Masking, Layers...etc.

Guys I LOVE HDR and at the moment I just run 3 exposures thru Photomatix and mess with the colors and thats it...Sometimes in other conversations I hear ppl talking about masking and layering, how do i do this? Can it be done in Photomatix or do I need another program for this? Thx...

photomatix is fine, there are sliders there for adjustments. if you do not like the colors, then adjust the color saturation slider, gamma etc. if not, adjust the image in your post processing software after photomatix. photomatix is not a one stop shop for HDR. you process the image with photomatix, then you finish the image in Lightroom, photoshop or any other software.

if youre talking about masking and layers, then youre most likely talking about Photoshop. layers and mask do not improve color. but you can use masks to hide certain portions of your image so that another image will show through with a different edit or exposure.

Thx Jason, Ill start to play more with Photomatix and figure out all different sliders. Thx

Layers and masks exactly do restore color from the original image(s) versus what photomatix usually does to shift and destroy color.

Kirk

I'm pretty new to HDR myself, and don't do a lot of it, but one of the things I've found is that a single tone mapping often doesn't work well for all areas of an image. For instance, you may process the HDR image one way that works very well for the sky, but it just doesn't work for land or water. This really isn't unique to HDR, of course. I use layers and masks for probably all of my landscape photos (among other types of photography).

As mentioned, Photoshop is going to be probably your best resource for using layers and masks. Unless they've added it to the more recent versions, Photoshop Elements allows you to use layers, but not masks (there are some techniques for simulating masks, but it's not quite the same). The layers are used to either apply adjustments (like contrast, levels, brightness, etc.) to all or certain parts of the image or to blend additional exposures or tone mapped renditions in the case of HDR. Masks can be used along with the layers to apply the adjustments to only the areas of the image you want.