Looking for "faked" HDR actions/plug-ins

[klynam]

I'm looking specifically for PS-CS3 actions/plug-ins (prefer free of course) that will allow me to REPLICATE creative HDR effects from a single image.

Tuts (single image HDR, LOMO, etc) are also welcome as I can "actionize" them.

I searched the forums and didn't find anything right off that matched what I'm looking for. Searched Yahoo! but most results were for tru HDR, not single image fakes. (Yes - I found a few several on good-tutorials.com.)

Thank you...

[shannyD]

at i think its called pink ink studios ( online vendor) you can buy a fake hdr action for a couple dollars.i have tried it a few times. and it looks pretty cool.

[klynam]

Never mind - Deviant Art has everything I need...

[zacker]

try opening up the shot in ACR and push the fill light, recovery and clairity to 100 then move the blacks up untill it looks good, then you can adjust the color sliders down at the bottom.. works well with some photos.

[klynam]

cool - thanks zacker, I'll give it a shot

[amandagal]

Try Topaz Adjust:
http://www.topazlabs.com/topazlabs/03products/topaz_adjust/

I love it. It does more than fake HDR.

[zacker]

what did ya find on D-art?

[Tareq]

http://paxtonprints.com/index.php?x=process_image_multiple_times

http://4thdynasty.com/designtools/

[marcoj70]

What I do is basically this (I have PS CS, but the principle is the same):
1 I create a light and a dark version from the original image, keeping in the lighter version the darkest part of the picture at optimum and in the darker version the lighter part of the picture at optimum.
2 I copy the lighter version as a new layer over the dark one.
3 I add a layer mask to the top (lighter) layer
4 I copy one of the layers (Ctr+a, Ctr+c), choosing the layer with the overall more detail (usually the dark layer).
5 Alt+click on the layer mask: the pic frame will show white.
6 Cntr+V into it: the layer mask will look as a bw version of the layer i copied.
7 Invert the image (bw, mask representation)
8 Tweak levels of the mask as needed (for this I usually first click the top layer and then the mask again before opening the levels: in this way i work on the mask but i see the layers themselves). Keep in mind that you will see a lot of details disappearing, especially where there's a change in contrast every few pixels, but I'll deal with that in the next step.
9 Apply gaussian blur to the mask, so to get the details back. Calibrate it such that you get the details back but you don't notice an halo near the lines of high contrast in the picture. Usually something around 10 pixel is a good starting point, but is different for every picture.

Once you see you got a hold of the procedure, record it as an action, leaving steps 8 and 9 interactive, since they vary from picture to picture

[zacker]

thanks Marco, i must try this one!