How to create HDR Photos - HDR/Photomatix tutorialListThumbs
How to create HDR Photos - HDR/Photomatix tutorial
There has been a lot of buzz recently about HDR photography, but many people assume that it's only limited to professional photographers. The reality is that just about anyone can take and process an HDR photo with most cameras and proper HDR software.
There are plenty of explanations of what HDR is and how it works, so we won't cover that here. If you want more background info, check out HDR explained so anyone can understand or Jon Meyer's popular HDR primer.
In this tutorial we'll go through the steps necessary to take your very own HDR photo and process it like a pro. What you will need:
- A camera that allows you to adjust exposure settings.
- Tone Mapping Software (In this tutorial we will use Photomatix, which is the most popular way to create HDR's.)
Step 1: Taking the photo(s)
TITLE: Quick and Easy steps to take HDR Photos with any camera
To create an HDR photo you need at least 3 differently exposed photos of the same shot. That's not as difficult as it sounds. Many cameras give you the ability to change exposures from shot to shot. Since all cameras are different you'll have to figure out how to change these exposure settings on your particular camera. Look for Exposure, AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing), A-EV, BKT (more on that here and here), or a little +/- graphic.
Important: Make sure the camera does not move between shots. Use a tripod or place the camera on a stable surface, minimizing movement as much as possible between shots. Below is an example of how this works using my girlfriend's simple point and shoot camera - the Sony DSC-W50. If you click on the +/- button you will see a way to adjust the Image brightness (EV) level for your picture.
1. Take one picture at EV 0
2. (press the shutter halfway to clear the preview), press the +/- button again and move the cursor down to EV -2. Take a picture.
3. (press the shutter halfway to clear the preview), press the +/- button again and move the cursor up to EV +2. Take a picture.
I usually take 3 shots each spaced 2 EV exposure values apart - one at EV -2, one at EV 0 (which is the most correctly exposed photo), and one at EV +2. Here is an example of 3 shots I recently took:
The first is exposed just right (0), the second too dark (-2), and the third exposed too light (+2).
Step 2: Generating and Tone Mapping the HDR
For this step you will need Photomatix Pro. While it's possible to do this with Photoshop CS2/CS3 or other HDR software, Photomatix is a much better tool - it gives you better results and is much easier to use. You can download a free trial of Photomatix Pro which will leave a watermark on your picture, or you can buy it for $99.
Note: You can use Photomatix Coupon Code VPG8 to get an 8% discount..
Open Photomatix Pro and click on "Generate HDR image."
Click "Browse..." and select the 3 photos you took in step 1 (by clicking each one while holding down CTRL on a PC or Command on a Mac). Once you have the 3 photos highlighted, click "Open" then click "OK." Now you will see a set of options.
Keep Align source images checked. I also usually leave the "Attempt to reduce ghosting artifacts" option checked as well. If you have moving water in your shot, change the option to ("Background movements", otherwise leave "Moving objects/people) selected. Click OK. After a few seconds of processing you will see something like this.
It will usually look too dark - don't worry. The next step is where the magic happens. Click on "Tone Mapping". You will see Tone Map Settings panel and a preview of your HDR photo.
The settings toward the top will have the most impact on your photo. Adjust Strength and Light Smoothing settings to get your preferred "HDR effect."
Feel free to experiment with the rest of the tabs, controls, and settings to get your desired results. Some people prefer a saturated surreal look, while others like to keep the photo looking more realistic and natural. After you are happy with what the photo looks like, click "Process." Once Photomatix is done processing, it will show you the resulting HDR. Click "File" > "Save As..." and save your photo as a JPEG. Voila! You now have your very own HDR photo.
For some inspiration, check out the following:
If you want to share some of your own HDR's, submit them to (the soon to be launching) Dynamic HDR's Photo Gallery or join the Flickr HDR Photo Pool.
Author: Markus Urban | If you want to write an article and have it published here send it via email to abduzeedo[at]abduzeedo.com
About the author
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.
