New to HDR...noise issue?

[The_Machingbird]

Alright...so I've done a few merges in Photomatix of 3 to 6 exposures at +/- 1 or +/- 2 EV and they're all coming out WAY pixelated. Is there a secret way of doing this while minimizing the pixelation? Or do I need to eliminate the pixelation via pp/noise-ninja?

[HastyPhoto]

Can you post an example shot? What are you shooting in raw? What settings in photomatix? Info info info please.

That said, I have found converting raws to 16 bit tifs first and tweaking the raws, cleaning up the noise before photomatix helps alot.

[The_Machingbird]

I do exactly that. I tweak the .raws first and convert to 16bit tifs, but still a lot of noise. I'll see if I can get an example up later today...(same with settings info)

[kirkt]

http://www.msjphotography.com/index.php/2010/03/photoshop-workbench-219-combining-multiple-hdr-images-to-avoid-haloes-and-noise/

In addition to dealing with noise, this is a good overall video to make you think beyond a single tonemap in Photomatix.

[The_Machingbird]

Hmm...well I tried to recreate the problem today, but with no luck (which is good, I suppose?). So I guess this is no longer an issue until I screw up again. Thanks though!

[FredH999]

Extreme settings that give the strongest results also give the strongest noise.

In Canon RAW in "details" set chroma noise removal to 50-100 and set luma noise removal to 25-50.
Then in Photomatix Misc. settings turn up all 4 settings.
Consider backing off a bit from some of the other settings as well.

Fred

[pinoyplaya]

When creating HDR images, Photomatix or Photoshop, expect to have noise even if the images were all captured at 100 ISO. The noise you are seing is not really "real noise" its just a grain produced from merging different exposure shots together.