HDR going haywire!

[furioussphinx]

Guys I need some help. Am trying to master HDR like a nut since 2 days. Working with photomatix and noiseware. These are a couple of results.

With light, its weird. The halo effect isnt going no matter what I do. As you can see in my second pic with the desktop, beside the bedlamp and on it, u have the weird pattern. Why is that coming? I tried taking some shots yesterday night of the road and the headlight trails of the cars came in a harsh shade of purple and what not. How do I handle these light issues?

As you can see, the sky is a complete disaster in all the pics. How to correct them?

The procedure that am following is, taking the pics with +2,0,-2ev and then loading them up to merge in Photomatix. Once its done, I get this result, the halos and awkward sky. Strength is around 70-85, color saturation about 60, luminosity is 10, microcontrast is also pretty high at about 7, smoothing, I keep it at high or max, white point at around 1-1.2 and black point around 1.2-1.4.

Btw, the 2 punto close up shots which look better are done only on one single exposure file.

[KrishnenduKes]

HDR Critique Approved

These are not just a "couple" of results; there are eight of them here!

Subject for Anvancy, Sunny.

[furioussphinx]

HDR Critique Approved

These are not just a "couple" of results; there are eight of them here!

Subject for Anvancy, Sunny.

ok damn, lol. I sort of figured out the problem myself. Here again, I redid my files and here are the outputs. Suggestions and critical comments welcome.

http://i42.tinypic.com/91e7h5.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/ofuiiw.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/30ldsev.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/m7e2vc.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/72wyzm.jpg

http://i40.tinypic.com/9htl7a.jpg

http://i39.tinypic.com/elcy7q.jpg

http://i44.tinypic.com/5yht2q.jpg

[hitanshu]

Its still overdone. Check synn's images on the HDR thread (cochin and esp Chinese garden one) - they are really worked upon - but yours seem almost painting like!!

[furioussphinx]

Its still overdone. Check synn's images on the HDR thread (cochin and esp Chinese garden one) - they are really worked upon - but yours seem almost painting like!!

Am slowly trying to get there buddy. So far this is my 2nd attempt. First was a disaster and this is somewhat just average. Now I should work on it better. Any pointers to start with?

[Aryan]

@Furiossphinx: Nice results for someone who is "still learning". I am sure members like Anvancy and Sunny would be able to help you out immensely. :)

[anvancy-(macro analyst)]

HDR has always been a Debate.many don't like it since its a manipulation.

Now when people do HDR there is a debate within doing HDR.Artistic vs Realistic.

If you like the ones that you process which in other people word is either cartoonish or in those lines,ill say dont bother much.

Personally speaking I love the punto besides building shots.the reflection in the glass is fantastic.and the desktop one.

Artistic and Realistic definitions differ from person to person.

I am in no way a pro in this.but ill tell you that in this HDR field the moment you go towards the "paint feel" or likes people are gonna bombard you like anything.in the end for your personal shots if you feel the rendering has come out beautiful stick to it.

The halos need to be worked upon but it can be done.

Cheers..and now even my post will get bombarded.:p

Anvancy

[Bibudesh]

Google layer masking for HDR in CS3, tone mapping in photomatix. You'll get the answers.
I can notice some wrong slidings you have done in photomatix, some u have missed. But I would better leave it to google since giving gyan about photomatix is like copy pasting the help manual here.

[robin234]

for halos play around the smoothing settings :)

Low will have hell lot of halos and max will have none .

Purplish kind of sky usually suggest saturation 95+ and temperature + 6.5

[furioussphinx]

@Furiossphinx: Nice results for someone who is "still learning". I am sure members like Anvancy and Sunny would be able to help you out immensely. :)

Am getting good encouragement and am sure with all the help and support, I can work better :)

HDR has always been a Debate.many don't like it since its a manipulation.

Now when people do HDR there is a debate within doing HDR.Artistic vs Realistic.

If you like the ones that you process which in other people word is either cartoonish or in those lines,ill say dont bother much.

Personally speaking I love the punto besides building shots.the reflection in the glass is fantastic.and the desktop one.

Artistic and Realistic definitions differ from person to person.

I am in no way a pro in this.but ill tell you that in this HDR field the moment you go towards the "paint feel" or likes people are gonna bombard you like anything.in the end for your personal shots if you feel the rendering has come out beautiful stick to it.

The halos need to be worked upon but it can be done.

