Notice the subtle detail under the pier and the detail in the highlights? (Click to enlarge). Nikon D7000, f/14, ISO 200, 10mm, 30 second shutter, Induro Tripod.

HDR, or high dynamic range photography, is generally accomplished by taking three (or more) photos with varying exposure levels and then combining the light information to create one single image that carries detail in both the shadows and highlights.  That’s the HDR that we all know and love.

However, you can hold detail in your shadows and highlights to achieve a higher dynamic range than a traditional photo with just a little tweaking in Photoshop or Lightroom.  This is what I call “organic HDR.”  Organic HDR produces photos with SIGNIFICANTLY less grain than HDR photos (for more on reducing grain in HDRs, check out this previous post), it does not always require that the photographer take more than one exposure, and the result looks so natural that it leaves most photographers wondering how you achieved the shot.

There are many ways to create organic HDR photos, but here I will mention just two in today’s article.  I find myself using these two techniques more and more, and creating HDRs with Photomatix less and less.  I find that the results are stunningly realistic and don’t nauseate me nearly as much as some HDRs.

Organic HDR Method #1:

I created the photo featured on this page using this method.  Assuming you have your screen properly calibrated, you can see the detail underneath the pier and also detail in the bright areas of the clouds on the right-hand side of the photo.  Normally, the pier would be a silhouette in this type of photo, but this method allows me to capture detail in both areas.

1. Shoot in RAW to capture as much light information as possible.
2. Slightly over-expose the photo to capture as much shadow detail as possible.  Don’t worry, we can bring back the slight clipping later.
3. Bring the photo into Lightroom or Photoshop’s Adobe Camera Raw tool
4. Turn down the “exposure” setting to reduce the general overexposure in the photo.  In my photo on this page, I intentionally made the shot quite dark to add some mood to the shot.  I’m sure some people would argue that it’s a bit too dark, but I don’t especially care
5. Bring up the “fill light” setting until the shadow areas show the amount of detail you like.
6. Drop your blacks level from 5 to the desired level.  I find that I generally prefer a value of 0 for creating this type of image.
7. Add just a touch of contrast or the image will look too flat.
8. Enjoy your beautiful organic HDR.

Organic HDR Method #2:

This method can also produce clean high dynamic range images without the use of an HDR processor, and without the disgusting side-effects of the HDR process; however, this method does require a little experience in Photoshop.

This method simply requires the photographer to take multiple photos of a scene with varying exposures.  Then, the photographer simply opens all of the photos in Photoshop in separate layers  (you can use a shortcut for this by going to File > Scripts > Open as stack).  Then, simply mask together the photos where they hold detail.

This method works very well, but it takes a skilled Photoshopper to do it correctly.  One quick tip for making this work is to make use of layer styles extensively.  Suppose you have a streetlight that is overexposed, but you took a different shot of that same street light that is properly exposed.  Simply put the underexposed layer on top of the overexposed layer and play with the layer styles until you capture the look you want.

To receive daily photography tips from Improve Photography in your facebook news feed each morning, head on over to the Improve Photography facebook fanpage and click LIKE!Further Reading:

• 5 tips to show off the texture in your HDR photography
• Questions and Answers on Night HDR Photography
• Shoot During the Blue Hour for Better City Landscape Photography
• The #1 Night Photography Mistake

HDR Photograph

What are the differences between Nik HDR Effex Pro and Photomatix 4?  Which one is better?  Which one is best?  Read this review and learn…

First of all, the conclusion.  After fairly extensive testing of both Photomatix 4 and HDR Effects Pro, I have come to the conclusion that the best product for serious HDR photographers is Photomatix 4, and the best program for people who are interested in just dabbling in HDR and don’t have a lot of experience with digital image editing in Photoshop will prefer HDR Effex Pro.

Photomatix Pro 4 has superior control over the image

The sky is the limit in Photomatix.  If you are serious about HDR and want to fine-tune every tiny aspect of image quality, then Photomatix is for you.  It has approximately 20 sliders which control every possible quality of the image.  While only 5 or 6 of the sliders are actually necessary in most situations, it is handy to have supreme control when necessary.

