Oloneo PhotoEngine is a new player in the HDR space.  They just released their public beta 1 of their PhotoEngine application (links at end of post). I am very impressed.  Not only does it have a very desirable tonemapping operator, but it also has a truly unique way to approach relighting a scene in 32 bit space if you shot that scene with various light sources while the camera stayed on a tripod for each lighting change.  It is amazing.  User interface comments and samples here:
http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/photoengine/index.html

Click Image to View Larger Version

I’ve been using multiple applications to achieve the results I am getting with just PhotoEngine.  However, I’ve only run a few brackets through it so far and I’ve only tested landscapes, no architectural interiors.  I will report back what my results are for those much higher dynamic range scenes once I’ve had time to do so.  Here’s the biggest win using this app…

The slider to crush the dynamic range down does so WITHOUT introducing unwanted detail enhancement. So… You get to pull up shadows and bring down highlights with that slider and it has NO IMPACT on detail or sharpening.  Yipppeeeeeeee!!!!!

The slider just below the tonemapping strength slider is the one that seperately controls detail strength. Finally an application that gives you the results of Enfuse/Enblend without introducing unwanted detail cranking.  Oh, and did I mention halos?  No.  Because I’ve been unable to create any halos thusfar!!! Crazy!

I’m just addressing the default setting here which is the local tonemapper. There is also a drop down that allows you to switch to a global tonemapper or you could use the more detailed Advanced Local Tonemapper which has more controls surrounding how detail is enhanced.

Also, Oloneo PhotoEngine also has a very effective HDR DeNoise feature that reduces noise WITHOUT blurring/smoothing the image details.  Another major feature of PhotoEngine is that it is a very capable RAW processor.

And if that wasn’t impressive enough, the Relighting module allows you to take separate frames (that you took from a tripod) of a scene that was shot with different lights turned on/off for each frame.  On the merge PhotoEngine recognizes the different light sources and then get this…

… it allows you to control each light seperately for both white balance, hue and luminance controls.  FRIGGIN’ AMAZING!!!  It actually creates separate controls in the user interface for each light source so that you can control them all separately for lighting.  Its easier to watch it in action then explain so watch the YouTube video on their landing page for that Relighting module.

OK… so the app has some pitfals.  No mac version (that’s going to upset a ton of folks).  I don’t see any way to save recipes/settings and I don’t think it has any kind of batch processing.  I know it doesn’t have any ghosting controls either.  That said, there’s a lot to like.

Here’s the link again which has a gallery showing you various controls of the user interface and some sample images:

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/photoengine/index.html

Oloneo’s Home Page:  http://www.oloneo.com/

Oloneo on Twitter: http://twitter.com/oloneo

Here’s some steps I’ve used for generating some motion/video out of HDR stills. There are many different workflows and I’ll touch on some of them from an overview perspective now. The first one is the workflow I employed for an older clip shot at Eden Gardens State Park in North West Florida. For reference, this is the clip (overview to follow below it).

HDR Video – Eden Gardens 2008 from Michael James on Vimeo.

I shot it with a Nikon D3 with a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G lens.  It sat on top of a fluid head tripod I use for video work. I also had a shutter release cable attached to the D3. I set the camera to automatic bracketing and once I determined the mid point I switched from aperture priority to full manual so that each of the AEB sequences I was about to fire would be EXACTLY the same.  I determined I would not need to go a full 9aeb and set the D3 to fire off 7 shots with 1EV steps between.  I lowered the settings of the camera to shoot JPEG in a size that is larger than HD.

Also of critical importance is locking down white balance.  I chose Daylight here (an obvious choice), but will often dial in an exact Kelvin setting for other lighting situations (although Kelvin WB selection is generally not available in lower end DSLRs).

If I wanted to shoot RAW I would not have been able to have captured the entire tilt move in just over 60 seconds due to the buffer issues, but the lower JPEG setting meant I would never tap out the buffer and could shoot burst after burst easily.  Also, because the steps were only 1EV jumps between each of the 7aeb captures, I was comfortable only shooting JPEG.  I would NOT attempt shooting JPEG for anything larger than 1EV jumps between each shot for this type of approach.  Time was critical here to capture the entire tilt move in a short period of time.  (I shoot RAW for all my other typical HDR workflows, including HDR Timelapse)

The shutter release of the camera was set to continuous so that I could hold down the shutter release cable button with one hand to fire off a full 7 shots at 9fps while keeping my other hand on the tripod handle to make small incremental movements to tilt up after each 7aeb capture.  I do it this way to be quick enough to capture the entire tilt move seen in the video in a little over 60 seconds.

