Hdr

[hippy_rocker]

I was wondering exactly how to do HDR? Can i do it using photoshop or do i need to buy a different program for that. Every time i've tried to do it, it comes out having a fake look. I've seen some photos where they come out wonderful and was wondering how exactly you achieve a more natural yet dramatized look using this technique.

[Krusty79]

I have copied and pasted miscellaneous tips while reading these forums over the past couple of years. Here are some I found that pertain to Photomatix, which seems to be the most frequently used program. You can use the trial version for free and it will put watermarks on your images.

"These are quite nice for a first try. I would suggest that when processing try and concentrate to even out a well balanced sky. When you see a halo or powerful grays and blues you need to work using the MICRO SMOOTHING slider and this should help balance the skies in your pictures. The second one i like and i would like the first even more if the colors were toned down a wee bit... "

"The halos, as BRIT says, can be tweaked to be 'less obvious'. Another way to fix this is to open your Final Tonemapped image and add an extra layer in PS using the shot with the best sky exposure. Stick it underneath, then perform an Auto Alignment and either erase or mask out the haloing (using a soft, opaque brush setting) so that the nice sky in the bottom layer replaces the haloed trees, clouds, etc. in the top tonemapped layer."

"One of the most telltale signs of over processing is the halo that will silhouette the horizon, where the landscape meets the sky in the image, or just an overall grainy image (unless you just took the pictures using a high ISO). Avoid this by increasing the the "luminosity," decreasing the "strength" somewhat, and increasing the "smoothing" and/or "micro-smoothing" if you are using Photomatix"