For the past three weeks, I’ve been holding a contest to win a free copy of HDR Expose or 32 Float from Unified Color.

The entries are in, a number of eyes have seen them, and it’s time to announce the winners:

The first winner, grabbing his choice of Unified Color’s HDR Expose or 32 Float, is arkitekt878 :

In our view, the composition contributed a lot to this image, leading the eye from the chains and walkway, to the lights on the building, and then off in the distance to the city lights and sunset. Both the deep shadows of the foreground pebbles and the bright lights were well controlled. There are no artifacts or haloing to be seen.

Arkitekt878 used 4 Exposures (-2, -1, 0, +1) merged to HDR in Photoshop and processed with 32 Float.  He says, “Just a quick note for interest. The place where I’m standing to take this gets covered twice a day by the tide.”

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The next winner is George Palov with his image from Devetaki Cave, Bulgaria:

George says,

“It was shot in 7 Exposures through 1-1/3 EV steps (1/50 – 5sec) + I took an extra one “1/250″ for the bright “eye” window. On tripod + Promote Remote Control. Merged and adjusted in HDR Expose only. Very hard shooting conditions – pitch dark holes + overly bright spots. What I liked about this photo is the unintended heart shape of the light spot on the ground from the sun beam.”

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‘Honorable Mention‘ goes to Anthony Woodhouse’s fourth entry, “Boat Park, Llyn Brenig”, which can be seen in Anthony’s Flickr photostream.

Thanks to all for participating in the contest. I hope you had as much fun with it as I did.

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If one has never been to this place, one should visit, at least once.

Of all the places we travel in New England in the fall, Acadia National Park is one of our favorite stops. The conundrum is that we appreciate solitude and wilderness, but ANP in autumn is anything but empty. Over the years, though, we’ve found a rhythm to visiting, and know of a few small spots where you can spend the day with very few signs of human activity. Despite the popularity of ANP (one of the most heavily visited of the National Parks), the natural beauty is, I think, unparalleled, particularly on the east coast.

Feel the warmth of the sun by viewing larger. Just click on the image to open a new window.

This image proved fairly difficult to process, and I went through several iterations. Whenever I got the sun flare to show up as I wanted (i.e., not blown out), most of the HDR processing programs created serious halos, especially around the tree branches on the left. Trying to merge in original exposures or sky-enhanced layers proved to be too difficult because of the varying intensities of light in the sky. It turned out to be a tug-of-war between a good sun flare and excessive haloing, with neither really winning. In the end, although I merged the brackets (+/-2EV) with HDR Expose, Nik Software’s HDR Efex Pro turned out the best preliminary result, although some fixing up had to be done: Denoising filters used to knock down HDR Efex Pro’s noise levels wound up overly softening a few elements. Once again, Topaz InFocus, my new favorite plug-in, came to the rescue to bring back the detail in the rocks. I also have to give a nod to the Content-Aware Fill feature of my new Photoshop CS5 for taking out some lens refraction spots… nothing could’ve been easier!

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It was just another beautiful autumn day at Acadia National Park on the Maine coast.

This is The Bowl, a small tarn near the Beehives on the eastern side of Mt. Desert Island. It was such a nice day, we just had to pull up for a while. Couldn’t just sit there — right? — so I started clicking off some hand-held brackets. Because of the inevitable camera motion when shooting hand-held and the usual softness brought about by HDR processing, this image needed some help. It was shot at 11mm f/2.8 with a CPL filter, which didn’t help matters.

While I don’t often recite highly detailed recipes, I thought this was a good example of “rescuing” an image that would otherwise sit as nothing more than a pleasant memory in the library. Thanks to one of my new favorite toys, Topaz InFocus, it became a viable HDR image.

I started off with a three-bracket (+/-2EV) merge in HDR Expose, with basic brightness and highlight adjustments in Unified Color’s Photoshop plug-in, 32 Float. Returning the result as a layer, a lens correction was used to relieve some barrel distortion. I invoked the new Topaz InFocus filter, dialing in just the right radius settings for this subject (1.76 radius, 2.7 suppress) in order to provide sharp detail in the wood grain of the logs. There were artifacts left in the tree line and water surface, but these could be addressed later. Having recently received an upgrade to Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 Complete, I had access to the Pro Contrast filter, which can really help to pop an image and remove color cast. Topaz DeNoise was then used to remove the artifacts created by the InFocus pass (I’m trying to wean myself off of Imagenomic Noiseware Pro since they’re not currently 64-bit.) I had originally used one of my favorite tricks, Nik’s Darken/Lighten Center, to bring the eye toward the logs, but it created a hyper-polarized effect by darkening the sky, which just seemed unnaturally blue.

