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Contents at a Glance
Introduction ................................................................ 1
Part I: The ABCs of HDR Photography ........................... 7
Chapter 1: Shining a Light on HDR ..................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Gearing Up for HDR ......................................................................................27
Chapter 3: Looking Hard at HDR Software ...................................................................51
Part II: Putting the Photography in HDR Photography ...67
Chapter 4: Becoming One with Your Camera ..............................................................69
Chapter 5: Bracketing Exposures for HDR ....................................................................87
Chapter 6: Shooting Single-Exposure HDR .................................................................115
Part III: The Soft(er)ware Side of HDR ..................... 131
Chapter 7: Generating HDR ...........................................................................................133
Chapter 8: Preparing to Tone Map ..............................................................................151
Chapter 9: Tone Mapping for Fun and Pro t ..............................................................173
Chapter 10: Layers, Process, and Blending ................................................................197
Chapter 11: Cleaning Up Your Photos .........................................................................221
Part IV: Having Fun with HDR Images ...................... 247
Chapter 12: Creating Panor-Ahhh-Mas ........................................................................249
Chapter 13: Going Old School with Black-and-White HDR .......................................269
Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 295
Chapter 14: (More Than) Ten Ways to Shoot Better Photos for HDR ....................297
Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Ruin a Good HDR Image ....................................................307
Index ...................................................................... 319
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COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
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Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................. 1
About This Book ..............................................................................................1
Who This Book Is For ......................................................................................1
What You Need ................................................................................................2
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................2
Whys and Wherefores .....................................................................................3
How This Book Is Organized ..........................................................................3
Part I: The ABCs of HDR Photography ................................................4
Part II: Putting the Photography in HDR Photography .....................4
Part III: The Soft(er)ware Side of HDR .................................................4
Part IV: Having Fun with HDR Images..................................................4
Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................................................5
Icons Used in This Book .................................................................................5
Where to Go from Here ...................................................................................5
Part I: The ABCs of HDR Photography ........................... 7
Chapter 1: Shining a Light on HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Peeking inside the HDR Process ..................................................................10
The twin peaks of HDR ........................................................................10
Going with the (work) ow ..................................................................11
HDR Show and Tell ........................................................................................14
Rescuing details from shadows .........................................................14
Taming highlights ................................................................................16
Making the most of interior spaces ...................................................17
Enhancing details .................................................................................20
Working wonders with people ...........................................................21
Within and without ..............................................................................23
Feeding your starving inner artist .....................................................24
Getting Excited about HDR Photography ...................................................26
Chapter 2: Gearing Up for HDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Knowledge Is Power: Researching and Shopping
for the Right Equipment ............................................................................28
Looking at Hand-Held Photon Capture Devices (Err, Cameras) ..............29
Inexpensive compact cameras ...........................................................30
High-end compact and super-zoom cameras ...................................33
dSLR cameras .......................................................................................35
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Looking through Lenses ...............................................................................37
Budget compact camera lenses .........................................................37
Premium and super-zoom lenses .......................................................38
Wide angle lenses ................................................................................39
General purpose and kit lenses ..........................................................41
Other lens types ...................................................................................42
Choosing a Pod, Tri or Otherwise ...............................................................43
Odd pods...............................................................................................44
Inexpensive tripods .............................................................................44
Expensive tripods ................................................................................45
Additional items for your tripod ........................................................47
Adding Optional Accessories to Your HDR Kit ..........................................47
Chapter 3: Looking Hard at HDR Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Software: Don’t Pass HDR without It ...........................................................51
H-D-R (uh-huh, uh-huh), we like it . . .................................................52
Rah rah for raw raw .............................................................................53
MBA in image management ................................................................54
Editing for zing .....................................................................................54
Your Guide to Raw .........................................................................................54
Using your camera’s software ............................................................54
Third-party Raw software ...................................................................56
Adobe Camera Raw..............................................................................57
Surveying the HDR Software Landscape ....................................................58
Artizen HDR ..........................................................................................58
Dynamic Photo HDR ............................................................................59
easyHDR ................................................................................................ 59
FDRTools ...............................................................................................60
Hydra HDR plug-in for Aperture 2.1 ...................................................61
Photomatix Pro ....................................................................................61
Qtpfsgui .................................................................................................62
Integrating More Cool Software into Your HDR Work ow .......................62
Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo ................................................................63
Adobe Photoshop ................................................................................63
Adobe Photoshop Elements ...............................................................63
Adobe Lightroom .................................................................................63
Apple Aperture .....................................................................................64
Part II: Putting the Photography in HDR Photography ...67
Chapter 4: Becoming One with Your Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69
The Secrets (Shh . . .) of Exposure ..............................................................70
Photographic stops/EV .......................................................................72
Bracketing .............................................................................................73
Metering ................................................................................................ 74
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Table of Contents
Con guring Your Camera for HDR ..............................................................75
Setting Up Exposure Compensation ............................................................76
Preparing to Manually Bracket a Scene ......................................................78
Dialing in Auto Bracketing ............................................................................81
Getting Ready for Single-Shot HDR ..............................................................84
Chapter 5: Bracketing Exposures for HDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Big Answers for Big Bracketing Questions .................................................88
Deciding how many brackets to shoot..............................................88
Seeing the difference ...........................................................................91
Shooting Bracketed Photos ..........................................................................96
Using exposure compensation ...........................................................97
Manual bracketing .............................................................................100
Auto bracketing ..................................................................................104
Shooting multiple auto brackets ......................................................105
Using Alternate Metering Strategies .........................................................109
Working with a light meter ...............................................................109
Alternate metering with your camera .............................................114
Chapter 6: Shooting Single-Exposure HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115
Knowing When to Break the Rules ............................................................116
Satisfying the Minimum Requirements .....................................................118
