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Merging to HDR - High Dynamic Range - part 4 of 1 2 3 4 5

Published 01/02/2011

Finishing in Photoshop

Although the HDR-specific software is great for the merging and tone-mapping stage of your HDR sets, there is no substitute for the final finessing of your image in Photoshop. I usually use a custom 'curves' adjustment. You can use the brush tool on the 'curves' mask to adjust how much of that curves' influence is used in your image, and where it is used.

Another excellent, but often overlooked adjustment layer, is the 'Shadow/Highlight'. There may be areas of the image that require careful cloning out. Don't forget that sometimes you can use the 'spot healing brush' to blend away something small in your image instead of always using the clone tool. Photoshop CS5's new 'Content-Aware' brush option is very handy for fast clean-up as well.

The last thing I do is selective sharpening. I use high-pass sharpening for all my images that do not have people in the image. You find this under 'Filter', 'Other', 'High Pass'. When people are in the image I use 'unsharp mask' or 'smart sharpening'.

Creative Freedom

HDR gets quite a lot of criticism because many of the images are over-worked. This often happens when new creative techniques become available, people tend to overdo it. For that matter, any image can be overworked in Photoshop or any software, not only HDR.

Some photographers have become so worried about being criticised for using HDR, their HDR images look exactly the same as a single image worked in Photoshop. HDR is different; it has a vibrance and detail that is great for certain situations.

For some images I go further and use a full range of Photoshop adjustment layers, filters, masking and plug-ins to go in many different directions. We have so many creative tools to work with today; I'm not going to limit myself to staying within a regular photograph all the time. As the late famous photographer Fred Picker stated, 'Photographers owe nothing to reality'.

I offer my clients both types of images. This increases sales and gives them more creative and marketing ideas.

Gavin Phillips offers 'live' HDR webinars and training movies. He also offers custom Photoshop 'actions' and Lightroom Presets. See his website for more information

It's easy to keep your exterior HDR natural looking. But they are a bit flat. No batch processing. It is well worth trying, as it's free.

Photoshop CS5 HDR

New to CS5 are some basic HDR tone-mapping sliders and presets. I have worked with it on some sets of HDR and compared it to the tonemapping I get in the other software here. The results are far better in Photomatix, etc.

Photoshop's great strength is finessing the image after you have completed your tone-mapping. Removing blemishes, cloning, colour, lighting correction and sharpening are essential, and none of the other software does this.

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1st Published 01/02/2011
last update 09/12/2022 14:56:41

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