Cheers..and now even my post will get bombarded.:p

Anvancy

I totally agree with you. I sort of went overboard with the artistic and dramatic feel. A little bit of playing around will get me familiar with all the slider functions and then I guess I can tone down to little bit more on the realistic aspect. this is what happened with Photoshop too initially. Its an art which will become finer with time, practice and effort :)

Google layer masking for HDR in CS3, tone mapping in photomatix. You'll get the answers.
I can notice some wrong slidings you have done in photomatix, some u have missed. But I would better leave it to google since giving gyan about photomatix is like copy pasting the help manual here.

What is google layer masking? Right now, am using just photomatix, noiseware , and a little tweaking in photoshop and lightroom. Could you be a little bit more specific about the slidings? Its going over my head right now lol.

for halos play around the smoothing settings :)

Low will have hell lot of halos and max will have none .

Purplish kind of sky usually suggest saturation 95+ and temperature + 6.5

The issue with the weird sky was because I directly gave the input files in RAW format. Later when I converted them to TIFF and did the same, it was perfect. Weird. I wonder why RAW had those issues. And the purple ting came directly, I dint play with the temp or saturation at all.

[Bibudesh]

What is google layer masking? Right now, am using just photomatix, noiseware , and a little tweaking in photoshop and lightroom. Could you be a little bit more specific about the slidings? Its going over my head right now lol.


Search 'Layer Masking in CS3' in Google.

The procedure that am following is, taking the pics with +2,0,-2ev and then loading them up to merge in Photomatix. Once its done, I get this result, the halos and awkward sky. Strength is around 70-85, color saturation about 60, luminosity is 10, microcontrast is also pretty high at about 7, smoothing, I keep it at high or max, white point at around 1-1.2 and black point around 1.2-1.4.

Did you change the sliders or was it by default? If not then hit the default button in tone mapping window. It will show a bland kind of image with very little HDRish effects on it. Start working from there.

Avoid overdoing.

Its not the sliders intensity which gives the max effect but the combination of proper slider values. Having everything high will yield results which u have already shared.

After tone mapping, you may have to do quite heavy editing in Photoshop/GIMP etc, as HDR is more about editing. Layer masking may be used for retaining the washed out colors say of sky.

[furioussphinx]

Search 'Layer Masking in CS3' in Google.



Did you change the sliders or was it by default? If not then hit the default button in tone mapping window. It will show a bland kind of image with very little HDRish effects on it. Start working from there.

Avoid overdoing.

Its not the sliders intensity which gives the max effect but the combination of proper slider values. Having everything high will yield results which u have already shared.

After tone mapping, you may have to do quite heavy editing in Photoshop/GIMP etc, as HDR is more about editing. Layer masking may be used for retaining the washed out colors say of sky.

I did work on the sliders from default setting. And yes, i did go overboard with the values initially :p With time am sure I will learn. Once am free after my exams, I will be clicking pics like crazy, will try and fine tune myself better.

[furioussphinx]

Here is something I tried yesterday. Need your valuable feedback guys.

http://i40.tinypic.com/16knhwn.jpg

A little dramatic feel,

http://i42.tinypic.com/3443v6a.jpg

A little realistic...

http://i44.tinypic.com/14d39td.jpg

[hitanshu]

No yaar. This (personally) is where it goes all unrealistic and wrong.

HDR works when there is a difference in exposure/brightness - there are very bright and very dark areas. What you are doing is good pics but where such scope doesn't exist - then with the sliders, you get this unreal texture of the car which frankly is not moving.

http://www.camshotsindia.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2416 is a really awesome example of what you can achieve

and here's our in house HDR man - Synn:
http://sandeepmurali.shutterfly.com/27

[furioussphinx]

No yaar. This (personally) is where it goes all unrealistic and wrong.

HDR works when there is a difference in exposure/brightness - there are very bright and very dark areas. What you are doing is good pics but where such scope doesn't exist - then with the sliders, you get this unreal texture of the car which frankly is not moving.

http://www.camshotsindia.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2416 is a really awesome example of what you can achieve

and here's our in house HDR man - Synn:
http://sandeepmurali.shutterfly.com/27

Agree with you. My pics are going off into that painting style and not the right path. The one defect I could spot is the software. It shows me one preview and after generating its something else and secondly my little monitor, just waiting to upgrade. But still I will try hardly, am sure someday I will get it right :)

[hitanshu]

bhai,

First choose a photo with sufficient dark and light areas and you'll automatically see a quantum leap - your choice of photo itself is lacking, not as much the cliking/processing!

[furioussphinx]

bhai,

First choose a photo with sufficient dark and light areas and you'll automatically see a quantum leap - your choice of photo itself is lacking, not as much the cliking/processing!

Understood what you had to say. I was just telling about the other issue I had generally. I know that HDR is best to get all details out from the highlights and shadows. Next time I go to click, will keep your pointers in mind certainly.