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Complete HDR How-To

Everything you need to get started with HDR.

License

I would appreciate you not calling this exact work your own creation, however: I, the author and copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide. You may copy, distribute, display, and/or make derivative works based upon parts or the complete content of this creation, for commercial or noncommercial purposes, without giving the author credit. In case this is not legally possible: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Download this ZIP file containing all photographs and images contained herein, the Photomatix Details Enhancer settings file, and a text version of these instructions: http://delstar.org/hdr/complete_hdr.zip It's just under 6 megs. You may need to right-click the link and choose 'Save As'.

Side Notes:

    > A ZIP is a file that contains one or more compressed files. Windows has compressed file capabilities built in, but if you want or need to extract the files manually, you can visit the official WinZip site: http://www.winzip.com

 

    > The image metrics have been reduced to 21% (from 4992x3328 to 1024x683), but the EXIF information has been retained in each file.

 

    > Images were taken with a Canon EOS-1 Ds Mark II and a Canon Ultra-Wide EF 16-35mm 1:2.8 L USM 77diam.

 

    > Images were taken in Belmont, North Carolina, USA, on Lake Wylie

For this How-To guide, I'm going to be using Photomatix Pro v2.4 because everyone can easily download a fully functional demo copy and it allows me to provide you with project and settings files. Visit the official Photomatix website and download the (Windows version) demo: http://www.hdrsoft.com/

About HDR : High Dynamic Range

 

You're in the shade when you take a photograph of something in front of you with landscape behind it. Either your object is visible and the sky behind is pure white, or the sky is blue and the object is barely visible in the dark.

 

A good flash could help a little, or you could take multiple images at different exposure settings and combine them for a larger visible range of what's actually there; taking the bright details from one image, the shadows from another, etc.

Taking HDR Photographs

 

 * If you're not interested in taking your own HDR photographs, scroll to the 'Digital Developing' section below.

 

You can create HDR images with any camera, but some make it a lot easier than others. If you're using a point-and-shoot, you will have to use the Manual mode, set your aperture (F-STOP) fairly low, and take multiple images at different exposure durations. If you're using an SLR, you will likely have an ABS (Auto-Bracketing System) which will help you take the series of images.

HDR images can be compiled from as little as two images, to as many as your computer can handle processing, but as with any photograph there are time duration and movement considerations that must be made while taking each image. All of the images you take will make up the resulting HDR, so any movement of the camera or of your visible area from the start of the first exposure to the end of the last will be broken into segments in each exposure. Most of the HDR images I've taken contain either 3 or 5 images, but I've experimented with up to 23, yielding various results.

If you're setting your exposures manually, you'll want to take the quickest first, and work your way up. If you're using the ABS, and you're taking more than three images: you'll need to throw out the first image in each set after the first set of images because they will be duplicates -or- you can move the exposure range when you adjust the steps on the second set.

Rule #1 : Mount your camera on a solid pod or prop it somewhere and use either a shutter remote switch or a shutter delay option if your camera has one.

Digital Developing

 

    > Once you have Photomatix installed and the file from the ZIP extracted (or your own images), open Photomatix.

Choose 'Generate' from the 'HDR' menu

Click the 'Browse' button and select all of the images

 

Click the 'OK' button

Always uncheck 'Align source images'.

 

You're camera should be on a solid mount.

 

Movement in the frame (such as water, clouds, or wind in the trees) can cause this option to deform the image.

 

 I leave everything else defaulted on this dialog.

Click the 'OK' button...

Then you'll have something that looks like this:

...and it will go through three stages: 'Loading Source Images', 'Generating HDR Image' and 'Displaying To Screen'.

Choose 'Tone Mapping' from the 'HDR' menu

The Tone Mapping default settings will usually look nice and represent reality pretty well.

From here, it's a playground where each artist can have fun in their own way. I've included the 'Details Enhancer' file I used on this image in the ZIP. To load it click 'Load' in the 'Settings' section and choose the 'DetailsEnhancer.xmp' file.

When I started I had a tendency to drastically increase or reduce shadows or highlights, to over saturate, or to make it 'pop' in other ways, but I think the best balance is just above the boarder of visible reality; to provide a realistic representation of what was there, though not completely visible with the eye.