64 Comments
hi, nice tutorial...
please check my hdr on my blog and tell me what you think shoul be improved...thanks.
http://gabrielbuta.blogspot.com
I would just like to say i have just learned about HDR images about a month ago and i am blown away of the look they represent, i have read and read on how to produce them and didnt understand with all the mombo jombo but with your tut i have got it, i read this about an hour ago and took my sony alpha a 350 14.2 mp and made 3 shots as you said and dowloaded photomatrix and created my first HDR and i love it, i will learn to fine tune them to come but for my first i think its awsome so thank you very much, now i have to add to my web site that i offer HDR images!!!!!!!! by the way my site if anyone would like to see is at http://allaboutmystyle.shutterbugstorefront.com
have you tried the topaz adjust filter? its pretty cool, its only $49 and its a really versatile. you can see a tutorial and review at http://digitalapplejuice.com/photoshop-plugin-topaz-adjust/
WOW!!! thanks for the tutorial.... i'm now able to do Hdr
Thanks for your great help. :-D
Finally I success made some HDR photos :-D
So Happy :-D
@Imacro I tried doing a hdr image yesterday with a canon 40D using 1 raw file just taking a regular picture then used pixelmatic tonemapping and set the tones and it looks exactly like the hdr images i see going around
Excellent tutorial and I love how your site covers so many different things.
There are also some others great tutorials out there.
Before the coffee has an excellent tutorial here and also Sandmania's latest tutorial is excellent too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandmania/3291934513/
Great tutorial !
I made a video version of it, which you can find here plus some photoshop post production video also :
http://photoserge.com/category/english-tutorials/
I am really frustrated about hdr technology. I have been reading a lot for months just to make an hdr photo but I couldn't. The reason behind that I think is the ambiguity in explaining" how to make hdr photos". Moreover, I think there is some kind of exaggeration in showing the results, because I don’t think that those photos displayed in some websites are results of those explanations and tutorials. There is some kind of photo processing and colore treatment that they won't tell any one about. Any way, maybe I didn’t understand the tutorials very well and I am putting the blame on people although I have been trying for months and I did a lot and a lot of trials. To be brief, I would ask some questions if you allow me:
1- What does it mean to take three photos with different exposures? Is it with different shutter speed or different EV values (+2/0/-2) or they are the same?
2- If it is three pictures with a tripod then how would they take hdr photos with moving objects? I have seen a lot of them. May be one raw photo?! I don’t know, but do you think that you may get such amazing photos with just treating this photo with some software.
3- I have Sony H50 and I want to use auto bracketing to take three photos, but the camera gives me(0.7/0/-0.7), I tried to change the EV value but I couldn’t, is there any way for that?
4- If I should use different shutter speed, what are the speeds should I use for the hdr?
Finally, would any one please give me the short and easy steps for making hdr, I tried the ways mentioned in most websites but I failed. I don’t think that the whole issue would take more than three or four short sentences. Those websites make it longer just to see there ads.
Sorry and Thank you so much for your time.
Is this tips can be done with a camera phone ?
Great tutorial. I also read an excellent tutorial over on sandmania's flickr photostream. Here is the link to that tutorial.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sandmania/2734520399
What does this step do? (press the shutter halfway to clear the preview), Why dont I just take a snapshot?
Just posted on my blog HDR tutorial: Create HDR photos with free software. Qtpfsgui and GIMP can give you more impressive results than commercial HDR apps.
Hi
Tanks you for your information.
Esse blog é brasileiro??
Nossa =D
*orgulho*
Nice!
My first visit here and i couldn't miss this tutorial. Awesome!
And for those who uses linux (like me), i got this one that makes the job very well (if not better) "qtpfsgui" and free!
=D
Blasted wind.
Hi
Have you seen what Dan Burkholder has done using HDR on the post-Katrina disaster on New Orleans. He did an absolutely STUNNING book about this issue using HDRI of interiors only called "The Color Of Loss"
http://www.amazon.com/Color-Loss-Intimate-Portrait-Orleans/dp/029271713X...