To repeat myself slightly now…, I have the camera ready to capture the brackets in continuous shutter release mode and then prepared for the first AEB capture by aiming the camera slightly below the horizon into the deep shadows.  I then fired off a burst by holding down the shutter release cable button and quickly moved the tripod a very small (unmeasured and done by eye) amount; slightly tilted up for the next capture.  Then again held the shutter release cable button to fire off another 7aeb and repeated this process until the tilt to the sky was complete.  This took all of about one minute to capture.

Back home I dump the images to a folder on the computer and then I launched photoshop to begin the merge to HDR process.  You don’t have to use photoshop as the program to merge to HDR, but back in 2008 when I put this together that was the process I used.  I had a few scripts that I had created that had photoshop merge to HDR and then use custom settings to tonemap out to 16 bit TIFFs.

I employ two alternative workflows these days.  One of which is where I merge to HDR in applications that batch merge and have them save .EXR files for each merge.  Those .EXR files are then imported into either Adobe After Effects or Eyeon Fusion and then I use open source plugins to do the tonemapping in those compositing programs as well as the ensuing optical flow.

But in 2008 those plugins did not exist yet and this process I’m still describing was the workflow I used for the Eden Gardens sequence.

What you see below in the screen shot (click to enlarge or right click and open in a new window) is one of those 7aeb sequences in the merge to HDR dialogue. I’m just showing you that to show you that the dynamic range of the scene was pretty large for an outdoor shot and the sky was blown out when you could see the leaves straight ahead and the leaves were pitch black when the sky was properly exposed.

Like I said, there are several programs out there that can automate the process of merging and tonemapping your brackets and I plan to cover how to use them in this capacity in some future posts and training, but the process I employed here was a home grown merge to HDR and tonemapping recipe I used for Photoshop CS3.  In the end I had 30+ Tiffs from that automated process to then use as the skeleton for an image sequence.  I then take those Tiffs to the next step for optical flow treatment.

Before I move to that next step, here is a larger view (click for larger image) of a single tonemapped frame, along with the 7 shots above the top of it showing you the dynamic range covered for that one image.

The next step I did then was to take the TIFFs into Apple Shake which treats the group of single images like a sequence.  I then used custom settings (see image below; click to enlarge) to expand the number of frames to be created BETWEEN each of the frames I was importing into it.  In other words, Apple Shake was now going to create the frames and guess at the pixel movement between the frames I shot in the garden.  There are other programs such as After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Fusion, etc that can accomplish the same thing with optical flow, but I used Shake in this instance.

I also recropped the image in Shake to match the ratio of HD footage and had it export the sequence as 1080p ProRes footage which I planned to send to Final Cut Pro to add audio and titles (see image below; click to enlarge).

Then I imported the 1080p footage into Final Cut Pro (see image below; click to enlarge) and added sound and some titles to export to various formats (including a web version which exists on Vimeo).

I’ll be speaking briefly about HDR and HDR Video at NAB via an invite from Mike Seymour of FXguide.com.  It falls under their time slot in the Post Pit at the NAB Show. If you plan on being at NAB, come say hi  :)

Tuesday April 13th, 4pm – 4:30pm.  Lots of topics going on at the Post Pit Mon-Wed linked here:
http://www.nabshow.com/2010/education/post_pit.asp

I’ll be in Vegas from Friday April 9th (land 5pm) and leaving Friday April 16th (afternoon flight).  A “Work-cation”.  I’ll be shooting far too much and often to consider it a vacation.  But this is what workaholic geeks do in their spare time!

