HDR mis-aligned pictures

[stephenywang]

Hello everyone,

I took some pictures of a sunset (-2,-1,0,+1,+2EV). When I imported them into computers, I realized they are mis-aligned... (Frustrated). Is there an easy way to align them first and then HDR? I am using Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5.

Many thanks,
Stephen

[NathanFranke]

photoshop > photomerge > keep as separate layers?

That's how I would have done it in PS CS1. Haven't tried it in lightroom, and I don't have PS anymore.

Next time, use a tripod

[arlon]

If you plan to do a lot of HDR in the future, I'd spring for a copy of a dedicated HDR program like photomatix that do a pretty good job of alignment for you.

Shareware program Combinezm I believe can also do alignment and some exposure stacking. might google it.


I don't know what camera you use but on my camera (D90) I can set the number of brackets and use a 2 sec. timer to shoot of my brackets. It just lets you get the camera steady and removes all issues with pushing/holding a shutter for the bracketed shots. If you were to set the camera on the ground it would shoot the brackets for you. Easier to set some cameras up to do that than others. It does make better aligned shots out of the camera. I also always turn the image stabilizer off. They seem to jump around on brackets shots. I think the shutter slap messes with their viberation corrections.

[veritasimagery]

Another HDR program to look at, especially if you like free, is Luminance HDR

[milosh]

Another way to do it:

- open all images in a single file in Photoshop (as layers)
- select all layers in Layers palette
- go to Edit -> Auto-Align Layers, click OK
- then crop the whole image (the layers will be different in size after the Auto-Align), rotate while cropping if needed

If you're not doing HDR in Photoshop, choose File -> Scripts -> Export Layers to Files...