Here's a link to his own website that should have your jaws dropping:
http://www.danburkholder.com/
Cheers
Wolf
Thank you for tutorial, i will use it very soon :) Thanks
Actually there´s a lot of difference (for trained eyes).
You´ll notice them in little details such as the palm tree and the one to the right of it, the sky, etc.
I am grabbed by this HDR thing but in all honesty, my pictures look nothing like what I see on various sites and e.g. in the '20 HDR' link you provide.
The picture you usea as an example is a nice picture, but it suffers from the same problem I have with my pictures: If I look at your medium exposed picture and the HDR picture, in reality, is there really so much difference? I think not. I doi not want to criticize you, but I am getting pretty frustrated with this HDR thing
Saudações do Brasil! Muito obrigado Abduzeedo =)
Desde hoje, HDR é o meu novo vício!
Valeu! Mudou a vida das minhas fotos daqui pra frente. :D
Abraços.
Thank you so much for showing me this!!! I had never even heard of HDRI before, a few weeks ago I saw this amazing night picture of a city, and just figured it was a long exposure with an expensive professional camera, and assumed I'd never be able to do that myself. And they I come across this!!!
I don't see why you can't just take 1 picture, and then edit it in photoshop and save one version a bit darker and one verson a bit lighter and use those 3 images, if you don't want to/can't take 3 images exactly the same.
I'm itching to go home and try this now!!! :D:D:D I might even buy myself a tripod to start doing this often.
Thank you!!!
For those that don't know:
"high dynamic range imaging (HDRI) is a set of techniques that allows a greater dynamic range of exposures (the range of values between light and dark areas) than normal digital imaging techniques. The intention of HDRI is to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to shadows."
-from wikipedia
You can do this for free with Gimp and the exposure-blend extension. You can see some of my shots that I made with these tools.
The hdr technique must be used correctly for the result to be really professional. But it's worth to try!!! Thanks for that beautifull hdr examples.
brilliant, will try this out once I have the time after all my design work :(
Never tried this method
I've written a tutorial on how to create a similar effect using just Photoshop. You can find it at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/b.harbison1/hdr/
Thanks for looking.
Hello :) Sorry I already posted in PSDTuts my problem ...
I have a big issue on your tut step 6 : my Stroke Path is plain WHITE (the foreground color in the example), I don't have this kind of overlay color mode ....
I have to choose afterwards the overlay color mode for the dude layer and duplicate it to get something OK, but not as good as your render ...
YES I do have the color burn set for the dual brush, and I checked 10 times ALL the steps, so ... what do I do wrong ?
Thx to help me, by giving maybe more details ...
i really love this site, it`s been reaaly helpfull the tuts and the info are simply superb, if possible i wuold like to see a tutorial to create water splashes, similar to the explosion one but instead of particules, water
tnx for sharin this wonderfull site
Thank you for this tutorial. Amazing!
Wow that's amazing!!
I have a canon powershot a620... anyone know if this one can be used for hdr photo?
Nice tutorial you have, great details for newbie like me by giving step by step.
good tutorial! :)
in response to:
"if using a dslr camera, i'd assume you'd want to shoot in program manual and keep all your settings the same, just change your fstop"
If you change your aperture you will also change your depth of field, and you want to keep all your images exactly the same in every aspect except for exposure. What you do want to change is your shutter speed.
If you have a DSLR you would most likely have an AEB (auto exposure bracketing) function that will get it done. But if not put the selector to Av (aperture priority) choose the aperture you want and then exposure compensate for different exposures.
[Quote/] I just want to point out that there is a free hdri software (photomatrix is not cheap) out there for windows users: I stumbled upon picturenaut some months ago and I do love it (it is free, I just have to run it with bootcamp on my mac ;) and it is REALLY fast.
http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/index.html?http://picturenaut.de/ [/Quote]
Also Photosphere (mac only)
Uau, com esse post vocês tão figurando a página principal do del.icio.us! Parabéns!
Wow! with this post you are duplicating the principal page of "del.icio.us"! All the best to you!
if using a dslr camera, i'd assume you'd want to shoot in program manual and keep all your settings the same, just change your fstop?
correct?
