Getting rid of the fake HDR look?

Has anyone noticed in 99% of HDR images, the sky looks like it's glowing around the adjacent objects....my question is can this be removed to make it look like the camera can truly absorb that range of light? i know its not impossible because theres that 1% of HDR photos that look reallly good

Don't go crazy with the light shading levels, and don't tone map so heavy.

If by 'fake HDR' you mean those HDR obtained from a single shot developed several times, I would tell you: ok, that is fake HDR, since no more dynamic range is being captured than that of a single shot. But I would also tell you those radiactive halos you see in 99% of the HDR around are not because of the 'fake HDR', but because of an incorrect use of the tone mapping tools. As Lazuka suggest, tone mapping tools have their limitations. A set of several shots with different exposures incorrectly processed will again produce that 'fake HDR' appearance you talk about.

IMO the only automated tool with results natural enough to see them as a photograph and not as a painting is Enfuse/TuFuse, which produces fairly natural looking images with a very good control of local contrast. TuFused images with parameter -B 0.5 just need a slight additional global contrast curve to obtain a very good result; but the hard task which is to exploit all local contrast was already done. Only some times, in local areas of the images, some dark halos can be seen but as far as I know they are always on the dark side (e.g. in a sky ending in the horizon, the halos will not be in the sky but in the land), so they are quite easy to eliminate manually.

Anyway, I think at the moment there is no better tone mapping tool than manual level adjustment in Photoshop. It takes _a bit_ more work, but provides reallistic results and you are not a slave of any HDR software from which you never know what to exacly expect.

BR

In answer to your question, yes it can be removed. Do your tonemapping, looking at the entire image as you want it to look while ignoring any haloing. Save the image. Do a second tonemap, this one to remove the halo, focusing your attention only on the halo. Save it. Layer both in PS, put a mask on the "no halo" version and brush the halo away.

aha! i think i managed to do it, thanks for the tips, ill post a before and after when i get back from Easter church! lol

CannedHeat wrote in post #7713999
In answer to your question, yes it can be removed. Do your tonemapping, looking at the entire image as you want it to look while ignoring any haloing. Save the image. Do a second tonemap, this one to remove the halo, focusing your attention only on the halo. Save it. Layer both in PS, put a mask on the "no halo" version and brush the halo away.

DAMN!!! HOW DID I MISS THAT!

Bravo!

Also, you can blend/clone your haloed tonemapped image with one of your properly-exposed-for-the-sky images from your original exposure sequence, etc.

I have personally really just begun to play with HDR. I just posted this in the 5D lovers thread-- but it might be applicable here. It was shot with a 5D and 24L --then edited and eventually a little HDR editing to it --- I think it worked well with this and not too obvious HDR.

Hey Scott, is this multple exposures?

mattograph wrote in post #7721003
Hey Scott, is this multple exposures?

Matt-- it is not -- I have been cheating with my HDR - I am on a Mac and using Dynamic Photo HDR.
Here is another one that I did the other day. I try to tone down the "fake" HDR and add a little to make it pop.

stathunter wrote in post #7721187
Matt-- it is not -- I have been cheating with my HDR - I am on a Mac and using Dynamic Photo HDR.
Here is another one that I did the other day. I try to tone down the "fake" HDR and add a little to make it pop.

Dang. That's pretty tasty for a cheat and a fake!