Photo Art
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Photography By: Steve Sullivan
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My earlier HDR article was just a basic overview of what an HDR photo is and showed a few examples of finished HDR photos from several different programs. This article however will cover the “how to” aspect of creating an HDR Photo. I will be using my personal favorite HDR program called Essential HDR. There are several different HDR programs available and most of them use similar tools. To determine which one works best for you visit their websites and download any free trials available (Try before you buy). Of course, if you are like me you may buy several as each one is slightly different and may offer a particular set of results you want to apply on a particular photo. Two other very popular HDR programs are Photomatix & Dynamic Photo HDR. This article does not address creating an HDR image from a single photo that has been processed into several different exposures.
The first step to creating a successful HDR image begins in the field when you capture your photo. You must think ahead and consider what you will need to create your HDR photo. To begin with, I can not stress enough the importance of using a good sturdy tripod. You will be combining several different exposures of the same scene together and they must align correctly. Also I find it is a good idea to use your mirror lock up and your remote shutter release to minimize as much vibration as possible. Secondly, you must consider if there are any moving elements in your photo such as people, cars, and animals or if the wind is blowing plants and trees. Because you are aligning the photos you will want these objects to remain in a stationary position. You may have to use a lot of patience and wait for the perfect conditions. Thirdly, I feel it is important that the focus area of each photo remains the same. I adjust my camera from auto focus and using multi points of focus to manual focus and just a single focus point to insure that each photo I take for my HDR sequence is focused to the same location in the scene. I feel this gives me a much better alignment. A fourth consideration is the contrast of the scene itself. A scene that has a broad range of contrast may require more photos to be taken in order to capture the full range of exposures in that scene. An average scene may only take three bracketed exposures two stops apart such as -2 stops, 0/middle, & +2 stops. A scene with a lot of contrast or a scene inside may require you to capture five to seven images such as -4 stops, -2 stops, 0/middle, +2 stops & +4 stops. To be on the safe side always shoot more photos then you need and use your LCD to examine the images. My final suggestion to obtain a consistent sequence of images is to turn off your camera’ auto white balance. The less change you have taking place within your camera the more predictable results you will get. In this first step I may not have covered every consideration to make in the field, but these are my top five that I concentrate on. A simple Google search will bring up hundreds of sites with many more HDR suggestions.
After capturing your photos you need determine which ones to use and load them into the software. After opening Essential HDR, choose align and merge multiple photos. Choose the location and files you want to merge and click ok. To choose multiple images hold your shift key and highlight all the photos in your sequence. Essential HDR will now begin to align and merge all the photos you have chosen. Be patience as this may take a while.
Next your merged photo will be displayed in its unprocessed state and you will need to process it or improve it by tone mapping your image. Simply click the tone map button and the tone sliders will appear. Adjust the sliders to place the desired effect you want on your image. You can also choose to see the histogram to set your black and white points or you can choose color balance to make any adjustments to you color. Once you have made your selections you can now move on to the detail revealer by choosing this option from the drop down menu. Again by moving the sliders you affect how much change or how little change you make to your image. During these steps I prefer to work on a single screen, but Essential HDR allows you to split the screen into a “double tone screen” and adjustments for tone and detail can be made together.
Tone Mapping - Contrast, Brightness and Color Saturation
Tone Mapping - Histogram
The first step to creating a successful HDR image begins in the field when you capture your photo. You must think ahead and consider what you will need to create your HDR photo. To begin with, I can not stress enough the importance of using a good sturdy tripod. You will be combining several different exposures of the same scene together and they must align correctly. Also I find it is a good idea to use your mirror lock up and your remote shutter release to minimize as much vibration as possible. Secondly, you must consider if there are any moving elements in your photo such as people, cars, and animals or if the wind is blowing plants and trees. Because you are aligning the photos you will want these objects to remain in a stationary position. You may have to use a lot of patience and wait for the perfect conditions. Thirdly, I feel it is important that the focus area of each photo remains the same. I adjust my camera from auto focus and using multi points of focus to manual focus and just a single focus point to insure that each photo I take for my HDR sequence is focused to the same location in the scene. I feel this gives me a much better alignment. A fourth consideration is the contrast of the scene itself. A scene that has a broad range of contrast may require more photos to be taken in order to capture the full range of exposures in that scene. An average scene may only take three bracketed exposures two stops apart such as -2 stops, 0/middle, & +2 stops. A scene with a lot of contrast or a scene inside may require you to capture five to seven images such as -4 stops, -2 stops, 0/middle, +2 stops & +4 stops. To be on the safe side always shoot more photos then you need and use your LCD to examine the images. My final suggestion to obtain a consistent sequence of images is to turn off your camera’ auto white balance. The less change you have taking place within your camera the more predictable results you will get. In this first step I may not have covered every consideration to make in the field, but these are my top five that I concentrate on. A simple Google search will bring up hundreds of sites with many more HDR suggestions.
After capturing your photos you need determine which ones to use and load them into the software. After opening Essential HDR, choose align and merge multiple photos. Choose the location and files you want to merge and click ok. To choose multiple images hold your shift key and highlight all the photos in your sequence. Essential HDR will now begin to align and merge all the photos you have chosen. Be patience as this may take a while.
Next your merged photo will be displayed in its unprocessed state and you will need to process it or improve it by tone mapping your image. Simply click the tone map button and the tone sliders will appear. Adjust the sliders to place the desired effect you want on your image. You can also choose to see the histogram to set your black and white points or you can choose color balance to make any adjustments to you color. Once you have made your selections you can now move on to the detail revealer by choosing this option from the drop down menu. Again by moving the sliders you affect how much change or how little change you make to your image. During these steps I prefer to work on a single screen, but Essential HDR allows you to split the screen into a “double tone screen” and adjustments for tone and detail can be made together.
Tone Mapping - Contrast, Brightness and Color Saturation
Tone Mapping - Histogram
Tone Mapping - Color Balance
Detail Revealer - Adjust sliders for Details, Brightness, color Saturation & Fill Light
Split Screen for Tone Mapping
Once you are happy with your results press ok and your image will process. Something I keep in mind is I can also make adjustments to my file in Photoshop. A lot of times I concentrate on the detail portion of the tone mapping and make adjustment to the tones later in Photoshop using curves and other tools. Again this is just something I do and as you use your software you will develop your own workflow.
Tone Mapped Image
Detail Revealer - Adjust sliders for Details, Brightness, color Saturation & Fill Light
Split Screen for Tone Mapping
Once you are happy with your results press ok and your image will process. Something I keep in mind is I can also make adjustments to my file in Photoshop. A lot of times I concentrate on the detail portion of the tone mapping and make adjustment to the tones later in Photoshop using curves and other tools. Again this is just something I do and as you use your software you will develop your own workflow.
Tone Mapped Image
Finished Image
Well...get out there, shoot some photos and practice.
Have a great day & Happy Shooting!!! :-)
Resources
Dan Norcott
PhotoShop Cafe
Ben Willmore
idigital photo
Colin Smith
Trey Ratcliff
Outback Photo
The 23x Blog
Andre Gunther
chromasia
Have a great day & Happy Shooting!!! :-)
Resources
Dan Norcott
PhotoShop Cafe
Ben Willmore
idigital photo
Colin Smith
Trey Ratcliff
Outback Photo
The 23x Blog
Andre Gunther
chromasia
© Stephen T Sullivan - All Rights Reserved
© 2009 Stephen Sullivan