Thank you for the great tutorial - and thanks to those who commented with other suggestions, too. (I found the RAW format suggestion particularly helpful).
I know you mentioned it can be done in Photoshop, only that it takes longer... but I would really, REALLY like to see how to accomplish this effect with Photoshop instead of needing to purchase a special piece of software just to accomplish this one effect (and why Adobe hasn't added this feature to their CS3, I have no idea! They SHOULD!).
Thank you again!
HDR is becoming quite popular. Thanks for the tutorial.
I've been looking at HDR photos with some interest and even attempted experimenting with them myself. However, I haven't been able to produce a "fake" HDR photo using a single photo and manipulate it in Photoshop, at least, not as successful as I hoped it would be. I've always thought it would be great if I could download a stockphoto and make it into an HDR photo or at least mimick the looks of one and use that in my composition. I mean, when you think about it, most photographic backgrounds in advertising are HDR photos. They represent an idealized reality. Would you consider taking on this challenge and make a tutorial about it? I bet it'd be very popular.
Hi again:
Some extra info on making HDR images.
It might be difficult to use a tripod and play with bracketing if humans or animals are in the picture. They will probably move. Another way of doing it: Shoot a picture in RAW format. Open in Photoshop and save 3 different TIFF images with different exposures. Combine these to make a 32 bit HDR image and run the tonemapping tool.
Well.. the best way to do it..use a tripod and shoot 3x RAW images! then you have a lot more file info to play with than a standard JPG.
Good luck!
Hi! Great tutorial.Just for those people who want to try Photomatix but can't afford to buy it.... it is possible to make a screendump (CTRL+ENTER) of the preview of the tonemapping result. If you use a simple photo editing tool it is very easy to crop it, (once you have opened the screendump in the editing software) You will loose some size but you have a result!
good luck
Good one...
thank you for writing such wonderful tutorial :-)
Uau, com esse post vocês tão figurando a página principal do del.icio.us! Parabéns!
@lenninc
I use Qtpfsgui (http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/) for creating HDR images ...
Ohhhhh man ... you and your tutorial made my life a living hell ..... seems i'm no longer satisfied with regular pictures (no matter how beautiful) because i know how amazing they must be in HDR .
I'm thinking ..... how long does it take to change all my + 1000 HQ wallpapers into HDR versions ?! ~~~hahaha~~~
I'm using your pics for this tutorial.
What were the settings you used in the Tone Mapping Settings dialog box?
Nice tutorial, gonna have to give this a try. Dugg.
Excelent..
nice tutorial, but how about one for us linux guys and gimp, thx
Nice tutorial, i always wondered how to create HDR images, it seems so simple...
I will definetely gonna try it!
Thanks!!! =) very useful tutorial!
Look HDR creme, www.hdrcreme.com, is the first HDR photo gallery that let you share photos, explore and learn about High dynamic range imaging. HDRcreme is a free image hosting service.
A great tutorial. Thanks!
Thank you for this tut but can you also share how to create HDR photos with photshop as well..Thank you
I just want to point out that there is a free hdri software (photomatrix is not cheap) out there for windows users: I stumbled upon picturenaut some months ago and I do love it (it is free, I just have to run it with bootcamp on my mac ;) and it is REALLY fast.
http://www.hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/index.html
http://picturenaut.de/
thx for the detailed tutorial!
Jason, thanks for the info... i red my manual.. but never realized the EV thing.. i always use the Exposure with the Fstop and the ring...
Amin, you should read your DSLR manual.
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/NikonD40/page6.asp
if you don't have a manual, read this.
read page 3 if you don't understand the camera display.
Great way to do it! :D
nice.. ive been looking for an explanation for this for a long time... GREAT SITE THAT U HAVE HERE.. im coming here almost everyday..
Do you have any idea how to do it with DSLR Cameras like the Nikon D40 that i have... because i dont see that option, i can adjust the exposure but not the way u demostrate here...
thanx..
That's really nice.
Welcome to Abduzeedo, Markus.
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