Because of the amount of controls available in Photomatix, I am able to bring out amazing amounts of texture in an image.  When using HDR Effex Pro, I was not able to bring out the texture with as much precision.  This is disappointing because texture is is one of my main attractions to shooting HDR photos.

Photomatix has problems, too.  HDR Effex Pro delivers cleaner and less noisy photos than Photomatix in my opinion; however, this may be partly because HDR Effex Pro uses more presets and does not provide the ability to tweak the presets as well.  This reduces the amount of noise caused by user error in tonemapping mistakes.

Photomatix also wins the prize for price.  Photomatix 4 costs $99 for the full stand-alone version, but HDR Effex Pro costs $159.95 for the plugin.  Since HDR Effex Pro is not 1.5 times better than Photomatix, the price tag is unwarranted.

HDR Effex Pro makes it easier to achieve good image quality and interesting effects

HDR Effex Pro is the perfect program for people who like the HDR look but don’t want to spend the time to learn this form of art.  When the plugin is run, it brings up dozens of presets off to the left.  The presets are handy and include many “creative” presets.  This is handy, but it reminds me more of a camera app for a smartphone than a serious post-processing program.  This feeling was reiterated by the lack of sufficient controls to tweak the presets.  Also, it seems that there are more “creative” (aka “weird”) effects than there are useful or professional-quality styles.

HDR Effex Pro includes a neat feature called control points.  They are basically a copy of the control points available in Lightroom, and they work similarly.  When I first heard of this feature in HDR Effex Pro, I had imagined that it would allow the tonemapping settings to be adjusted on a local level.  This would allow me to tonemap the building in one way while tonemapping the sky in a different way.  This feature would save me the trouble of bringing multiple HDR images into Photoshop to mask them together.  Unfortunately, this is not so.  It really only adjusts settings like you’d find in Camera Raw: exposure, vibrance, etc.

Conclusion

I am absolutely thrilled to see competition in the HDR post-processing market, and Nik is a good company to be doing the competing; however, I think for most photographers, I believe the best answer is Photomatix.  From a cost and control standpoint, HDR Effex Pro is the losing program.  I hope that HDR Effex Pro will eventually take the lead when it comes out with version 2.  That will put HDR Soft’s feet to the fire and force them to continue innovating.  For now, though…. Photomatix.

Buy Photomatix 4 on Amazon.com!

Buy Nik HDR Effex Pro on Amazon.com!Further Reading:

• 5 tips to show off the texture in your HDR photography
• A Beginner Introduction to Lightroom Presets
• 15 Tips For Stunning Black and White Photography
• Advanced HDR Post-Processing Tips Video

Time - Jim Harmer

More than any other type of photography, HDR loves texture.  The reason is that the HDR process exaggerates fine detail in a scene.  Because texture has so much fine detail, we see it in a way that captivates viewers.  There are a few ways to bring even more texture out of your HDR photos that you might like to know.  I have used all of these techniques in shooting the photo featured on this page.  I took the shot last week in Estero, Florida.  I had scouted out the location specifically looking for texture to shoot HDR, and when I saw this rustic old cabin, I knew I was about to be translated into HDR heaven.

HDR Texture Tip #1.  Do not short-change the micro-contrast setting in Photomatix 4.  I almost always crank it all the way up to ten (that means moving it to the right).  This setting is specifically designed to bring out texture.

HDR Texture Tip #2.  Wait for the right light.  Texture can be flattened and almost erased if the light in the scene is hitting the surface at a 90 degree angle.  The smaller the angle between the sun and the textured surface, the more clearly the texture will become visible.  If the sun isn’t cooperating, then you could try out your new off-camera flash skills if you followed my advice on off-camera flash on the cheap in the post two weeks ago.

HDR Texture Tip #3.  After tonemapping the HDR in Photomatix, bring it into Photoshop and add some sharpness to the textured area.

HDR Texture Tip #4.  Do not add sharpness or micro-contrast to areas of the photo that aren’t included for their texture.  To do this, you’ll need to process two HDR photos in Photomatix.  On one version, tonemap only focusing on the textured area.  On the next one, only tonemap with the non-textured area in mind.  Do the same for sharpness in Photoshop.  Then, mask together the two photos in Photoshop.  You can see the results of this by looking at the photo featured on this page.  Notice how the old wood was treated specifically for texture, and the scenery around the cabin looks more natural.