One thing that has become clear to me (pun not intended) is that Topaz InFocus tends to work best when you have discrete, straight edges in an image. The cityscape that Topaz provides on their website is a good example of this. For this landscape image of The Bowl, you wouldn’t want to preview the area of trees, as that area is soft and irregularly shaped. Bringing the InFocus preview window to the logs and foreground detail, however, provided the harder edges needed for the filter’s algorithms to work properly. Knowing this seems to be one key to having the filter work best for you.

You can see this image larger by clicking on it. A new window will open on the Waterscapes gallery.

Sorry about the dearth of posts, lately. I’ve been fairly well wrapped up with various shoots and a sometimes pesky little thing called ‘life.’

This image was a test from a real estate shoot, but I liked it well enough to keep it. Typically, I’d like to shoot in more benign conditions than the middle of a bright, sunny day, but we can’t always pick and choose. In this case, I think the bright light makes for an inviting pool scene.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Processed from 9 exposures at 1EV steps using Promote Control. Merged using Unified Color’s HDR Expose and adjusted in Photoshop CS with 32 Float, also from Unified Color. I liked what Photomatix Pro 4 did with the stonework, so I touched in a little detail from that program using layer masking. Actually had to knock the blues back a bit, too! The first ‘final’ version’s sky looked a bit too contrived. Finally, the windows were reflecting a lot of blue, which was distracting, so I applied an Exposure adjustment layer in that area to tone down the glare. A noise-reduction run on the sky with Noiseware Pro was the only other adjustment.

Discount coupons for the above software are located here.

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I love you more than words can express, and far more than I ever imagined myself capable. You’re my friend, my teacher, my inspiration, my love.

– The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.    (Rumi)

Remain centered. And if that center ever falters, I’ll be there. I can be nowhere else.

Win a Free Copy of HDR Expose or 32 Float

(The image above was processed from three exposures -2EV, 0EV, +2EV merged with HDR Expose and processed using 32 Float. Click on the image to see a larger version in a new window.)

Note: This contest is now closed to new entries. Thank you to all the entrants for participating. Winner(s) will be announced shortly, so please stay tuned.

Thanks to my affiliation with the folks at Unified Color, I’m able to offer a free copy of both HDR Expose and 32 Float to two lucky people. All you have to do is download trial versions of the programs, process your original brackets, and show me the final result. In two weeks, two winners will be chosen from all entries.

The guidelines are simple:

1) Download a free trial copy of HDR Expose ($149.99 value) and/or 32 Float ($99 value)  from Unified Color.  The fully-featured trial versions are good for 30 days, with no watermarks, and no restrictions.

2) Pick a set of your own exposure brackets and create your best work using HDR Expose and/or 32 Float. No single-exposure entries, please, as this is all about High Dynamic Range (HDR).

3) Post a link to the comment section of this blog entry, pointing to your final image, which can be saved as a 8- or 16-bit TIF or 8-bit JPG file. The image can be on Flickr, on another photo sharing site, on your own website, or it can be hosted on your server where I can download it for a look. As long as I can get to it, we’ll be fine. (Important Note: Facebook Album entries will not be eligible for consideration.) When you post the link, please indicate which product(s) you used, and how many exposures went into the final version. Your email address will not be visible to others, but the link will be. This will have the added benefit of driving traffic to your site.

4) Please keep a copy of your final BEF file (Unified Color’s format.)  If you’re the winner, I may ask you for that file for possible further use. You’ll retain all copyrights, of course.

5) To keep the playing field level, do not apply any other filters, effects, adjustment layers, or other tweaks on the image. Work with it it entirely in BEF 32-bit format, using only HDR Expose or 32 Float.

