Help with HDR please!

[Javiert92]

Hey guys

I need some help with this photo i'm processing in photomatix.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/4953/paraayudavj3.jpg

Like you can see, it looks good, or at least I think so, but I made some 100% crops to show you how noisy it is in some parts of the final picture. I also put you the three different exposures taken from the camera. I used some pretty low settings, I mean the strenght was at 15, light smoothing 4, luminosity 4, and gamma at 1. I don't know what can I move in order to have less noise. Of course I could then fix something in pshop but I want to get rid of whatever is possible.

Hope anyone can help me.
Thanks

[Mark]

HDRs get noisy if you only use 3 exposures with 2 stop spacing, I usually use 1 stop spacing with however many exposures needed to get in the dynamic range

At the moment I would recommend running noise ninja or any NR program on it, that should get rid of the noise....

[Javiert92]

HDRs get noisy if you only use 3 exposures with 2 stop spacing, I usually use 1 stop spacing with however many exposures needed to get in the dynamic range

At the moment I would recommend running noise ninja or any NR program on it, that should get rid of the noise....
Then I would have to do it manually? Changing the shutter speed in Tv, because the 40d can only take three shots.

[Mark]

Then I would have to do it manually? Changing the shutter speed in Tv, because the 40d can only take three shots.

With the 40d it was always on a tripod, and I used M mode cahanging the shutter 1 stop up from the lowest to the highest exposure, capturing the full dynamic range of the scene

With the 1d I sometimes will handhold at 10fps bracketing 5-7 exposures with 1ev spacing covering the whole dynamic range....

[dcorrin]

Then I would have to do it manually? Changing the shutter speed in Tv, because the 40d can only take three shots.

You can use exposure compensation. Compensate -2, take your 3 bracketed shots. compensate +2, and take 3 more. You will have -4,-2,0,0,+2,+4. Ditch one of the zero shots. Sure would be nice if they'd change the firmware to shoot 5.

I usually just shoot the three, not 6, and I don't know whether having five actually would affect the noise.

Are you just processing your 'cr2's or converting to tiff? Photomatix suggests the latter. I don't usually, but I will occasionally use DPP or Lightroom to convert to tiff files, being careful not to make any changes like sharpening ,etc, although you could experiment with changing color temp. Sometimes compressing instead of enhancing will make a decent image, and it doesn't make noise like enhancing. I find it mainly useful with things shot at night.

[Javiert92]

With the 40d it was always on a tripod, and I used M mode cahanging the shutter 1 stop up from the lowest to the highest exposure, capturing the full dynamic range of the scene

With the 1d I sometimes will handhold at 10fps bracketing 5-7 exposures with 1ev spacing covering the whole dynamic range....
The only problem was what I was shooting being a sunrise. I have to take the photos quickly or else the sun position wouldn't be the same through all the shots, but I will try that in other situations.

You can use exposure compensation. Compensate -2, take your 3 bracketed shots. compensate +2, and take 3 more. You will have -4,-2,0,0,+2,+4. Ditch one of the zero shots. Sure would be nice if they'd change the firmware to shoot 5.

I usually just shoot the three, not 6, and I don't know whether having five actually would affect the noise.

Are you just processing your 'cr2's or converting to tiff? Photomatix suggests the latter. I don't usually, but I will occasionally use DPP or Lightroom to convert to tiff files, being careful not to make any changes like sharpening ,etc, although you could experiment with changing color temp. Sometimes compressing instead of enhancing will make a decent image, and it doesn't make noise like enhancing. I find it mainly useful with things shot at night.
Yes, i'm doing it with the CR2s. So doing it with tiffs is better?

[dcorrin]

Yes, i'm doing it with the CR2s. So doing it with tiffs is better?

Maybe. Sometimes. If I am trying to save/improve the quality of an image, I might try processing tiffs and sending them thru photomatix.

What's better? Depends on the image. Same with the choice between details enhancer and tone compressor. And sometimes just using something to kill the noise after photomatix is better but sometimes you lose too much detail and noise is better. Every image is different.

It's all an experiment, and sometimes one has to keep trying. I watched a webinar by Harold Davis the other night, and was inspired to go back and save a whole night worth of shooting from the full moon last month.

[woodsie]

I generally prefer converting from RAW to TIFF and then running the TIFF through Photomatix. Mainly because my RAW converter gives me more control over the conversion, especially when it comes to white balance. At the moment I tend to use all the same settings on all exposures. But if I get adventurous I may see if it makes a different to convert the RAW with different parameters.

For setting sun, working quickly and smoothly in manual mode with practice you should be able to flick through 5-7 exposures on a tripod fast enough that the sun doesn't move noticably.

Extra noise is an unfortunate effect of the way Photomatix works. Light smoothing can reduce this, but tends to introduce other artifacts if used too aggressively. But I find that every image I produce from Photomatix requires "fixing" in photoshop, even if it is just to increase the contrast and fix the saturation. So often I will run it through NeatImage too reducing the noise that way.

[johncolby]

Yes, i'm doing it with the CR2s. So doing it with tiffs is better?

For me, RAW conversion to TIFF in ACR/LR basically always handles noise better than straight conversion from CR2s in Photomatix.