Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

ansku · Joined: 07 Apr 2012 Posts: 147 Location: Finland

I've been shooting landscapes lately - and even had most of them accepted :-) Since I like to shoot sunsets etc with wide dynamic range of light (not sure if that's the right English term), I use HDR (with Photomatix Pro). Not to get a surreal look, but just a colorful natural edit.

BUT. I sometimes get these weird artifacts after HDR processing (some of them circled below). Mostly in plants or trees, so it might be from movement? I usually use 3 bracketed shots so there usually is always movement between shots. Is there any way to avoid these ending up in the edit, it's pretty frustrating to clone these in PSE?

Any general HDR advice (my problems are that it usually adds softness and noise)...?

The photo is more than a 100% crop so no need to comment on focus here... :-)

semmickphoto · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:01 pm

Anna-Marieeeee !!!!! I missed you here. I checked out your website the other day, and I was going to PM you any day now to catch up.

HDR - Here we go. Foliage and grass and trees and branches are very difficult to get right in HDR because you take multiple shots at different exposures (bracketing). So Foliage and grass and trees and branches are never in the same spot when combining the exposures or tonemapping the multiple photos. So those parts of the image will also look out of focus. HDR is also notorious for enhancing noise.

The black spots in grass and foliage is because the grass and leaves are never in the same place creating dark and light spots which do not match up.

To get rid of the black spots in photomatix you can select deghosting before the image gets loaded into the interface. You can circle around the grass area and then select area for deghosting. This might resolve the problem because Photomatix will then only take the grass of one photo instead of multiple.

What you also can do is create the HDR and then in Photoshop fix the problem areas with one of the original photos where the grass is exposed correctly, using overlay mask and brush tool.

Good luck :)

ansku · Joined: 07 Apr 2012 Posts: 147 Location: Finland

Hi ya Ron!!! :-) Great to know I was missed!! I've been BUSY shooting like crazy! Maybe in a week or so, after my latest upload is reviewed, I'll had a port of 100 pictures - not much yet, but it's only been 2,5 months in SS and there's so much else to do, the damn day job and those always-wining-kids... :-) (said with the greatest affection, about the kids I mean, not the day job..).

THANK you so much for the advice. I've noticed the deghosting option in Photomatix, I've even had it always clicked on but didn't bother to think what I could do with it. Now I tried it with the above shot and it worked - no artifacts!!!!! Yay! Is that area still affected with the HDR-edit, I mean it doesn't "mask" it from all editing...?

Great avatars you've been having btw... LOL..

semmickphoto · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:22 pm

ansku · Joined: 07 Apr 2012 Posts: 147 Location: Finland

semmickphoto · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:39 pm

Hmmm, ok, deghosting will indeed take only the grass of the correctly exposed photo, but when you do tonemapping it will be for the photo as a whole, including the grass. But the grass will look more normal because its only one exposure.

There will always be noise when creating a HDR image. But if you use one RAW exposure and darken and lighten it to get 3 different exposures, you will probably have more noise then when you shoot at 3 exposures.

ansku · Joined: 07 Apr 2012 Posts: 147 Location: Finland

OK, that makes sense. But yes, the deghosting is something I will start to use. Maybe I'll first do the edit without it, then check for artifacts and then do it again with ghostmapping where it's needed. - I've been also testing using "manual HDR" in PSE - using different exposures or bracketed shots as separate layers and then masking out areas that are not needed (too dark / too light) and using the best exposed area of each layer. But it Photomatix just seems easier and quicker (being BUSY as I have been...).

semmickphoto · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 3:52 pm

I used to love Photomatix and tonemapping but no so much any more. I like the exposure blending in Lightroom, but that will only work when the photo are perfectly aligned. Photomatix has the advantage of aligning photos.

I have never tried HDR in PS, I need to give that a go. But so far I have never created a tack sharp HDR photo. I need to give that a go as well. Actually, I have one HDR photo on SS, come to think of it. LOL

ansku · Joined: 07 Apr 2012 Posts: 147 Location: Finland

My recipe for a tack sharp HDR photo has been to edit the shot normally in Photomatix and then PSE and then as a final touch: downsize it... LOL, pretty pathetic or what. But so far the best I could do.
Great shot Ron!

semmickphoto · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2012 2:00 am

Thanks.

I will try getting some HDR shots without any foliage, but my passion lies with landscapes so that will be difficult then :)