either buy a DVD or take online training to watch Kloskowski's HDR video. You can watch 2 Willmore videos free or buy his upcoming book.

While many people use Photomatix to assemble HDR images, opinions differ about post process Tone Mapping. Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 both depend upon Adobe Camera Raw 5.3 for nondestructive global and local tool packages. CS4 adds the remarkable facility for masking.

Future Directions in HDR…

Now that we have ‘honking’ CS4 subtle adjustment brushes available - a truly remarkable masking tool - it is my anticipation we may see more HDR tutorials which step beyond the ‘Photomatix uber alles (German for over all)’ HDR paradigm. So, I began an advanced Google search for today's viewpoints and projects…

I’ve actually seen a book and several free video examples which preach new paths, similar to our LR2 path proposed in prior workflows. You ask, “What paths…?”

Paths the Pro’s Use…

John Doogan, FNZIPP, Adobe evangelist, and Adobe beta tester, lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. Last night, after watching Eric Jones present a tantalizing Alternatives to HDR workflow at Enchanted Lens Camera Club, I found Doogan’s Landscape Photographer’s Guide to Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, watched the 80 minute video, and felt like I witnessed a Revolution…

Doogan showed both Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 performing the same Auto-Align and Auto-Blend steps as well as more refined interactions between LR2 and CS4 in each separate piece of software. Granted he was doing broad brush landscape tone mapping – but, I was able to see far enough into CS4 to know it’s clearly in my future. In effect, he indicated, “While CS4 can do more than the present LR2, some of its steps are clunky compared to the more streamlined LR2.” Then, he showed how LR2 reduced his first cut development and tone mapping time by ~ 30% - so, even though he has CS4, his total time in LR2 now approaches 90%!

For those interested in tone mapping the future thru CS4, I commend Doogan. I would also suggest perhaps you take a careful look at some other free tutorials on Adobe’s eSeminars website.

Landscapes:http://pacific.adobe.acrobat.com/p74392052/
HDR:http://pacific.adobe.acrobat.com/p59269932/

*John Doogan is a commercial photographer and digital retoucher from Christchurch. He has been using photoshop since the mid 1990s. John is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography, an Adobe Ambassador and a software beta tester for Adobe Photographic software. He has a particular interest in landscape photography, and has won the NZIPP Landscape Photographer of the Year three times.

Scott Kelby, National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) President, discusses HDR from a different view - in Lightroom 2, HDR images can go straight from Lightroom to Photoshop's Merge to HDR feature. The result is a 32-bit file. Choose Image, Mode, 16 Bits per Channel. The HDR conversion dialog appears. Choose Local Adaptation. You've finally started to add the HDR look. Ctrl-Shift-S opens a save dialog box, you name the photo, then save as a tif file.

Now, open the tif in Photoshop which opens the Camera Raw menu. In CS4, development sliders are like Lightroom 2. Now, you're back to familiar ground.

Kelby describes the use of sliders to Tone Map. Now, it's time to get that file back into Lightroom. Click and drag the file into the same folder where your original bracketed photos are stored. In Lightroom's folder panel (Library module) choose Synchronize Folder. The dialog says you're importing one new photo (finished HDR you drug into the folder).

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book for Digital Photographers, ©2009, Scott Kelby, p. 262-267.

Matt Kloskowski, NAPP Educator, has released an HDR video. It advocates minimal use of Photomatix as a tone mapping tool; rather, Photomatix is great at Assembling the initial file. Matt is great at subtle tool masks and usage in Photoshop. I haven’t seen it, but would like too…

http://www.kelbytraining.com/player/index.html#150

Ben Willmore has 2 free videos with Bert Monroy at Pixel Perfect. The first discusses how Photomatix can leave uneven interpretations from Tone Mapping. The second discusses intricacies of using subtle masks in CS3 to emphasize or de-emphasize more refined aspects of HDR capture. I find this video interesting, simply because it shows a somewhat more limited approach to local tone mapping in HDR.

Part I: http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/hdr/
Part II: http://revision3.com/pixelperfect/hdrpartii/

Willmore shows how he fashioned the Cover for his new book HDR and Beyond in Photoshop CS4…

High dynamic range (HDR) imaging uses multiple exposures of the same scene to create a single image with a huge range of values between light and dark areas of a photograph. It is an extremely popular and ever-growing niche of photography; a search for "HDR" at Flickr results in over 975,000 uploaded images.

In this book by noted photographer and popular digital imaging expert Ben Willmore, you'll learn the best practices for the entire process: from image capture through tone mapping and output. You'll learn how to create stunning HDR images...and you'll go beyond those "basic" techniques to learn exactly how Ben creates his own trademark HDR images, which have a slightly surreal and painterly quality to them. Equally instructive and beautiful, HDR and Beyond will teach and inspire you to create stunning HDR images! Amazon Product Description.

http://www.amazon.com/HDR-Beyond-Adobe-Photoshop-CS4/dp/0321617029/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234901420&sr=1-1

Perhaps these examples can broaden our horizons. For me, use of Camera Raw 5.3’s tools have both sped up my workflow and provided rich, yet natural appearing fine art. And, it matters little whether it’s Lightroom or Photoshop which acts as my final localized brush Tone Mapping vehicle.

Take a look at a more in-depth Lightroom 2 HDR Tone Mapping workflow here.

Enjoy...