I enjoy photography since I was in school but just recently discovered this as a hobby again. Coming from a tech background I enjoy doing the processing part of it as much as doing the pictures itself. In the past few years apparently all the technologies (HDR, stitching, etc.) grew from being toys to professional solutions.

The first useful tutorial I found on HDR was written by Trey Ratcliff who not only shoots on the best locations and has the best equipment, but also can prove that he knows his stuff by publishing many beautiful pictures on Flickr.

However, my workflow is slightly different, so i thought I give this tutorial a shot too.

Shooting

The biggest problem I have with high dynamic range (HDR)-pictures is that they are not sharp at 100%. If you take a high-res picture and downscale it on screen resolution it still looks great, but it’s not what I want. I shoot my pictures in either of the following ways, depending on the situation:

- ISO Auto: OFF
- Custom white balance (I use an Expodisc)
- A-Mode (M-Mode sometimes)
- After focussing lock (or switch auto-focus to manual)
- One RAW picture (call it pseudo-HDR if you like) or
- 9 RAWs (-4EV,-3EV,-2EV,-1EV,0EV,1EV,2EV,3EV,4EV)

In either case I convert RAW to JPG using Capture One which is my RAW converter of choise. If I only have one picture I create 5x JPGs for further processing (-2EV,-1EV,0EV,1EV,2EV).

If I shoot 9 pictures, I:
- use a tripod
- use interval shooting on a Nikon, so all 9 pictures are taken hands-free with no camera shake
- in rare situations I just use the bracket boost hand-held, but those pictures are usually not sharp enough. An example where it did work out nicely can be found here:

Basically if you only shoot one picture it will hopefully be sharp. If you shoot 9 with a tripod you have most flexibility and if you shoot the 9 hand-held you might be lucky, or not … Please note that your picture will have more noise if you only use one RAW-file.

Here is an example using one RAW file to create 5 JPGs:

Here’s the same picture using 9 RAW images:

Processing

I use a couple of tools when processing my pictures. Capture One, Photomatix, Photoshop CS4, Noise Ninja, LucisArt 3 ED/SE, Genuine Fractals, PhotoFrame 4.

Step 1: Capture One

I import my photos using Adobe Bridge and then process them in Capture One “to taste”. For HDR pictures I keep processing to a minimum. If I only have 1 RAW picture I create 4 more (5 total) variations using -2EV, -1EV, 0EV, 1EV and 2EV.

If I have enough RAW pictures I do nothing and process them directly in Photomatix.

Step 2: Photomatix

I was playing around with some other HDR tools too (e.g. Dynamic Photo HDR), but I like Photomatix most. I’m trying not to overdo HDR so that the pictures are still a little bit like the real world.

I select all pictures (9 RAWs or 5 JPGs) and drag and drop them to Photomatix. Generally speaking I prefer the look of my 5 pictures created by Capture One from one RAW-file over the pseudo-HDR look created by Photomatix if you only open one file.

Only for hand-held pictures I select to auto-align them by matching features, for everything else I de-select all tickmarks.

Once opened I move the sliders to taste. Usually I look at both extremes (all right, all left) and then move it until I like the preview. As mentioned I try not to overdo the effect.

Usually I only adjust the following values; the numbers in brackets are my starting points:

- Strength (95)
- Color Saturation (55) – a bit more than natural
- Luminosity (0)
- Light Smoothing (High)

On a regular basis I do not change any of the other parameters.

Last I click on processing and open the picture as a 8-bit TIFF in Photoshop.

Step 3: Photoshop

Camera Raw: Before opening the file in Photoshop I open it in Camera Raw to adjust white/black/gray-points and to straighten the picture.

Noise Ninja: Before doing anything else I run Noise Ninja (that’s why there was no need to reduce noise in Photomatix). I auto-profile the image and process. Usually I do this on a new layer (CTRL-J before running the plug-in). This is always my first step after opening the picture.

