Wiley High Dynamic Range Digital Photography For Dummies Datasheet

Contents at a Glance

Introduction ................................................................ 1

Part I: The ABCs of HDR Photography ........................... 7

Chapter 1: Shining a Light on HDR .................................................................................. 9

Chapter 2: Gearing Up for HDR ...................................................................................... 27

Chapter 3: Looking Hard at HDR Software ................................................................... 51

Part II: Putting the Photography in HDR Photography ... 67

Chapter 4: Becoming One with Your Camera .............................................................. 69

Chapter 5: Bracketing Exposures for HDR .................................................................... 87

Chapter 6: Shooting Single-Exposure HDR ................................................................. 115

Part III: The Soft(er)ware Side of HDR ..................... 131

Chapter 7: Generating HDR ........................................................................................... 133

Chapter 8: Preparing to Tone Map .............................................................................. 151

Chapter 9: Tone Mapping for Fun and Profi t .............................................................. 173

Chapter 10: Layers, Process, and Blending ................................................................ 197

Chapter 11: Cleaning Up Your Photos ......................................................................... 221

Part IV: Having Fun with HDR Images ...................... 247

Chapter 12: Creating Panor-Ahhh-Mas ........................................................................ 249

Chapter 13: Going Old School with Black-and-White HDR ....................................... 269

Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................... 295

Chapter 14: (More Than) Ten Ways to Shoot Better Photos for HDR .................... 297 COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

Index ...................................................................... 319

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Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................. 1

About This Book .............................................................................................. 1

Who This Book Is For ...................................................................................... 1

What You Need ................................................................................................ 2

Foolish Assumptions ....................................................................................... 2

Whys and Wherefores ..................................................................................... 3

How This Book Is Organized .......................................................................... 3

Part I: The ABCs of HDR Photography ................................................ 4

Part II: Putting the Photography in HDR Photography ..................... 4

Part III: The Soft(er)ware Side of HDR ................................................. 4

Part IV: Having Fun with HDR Images.................................................. 4

Part V: The Part of Tens ........................................................................ 5

Icons Used in This Book ................................................................................. 5

Where to Go from Here ................................................................................... 5

Part I: The ABCs of HDR Photography ........................... 7

Chapter 1: Shining a Light on HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Peeking inside the HDR Process .................................................................. 10

The twin peaks of HDR ........................................................................ 10

Going with the (work)fl ow .................................................................. 11

HDR Show and Tell ........................................................................................ 14

Rescuing details from shadows ......................................................... 14

Taming highlights ................................................................................ 16

Making the most of interior spaces ................................................... 17

Enhancing details ................................................................................. 20

Working wonders with people ........................................................... 21

Within and without .............................................................................. 23

Feeding your starving inner artist ..................................................... 24

Getting Excited about HDR Photography ................................................... 26

Chapter 2: Gearing Up for HDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

Knowledge Is Power: Researching and Shopping for the Right Equipment ............................................................................ 28

Looking at Hand-Held Photon Capture Devices (Err, Cameras) .............. 29

Inexpensive compact cameras ........................................................... 30

High-end compact and super-zoom cameras ................................... 33 dSLR cameras ....................................................................................... 35

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Looking through Lenses ............................................................................... 37

Budget compact camera lenses ......................................................... 37

Premium and super-zoom lenses ....................................................... 38

Wide angle lenses ................................................................................ 39

General purpose and kit lenses .......................................................... 41

Other lens types ................................................................................... 42

Choosing a Pod, Tri or Otherwise ............................................................... 43

Odd pods............................................................................................... 44

Inexpensive tripods ............................................................................. 44

Expensive tripods ................................................................................ 45

Additional items for your tripod ........................................................ 47

Adding Optional Accessories to Your HDR Kit .......................................... 47

Chapter 3: Looking Hard at HDR Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

Software: Don’t Pass HDR without It ........................................................... 51

H-D-R (uh-huh, uh-huh), we like it . . ................................................. 52

Rah rah for raw raw ............................................................................. 53

MBA in image management ................................................................ 54

Editing for zing ..................................................................................... 54

Your Guide to Raw ......................................................................................... 54