IMPORTANT AMMENDMENT: Since one of the key features of 32 Float is that you can use multiple Photoshop layers derived from the original BEF file, I am updating Rule 5 to allow the use of Masking Layers. In other words, when working with 32 Float in Photoshop, you can work on your original 32-bit BEF file, making a Photoshop layer that exploits, say, the highlights of a photo. You can then go back to the BEF file (first layer) and create another new layer to exploit the shadow areas. Using Photoshop Layer Masks, you can selectively mask in/out certain parts of the image. (There is a tutorial for this on the UCT website, called “32 Float Dual Process Feature” located here. Or, you can view it on YouTube )  But please, no Curves, Exposure, Saturation, Brightness, or other Photoshop adjustment layers, and no 3rd-party filters (NIK, Topaz, Lucis, etc.)

6) The deadline for submission of entries is midnight (Eastern U.S.) on Saturday, November 27th, 2010. (Three weeks from the beginning of the contest.) Entries submitted after that will not be considered.

7) You may submit up to seven (7) images for consideration. To keep things organized, please submit each image link as a new comment.

8) Above all, Have Fun!

If you have a moment, please tell your friends about this contest, Tweet about it, etc.  The more the merrier.

Eligibility to Enter

Entrants must NOT be an employee of Unified Color or Matter Communications (or any of its or their affiliates, parent companies, or subsidiary companies), or one of the contest judges, or an immediate family member of such an employee or such a contest judge, or a person living in the same household of such an employee or such a contest judge;

By submitting an entry in this contest, each Entrant represents and warrants:

• The image is original, and the contest participant owns the copyright or any other associated intellectual-property rights in the image.

• The image does not infringe the copyright, rights of publicity or privacy, or any other intellectual-property or proprietary rights of any other person or entity.

• Any persons depicted in the image who are recognizable or identifiable from their image are 18 years of age or over and have given their signed, written consent to have their image used in this contest (and released any rights of publicity or privacy).

• Any building or architecture depicted in the image is located in or ordinarily visible from a public place, or, for any such building or architecture that is not located in or ordinarily visible from a public place, if the building or architecture is protected by copyright, Entrant must have the appropriate rights to submit the image and grant the rights provided in these contest rules and terms and conditions; and Entrants must be prepared to provide a signed release from the person or entity owning the copyright.

• For any sculptures, statues, paintings, or other works of art that are depicted in the image, Entrant must have the appropriate rights to submit the image and grant the rights provided in these contest rules and terms and conditions; and Entrants must be prepared to provide a signed release from the person or entity owning the copyright in any such sculptures, statues, paintings, or other works of art.

• The image has not previously won an award in any photography contest or other type of media or public recognition.

• The image does not contain obscene, profane, offensive, lewd, pornographic, or otherwise inappropriate content.

Time for more reflection, I suppose.

This image seems to serve as an adjunct to my previous post Reflections: Creativity and Certainty.

Here in the U.S., we’ve recently seen a swing of the pendulum away from the side of unfolding Creativity, with many of the people unwilling to let go of the dock of Certainty.  I think this perfectly reflects a basic part of human nature.  We’re uplifted by the drive for newness and innovation, and yet we tend to keep a tight grip on what we know to be certain, stable, predictable. Because of this, we have landed perfectly in the middle, at least for the time being.  According to the ‘pundits’ (again, the term being used with no small degree of sarcasm) the people do not want what has been termed a ‘progressive’ politic, yet neither do they want to accept the old model.

Never before has middle-of-the-roadism been so exciting! Where do we go from here? As with all things evolution, time will tell. For now, at the very least, the process of democracy seems to be alive and well, with people exercising their right to choose, and that is a beautiful thing.

Consider this my homage to that center. It is balanced and centered. It is ‘progressive’ in that it is an HDR image, and yet ‘conservative’ in its realism. It represents the great span of nature, yet it’s a simple scene. The water is shallow, and the water is deep. Soft trees / hard rock. Bright light / deep shadow. Warm air / cold water.

If nothing else, it’s something to reflect upon.

