 Mike R. Howe |
HDR images Is it possible to make an HDR (High Dynamic Range) image from one Raw image? Or do you need several images?
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Yes. Not much difference than the expected way of taking several photos of different exposures. Raw file converters have exposure adjustments. Or you could pull detail out of different areas, which is another way of saying lightening or darkening areas. I'm sure there are several programs out there (tone mapping, etc.) that will do a large part of the work for you. It's just the dynamic range is greater with using several photos.
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- Carolyn M. Fletcher  Contact Carolyn M. Fletcher Carolyn M. Fletcher's Gallery |
Topaz Adjust has a single image HDR preset. You have to play around with it a bit, but it does a fairly good impression of an HDR shot.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Here is an example of 1 image made to look like an HDR image with Photomatix 4 – HDR/Tonemapping Carlton
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Ryan Murphy |
Hi Mike - You can quite easily make an HDR image from a single Raw file (and in fact, while the dynamic range may not be as strong as combining different files of varying exposure levels, you have the advantage of not having to worry about aligning the images, motion distortion, etc.) The trick is to create multiple different files of varying exposure levels from the same source file. When I create an HDR image from a single file, I typically save anywhere from 3-5 TIFF files of the same source image but with varied exposure levels (e.g., -4, -2, 0, +2, +4). Specifically, I open the source image in Adobe Raw, adjust the exposure level to the desired amount (leaving all the other adjustments levers constant), save the file as a .tif, then repeat the same process until I have 3-5 .tif files all of the same image, but with different exposures. If you use Photomatix, you simply have to load these exposure-adjusted files and go through the HDR process the same way you would if you had multiple images. As with all HDR images, once you are done tone mapping in Photomatix, you can reopen in Photoshop and make additional adjustments as desired (e.g., noise reduction, sharpening, curves, etc.) One disadvantage of the single-file HDR method is that it tends to produce much noiser images in the shadow areas. Hope that helps!
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Mike R. Howe |
Thank so much Gregory,Carolyn,Carlton and Ryan for your responses. I really appreciate your helpful advice and for taking the time to share this info. Thanks again!!! Mike
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Kathryn Wesserling |
Mike - thank YOU for even asking such a question (that one never occurred to me.) Knowing that there is a way (without worrying about the lining up, etc) and that Topaz's preset works on this inspires me to try it. Thanks, Everyone for your imput - and Carlton for your linked example.
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Stanley C. Sims |
There is one more way that I read about. Take one raw image, over expose around 1/3 to 1/2 to reduce the noise that one image will contain. Go to your raw converter and make the necessary tonal and noise reductions. Save as a 16 bit Tiff file, and open this file up in your HDR program. Try this method if something is moving, and you want to stop it.
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Richard Lynch |
It is possible to create HDR-like results as others have said, but not optimal -- at least not for the realistic advantage of HDR. HDR images are actually the 32-bit composites of several images, the idea of High Dynamic Range being that it is information compiled with greater bit-depth -- more than is currently captured by consumer digital cameras. There is a 'problem' in that the images can't really be displayed on traditional monitors, and there is no real method of printing. What is commonly known as an HDR image is not really HDR at all, but an image converted FROM HDR. These are often more fanciful results that attempt to compress HDR information into a usable visual form. I often will bracket these days just to have the opportunity to create HDR images or process to HDR results. it offers a lot of flexibility and opportunities to interpret. I hope that helps some! Of course there is more information in my Awesome Digital Projects course which covers Panoramas, HDR, conversion to B&W, and toning. Richard
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