HDR How-To, Maybe
One of the photos hanging at Java Central tonight is this frame of one of the few barns remaining in Westerville. The road past the barn is well traveled and the small area of farm land around continues to be used for farming with corn and soybeans the two crops harvested in alternate years. The plots of land across the street are cut several times each year for hay.
The barn is weathered but sturdy owing to its solid construction. The house at the front of the property has fallen into disrepair.
I’ve photographed it many times, in all types of weather, using it as foreground and background and main subject.
This photo is from a single frame HDR image process through PhotoMatixPro 3.0, an image processing program that turns RAW images into HDR images ready for tonal processing. I’ve used the software for several years with some success depending upon the original image and the processing method.
The software is simple to use but exceptionally complex in its functions. Don’t expect to begin your HDR travels with an expectation of quick success. It won’t happen. Unless you’re lucky.
The true method for shooting HDR images is to shoot a series of images with varying exposures that collect a full set of details from highlights to shadows. PhotoMatix then processes this set of photos into a single frame that gathers data from every tonal range in the frame. The combined data is then placed into a 32-bit file that can be processed with tonal mapping selections into a photo like you see above.
I don’t always take the time to collect a set of images for processing. PhotoMatix also has a single image processor for RAW images that comes really close to the quality of more than one frame processing.
The photo at right is the original frame as it came from my camera. Cloudy day with very flat lighting and little color saturation. the contrast is low and the tones are within a narrow range.
This style of lighting lends itself well to single frame HDR. The compressed tonal range means there is little loss of detail in the image. A more contrast image might not have highlight or shadow detail. If you’re shooting strongly or brightly lit images it is best to shoot a set of images for processing instead of just one.
The resulting PhotoMatix HDR image, at right, is exceptionally flat and dark, for a reason. The software has pulled all the information possible from the RAW image and forced it into a 32-bit image that is very complex in its tonal range. The lack of contrast is purposeful. Only after having gathered the data into a 32-bit image can processing begin.
PhotoMatix can now load the image into its tone mapping image for final processing. The choices for modifying the HDR for output are so complex and subjective that I won’t begin an explanation here. What’s important about the result is what you want to see from the original frame.
The photo at the top of this post is the direct output of PhotoMatix with only a little darkening gradation at the lower left to slightly darken the pathway.
I often talk about knowing as you press the shutter what the final result of the process will be.
PhotoMatix is but one of the ways for you to get to the expected result.
