HDR and Tonemapping Apps
I often get emails asking about which app to use for merging to HDR and/or which app to use for tonemapping. That’s not an easy one to answer given I use various apps in my pipeline for various reasons. It really varies (slightly) on what I’m shooting. Pools, Interiors, Exteriors, etc. My answer may change soon so I’ll let you all know once I’ve played with the new Photoshop CS5 HDR Pro tools and other apps I’m going to test/try again.
I won’t be reviewing all the apps out there, but I am about to explore the various HDR/Tonemapping options for mac/pc over the next 30 days. For selfish reasons. I want to see if there is a better way to do what I do right now to get better results. Better for me is faster, more natural or both.
I’m happy with my current workflows (yes I have more than one). But I know a lot of releases of various applications have occurred over the last 1-2 years. Even though I keep an eye on what is out there I don’t test and play with all of them. I’m about to start doing just that now to see if I can refine or improve my current somewhat proprietary/unique post workflow.
I definitely get the feeling that folks think I hate Photomatix Pro. I don’t hate it folks, I just struggle with the amount of saturation and hue issues it creates during the merge/tonemapping process. It is a very stable app and probably the best app to use for artistic and surreal images. But something else about it makes it a no go most of the time that I don’t talk about much…
Photomatix Pro will CHANGE the pixel dimensions of your image depending on what camera you are using. This makes it impossible for me to then bring in one frame from the capture later and overlay it in photoshop if I want to mask in something. They don’t match. Photomatix Pro does some kind of voodoo in the merge/tonemapping that causes the image to grow in width. Now it’s only a couple of pixels, but it is just enough that even if you use Photoshop to try and align images… they never will. Because the pixels are added on one axis, not both.
Now if you have a camera like an origianl 5D or otherwise, you may not have experienced this issue. With the D3 and other cameras I have… this is a problem for me. It adds pixels on one axis when I save images from tonemapping.
Even with that downside, I have used Photomatix Pro and have delivered nearly 1000 commercial images using it. If you wrestle with the sliders long enough you can get decent results for commercial work.
This gallery is from one shoot… not the whole shoot, just a handful from the shoot. They were all merged/tonemapped in Photomatix Pro. Probably more saturated than a lot of my work, but that was why I moved away from this app a few years back. This particular builder liked the look he saw from another builder’s website that I had used Photomatix Pro on, so he asked for the same “results”. So be it. I also shot many other properties for him after this one. So much so that he put up a new website last year and pretty much every gallery on the site I shot for him. His website is linked below as well.
PHOTOMATIX PRO EXAMPLES (GALLERY)
11 tonemapped images from one shoot (1200px wide)
Builder’s website (nearly entire site I shot for him)
Posted by Michael James on Apr 24 2010 in HDR, real estate, software Tags: HDR, HDR Capture, HDR Software, tonemapping
April 24th, 2010 at 2:07 PM
HI, how do u manage to merge images if its a outdoor and if trees and leaves moves?
April 24th, 2010 at 2:13 PM
Some apps have a ghosting feature and it attempts to reduce ghosting. Other times you might have a shot that where the ghosting occurs is not in a high contrast region of the photo and you can (in photoshop or gimp) bring in the one exposure that best matches the exposure range with the ghosting and then mask in the single image in that problem region.
Also, the faster the camera the better your chances of reducing ghosting.
The D3 can do 11 frames a second in crop mode and 9fps in full frame. The Canon 1D Mark III and IV can do 10fps. Others vary from 8fps down to only a few frames per second.
However, that is still not fast enough to contend with wind and moving objects most of the time. The ghosting feature in these apps does the best job possible, but they are not perfect.
This is a problem we all face when shooting brackets.
April 24th, 2010 at 5:05 PM
Hi Michael,
!
I have been beta testing CS5 and I think you will like the HDR pro. The ghost removal is great!
I follow you on twitter and you have inspired me to try my hand at HDR for real estate.
I have a few samples here .. http://bit.ly/d5pRf9….any critique or tips appreciated. Go easy on us…it’s only our second try with this
Keep writing…you have some very helpful posts!
A fan
Dianne
April 24th, 2010 at 5:06 PM
Hi Michael,
!
I have been beta testing CS5 and I think you will like the HDR pro. The ghost removal is great!
I follow you on twitter and you have inspired me to try my hand at HDR for real estate.
I have a few samples here .. http://bit.ly/d5pRf9
Any critique or tips appreciated. Go easy on us…it’s only our second try with this
Keep writing…you have some very helpful posts!
A fan
Dianne
April 25th, 2010 at 10:08 PM
Hi Dianne
The only critique I can comment on quickly is the white balance. Most cameras don’t do well in home tungsten even when you have it set to Auto White Balance (AWB) or even Tungsten. Most house lights are around 2600-2900 Kelvin and most cameras seem to have tungsten settings that target about 3200 kelvin so the images still have a yellow/orange glow to them.
When you tonemap a HDR file the saturation/hue shifts become very apparent. Some photographers prefer to leave their images a little “warm”, but just a little.
BTW… how the heck are you managing to use PSCS5 already!!! You must know somebody at Adobe. They’ve rejected me for all betas and still won’t respond to emails about setting up a user group despite going through all the hoops on their website!!!
April 26th, 2010 at 5:09 PM
Hi Michael,
Thanks for having a look. I think the next one after that I lowered my temp in ACR quite a bit. I prefer to not have to adjust the colours afterwards.
I am as surprised as anyone that I am beta testing and thrilled about it too. A few years ago I filled out a survey at Adobe.com and then a few more surveys and I was invited. I honestly didn’t know anyone at Adobe! It takes a lot of time and patience but it is a great experience to test the latest tools in our trade.
I am looking forward to your review of HDR Pro!
Dianne
PS Sorry for the dbl post…guess thats from editing.
April 27th, 2010 at 2:15 AM
Dianne,
I used to beta test for too many softwares. Including Macromedia. When Adobe bought Macromedia I never got invites to beta for those apps anymore. Timing was fine because I was too busy at times to be a good beta tester anyway.
I would have loved to have been on the Photoshop CS5 beta.