HDR Texture Tip #5.  GET CLOSER!!!  Few photographers would choose to shoot a photo of the cabin featured on this page so close-up.  Especially because of the beautiful bamboo forest surrounding the cabin, most photographers would want to include more of the trees; however, I shot this photo close to the cabin with a 10mm wide-angle lens in order to make the texture large enough to be easily visible in the resulting photo.  This is especially true if your photos are most often seen teeny tiny on the web only.  If you’re printing the photo large, this is less of an issue.

Oh, and remember that friends don’t let friends shoot texture without a tripod.Further Reading:

• How to Control Tricky Lighting in Landscape Photography
• Review of Nik HDR Effex Pro and Photomatix 4
• Organic HDR: It’s HDR without the HDR!
• Shoot Report: Night Portrait of a Taxi Driver

HDR Photo

Actually, they probably aren’t noisy but if you clicked on this link, I bet they are suffering from grain.  What’s the difference between noise and grain?  Let’s talk.  This post is an excerpt from my book “Improve Your HDR Photography.”  If you’d like to buy the book, you can buy a digital copy for $5.99 direct from this website and then download the book to read on your computer.  It’s also available on the Kindle store, iBooks app (for iPad, iTouch, iPhone), Nook store, etc.  Just search the name of the book in those stores and it’ll pop right up.

Noise and grain are not the same thing. Noise is captured in the camera when stray electric signals are misconstrued by the camera as being light. The same thing happens when you use an old-school audio cassette. If the sound is quiet, you turn up the volume on the cassette player, and when you do so, you hear fuzz along with the sound of the voice on the recorded audio cassette. This occurs because the player confuses stray electric signals as being the source sound.

Sometimes you can capture perfectly noise-free and clean digital source files by using ISO 100 and short shutter speeds, but when you process the HDR, the result is a very grainy image. Is the grain caused by the camera confusing stray light signals as light? No. This grain didn’t exist on the source images at all. This grain is caused by Photomatix when you tonemap the HDR file improperly.

There are many sliders which, if used to too great an extent, can cause grain on the image even if the source files were perfectly noise-free. Your secret weapon for combating excessive grain in your HDR images is the 100% preview. Simply click on any area in the large preview of your image while in the tonemapping window and you will see a loupe appear which shows a zoomed-in view of a small portion of the image. That 100% view will always have some amount of grain when tonemapping, but the key is to keep the grain to a manageable level.

The first and foremost setting to manage is the smoothing setting. Choosing Max or High will produce significantly less noise than Min or Low.

The second most important setting is the strength setting. While a high value produces that stunning HDR look that we are searching for, it also adds to the amount of noise in the photo. Lowering the strength also lowers the amount of compression in the photo, which affects the amount of grain.

Luminosity and gamma are both tools which affect the brightness of the image. As was discussed above, it is best to leave these settings where they are or, if necessary, only adjust them slightly, to reduce the grain. Generally, it is best not to touch these settings at all and adjust the brightness in Photoshop.

The last setting which significantly affects the grain is the micro-contrast. The micro-contrast accentuates fine details, but it also adds to the amount of grain in the image. Like most of the settings in Photomatix, this setting is a trade-off between detail and grain.

There are other settings which can affect the grain in an image, but they have less impact on the amount of grain than the settings mentioned here. To know which settings can also affect the grain in the image, refer to the tip above about using the loupe view to carefully monitor the amount of grain as you tonemap.

 Further Reading:

• More than you wanted to know about noise
• Organic HDR: It’s HDR without the HDR!
• Review of Nik HDR Effex Pro and Photomatix 4
• 10 Tips for Sharper Photos

Join me, Jim Harmer, on an HDR landscape photography shoot at the beach in Florida.  Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted the audio from my microphone, so I had to use the windy audio from the camera’s on-board mic.  Woops!

In this video, I teach some compositional tricks for landscape photographers and go through an in-depth tutorial on how to process HDR photos.  The entire video is only 8 minutes long, so see if you can stand to watch me for a few minutes.

Sand Storm (HDR) - Jim Harmer

HDR Photography tip #1: Don’t feel like you can only do a one-exposure HDR if something is moving between shots in your HDR sequence.  Photomatix 4.0 has a very advanced de-ghosting tool that can often fix problems like this.