Masking: If you have moving objects in your picture you might want to remove the ghosts by opening the best (usually the 0EV) version of your picture, adding it to a separate layer and hide the ghosts. There are great tutorials on this. [link to be added]

LucisArt: I’m addicted. I think a little bit of LucisArt works wonders on all, not just HDR, pictures. However, I’m very conservative using it, so I only do very minor changes and usually mix it with the original image. Check this if you are interested in what LucisArt can do for even old and low-res pictures. Here is an example of a 5 year old picture with a point and shoot camera:

On non-HDR pictures I usually only use LucisArt 3 ED and I enhance the detail until Halo’s show up and then go back a little bit. On HDR pictures I use LucisArt 3 SE and use the Sculpture effect with minimum strength and a smooth detail of 11 as a starting point. Usually I mix it with the original image using a ratio of 30 (processed) : 70 (original).

Genuine Fractals: (optional) sometimes I upscale the picture, especially for Alamy I upscale to 5100 px on the longest side. This is always my last step in the workflow.

Photoframe: (optional) sometimes I add a frame. This is always the very last step, even after upscaling via Genuine Fractals.

Please note: This tutorial is work-in-progress, so I might update it on a regular basis if things change …

Technical description: This picture was taken with a NIKON D700 and a AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED lense using 70.0 mm. It was taken in Raw. The original filename was DSC_4725.NEF and had a size of 4288×2844 / 13 MB, taken at 2009:01:18 18:35:51. It was taken with an aperture of 5.0 at 1/60 (0EV) using ISO 200 and Program AE. White-Balance had been manually adjusted using an expodisc. An external flash (SB-900, 0EV) fired. This picture was converted from RAW to JPG in Capture One.

to the meta-data (exif) of your pictures. In Flickr this text will then show up under “description”.

It’s customized to my needs, but I guess you can easily use it for your needs too …

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use Image::ExifTool qw(:Public);
use Data::Dumper::Simple;

my @files = @ARGV;

foreach my $f (@files) {
my $ff = “../../../” . $f;
$ff =~ s/jpg/NEF/;
print “processing $f / $ff\n”;

if (-e $ff) {
print “Original RAW file $ff found.\n”;
my $exifTool = new Image::ExifTool;
$exifTool->ExtractInfo($ff);
my @tags = $exifTool->GetFoundTags(‘File’);
foreach my $tag (@tags) {
my $val = $exifTool->GetValue($tag);
if (ref $val eq ‘SCALAR’) {

# print “$tag = (unprintable value)\n”;
}
else {
print “$tag = $val\n”;
}
}
my @mytags;
push @mytags, $exifTool->GetValue(“Model”);
push @mytags, $exifTool->GetValue(“LensID”);
push @mytags, $exifTool->GetValue(“FocalLength35efl”);
push @mytags, $exifTool->GetValue(“ExposureProgram”);
my $techdesc =
“\n\n\nTechnical description: This picture was taken with a ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“Model”)
. ” and a ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“LensID”)
. ” lense using ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“FocalLength”)
. “. It was taken in ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“Quality”)
. “. The original filename was ”
. $exifTool->{“VALUE”}->{“FileName”}
. ” and had a size of ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“ImageSize”) . ” / ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“FileSize”).”, taken at “. $exifTool->GetValue(“CreateDate”)
. “. It was taken with an aperture of ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“FNumber”) . ” at ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“ExposureTime”).” (“.$exifTool->GetValue(“ExposureCompensation”).”EV)”
. ” using ISO ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“ISO (1)”) . ” and ”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“ExposureProgram”) . “. “;
if ($exifTool->GetValue(“WhiteBalance”) eq “Preset0″) {
$techdesc .=
“White-Balance had been manually adjusted using an expodisc. “;
push @mytags, “expodisc”;
}
if ($exifTool->GetValue(“FlashMode”) eq “Fired, External”) {
$techdesc .=
“An external flash (”
. $exifTool->GetValue(“FlashModel”).”, “.$exifTool->GetValue(“FlashExposureComp”).”EV”
. “) fired. “;
push @mytags, $exifTool->GetValue(“FlashModel”);
}