Thanks for stopping by,

Rob

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This image was created from a bracketed set of three RAW files. They were first converted to TIF, and then merged using HDR Expose from Unified Color (20% discount is available here.)  Since I tend to do most editing in Photoshop CS, I used 32 Float to do all necessary adjustments, added just a touch of NIK Color Efex Pro to even out the sky a bit, and then touched in NIK’s Darken/Lighten Center on just the foreground.

I had tried other programs and techniques on this image, but they seemed a little too “forward.” This was perfectly where I wanted it, and completely as it was the day I saw it. (Yes, it was a brilliantly clear, autumn day.)

And sometimes, “bad” is bad.

That must have been one serious downer for the owner of the truck. Being that it’s on a remote peninsula, I have to wonder how they got home.

This poor, unfortunate ride is now a permanent fixture at Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Fully covered at high tide (and hence the barnacles on the engine block), at low tide it bakes in the sun. We appreciate it being there, as it serves as a distant landmark for beaching our kayaks at this particular spot where there is a cut-through to the ocean side of the hook.

You can see this extra large in a new window on my Transportation Gallery

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This is an HDR image from three handheld exposures, processed in HDR Expose and 32 Float from Unified Color.  (Discount Available Here.) I had a circular polarizer installed that day, but it was a brilliantly clear day, i.e., no blue saturation was added. I used a little bit of Darken/Lighten Center, and Sharpener Pro, both from NIK Software.

One of the great things about living in this part of North Carolina is that we’re surrounded by water. Not that it’s all deep water, mind you, but the area around Cape Lookout and the Pamlico Sound is ripe with opportunities for world-class kayaking trips.

Yesterday was a brilliantly clear and warm day for late October, so we took advantage of the opportunity to paddle out to Cape Lookout and Shackleford Banks. We paddled amongst large pods of dolphins; Loggerhead turtles visited the boats; a small island was chock full of pelicans; a family of wild ponies gave us a great photo op (and we’re still working on the model releases.) It just doesn’t get any better than this kind of day.

Here, late in the day, we encountered a sand flat that grounded the boats, so we walked part of the way home. It was okay… we were in no hurry to return.

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Processing notes:

This was taken from a single RAW image. After making some minor adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw, I brought it into Photoshop and immediately turned it over to 32 Float, from Unified Color. A few adjustments there brought it to most of what you see here. Several filters from NIK Color Efex Pro were used to jazz things up, including Polarization, Brilliance/Warmth, Gradient, and Darken/Lighten Center. A pass with Imagenomics Noiseware Pro and two sharpening passes using the LAHR/HALR technique (Tutorial), and done.  No cropping was applied; I thought the framing was just about perfect right out of the camera.
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To see this image much larger, click on the image to see it in a new window on the Waterscapes Gallery.

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Big Back Yard

With sunrises like this, it’s hard to leave the place. This was taken one morning at Cobscook Bay State Park in northern Maine, not far from Lubec.

Our tent is just a few feet behind this point of view, making morning shooting very convenient. We often joke about our new campsites having a much bigger back yard than we have at home, and we find no greater pleasure than to just sit and watch nature do its thing, or to capture it in the process.

On a side note, I often think twice about posting in portrait orientation due to the limits of today’s monitors, but in this case, I think it suits the subject well, although I may next try a vertical panorama.

Click on the image to see it larger in a new window in the Waterscapes Gallery.

Once again, this image was composited in Photoshop by layering outputs from seven brackets in Photomatix Pro 4, HDR Expose/32-Float, and HDR Efex Pro. Each had something interesting and unique to offer to the final image, and none really created what I wanted in and of itself. Beyond that layering and masking, there was very little done in the way of color or saturation. In fact, I knocked back the saturation a bit using Topaz Adjust ‘Neutralizer’. In the end, this image represents what I saw that morning, but sometimes you have to coax it out of the brackets.

via mylifeinhdr.com

Share your comparison by linking to it in a comment.

Click on the image above to see it larger, in a new window, on my Animals gallery

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Great Egrets gather with other waterfowl at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge, Delaware.

This was a delightful find as we decided to take a back road out of Rehoboth Beach. The road passed over a causeway that bifurcated a pond, and the area to the right of the road was just loaded with wildlife. We had to stop for a while.

On a side note, I always found it curious that in a National Wildlife Refuge, hunting is allowed. Doesn’t that seem like a contradiction of terms?