COMMENTS
AnotherSteve said at 4:32 p.m. on Apr 9, 2007:
Great tutorial, really appreciate your taking the time to do this!
Leftofcenter said at 4:38 p.m. on Apr 9, 2007:
I'm gonna have to go back to school for this one!!!! ;)
Zero42 said at 4:41 p.m. on Apr 9, 2007:
i was happy enough just making it. great if anyone gets use from it! :)
Zippywinds said at 5:02 p.m. on Apr 9, 2007:
whoa great, i wish i could afford one of those HD cameras, but at least i can enjoy other peeps HDR pics like yours, ab fab how to :)
JoanW said at 5:09 p.m. on Apr 9, 2007:
Wow! Thanks so much for all the effort of putting this together so professionally. That must have been a lot of work getting the layout put together. This is really great. I don't know if I would ever attempt HDR work, but I appreciate having this tabblo to refer to. That was a good idea of Tammy's to add it to Favourites, for easy reference. One day maybe.....I will try.....it seems quite complicated to me though. I do like the effects that it can produce.
LatentE said at 5:21 p.m. on Apr 9, 2007:
Thanks for the tutorial. I'll have to give Photomatix a try. And thanks for the copyleft distribution OK.
Floridamolle said at 7:00 p.m. on Apr 9, 2007:
WOW!!! This is so great John. i often get questions about HDR, and I not very good at explaining it. I have been thinking about some good way to make it easy. Like you said about thinking the same. LOL!! Love it, now I just have to link to your tabblo. Zippy and Joan, you don't need any special equipment, if you just can change the exposure, manual or with EV+- you can get the pics you need and Joan the program Photomatix is among the easiest I have seen. Thanks John
Dave.delay said at 9:54 p.m. on Apr 9, 2007:
Great. Thanks for putting this together.
Pkeener said at 1:53 a.m. on Apr 10, 2007:
Hey like your new avatar. Between you and HunterProductions, i'm gonna have a degree in editing! Thanks so much John for doing this. Saving it to my faves. Good Stuff!
Ejmccartin said at 7:18 a.m. on Apr 10, 2007:
this is great, thank you! I've been trying to do this and not getting anywhere with Photomatix Basic. I should give the free trial of Pro a whirl.
Kazerina said at 8:33 p.m. on Apr 10, 2007:
This is the insightful, straight forward tutorial I"ve ever had the pleasure of...Thank you for sharing :D
Roygoodwin said at 9:12 p.m. on Apr 11, 2007:
Thanks very much for this tutorial.
Panthertrack said at 10:12 p.m. on Apr 12, 2007:
I've saved this to favorites, I'm going to have to try this out. Thank you for putting this on tabblo. MK
Hollyridger said at 1:45 a.m. on Apr 17, 2007:
This is really excellent and so kind of you to take the time to set it up and share it. I look forward to finding an hour or so to explore this type of work. Right now I am having some computer problems which is more than a little frustrating. Thanks again, John.
Zero42 said at 3:26 p.m. on Apr 17, 2007:
i just saw the view count on this and i'm stunned. i'm so glad if anyone who sees it can find it valuable in any way. i've done several experiments since this and one of the things i've learned that i would pass on along with this set is that once you take as many images as there are visible steps the only thing you're capturing is movement and that should be done nearest to the middle of the exposure balance. understanding that concept really boosted my abilities and creativity.
PhotoPop said at 1:56 p.m. on Apr 21, 2007:
I am holding on to this one. Many thanks.
Marcif said at 5:40 p.m. on Apr 26, 2007:
This is a great tutorial; well written and you laid it out very nicely! I will put it in my favorites and perhaps try it some time. Thank you! :)
Anjad said at 4:36 a.m. on May 6, 2007:
Thanks for the tutorial. I saved it as a favorite and will try it out some time (when I'm less busy..)
Candice said at 1:24 p.m. on Jun 8, 2007:
I've always wanted to do this - thanks for the great tutorial!
Zumberge said at 1:05 a.m. on Jun 17, 2007:
Great tutorial. Thanks for the time and your experience and insight. I will refer back to it. Well done.
Vinca said at 4:35 p.m. on Jun 21, 2007:
This is interesting and you have put in a lot of work on this. I don't think i would be able to do this or would i? I don't know. Maybe i should give it a go. But i don't have any manual settings in my point and shoot and this looks like a rather long process. I am not sure i fully understand either. I guess that's because of my complete ignorance about photography.Hmmm..i too think i can manage with changing the EV+- on my camera. Then does photomatix come handy for such pictures? Thanks for the tutorial John. Maybe i will come back to it some day :o)
Endomorphin said at 6:55 p.m. on Jul 5, 2007:
Always been interested in HDR but never knew where to start. I plan on giving this a try in the next couple days. Thank you. I'll let you know how it goes.
Akeke said at 3:47 a.m. on Sep 9, 2007:
Thanks a lot! Opened a new world to me! Suddenly I can almost "retake" those failed photos! Luckely we often use the bracketing when shooting, just in case. Now we can use it to more then just choose the best picture! Thanks again for taking your time to teach us!
Ibumohd said at 5:58 p.m. on Sep 12, 2007:
very interesting idea.. i have dome some work in flickr
www.flickr.com/photos/ibumohd
Photosfornow said at 1:01 a.m. on Jan 24, 2008:
Thank you for taking the time and your engery to make this information available to us. Both you and Latent E are to be commended for educating us. I look forward to learning more about
HDR from both of you.
Sirnicolay said at 10:54 a.m. on Aug 7, 2008:
Thank you for this tutorial. I'll try it out soon. :)
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