I never thought I'd be asking about HDR!

[Monty Rakusen]

I've been shooting inside a cooling tower, very dramatic. Where the sun has come in and struck the opposite wall I've bracketed for a correct exposure and am at present trying to get the two frames to look natural as one. I feel that an HDR approach to this might be the right way. Can anyone recommend some software, preferably as a useable demo as I can't see me using it much.

kind regards
Monty Rakusen

PS I cant get CS5 HDR to work

[martinnz]

http://www.ohanaware.com/hdrtist/?utm_medium=program&utm_source=hdrtist&appBuild=59

This is very basic but worth a look I think.   

[Dustbak]

Weird Monty, CS5 HDR works fairly well (all things considered). I have tried both CS5 as well as Photomatix and I find myself always ending up doing something hybrid. Eg. I create a HDR file that I always find way too flat. I than layer it together with the regular exposure I took and paint in the good parts that I want to keep.

You might want to try going HDR via Adobe Bridge CS5, select the exposures (I usually use Tiff files) and go to 'Tools', 'Photoshop', 'Merge to HDR Pro'. You have to tone-map your HDR to something usefull. From that point on I am going manual.

There was a very useful seminar on the Onone website using its software to get to something nice while using their Onone Suite software.

[meonshore]

Monty,

If you feel like you can get this done with in 15 days then try out Nik HDR-Efex

http://www.niksoftware.com/hdrefexpro/usa/entry.php

Fully functioning but time limited. Demos and instructional videos on the site....

HTH

[Monty Rakusen]

http://www.ohanaware.com/hdrtist/?utm_medium=program&utm_source=hdrtist&appBuild=59

This is very basic but worth a look I think.   

This seems to work! Thanks!

[mauro risch]

Hi Monty,
I've used a few different ones, but Photomatix seems to give me the best final results.
I often go very strong on the effect and then work the photomatix as a layer on top of the original tiff in photoshop.
The HDR in Photoshop is good but doesn't give me the punch I'm looking for in some of the wide range shadow/highlights images.
I often use a 1 stop difference between the 3 merged images. -1, 0 & +1 f/stops.

Good luck mate,

Mauro

[Dustbak]

Mauro,

I do the same but I often find I have difficulties in the difference between the Photomatix results and the 'regular' exposure. Even when I mask it in very gently on a low opacity. How do you deal with this? Use a very low opacity brush to mask it in and afterwards lower the opacity of the layer significantly? Whatever I do it seems I continue to see the difference between what has been done by Photomatix and what is the 'native' file. I often end up very close to the 'original' file.

[mauro risch]

Hey Dustbak,
It is still very experimental for me. I see often better results with the darker subjects than mixing the images that have very intense highlight areas.
It is very hard for us, after 20 or 30+ yrs to believe what the system can do, instead of the old 8x10 chromes, where we had the feeling we could control.
My clients here in Australia don't like the surreal effect in most of the interior shots.
The clients in South East Asia love it.
I like it some times.
I go very heavy on the effects first, and start getting rid of the areas that I'm not happy with using a layer mask. This way I can recover the original
on the background layer.
It is not a science for me. Perhaps it will never be.

14ºC in Melbourne. Cloudy. Time for a good Shiraz.