HDR question

[Lizabeta]

I've just started using photomatrix...

What I'm not above to figure out well is how to align the images better.

So, even though I shot the images on continuous shoot, the wind was blowing and small bits of weeds/leaves moved in the less-than-a-second in between shots.

How do I fix this?

The shots are otherwise well aligned, but I either need to figure out how to get rid of the little ghosty leaves or figure out how to take the original photos differently I can't stop the wind.

Any advice?

[Lizabeta]

This is the image I'm working on... the weeds in the front are not in the same spot. Also, at the full size, things don't look aligned well and the mountain even is just a hair off. You can't see it easily at smaller sizes, but I would like to be able to print this out larger...

[Lizabeta]

Well, I'd still love some advice, but tried a few things that I had an okay result with... I downloaded the trial of CS5 (thinking I'll probably get that... pretttty cooool). With the new Content Aware Fill, I fixed some of the weeds in front, blended them a bit. It's not perfect, but they don't stand out as much anymore. Then, for the double mountain top, I duplicated my layer. I selected the thin shadowy bit of the top of the mountain, deleted it, selected the layer underneath, moved it upwards and kinda 'grew' the mountain by 10ish pixels higher. Then I used the healing brush to blend in the few spots where there was still a bit of a line.

I was still hoping for some advice. The clearing about 1/2 way up the left side next the to big tree is the Oracle of Delphi in Greece. I was hoping that part could come a little cleaner. I'll keep trying in PS, but if anyone has any advice on HDR processing and getting Photomatix or PS to give you some manual ability to align, I'd still appreciate it.

[PamEli]

Hi Lizabeta,

The natural movement of of trees and grasses can add dramatic affect to the image, but if you have that problem with some photos, you might do a psudo HDR. If you create three or more of the "same" photo and load it into Photomatix, a window will pop up saying the images are all the same exposure, and ask you if what kind of spread in exposure you'd like. Pick 1- 1/2 - 1/3 or even 2 and go ahead and work it like normal.

Hope it helps.

[doubleconvex]

PamEli is referring to a technique that I am partial to - for the very same reason that you have called out. Like it or not, while HDRs are best done from separate exposures, in truth and reality, subjects tend to move - due to our environment. Unless you are shooting in a studio and have complete control of the environment, or are in enclosed spaces with little to no movement, you will always have a few ghosts skipping around.

In the "Pseudo" HDR technique, you would still use bracketting to take several exposures. You would merely need to choose the one exposure from which you would like to generate the remaining exposures from, and work your way forward from there. I have a tutorial that explains more in detail if you're interested.

[PamEli]

Great Site doubleconvex! Thanks for offering so much detail. I also agree its best to shoot for HDR. Most often I'm not shooting for it, and later wish I had...thats when I start playing around. I mostly appreciate your instructions on tone-mapping. That is something I've just "played around" with, not really knowing what I'm doing. It's a hit or miss kind of thing. Either way - I've had alot of fun with it...and some nice results. I look forward to seeing more of your website.

Pam