HDR Photomatix Help

HI

Ive recently started doing exposure bracketing and putting my photos through Photomatix. Unfortunately the photos are coming out blurry and I am guessing its because of a crap tripod and that I am having to press down on the camera to adjust the steps -2 -1 and so on.
I am however using a remote control but it doesnt control the bracketing.

Questions

1) Is it possible to get a remote for my K-x that will control exposure bracketing?

And 2) Is pressing down on the camera putting the blur in my photos?

Help please?!?

QC

don,t know the if the Kx is the same as K5, you set the bracketing in the drive mode, use the remote press once and it fires however many shots you have selected 2,3,or 5 in one go.
if it is not the same sorry

If you are shooting RAW files you can open them in Photoshop with different exposures from the same single RAW file. Open in the RAW editor, move the exposure slider to plus one, then open into Photoshop. Go back to the original RAW file and do the same but reduce the exposure by minus one. Open again in PHotoshope. Again go back to the RAW file open in RAW editor and leave the exposure slider alone and simply open the RAW file. You can also save the RAW files for use in Photomatrix. This method ensures all three images will align perfectly.

redbusa can you tell me how you do that?

The easiest way to do HDR for Phtotmatix is to put the camera on a troipod. Set to Av and choose the aperture. Take images using the exposure compensation to alter the exposure.

I use -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3. A friemd of mine uses -2, 0, +2. It doesn't matter as long as the result pleases you.

Use the 2 second delay so there is no movement or vibration of the camera.

Then blend in Photomatix. Bear in mind foliage moves, so may well be blurred. This technique IMHO works best with architectural subjects.

Thanks for that John

On the subject of blur, how then are the pros taking seascapes etc?

Are they using one exposure to freeze the action and the others to use for the HDR?

QC

As for seascapes, I'd have to see the picture to make a guess.

However, using one RAW file it is possible to make three differently exposed images and then blend in Photomatix. No blurring then.

It is even possible to do this with one JPEG file, but it can be pushing it a bit.

To prevent blurred HDR images of moving objects, a method that works for me is to shoot one well exposed RAW image, then use Lightroom (other RAW conversion software should also be able to do the same) to make several images at different exposures, you can then use these in Photomatix. Lightroom will export to Photomatix directly.


Some will say that my method is not true HDR, which is possibly correct, but it works.

I'm sure it's not regarded as HDR, but using a contrast overlay seems to me to be able to produce a similar effect - even down to generating unwanted haloes around some objects if overdone.

I mostly use PSE8 & ACR6.2 for processing RAW images, but occasionally have tried Rawtherapee. Recent versions have a tone mapping function built in. Just had a quick play with it and it seems to be able to produce a HDR "style" effect, but without the haloes. Worth another look, maybe.

Andrew

Isn't the big advantage of HDR that it allows you to make the best of very high contrast scenes, where a single exposure might result in both completely black shadows and burnt out highlights?

Is it just the tone mapping in Photomatix that you would (effectively) be using if you generated threee images from a single RAW?

Andrew

Absolutely right Andrew. You just mimic the effect by using the one exposure.

It's possible of course to tone map even a single exposure - Photomatix will do that in later versions.

There are also a wide variety of presets and we have our favourites for certain types of image. Sue is getting some very good rersults using the Creative preset. She then opens the image in Photoshop to finish it off.

The point I was really trying to make is that Photomatix cannot recover detail that doesn't exist in blown out areas of the image, just as a digital version of an ND grad cannot recover blown out skies - and that its main strength is in merging (the not blown out bits of) several images.

If the detail exists in the RAW and is not blown out then the tone mapping function in the freebie Rawtherapee RAW converter can produce an interesting result. I must have another play with it .........

Andrew

Thanks guys - great ideas there, Never thought of using a single RAW file!

To get the best out of HDR (at least for the purpose of attaining an expanded visible DR, more replicating what our eyes can detect), then I think Andrew is right - what you will end up with if using one shot that has had the exposure settings altered up and down and saved in different versions, is really an image with expanded contrast, not the same as increased DR. Your output is likely to show a histogram with brightness data clumping up thickly at both edges of the graph.

To be able to produce an expanded DR, the HDR software ideally needs at least one image with a high EV that pulls the brightness data well away from the left hand edge (this would be the brightest image of your brackets), and at least one image at the other end with a low EV pulling the histogram data down off the right edge. Both of these shots are therefore actually recording detail optimally which will be used in the final output. In between these two extremes you could choose either one or three midtoned shots, giving either 3 or 5 brackets in total.

By this method the software is able to extract the optimum detail and quality from each exposure zone and merge them, discarding the blown out or clipped parts where no detail exists.