Work- ow, Flow, Flow Your Boat ...............................................................119
Tone Mapping Single Exposures ................................................................123
Shooting single-exposure HDR on the go ........................................123
Increasing contrast and details ........................................................125
Reducing noise ...................................................................................125
Using a single Raw photo without converting to brackets ...........126
Comparing Results ......................................................................................127
Part III: The Soft(er)ware Side of HDR ..................... 131
Chapter 7: Generating HDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
The Unbearable Lightness of HDR ............................................................133
HDelightfullyR images and les ........................................................134
Choosing an HDR le format ............................................................135
Converting Raw Photos ..............................................................................136
Principle principles ...........................................................................137
Converting bracketed photos ..........................................................138
Creating brackets from one Raw exposure ....................................140
Creating HDR ................................................................................................142
Photomatix Pro ..................................................................................142
Photoshop...........................................................................................146
Photoshop Elements 8 ......................................................................149
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Chapter 8: Preparing to Tone Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151
Tone Mapping 101 .......................................................................................151
Getting Acquainted with Photomatix Pro .................................................155
Exploring Details Enhancer ..............................................................156
Examining Tone Compressor ...........................................................163
Using Photoshop .........................................................................................166
Chapter 9: Tone Mapping for Fun and Profi t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
Tone Mapping with Photomatix Pro .........................................................173
Getting ready to tone map ................................................................174
Getting started to tone map .............................................................174
Making and evaluating adjustments ................................................178
Finishing up ........................................................................................182
Tone Mapping in Photoshop ......................................................................183
An Approach to Comparing Approaches .................................................188
Batch-Processing Multiple Files .................................................................190
Batch-Processing Single Files .....................................................................194
Chapter 10: Layers, Process, and Blending. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197
Taking the Layers Refresher Course .........................................................198
The lasagna of layers .........................................................................198
Managing layers .................................................................................200
Mama Mia Methodologia ............................................................................202
Editing with layers .............................................................................202
The work ow (cue reveal music) ....................................................205
And Now, Blending in 3-D ...........................................................................212
Blending with opacity........................................................................212
Blending select areas.........................................................................213
Using blending modes .......................................................................217
Chapter 11: Cleaning Up Your Photos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Hey! Keep the Noise Down in There! .........................................................222
Global noise smackdown ..................................................................222
Select and reduce...............................................................................225
Masked reduction ..............................................................................226
Multiple masked reduction ...............................................................228
We Have the Technology: Cloning ............................................................229
Ye olde feather duster .......................................................................229
Removing distractions ......................................................................230
Fixing Lens Distortions ...............................................................................232
Solving Color and Saturation Problems ....................................................236
Oversaturation ...................................................................................236
Color casts ..........................................................................................237
Levels and Lightness ...................................................................................239
Smoothing Rough Spots ..............................................................................240
Turning Your Images Loose: Publishing ...................................................241
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Table of Contents
Part IV: Having Fun with HDR Images ....................... 247
Chapter 12: Creating Panor-Ahhh-Mas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249
Shooting Panoramas in HDR ......................................................................250
Processing Panoramas As HDR ..................................................................256
Developing Raw photos in bulk .......................................................256
Creating an HDR master frame .........................................................257
Batch-processing the rest .................................................................258
Stitching the Elements Together ...............................................................259
Stitching in Photoshop Elements .....................................................259
Blending the frames with layer masks ............................................263
Cropping the nalized image ............................................................266
Chapter 13: Going Old School with Black-and-White HDR . . . . . . . .269
Seeing That Special Something ..................................................................270
Emphasizing contrast ........................................................................270
Reveling in tone ..................................................................................271
Solving color problems .....................................................................273
Focusing on the subject ....................................................................274
Converting Early in the HDR Process .......................................................274
Using a Raw editor .............................................................................275
Desaturating while you tone map ....................................................277
Converting a Tone Mapped HDR Image ....................................................278
Weighing in on the grayscale ...........................................................278
Desaturayayayayshun ....................................................................... 278
Using Convert to Black and White ...................................................278
Using a gradient map .........................................................................281
Working with Photoshop ..................................................................283
Colorizing Black-and-White Images ...........................................................286
Using Elements to colorize ...............................................................286
Using Photoshop to colorize ............................................................291
Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................ 295
Chapter 14: (More Than) Ten Ways to Shoot
Better Photos for HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297
Getting a Good Tripod ................................................................................297
Being Patient ................................................................................................298
Becoming a Cloud Watcher ........................................................................298
Taking Your Camera with You ...................................................................299
Loving HDR Photography ...........................................................................299
Paying Attention to Light and Time ..........................................................300
Knowing Your Camera ................................................................................300
Looking for Contrast ...................................................................................301
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Returning to the Scene ................................................................................302
Looking Around ...........................................................................................303
Using AEB .....................................................................................................304
Shuttering with a Purpose ..........................................................................304
Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Ruin a Good HDR Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .307
Halos, Halos, Everywhere! ..........................................................................307
Wimping Out on Contrast ...........................................................................308
Imagination Smackdown .............................................................................310
This Isn’t Casper, The Friendly Ghost ......................................................311
Sharpening From Dusk ’Til Dawn ..............................................................311
Too Much Noise Reduction Going On .......................................................312
Putting a Square Peg into a Round Hole ...................................................313
Timidity on the Coloroidity ........................................................................314
Too Much HDR .............................................................................................314
Overreacting to Criticism ...........................................................................316
Index ....................................................................... 319
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