Using your camera’s software ............................................................ 54

Third-party Raw software ................................................................... 56

Adobe Camera Raw.............................................................................. 57

Surveying the HDR Software Landscape .................................................... 58

Artizen HDR .......................................................................................... 58

Dynamic Photo HDR ............................................................................ 59 easyHDR ................................................................................................ 59

FDRTools ............................................................................................... 60

Hydra HDR plug-in for Aperture 2.1 ................................................... 61

Photomatix Pro .................................................................................... 61

Qtpfsgui ................................................................................................. 62

Integrating More Cool Software into Your HDR Workfl ow ....................... 62

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo ................................................................ 63

Adobe Photoshop ................................................................................ 63

Adobe Photoshop Elements ............................................................... 63

Adobe Lightroom ................................................................................. 63

Apple Aperture ..................................................................................... 64

Part II: Putting the Photography in HDR Photography ...67

Chapter 4: Becoming One with Your Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

The Secrets (Shh . . .) of Exposure .............................................................. 70

Photographic stops/EV ....................................................................... 72

Bracketing ............................................................................................. 73

Metering ................................................................................................ 74

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Confi guring Your Camera for HDR .............................................................. 75

Setting Up Exposure Compensation ............................................................ 76

Preparing to Manually Bracket a Scene ...................................................... 78

Dialing in Auto Bracketing ............................................................................ 81

Getting Ready for Single-Shot HDR .............................................................. 84

Chapter 5: Bracketing Exposures for HDR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87

Big Answers for Big Bracketing Questions ................................................. 88

Deciding how many brackets to shoot.............................................. 88

Seeing the difference ........................................................................... 91

Shooting Bracketed Photos .......................................................................... 96

Using exposure compensation ........................................................... 97

Manual bracketing ............................................................................. 100

Auto bracketing .................................................................................. 104

Shooting multiple auto brackets ...................................................... 105

Using Alternate Metering Strategies ......................................................... 109

Working with a light meter ............................................................... 109

Alternate metering with your camera ............................................. 114

Chapter 6: Shooting Single-Exposure HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115

Knowing When to Break the Rules ............................................................ 116

Satisfying the Minimum Requirements ..................................................... 118

Work-fl ow, Flow, Flow Your Boat ............................................................... 119

Tone Mapping Single Exposures ................................................................ 123

Shooting single-exposure HDR on the go ........................................ 123

Increasing contrast and details ........................................................ 125

Reducing noise ................................................................................... 125

Using a single Raw photo without converting to brackets ........... 126

Comparing Results ...................................................................................... 127

Part III: The Soft(er)ware Side of HDR ..................... 131

Chapter 7: Generating HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133

The Unbearable Lightness of HDR ............................................................ 133

HDelightfullyR images and fi les ........................................................ 134

Choosing an HDR fi le format ............................................................ 135

Converting Raw Photos .............................................................................. 136

Principle principles ........................................................................... 137

Converting bracketed photos .......................................................... 138

Creating brackets from one Raw exposure .................................... 140

Creating HDR ................................................................................................ 142

Photomatix Pro .................................................................................. 142

Photoshop........................................................................................... 146

Photoshop Elements 8 ...................................................................... 149

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High Dynamic Range Digital Photography For Dummies

Chapter 8: Preparing to Tone Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .151

Tone Mapping 101 ....................................................................................... 151

Getting Acquainted with Photomatix Pro ................................................. 155

Exploring Details Enhancer .............................................................. 156

Examining Tone Compressor ........................................................... 163

Using Photoshop ......................................................................................... 166

Chapter 9: Tone Mapping for Fun and Profi t . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173

Tone Mapping with Photomatix Pro ......................................................... 173

Getting ready to tone map ................................................................ 174

Getting started to tone map ............................................................. 174

Making and evaluating adjustments ................................................ 178

Finishing up ........................................................................................ 182

Tone Mapping in Photoshop ...................................................................... 183

An Approach to Comparing Approaches ................................................. 188

Batch-Processing Multiple Files ................................................................. 190

Batch-Processing Single Files ..................................................................... 194

Chapter 10: Layers, Process, and Blending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197