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Processing-wise, this was one of those happy accidents.

I fed a single RAW file into Unified Color’s HDR Expose, and while adjusting a few things, I pushed the Shadow Power slider to a very strong setting. This caused the distant background to go dark, with the background birds floating in a rather ethereal way.  The effect was completely unexpected, but I decided to run with it.

Because Unified Color’s 32 Float plug-in for Photoshop allows you to save off layers, I stopped processing in HDR Expose and moved the 32-bit file over to Photoshop for further editing.  After only a few small changes, I did a crop and then applied some light NIK Color Efex Pro filters here and there to draw out areas of interest.

If you’d like to follow on Twitter, please click to the right.  To visit my other galleries, please choose the Galleries/Prints option in the menu bar.

Thanks for your time!

Rob

Click on the image for a larger view in a new window.

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Somewhat north of Lubec, Maine, there’s a little-known state park on Cobscook Bay.

We’ve never seen crowds at the park. There are sections where no RVs are allowed, which is heaven for tent campers.  At night, it’s utterly quiet.  In the morning, the sun rises over the bay and can be photographed right from the campsite. With a tidal range of some seventeen feet in the bay, it’s fascinating to watch this area fill and drain every few hours. When the tide is out, loons, seagulls, ducks, herons and other waterfowl feed on the flats. (The tide was about mid-way during this bracket.)

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This image was generated from nine exposures at 1EV intervals, shot using the Promote Control. In post-, I found that one of the more prevalent HDR programs made chaos with the colors, with the best result looking wayyyy to far-fetched for anyone’s liking.  Images like that should be binned immediately, which is exactly what I did. As they say, no two images are the same with these programs.

I merged the nine exposures in Unified Color’s HDR Expose, choosing to save the resulting 32-bit BEF file without further modification. Turning to Photoshop CS4, I brought the BEF file in and used a couple of different layers generated from Unified Color’s 32-Float plug-in, tweaking the brightness and contrast levels in places.  A few saturation and de-saturation adjustment layers were added, and a slight boost of exposure toward the end, and this was the result.

If you’d like to follow on Twitter, or visit my web galleries, please use the menu options above.

~

Unified Color has released their latest product, 32 Float, an HDR processing plug-in for Photoshop CS3/CS4/CS5.

Previously, the ability to edit 32-bit images in Photoshop has been extremely limited. Using 32 Float, with an interface similar to Unified Color’s HDR Expose program, you can adjust brightness and contrast, highlights and shadows, color balance and saturation, white balance, and other aspects of your image, all in full 32-bit mode using Unified Color’s Beyond RGB color space.

You can use just about any 32-bit image as input, whether it was generated by HDR Expose (.BEF), Photoshop’s Merge to HDR (32-bit TIFF), or any program that can generate OpenEXR or Radiance files.  32 Float will even work with 8- and 16-bit images! There are a number of output formats available as well.

One of the nicest advantages of 32 Float is that you can easily make multiple adjustment passes on an image, with each set of changes saved as a separate layer in Photoshop. This means that you can tune an image for, say, the dark interior of a room, save those changes as a Photoshop layer, and then use 32 Float to adjust perfectly for a brightly lit window in the same room, returning a separate layer. Using simple masking techniques, you can use both layers to compose the final image, with everything in perfect balance.

For a more thorough description of 32 Float, please see the Press Release from Unified Color, located here.

You can get a 30-day trial of 32 Float, and there is special introductory pricing of $79 (regularly $99) until the end of September, 2010. Bundle pricing is available if you’d like to purchase both HDR Expose and 32 Float together.

You can use my discount code when ordering products from Unified Color by clicking here. You’ll get 20% off HDR Expose by doing so. There are no discounts available on 32 Float during the introductory price special, but you’ll get 10% off 32 Float after October 1st.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I bring glad tidings of a new Photoshop® plug-in from Unified Color, the same folks who make HDR Expose. I don’t have any screen shots, yet, but having seen a demo of the new product last night, I can say that the interface looks very much like HDR Expose working within Photoshop, so I’d expect the learning curve to be quite minimal.

