HDR Experiments and RAWs for downloadListThumbs

HDR Experiments and RAWs for download

August 01, 2008

I'm far from a professional photographer, I'm more of an enthusiast and I love to play around with my Canon G9. It's not an SLR camera but it works really fine for my skills and, also, it does RAW; everything I need for my addiction to HDR. I still have a lot to learn but I thought it would be nice to share some of my experiments.

For this short tutorial I will use Photomatix but you can use whatever software you like. The RAW file used will be available and I think it would be great if more readers shared their results here. To do that just leave a comment with the final image and a comment explaining how you did it.

Winners of the Essential HDR giveaway

  • Crazyhunk
  • Yann

Step 1

I'm not an expert and I'm always searching for the best ways to improve my photo and HDR skills. I have to thank Cameron for the tips, he's really good and has helped me a lot.

As I had only one RAW file, I created 3 different images with different exposures: -3, 0,+3. You can do that in Photoshop, or any other tool. Save all the images in TIFF.

HDR Experiments and RAWs for download

Step 2

Now in Photomatix, go to Process>Generate HDR. Select the 3 images and press OK.

HDR Experiments and RAWs for download

Step 3

Change the Specify E.V spacing to 3 and press OK. Another dialog box will open, just press OK again. It asks you if you want Photomatix to align the images and other options, but as we are working with 3 different files from the same image that wont be a problem.

HDR Experiments and RAWs for download

Step 4

When the HDR viewer opens just press Tone Mapping. To be honest I don't know what this part means, if anybody knows please leave a comment.

HDR Experiments and RAWs for download

Step 5

Here is when the problems begin, the Tone Mapping. Actually in this part is where you adjust the settings to create the HDR. Below I list my adjustments.

HDR Experiments and RAWs for download

Conclusion

After 30 minutes playing with the values I got a nice result. Maybe you can get a much better than mine, if so, share with us the values you use and the final image in a comment.

HDR Experiments and RAWs for download

Download Files

Download some RAW files for this tutorial.

About the author

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My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through Abduzeedo. Also you can follow me on Twitter or my personal site at http://fabiosasso.com.

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24 Comments

Olariu Alex08/01/2008

yeah well u just gotta tweak a lot the settings, i sometimes think its ok and when i save its all noisy and bleah...

btw the link with the RAW files is not working :(

Bruno Gurgatz08/01/2008

Very nice result! HDR is awesome!

Im A Wakeboarder08/01/2008

hey the link works just fine for me (using firefox on mac)

abduzeedo08/01/2008

I've fixed the link error, thanks a lot Olariu Alex.... Hope you like the pics...

Thanks for the comments ;)

Matthieu08/01/2008

Thanks for this post. HDR gives great results for a whole bunch of possible effects, and so far I had never done it using a single RAW photo, and the result is convincing!

MGK08/01/2008

Congrats for the winners ! Nice results for the HDR, really, it looks like some 3D game I love it !

Will give it a try with those RAW pics ;)

thanks !!

FAiO.info

Ian Monsta08/02/2008

Great tutorial. I had tried to dive into HDR before but got discouraged but this resparked my interested and was able to come up with something im fairly happy with which can be seen here if anyone is interested; http://vanitydesignstudios.com/?p=61

Tom08/03/2008

First of all, you show a great deal of class asking anyone else to download the files and please try to do better. Not only that, being humble and asking for help when it comes to something you don't understand. It is the sign, in my opnion, of a true artist and basically a good person.
Good for you.
Oh, your art here is awesome.
Please for the sake of this art, photography, keep it up.
Tom

David Svahn08/03/2008

Really great tutorial. I've wanted to test HDR for a really long time, but i didn't know were to start. I just wonder why the pic gets very different when you click on proceed. I wanna know how the pic are going to be when I am editing it:)

Janos08/04/2008

You are just making a pseudo HDR form a raw file. Photomatix can do that without the exposure tweaking in photoshop. The real thing in HDR is to get the details in the dark shadows and also in the strong light areas. For a real HDR try to make at least 3 pictures. If You have good light conditions and a strong hand You won't either need a tripod.

Ryan08/05/2008

Good job on the tutorial firstly. I think anyone who's willing to take the time to teach others new skills deserves plenty of praise.

With regards to the "tone mapping", this is the process needed to crunch all the information in a HDR file down to make it viewable on screen. When you combine multiple images into a HDR file it creates a 32bit file. Todays monitors just arn't capable of displaying this kind of dynamic range, even though programs like photomatix and photoshop can open them and work with them, but this is just the program's interpretation of what you want to see from the file.

When you tone map, you're basically telling the 32bit file what bits of that enormous dynamic range you want to display on your monitor. This is where the magic happens because you can choose to keep the highlights AND the shadows from that range. And thats how you're able to save out a regular 8bit jpg image for web/print.

Worth noting as Janos pointed out, this method with a single raw file isn't what most people would call "true hdr" processing... But thats up to the individuals interpretation. The method works because Raw files capture more dynamic range than jpg's. Not as much range as multiple camera captures though... but if you're happy with the results you get from 1 image, why take 3? :)

Ultrahoschie08/14/2008

my try ....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12859152@N07/2762874886/

cu

crazyhunk08/15/2008

wow.... ok this has been some time.... but i must say i have been so busy with school and exams for past few weeks I totally forgot about this and today I open my mail and I find that I have been selected for this.... wow...

thanx a lot fabio.... :D

Amro Dessouki10/19/2008

That's a cool resource site that i am really glad that there are ppl helping each other on the web............i used one of ur cool RAW photos and i like to have ur comment on it :

http://3moor1987.deviantart.com/art/chicago-101193749

Amro Dessouki10/19/2008

That's a cool resource site that i am really glad that there are ppl helping each other on the web............i used one of ur cool RAW photos and i like to have ur comment on it :

http://3moor1987.deviantart.com/art/chicago-101193749

WERAQS11/23/2008

hi folks, I'm using Canon PS G9 too, and i have already taken 300 hdrs (+2,-2,+1,-1,of course 0 exposure levels)
my page is weraqs.deviantart.com/gallery there is a fake hdr on my gallery, hope you like it. http://weraqs.deviantart.com/art/fake-hdr-74748902

DigitalNewbie12/01/2008

Hello!

it's been a while since i got my own digital camera, and because of the lack of knowledge, i was not able to use the full potential of my digital camera. The setting was always in automatic, and i always get the same quality of photos...luckily i stumbled upon this website and i was interested in creating HDRs, which makes any picture looking great, your tutorials are truly helpful and i am now starting in my own in creating HDRs, hope i can learn more from you and this website about HDRs... thank you and have a nice day

Leo Evans12/07/2008

love the site and tutorials. keep up the great work m8

KonstantinMiller07/06/2009

Hello, can you please post some more information on this topic? I would like to read more.

Jonathan Mousserion08/19/2009

Great tutorial! I searched one with sources, which is th best way to learn, I think.

Thanks a lot.

OyunCambazi11/12/2009

I'm really very useful to follow a long-time see this as a blog here Thank you for your valuable information.

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