Some Mild HDR Processing

My usual HDR processing technique:
- Shoot 3 bracketed shots (0, +1 1/3, -1 1/3)
- Adjust white balance in Aperture
- Process in exposures in Photomatix
- Open the Photomatix image in Photoshop along with one of the original exposures (usually the 0 or -1 1/3), and use masking to blend them together
- Bring back into Aperture and do any additional processing as needed


Clingman's Dome in North Carolina/Tennessee

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The color gradients in the Clingman's dome shot are insane.
Also like the Baton Rouge shot.

Beautiful shots and greatly processed. I think they're all excellent.

No photomatix halo in any shot. Bravo.

always nice to see great HDR like these

Pffft.

Man. Just what I needed today. A bunch of INCREDIBLE hdr pieces done masterfully, both convicting me of my own room for growth and inspiring me to do so.

Great. Thanks a lot man. :P

Well done on all of them.

nicely done...

#1 - I like that one very much!

this is how i like to see HDR. not overbaked. nice job

Lovely shots all.

These are simply stunning, very well done.

I'm amazed at the clarity and color - extremely nice HDR - the most realistic versions I see lately.

When you say that you bring the tone mapped picture from Photomatix ... AND ... the one original back into photoshop and us masking to "blend" them together, can you explain the steps to do this ?

I must give you workflow a try ....

pophoto wrote in post #11869027
When you say that you bring the tone mapped picture from Photomatix ... AND ... the one original back into photoshop and us masking to "blend" them together, can you explain the steps to do this ?

Are you familiar with how to use masks and layers in Photoshop? If so, then it is a fairly easy process. If not, then you would need to learn some general Photoshop techniques.

I open the HDR image and one of the original exposures in Photoshop. From there I copy the original image and paste it as a new layer on the HDR picture. Add a mask to the original image (new layer) and fill it with black so none of that picture shows through.

Use your paintbrush tool with white color and start painting on your black mask to let parts of the original show back through. For me, I look for small detail like shadows that may have gotten lost in the HDR, color transitions that lost some of the subtleness, the way the sunlight hit a tree, etc. I find the things like this that I like better in the original than in the HDR and I start to paint them back in. Depending on the effect you want, you can adjust the opacity of your brush and/or the layer, and you can try different blend modes (screen, multiply, soft light, etc).

Trial and error is the best way to learn. If I really like the picture, I have no problem spending a considerable amount of time working on it.

Really like 1, 3 & 5. Nice work IMHO.