I’ve recently used the Pentax k-x a bit more to test out the in camera HDR feature.  At first I was under whelmed, but like usual, I messed with settings on my own until I got results I’m happy with.  Maybe not elated with, but happy/satisfied.  First I’ll post a few images, then I’ll explain how I tweaked camera settings to get to a warm, happy place.  Again, these shots were not single frame captures, they utilized the Pentax k-x merge to HDR (in camera) feature and then I tweaked them quickly in post. (They were all taken with the Pentax K-x “kit” lens)

I initially discussed the Pentax k-x some time ago and you can see my comments and test shots from that post: http://hdriblog.com/pentax-k-x-initial-test/

I still do not like the results from using the “HDR Strong” which is also HDR 2 under the two in camera HDR settings.  ”HDR Standard” which is also HDR 1 under the menu settings is less dramatic and the following workflow is what I used to get the image results above.

If you’ve never tried this k-x setting you need to do a few things to your camera settings…

1. Press the MENU button to go into the Menu settings and change file format to JPEG and press the menu button again to get back to the typical LCD settings.

2. Then press the INFO button which is just above the Menu button. On the top line over to the right four squares is the menu option “HDR OFF“.  You can change this option two ways.  You can highlight that option and then use the scroll wheel with your thumb moving it to the right to flip to HDR 1, then HDR 2  –OR– you can highlight HDR OFF and press the OK button and then a screen pops up with the three options and just select the one you want and hit OK again.  Obviously, the fastest way to do this is the first way I described.  Highlight HDR OFF and then use the scroll wheel to change it to HDR 1 or HDR 2.  You’ll see shortly why that scroll wheel is the better option.

Each of the images above are a combination of two captures that I brought into photoshop.  Those two captures which were shot from the EXACT same location on a tri-pod were taken by….

1. First taking a shot using the “HDR-1″ setting (also called HDR Standard).
2. Press and hold the shutter so that it takes the 3 consecutive shots (it is auto bracketing and will then immediately process the three shots over the next 10-12 seconds).
3. Then hit the INFO button & scroll the wheel to the right once to select “HDR-2″ (also called HDR Strong) and again press/hold the shutter to fire off the second bracket.

Now here’s the key… Before taking each exposure I forced the exposure compensation to at LEAST +1EV for each of the above outside shots and adjusted the interior shots up by almost +2EV.  That can be changed by using your right index finger and holding down the button just to the left of the shutter then use your right thumb to scroll the wheel to the right to increase the EV number.  Why do this? …

.. because I found if you fire off the camera when in either of the two HDR modes with exposure compensation set at ZERO, the merge to HDR and in camera tonemapping seems to over crush the highlights and you end up with very “dirty” mid tones and darker shadows than you would want ideally.

The camera is of course firing off three images. One under exposed, one middle, one over exposed.  It then merges those 3 bracketed shots to HDR in-camera, it then processes and tonemaps the HDR and saves the result as a JPEG.  You can’t get anything but a JPEG as a final file (unfortunately).

When I got back from shooting, I would then open the first shot (HDR 1 / HDR Standard) in photoshop.  Then FILE>PLACE the second image  (HDR  2 / HDR Strong) over top of the first image. I then drop the opacity of the top layer (HDR Strong) to about 30% as a starting point and then change its blend mode in the layers palette to either OVERLAY or SOFT LIGHT.  Then I just adjust opacity of that layer up or down to get the feel of the image to a satisfying level.  Save and export.

You may find that you like the HDR Strong layer better than the HDR Standard (your call and whatever floats your boat).  If so, simply reverse the layers so that the bottom layer is HDR Strong image and with the standard NORMAL blend mode and then have the top level be the HDR Standard image and change its opacity and blend mode as described above.

GOTCHAS - If you moved the camera slightly when you switched the camera menu settings between shots, you may need to use Photoshop’s align feature.  You click the bottom layer and shift select the other layer so they are both selected.  Then from the file menu EDIT>AUTO ALIGN LAYERS to have photoshop align the pixels.

UPSIDE:
You don’t need to do any MERGE to HDR and tonemapping because the Pentax k-x HDR Mode is doing that for you.

DOWNSIDE:
Fast moving objects make this two pronged approach a challenge and works best with static scenes. You need to use a tri-pod for best results. The time the k-x takes to process each shot can slow you down when shooting like this. You need a program that utilizes blend modes like Photoshop or a free application like GIMP (which is an open source, photoshop “like” app).

I had the pleasure of speaking with Carl Olson of 16 x 9 Cinema who runs the Digital Convergence Podcast. He interviewed me about HDR photography, HDR Video and in the process I also explained a little about how I got started and a bit about my typical workflow.

