Need advice on an editor, and HDR

Hello! I'm very new to digital photography, but I'm interested in learning as much as I can.

I've heard, and seen results, that post image processing is almost an essential part of digital photography, however, I have no idea how to do this. What would you guys recomend for a newbie, who is willing to learn/read, for a photo editor? I have PS7, but I don't know if that is outdated or not, or will still be good for my needs. If you would recomend something else, I would not want to spend more than 100 USD.

ALSO, HDR, or High Dynamic Range as I understand, yeilds some impressive images. I have no clue what this is, or how to do it, can someone link me to a site, or tutorial that explains this? Can I do this with PS7, or the software that comes with the Rebel XTi?

i love PS cs just because of the healing brush. I cant live w/out it. but, finding a used copy of PS cs is way more then $100.

HDR is combining 3 or more pictures all taken of the same scene with different exposures to get all the different parts of the image exposed. then u put in like photmatix or pscs2 to make the HDR image.

read: here

get software: here

http://en.wikipedia.or​g …igh_dynamic_ran​ge_imaging

wikipedia for some more info. kewl pictures too!

HDR=
Take two picture, one for highlight and one for shadow. Stack the 2 pics in its own layer in PS (which version don't matter much). Hint, place the one taken for shadow on top of the one for highlight. select the top layer create a vector mask for that layer. Select a soft brush. Select black as you foreground color and white as your background color. Opacity around 75% to 95%. Make sure you select vector mask you just created. Brush over the areas you want to reveal with black and use the "X" key to alt between black and white (white is to cover/hide the bottom layer). Use the [] keys to control the size of the brush. Its that simple.

can I do this in PS 7?

Yes!!! PS 7 has vector mask and brushes.

Is there a tutorial for this for PS7? I have never used it before, and all these terms are foreign to me.

There tutorials available in Adobe site and there are others. I don't have the links on this PC. Not home yet!!!

There many good books out there for PS and most PS7 books are very well discounted. I bought some for as little as $2.00.

May be this will help from POPPHOTO:

http://www.popphoto.co​m …w-to-make-hdr-images.html

http://www.popphoto.co​m …dynamic-range-images.html

Do you have your camera on a tripod when doing HDR and just adjusting the settings after each shot ?

A very good HDR tutorial for using multiple exposures can be found at http://www.hdrphotos.n​et/

Other HDR general information along with heaps of images can be found at the following Flickr forums:
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/artizenhdr/
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/easyhdr/
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/hdr/discuss/
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/qtpfsgui

Software for using multiple exposures can be found at:
http://www.supportingc​omputers.net/
http://www.hdrsoft.com​/
http://qtpfsgui.source​forge.net/#download - this is free software, perhaps better to use after you know a bit about the HDR process

If you are interested in maximizing dynamic range from a single raw file, then check out the LightZone image editor/raw converter with it's re-lighter tool
http://www.lightcrafts​.com/index.php

I started out with the HDR specific software like Photomatix and Artizen. But if I had it to do all over again for my needs, I would be happy with LightZone on any single raw file and then the free qtpfsgui for multiple images.

Rudy

nismosr wrote in post #3370654
Do you have your camera on a tripod when doing HDR and just adjusting the settings after each shot ?

Tripod & bracket Exposure and use cable remote release. Subject should not be moving.

There is an alternate method as an after thought. Shoot in RAW and process under and over and then merge the 2 together.

Coppatop85 wrote in post #3366606
Hello! I'm very new to digital photography, but I'm interested in learning as much as I can.

I've heard, and seen results, that post image processing is almost an essential part of digital photography, however, I have no idea how to do this. What would you guys recomend for a newbie, who is willing to learn/read, for a photo editor? I have PS7, but I don't know if that is outdated or not, or will still be good for my needs. If you would recomend something else, I would not want to spend more than 100 USD.

ALSO, HDR, or High Dynamic Range as I understand, yeilds some impressive images. I have no clue what this is, or how to do it, can someone link me to a site, or tutorial that explains this? Can I do this with PS7, or the software that comes with the Rebel XTi?

For Less than $100 you'll be limited to PS Elements. But it may have enough new tools to make you happy.

As far as a RAW editor, DPP which came with your camera is very powerful, and I'd give that a go before moving on to something else... (If you qualify for student discount, you may be able to get LR for $99... but I'm not sure if that pricing is still available... and you can't do your layers, hdr, pixel editing or plugin filters there... you'd still use some other form of PS for that.)

I actually just obtained photoshop CS2, and I'm told that CS2 makes HDR easy. Can PS CS2 handle RAW images though?

You can download a program called FDR Tools and try it free to see if you like it,if so you can buy it for $57. I use it for most of my HDR work and get good results. WWW.HDRTools.com