Up until now, editing images in 32-bit mode in Adobe® Photoshop® was extremely limited. Most of the adjustment features were grayed out and unavailable in 32-bit mode. There were a couple of gamma adjustments and filters available, but nothing terribly useful. For those of us who feel a need to retain all of the information in an HDR image for as long as possible, this was a problem. Or, just ‘life as-it-is” when working with Photoshop.

32 Float™ is the first fully featured 32-bit color editing plug-in for Adobe® Photoshop® based on Unified Color’s patented Be­yond RGB™ color space. Now, you can have full control over color adjustments, brightness, contrast, veiling glare and other functions while editing in full 32-bit mode, without having to sample your images down to 8- or 16-bits in order to work with filters and other functions. You can also work with 8- or 16-bit images as well with 32 Float™, so the functionality of the new product extends over a wide range.

You could, of course, use HDR Expose to accomplish these adjustments on a standalone basis, but having those capabilities integrated with Photoshop helps to streamline your HDR workflow.

32 Float will accept a variety of input file types, including but not limited to OpenEXR, Radiance, and BEF 32-bit HDR files. Alternatively, you can use Photoshop’s Merge to HDR function to create your 32-bit HDR file. From within Photoshop, you can pull down the filter menu to access 32 Float, where you’re brought into an interface that looks surprisingly similar to HDR Expose, with only a few minor variations. (The buttons have been regrouped, and a few others have been removed for the plug-in, as they weren’t necessary in this workflow.)

After making your adjustments in 32 Float, you apply the changes and those changes are saved as a new layer in Photoshop! (You can apply them to the base layer, but I wouldn’t recommend that.) From there, you are free to do any masking or other adjustments on that new layer.

But here’s the kicker: Suppose you have a scene with a really wide dynamic range, and you’d like to process segments of the image in different ways. After saving your first adjustments in a new Photoshop layer, you can go back to the Background (original) layer and invoke 32 Float again, making a different set of adjustments. Saving those adjustments as a new layer allows you to mask in or mask out sections of the image to draw out ALL of the information in the scene.

I think the possibilities are great for creative use of this plug-in. We certainly could have done the same thing with multiple BEF files from HDR Expose, but this new workflow makes it so much easier to work with layers in Photoshop.

When I get my hands on a copy of 32 Float, I’ll surely continue on with my notes.

32 Float is scheduled to be released this week, probably on August 26th or 27th. There will be limited-time introductory pricing on 32 Float, as well as bundle pricing if you’d like to get 32 Float along with HDR Expose.

For more information, please visit Unified Color‘s website. The Press Release under the Company section will tell you everything you might need to know.

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the Discount section above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Unified Color, the company behind HDR Expose, just announced a new plug-in for Photoshop called ’32 Float’

I’m pretty excited about this, because it means that we can now take almost any file into Photoshop in full 32-bit mode, but now with more options for manipulating color and tonal adjustments to that file. It’s not just for .HDR or .EXR files, either. It can ingest 8-bit or 16-bit files as well, and is supported by Photoshop CS3, CS4, and CS5.

For more information, please visit the announcement page at Unified Color.  As soon as it’s released, I’m sure you’ll hear more about 32 Float here.

Also, if at any time you’d like to purchase a product from Unified Color, I can offer a 20% discount off your purchase.  Please see my “Discounts” page in the menu above if you’d like to take advantage of the offer.

[A larger version of this image can be seen on my gallery at SmugMug,  here (Opens in a new tab/window)]

This image represents to me, 1) a continuation of a series of shots taken on one spectacularly cold Maine morning, and 2) a chance for further experimentation with blending output from two different HDR programs.

As for the first point, I had to drag myself out of a very warm, very comfortable, downy sleeping bag to shoot the sunrise.  Strong coffee is my friend.

To the second point…

This was taken from a set of three brackets (ISO 200, f/2.8, +/- 2 EV.)  I ran the set through Photomatix Pro 3 and created several different tonemap files.  One of the tonemaps was a Shadowmap for later use, one a Vivid (saturated) version and one a “nice” version (“nice” because I just thought it looked nice.) After producing those tonemaps, I also fed the brackets into HDR Expose, adjusting settings until it looked just right.