The podcast where I discuss HDR – HDR Video is linked on his blog HERE.

==============================

Show notes & his iTunes feed is on his blog and I’ll repost that and shownotes below as well:

AAC (iTunes) version here: Digital Convergence Episode 5

RSS Feed: Subscribe to the 16×9 Cinema Digital Convergence Podcast

Subscribe in iTunes here: 16×9 Cinema Digital Convergence Podcast

Links from the podcast:

My Website: Digital Coast Image

Michael James on Twitter: HDRphotography

Jay Burlage – HDR filmmaker (Michael James cites Jay as a leading source of information on the OpenMoco project and creator of gorgeous time-lapse cinema. Check out Jay’s video below.)

Jay Burlage on Twitter: MiLapse

Jay Burlage’s YouTube Channel: MiLapse

OpenMoco – Open-Source Photographic Motion-Control

Promote Control

LR/Enfuse – Enfuse for Lightroom

Red Epic / Scarlet

HDR tutorial requests about my high dynamic range imaging workflow have come in via email (my photography site email) for a couple of years now. Again a couple more last night, but this time through the form on this site that I finally “fixed”.

So my question is… what do you need help with the most? Use the Contact Me page to send me what area you need help in the most whether it be HDR Capture (camera settings), choosing a camera for HDR Capture, HDR Post Production like HDR in Photoshop or HDR in other apps, Tonemapping, or otherwise.

In 2006 when I first heard about HDR there was very scarce information online to work off of.  HDR Tutorials were geared towards grunge looks and I was seeking to provide my clients nearly photo realistic looks for real estate work. Back then there were very few players in the market for applications and I decided to just use Photoshop from Merge to HDR – to tonemapping – to final tweaks.

Late last year weather turned bad here for weeks so I took some time to peek around the net and even some books at Barnes and Noble just to see what was out there in terms of HDR Tutorials and HDR Training.  I was amazed to see so many “gurus” or folks posting tutorials either slamming Photoshop for HDR work or quickly moving folks on to Photomatix because the sliders are easier to work with for beginners.  The slider issue I understand totally, but the steering away from Photoshop for HDR work I don’t get at all.

For example, one of the many things I like about using Photoshop for HDR is it is a complete high dynamic range pipeline from raw to final output.  That and you can view the entire exposure range in pieces simply by opening up multiple windows of the same view.  You navigate to the top menu to WINDOW>ARRANGE>NEW WINDOW and presto, another window of the same file you are working on opens in a new window.  If you just merged to HDR here in 32 bit space in Photoshop, then this second window has another exposure slider at the bottom to change at will that has no impact on the file, it is simply for viewing purposes.  You use the slider at the bottom of that new window to adjust the exposure range of the image you want to view in that one window.

That slider  is NOT some kind of adjustment layer, it is just for viewing purposes.  So you can open multiple windows, place the exposure slider to various under/over exposed settings so that as you make changes to the document here in 32 bit space, those changes update in each window.  This way, you can make local or global changes using various adjustment levels over either parts of the image or the entire image and see the results across the ENTIRE exposure range via viewing the multiple windows you’ve opened.

Here is a screen capture to understand what I’m talking about.  What you see is nine windows opened and I’ve adjusted the exposure slider at the bottom of each window.  I took that screen capture after I had merged to HDR and before I made my tweaks in Photoshop in 32 bit space.  Once I finished my adjustments and then tonemapped out to a 16 bit TIFF, I made some final tweaks right there in photoshop and the image on the bottom was the result.

Photoshop is VERY capable at creating photo real images as a single application pipeline – from Merge to HDR to final output right in Photoshop.  I would say if Photoshop’s pipeline has a major fault it is that it is TOO GOOD at keeping saturation levels under control and makes creating grunge and technicolor images a more difficult process because it doesn’t over saturate colors and it doesn’t create wacky artifacts like other applications do.

It blows me away when I see “gurus” poo pooing photoshop as being lacking for editing HDR images.  There are so many things you can do right there after merging to HDR waaaaaaaay before you ever go to the menu to choose IMAGE>MODE>16 bit to tonemap it down.  And you can work in layers in 32 bit mode just as you can in any other mode so if you know photoshop well already, then why are you taking your HDR images to other applications, then bringing them back to photoshop when you could just do everything right there in Photoshop?

