Help Doing HDR

[MacJohnson]

I have Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2...I want to take a picture and make it into a sweet HDR image. Steps in doing so would be great, Thanks for the help and tips

 

[NathanCH]

You can't make a HDR image from just 1 image source. You can fake one, but rarely does it look as good as a proper HDR image. And remember, people use HDR to ensure there are no under over over exposed sections in their photograph. However its become a trend lately to make a very stylish effect.

HDR tutorial:
http://petemc.net/hdr-guide/

Better HDR tutorial ($)
http://www.kelbytraining.com/player/index.html#150

 

[emorydunn]

As was mentioned before you need to be careful not to overdo the HDR effect. Sometimes it will look good but often times keeping the image more realistic is better. Check out the HDR thread for examples of good and not-so-good HDR's: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/401234/

And personally if you are going to do a lot of HDR you should be using Photomatix. It has a lot more control over the image that Photoshop does. You can download a demo and test it out.

Also, making a "sweet HDR" is not as easy as you think. I know for all of mine I usually spend quite a while tweaking setting to try and get it just right. Just remember not to overdo the effect and that it's not just another Photoshop filter you can apply. Not all photos need HDR and it is far to easy to make something that is truly disgusting.

What I would recommend doing is in addition to tutorials about how to make HDRs would be to look up some of the history and usage for the technique so you have a better understanding of what it is used for.

 

[ChrisA]

And personally if you are going to do a lot of HDR you should be using Photomatix. It has a lot more control over the image that Photoshop does. You can download a demo and test it out.

WHAT?? Photomatix offer more automation, like a point and shoot camera but Photoshop allows you more control and 100 times more ways to make the image. You can do the entire job in photoshop using masks or a print brush tool to paint in one image over the other. I'm not esaying which to use, Photoshop has a long learning curve while the other is automated

 

[designguy79]

HDR is not the same as tonemapping

Keep mind that a true HDR image cannot be displayed on your monitor. There is confusion on this point because people use "HDR photo" to refer to the final, tone-mapped 8-bit (or sometimes 16-bit) image.

For example, some tutorials talk about creating an "HDR" from one exposure, but technically, all they are doing is adjusting the levels and exporting two copies and then tone-mapping those together. For a true HDR image, use at least 3 exposures and your final tone-mapped output will be better.

Have fun!

 

[Kronie]

WHAT?? Photomatix offer more automation, like a point and shoot camera but Photoshop allows you more control and 100 times more ways to make the image. You can do the entire job in photoshop using masks or a print brush tool to paint in one image over the other. I'm not esaying which to use, Photoshop has a long learning curve while the other is automated

You can spend two hours in PS tweaking your HDR image to look just right. Or you can spend 15 Minutes in Photomatix.

The best solution is to start with Photomatix and then bring the blended image into PS.

 

[G.T.]

Hey this was a thread I started might help https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/657596/