The output from HDR Expose was quite good on its own, but I thought it could use an extra touch, so I went to the Photomatix output to take a look. As it sometimes turns out, while the output from HDR Expose was solid, clear, and ‘true-to-life’, Photomatix output often has more punch and detail due to the available microcontrast settings.  There’s just something about the tonemapping process that jazzes up certain features.

Using the Shadowmapping technique, I layered the Shadowmap on the Vivid layer, toned down the saturation, and then blended it with the ‘nice’ tonemap. The result brought some subtle but necessary detail to the distant woods and some of the clouds.

When all of that looked good, I flattened the layers and copied the result on top of the HDR Expose version. Setting the opacity of the Shadowmap down to about 25-30% in Normal mode gave me a good result… other blending modes were too dark. The result was a highly realistic image — thanks to HDR Expose — with subtle but important details, color, and microcontrast from the Photomatix layer.

From there, the image took a trip into Topaz Adjust 4 for further punch-up. Using the NIK Color Efex Pro Darken/Lighten Center filter, I added a subtle dark vignette around the edges. Toward the end, I wasn’t delighted with the darkness of the distant shoreline, so I added an Exposure layer and masked it in to bring up the trees just a bit.

Surely, there are other ways to do this sort of processing, and some of them are bound to be easier paths to the same end. But each element seems to bring something to the final version, and playing around with different combinations can be both rewarding and frustrating.  Sometimes I do wonder if I should have just popped a single 0EV file into Topaz to see what would have happened.  Maybe tomorrow morning… over a cup of coffee.

“North Carolina Heating and Air Conditioning”

As I like to say: “The great part about not knowing all the rules is that it allows one to break them without compunction.”  Who’s to say that we can’t take the output from one HDR program and use it as input to another? Or, vice-versa? What happens if we combine this, with that? While sometimes the result looks like we’ve just combined matter with anti-matter, interesting surprises can result from such experimentation.

And, since we’re HDR photogs, don’t we inherently enjoy experimenting like the early alchemists?

I’ve been working quite a bit with Unified Color’s new HDR Expose program, and I’ve been using Photomatix Pro for quite a while now .  Each has its strengths, as we might expect, and I could pick over their respective weaknesses as well.  Rather than dwelling on what’s missing, I tried my best to use the strengths of each program in this image.  (Note: Discount codes for both programs are available from the Discounts menu above.)

When I ran the brackets through HDR Expose and applied edits there, the result was an ‘as-I-saw-it’ image with great shadow and highlight detail.  But, at the end of the process, it looked like an old building sitting in a field — which is exactly what it was.  While the result was an accurate representation, in this case it seemed to lack something artistic or interesting. There wasn’t enough there to really hold one’s attention.

Enter the stalwart Photomatix Pro 3(.2.9)  The output from that pass had elements that I loved about the building, but there was significant ghosting in the tree branches and the monochromatic sky had that dingy quality despite my having upped the micro-smoothing and highlights-smoothing substantially.  Those things could have been handled in Photoshop pretty easily by layering in a single RAW, but why not try something different?

Using standard Photoshop layering techniques, we’re able to quickly and easily combine the best elements of each program’s output. The shack was rendered by Photomatix Pro, while the remainder of the scene is from HDR Expose. Along the trees in certain spots, there is a mixture of the two, with HDR Expose handling most of the pixels.  Following up with some Curves adjustments and a little selective saturation boost in select spots, we have what I think is an interesting image: A funky old shack with some outrageous surface color — just as I had remembered it in the  harsh morning light (I drink strong coffee…) –  with sunlight pouring in through the roof.

It’s not a radical idea, of course, using various layers to achieve an effect.  I have some other experiments going on that I believe could be ever more interesting.

]]> http://hdrphotog.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/hdr-photostudio-2-vs-hdr-expose/ Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:47:00 +0000 hdrphotog http://hdrphotog.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/hdr-photostudio-2-vs-hdr-expose/ Unified Color released their new HDR Expose software which replaces HDR PhotoStudio 2.  Here is a comparison of default processing between the two softwares.  No post production or modification done after the ‘automatic’ toning.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Greetings –

This blog has recently been converted from another site.  The original HDR Expose blog entry has been made into a tutorial, but I didn’t want to break any links…

Please click here to see HDR Expose from Unified Color: A First Look