HDR question

[wbrook13]

I've just recently begun reading about and experimenting with HDR. A lot of comments and critique on posts here on DPS refer to "halos".
What are "halos" (in HDR); and how do you avoid creating them?

Thank you all for helping me understand this.

Hope I put this in the correct Forum.

[Krusty79]

It often appears at the tops of buildings and trees where they meet the sky. You'll see a whitish "glow" emanating from the building/tree. I believe it is usually a symptom of over-processing.

I couldn't find a good example quickly, but if you look above the trees in the background of this shot, you'll see it:

HDR of a Creek

For Photomatix users:

How do I reduce/eliminate "halo" effects with tone mapping?
Increasing the value of the Highlights Smoothness setting (under the "miscellaneous" section) is useful for reducing halos around objects placed against bright backgrounds. The other adjustments that may help are lowering the Strength and/or increasing the value of the Smoothing setting.
An easier way to avoid halo artifacts is to either use the Tone Compressor method for tone mapping your image, or to process your bracketed photos with Exposure Fusion using the 'Adjust' method. The latter is particularly recommended if you are looking for natural-looking results.

[wbrook13]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

It often appears at the tops of buildings and trees where they meet the sky. You'll see a whitish "glow" emanating from the building/tree. I believe it is usually a symptom of over-processing.

I couldn't find a good example quickly, but if you look above the trees in the background of this shot, you'll see it:

HDR of a Creek

For Photomatix users:

How do I reduce/eliminate "halo" effects with tone mapping?
Increasing the value of the Highlights Smoothness setting (under the "miscellaneous" section) is useful for reducing halos around objects placed against bright backgrounds. The other adjustments that may help are lowering the Strength and/or increasing the value of the Smoothing setting.
An easier way to avoid halo artifacts is to either use the Tone Compressor method for tone mapping your image, or to process your bracketed photos with Exposure Fusion using the 'Adjust' method. The latter is particularly recommended if you are looking for natural-looking results.

Thank you, Krusty.