Give it a chance.

I can’t provide a link to an online tutorial showing how to take advantage of the full capabilities of Photoshop’s HDR workflow because I never found anyone else using it like I do.  I’m sure others use it this way and they are either too busy shooting to create tutorials (I can relate to that) or such tutorials do exist and I never found them.

Like I said, with nobody to turn to in 2006, I just starting farting around in Photoshop and eventually figured stuff out on my own.  Even Photoshop CS4 still has ZERO help files for working this way in 32 bit space, which is probably why so many folks use Photomatix Pro and the like.

HDR Portrait of a friend and her niece below. I have done a couple dozen portraits like this the last few years, but don’t advertise it per se.  Prior to the shoot she asked if it would be possible to “photoshop” the image to look more like a painting than a photo.  Enter HDR.

Knowing that’s what she wanted, HDR was going to make creating that look quite easy.  I could have toned down the colors or not tried to crush so much dynamic range into an 8 bit range, but I ramped it in there because she LOVES color. If you saw her home you’d be a believer.

Could I instead just have blasted them with flash from the front to try and balance the blazing sunset? Yes, but if you’ve shot directly into the sun like this yourself then you know I would have had to have HAMMERED them with flash and the shot ends up having an entirely different feel to it.

Here is a larger version linked below (hosted on my photography website):
http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/hdr_portrait.html

The technique is a bit tricky.  This is what I do.  There may be a better way, but without a tri-pod and because I’m dealing with humans not a static subject, this is what I’ve managed to piece together.

It’s hand held, I’m shooting with a heavily back lit subject directly into a blazing sun.  I say tricky because I am firing off flash on the first image of the bracketed sequence.  The D3 allows you to choose the order of an automated exposure bracketed series and I chose to have it shoot from under exposed to over exposed. The D3 shoots at 9 frames per second and the SB-800 can’t recycle fast enough so the flash only has true power on the first blast so when the second frame fires the speedlite is spent momentarily so the camera is rapidly ripping through the under to over exposed shots before the flash can fully recycle.

Now depending on your camera, and the speed at which it shoots (FPS) + the type of speedlite you are using + the settings you have the speedlite set to, etc…. your results may vary. The camera is set to shoot on continuous shutter release for this automatic exposure bracket.  I normally shoot a 5aeb with 1EV steps between and will often not need the fifth frame which is the most over exposed and the longest shutter speed (sometimes movement by then).

Post production for these shots can be handled in a ton of different ways, such as either beginning in LightRoom and using the Enfuse plugin to fuse images, alternatively one could take individual frames into Photoshop and layer them and mask in pieces needed, or one could merge to HDR and tonemap the image which will be the background and again mask in the flash image.  Regardless, the editing ends in photoshop brining in the first frame with the flash fired to mask over the properly exposed background (and your subject will be underexposed in that non-flash image).

The biggest issue is whether you were steady when you fired off the burst because the quality of either fusing the image or merging to HDR will depend largely on that.  Even though images can be “aligned” in post, that process does compromise the image quality to some degree.  Movement  also complicates masking in the single/flash frame in post, although you’d be surprised how much wiggle room you actually have if you are pretty good at dealing with layers and masking in photoshop.

I probably would not attempt this technique with a camera that shoots slower than 5fps, but I have not attempted this with a camera that shoots 3fps so I can’t say for certain.  The margin for error with the longer time between frames means either you or your subject is more prone to movement.  I’ve occasional had difficulty holding still even at 5fps on a 40D (some time ago), but I have never attempted this at 3fps and probably would have a higher failure rate with those longer moments between frames.

Additionally, your subjects need to understand how critical it is to remain still.  Good communication and/or with a countdown helps.  Blinking is not as big of a deal after the first shot fires because you’ll mask in that first shot anyway.  However, if they drift at all during the capture, then that movement can be problematic aligning images in post and obviously both you and your suj

I always shoot these sequences in RAW because obviously the white balance of the flash hitting your subject may be an issue with the other shots that follow not synching with whatever ambient lighting exists.  You’ll definitely suffer more if shooting JPEG when dealing with exposure adjustments and color balance issues this technique requires.

If you choose to attempt this in a more normal lighting environment, then obviously using flash might not be needed at all and you would just treat the shot like any hand held HDR capture.