Creating a HDR manually using Photoshop ?

davidbridges

davidbridges

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David Bridges
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Hi all,

I have got a load of pictures i would like to HDR using photoshop but the 'automate' hdr merge things keeps saying there is not enough range bla bla .... Is there a way to create one manually, by duplicating layers and changing exposures ect ect or do i have to buy something like photomatix (which i am not going to)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Dave
 
shoot RAW
save the same photo at 2 stops under and 2 stops over.
so you end up with 3 photos
1 @ 2 under
1 @ original exposure
1 @ 2 over
 
I still get the same error, even though I've used bracketed exposure and I KNOW there are 3 shots, 1 at -2, 1 at 0 and 1 at +2

I gave up in the end and use photomatix now, which allows you to do it manually if it gets confused.

I'd guess it's something in the metadata :shrug:
 
Yup, I had the same problem and did it manually. I have since given up HDR, I shall try again though.

Portraits are more my thing, but I am really wanting to get into taking some decent landscapes.
 
I dunno then, maybe your missing an action or something in photoshop.
I wouldn't know, never used it..
 
kyle said:
Yup, I had the same problem and did it manually. I have since given up HDR, I shall try again though.

Portraits are more my thing, but I am really wanting to get into taking some decent landscapes.
Click to expand...


I'd leave HDR well alone if you want to take decent landscapes.
 
Nobody has actually mentioned what i need to do to actually merge the 3 shots on photoshop (without using the 'automate > Merge to HDR' )
 
Try stripping the exif data from the image first (file/ save for web) as photoshop is picking up the exposure from there.
 
David

Do you know what exposure range you used to produce the original images. I've seen Photoshop report only a 1 stop range when I know it was 2. Fortunately it took the data and worked OK
 
David

Try selecting the images from Bridge. I just tried this with 3 images that had very little difference in exposure and Photoshop worked fine.

Select your images then go to TOOLS and under Photoshop select Merge to HDR.

The 3 images merged fine
 
Save the exposures as .tiff files :)
 
I never got on with HDR in photoshop, I use photomatix instead. You can download a free version, with limited functionality. There's another free version of HDR software as well, but can't remember its name and not at home at the moment. I'll post it later.
 
Home now, the other free hdr software is Dynamic-Photo HDR, it's free version has slightly more functionality than the Photomatix offering. That said I went for Photomatix as Petemc's tutorials relate are for Photomatix.
 
I've found that Photomatix produces far better results than CS3's HDR functions...imho of course.
 
How rare, I've been having the same problem (with .tiff files over a range of four stops). Cheers for the advice, guys :)
 
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