$techdesc .= “This picture was converted from RAW to JPG in Capture One. “;
push @mytags, “Capture One”;
push @mytags, “processed”;
$exifTool->WriteInfo($f);
print $techdesc;
print Dumper(@mytags);

my $exifToolDestination = new Image::ExifTool;
$exifToolDestination->ExtractInfo($f);
foreach my $k (@mytags) {
$exifToolDestination->SetNewValue(Keywords => $k, AddValue => 1);
}
$exifToolDestination->SetNewValue(“Caption-Abstract”=> $techdesc);
$exifToolDestination->SaveNewValues() or die “cannot save”;
$exifToolDestination->WriteInfo($f) or die “cannot write”;
} else { next;}
}

The flight is believed to have encountered multiple bird strikes within two minutes after takeoff from LGA resulting in a complete or partial loss of thrust from the plane’s two engines. The airplane ditched in the Hudson River less than six minutes after takeoff.

According to FlightAware.com the maximum altitude was 3200 feet before the aircraft began a descent into the water. The last radar return received by FlightAware showed the aircraft at 300ft and 153kts (176mph).

Only 3000ft … that’s not much …

http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20090115-0

Very impressive CV too:

Served as NASA Aviation Safety Research Consultant evaluating cockpit systems for reducing runway incursions. Co-authored published technical paper on crew decision-making errors in aviation working with NASA Ames researchers which provided blueprint for safer pilot training, procedures and standardization.

19,000 flight hours … Owner of Safety Reliability Methods Inc.

found here: http://safetyreliability.com/profiles

Sounds really like a best-case szenario for such a crash … well done

Autopano

Photoshop CS4 Photomerge

PTGUI

Stitcher Unlimited

and another Stitcher Unlimited sample with a limited number of pictures:

I’m disappointed with photoshop and would have choosen ptgui as a winner, but I didn’t like the windows (in the building) in ptgui, so overall the best results were from produced by autopano. I’ve added Stitcher Unlimited to this article afterwards, it appears to be very professional, but for good results you probably require a tripod with pano head which I don’t have.

Update 20091001: In the meantime I’ve done a couple of more images using autopano and so far have always been happy with the results. Please note that I not always cropped the pictures, so please excuse the black areas on some of the samples below:

Panorama and Stitching – Images by Markus Linke

Also I figured that using 30 images mixed horizontal and vertical is not a good idea. If I do panoramas today I only do either horizontal or portrait and usually do much less images (e.g. 5ish). If processed by autopana the merges are nearly undetectable.

Last but not least the scene choosen for comparing the products was appereantly very difficult for the software because of the electric cables in the scene. “Normal” landscape work far better …

L-758 profile error: “the set level does not exist in the image. change the level to a level that exists in the image in order to calculate”

Does anybody know how to get around that error? I’m trying to create a profile for a D700 with the L-758DR and the profile target I. Which corners do I have to select in the v2 software, there are no marks on the target …

After playing around with HDR for a bit now, these are the settings I usually use:

- ISO Auto: off
- A-mode
- braketing with 9 pictures +-1
- RAW
- without a tripod I use the BKT Boost feature shooting all 9 pictures quickly after each other automatically
- with a tripod I use the scheduled shot waiting for 1 second and then fireing 9 shots directly after each other

I tried HDRs from only 1 RAW using NX2 to get the other exposures, but I didn’t like the outcome.

I use Photomatix and CS4 for post-processing.

Ich war zuerst da und betreibe diese Domain seit vielen Jahren …

Dennoch frage ich mich, ob dies nicht ein guter Platz waere, um ueber DIE LINKE zu diskutieren. Was koennte diese Partei fuer Deutschland bringen. Oder was nicht …

Kommentare erwuenscht …