HDR Photography tip #2: Photomatix doesn’t show you the intermediary 32-bit HDR by default.  Remember to check this box when creating the HDR (before tonemapping) so you can come back and tonemap the same .hdr file multiple times without having to start over.  This way, you can use several tonemapped HDRs and blend them together in Photoshop to grab the best parts of each of the tonemapped images.

HDR Photography tip #3: HDR works well on clouds when they have some detail in the clouds.  If there is no detail, HDR generally won’t work well.  In this case, try to change your composition so the sky won’t be included.  Otherwise it’s just a huge sheet of grey that doesn’t do anything for the photo’s aesthetics.

Landscape photography tip #1: Use objects such as trees, buildings, or in this case sea oats to frame the sides of the photo for a stronger composition.

Landscape photography tip #2: Use paths, roads, trails, fences, and other lines to guide the viewer’s eye into the frame for a more compelling composition.Further Reading:

• Advanced HDR Post-Processing Tips Video
• More Daytime Landscape Photography Tips
• Learn to Balance Your Compositions (Landscape Photography)
• Questions and Answers on Night HDR Photography

British Virgin Islands - by Mike Harmer

In this video tutorial, Jim Harmer explains some advanced tips for post-processing HDR photos.

Tips from this video:

HDR tip #1: Don’t finish your image in Photomatix.  Every single HDR needs some work in Photoshop to mask in multiple HDRs as well as blending in the original image by using the opacity slider.  This makes HDRs look much more realistic.

HDR tip #2: Don’t allow yourself to feel stuck with the placement of objects in the photo.  Feel free to move things around, like the boat was moved in this video tutorial to simplify the composition and to follow the rule-of-thirds more closely.

HDR tip #3: Use photomatix!  I have tried ALL of the HDR software choices and I can say that Photomatix is the clear winner in my opinion.  If you have tried to process HDRs without success, then switch to Photomatix and see if your luck changes.  Photomatix just works.

HDR tip #4: To get the best result out of your HDR and still make the ending result look realistic, process the HDR slightly more surreal or painterly than you typically like, then blend the surreal HDR with the original single image taken for the HDR sequence.  This produces realistic and striking results.  It’s realistic, but you still take advantage of all that HDR can do.

HDR tip #5: In HDR landscapes, watch out for the clouds.  Generally, HDRs are saturated with a lot of color, but this makes the clouds look blue.  To avoid this, simply process one HDR for the landscape, and one HDR for the clouds.  Then mix the two HDRs in Photoshop.

If these HDR tips were useful to you, consider buying my $5.99 eBook on HDR photography.  You can get the book for your Kindle through the Kindle store, the iPad iPod iTouch iPhone through the iBooks application, the Nook through the Nook store, the Kobo, the Sony eReader, or you can read a PDF of the book on your computer.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA4rwnsg9Lg']

 Further Reading:

• HDR Photography Tips Video
• Organic HDR: It’s HDR without the HDR!
• My HDR photos are noisy!
• Questions and Answers on Night HDR Photography

I went to do a night hdr the other night and I guess that because the scene is very dark I would need more over exposures than under right? What I noticed with my camera (Canon 7D) is that there was no difference to the picture from +2 EV and +3 because they were both 30 second exposures. Now here comes my point / confusion, I set the camera to BULB mode and took some shots, one at 60 seconds, another at 120 seconds, another at 180 seconds, right up to 5 minutes which made a difference, but how do I know what EV they are because it doesn’t say and Photomatix wants to know these values? I remember you stating in a previous email that you play with the settings in manual mode and bracket from that prefered exposure. The scene I had didnt have much light in it, unlike the one that you linked me to the other week, which brings me on to another question and that would be, does night HDR only work where the subject is a cityscape which has lights from the city and cars etc…. My scene was of a light house, only the lighthouse doesnt have lights because its not in use. I was at this scene around 11pm, so it was pretty dark.

My Answers about Night HDRs Using Photomatix

Further Reading:

• 10 Tips for light painting (night photography)
• What is Bulb Mode and 5 Ways to Use It (Long Exposure Photography)
• The #1 Night Photography Mistake
• 10 Steps to Great Night Photos (Guest Post)