Taking the Layers Refresher Course ......................................................... 198

The lasagna of layers ......................................................................... 198

Managing layers ................................................................................. 200

Mama Mia Methodologia ............................................................................ 202

Editing with layers ............................................................................. 202

The workfl ow (cue reveal music) .................................................... 205

And Now, Blending in 3-D ........................................................................... 212

Blending with opacity........................................................................ 212

Blending select areas......................................................................... 213

Using blending modes ....................................................................... 217

Chapter 11: Cleaning Up Your Photos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221

Hey! Keep the Noise Down in There! ......................................................... 222

Global noise smackdown .................................................................. 222

Select and reduce............................................................................... 225

Masked reduction .............................................................................. 226

Multiple masked reduction ............................................................... 228

We Have the Technology: Cloning ............................................................ 229

Ye olde feather duster ....................................................................... 229

Removing distractions ...................................................................... 230

Fixing Lens Distortions ............................................................................... 232

Solving Color and Saturation Problems .................................................... 236

Oversaturation ................................................................................... 236

Color casts .......................................................................................... 237

Levels and Lightness ................................................................................... 239

Smoothing Rough Spots .............................................................................. 240

Turning Your Images Loose: Publishing ................................................... 241

Table of Contents

Part IV: Having Fun with HDR Images ....................... 247

Chapter 12: Creating Panor-Ahhh-Mas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .249

Shooting Panoramas in HDR ...................................................................... 250

Processing Panoramas As HDR .................................................................. 256

Developing Raw photos in bulk ....................................................... 256

Creating an HDR master frame ......................................................... 257

Batch-processing the rest ................................................................. 258

Stitching the Elements Together ............................................................... 259

Stitching in Photoshop Elements ..................................................... 259

Blending the frames with layer masks ............................................ 263

Cropping the fi nalized image ............................................................ 266

Chapter 13: Going Old School with Black-and-White HDR . . . . . . . .269

Seeing That Special Something .................................................................. 270

Emphasizing contrast ........................................................................ 270

Reveling in tone .................................................................................. 271

Solving color problems ..................................................................... 273

Focusing on the subject .................................................................... 274

Converting Early in the HDR Process ....................................................... 274

Using a Raw editor ............................................................................. 275

Desaturating while you tone map .................................................... 277

Converting a Tone Mapped HDR Image .................................................... 278

Weighing in on the grayscale ........................................................... 278

Desaturayayayayshun ....................................................................... 278

Using Convert to Black and White ................................................... 278

Using a gradient map ......................................................................... 281

Working with Photoshop .................................................................. 283

Colorizing Black-and-White Images ........................................................... 286

Using Elements to colorize ............................................................... 286

Using Photoshop to colorize ............................................................ 291

Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................ 295

Chapter 14: (More Than) Ten Ways to Shoot

Better Photos for HDR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .297

Getting a Good Tripod ................................................................................ 297

Being Patient ................................................................................................ 298

Becoming a Cloud Watcher ........................................................................ 298

Taking Your Camera with You ................................................................... 299

Loving HDR Photography ........................................................................... 299

Paying Attention to Light and Time .......................................................... 300

Knowing Your Camera ................................................................................ 300

Looking for Contrast ................................................................................... 301 xv

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High Dynamic Range Digital Photography For Dummies

Returning to the Scene ................................................................................ 302

Looking Around ........................................................................................... 303

Using AEB ..................................................................................................... 304

Shuttering with a Purpose .......................................................................... 304

Chapter 15: Ten Ways to Ruin a Good HDR Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .307

Halos, Halos, Everywhere! .......................................................................... 307

Wimping Out on Contrast ........................................................................... 308

Imagination Smackdown ............................................................................. 310

This Isn’t Casper, The Friendly Ghost ...................................................... 311

Sharpening From Dusk ’Til Dawn .............................................................. 311

Too Much Noise Reduction Going On ....................................................... 312

Putting a Square Peg into a Round Hole ................................................... 313

Timidity on the Coloroidity ........................................................................ 314

Too Much HDR ............................................................................................. 314

Overreacting to Criticism ........................................................................... 316

Index ....................................................................... 319