Introduction Photomatix Pro 3.
Introduction Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Drag-and-drop ................................................................................................................................ 4 Workflow Shortcuts panel ............................................................................................................... 4 Section 1: Taking photos for HDR ..............
Introduction Introduction Photomatix Pro processes multiple photographs of a high contrast scene into a single image with details in both highlights and shadows. Photomatix offers two types of processes to increase the dynamic range. One process is called HDR Tone Mapping, the other Exposure Fusion. Both processes are designed to produce an image with an increased apparent dynamic range, but their results are different. You should try both and then choose the result that works best with your images.
Introduction Drag-and-drop You can directly access the HDR creation or Exposure Fusion processes by dragging and dropping to Photomatix Pro a group of image files of the same scene taken under different exposures. On Windows, you can drag the files from Windows Explorer and drop them on the opened Photomatix Pro program. On Macintosh, you can drag the files from the Finder and drop them on the Photomatix Pro icon on your Dock. You can also drag images from other image browsers.
Section 1: Taking photos for HDR Section 1: Taking photos for HDR The shooting phase is essential for getting good results with Photomatix. To photograph a high contrast scene, you need to take several exposures in order to capture information in both the highlights and the shadows of the scene. The exposures taken will have to properly cover the dynamic range of the scene, especially the shadows. The number of photos you need depends on the scene.
Section 1: Taking photos for HDR Note: The continuous shooting mode may not always be the best strategy because camera shake may build up. We recommend using a method that ensures the least possible shake for each single shot, e.g. mirror lock-up functionality, if available.
Section 1: Taking photos for HDR 1.2 Selecting the exposures To get good results with HDR processing, your capture sequence must include photos that correctly expose highlights and photos that correctly expose shadows. The latter is especially important to avoid noise showing in the processed HDR image. In the lightest photo of the sequence, the darkest shadows should be at least in the mid-tones. You can check that with your camera’s histogram preview in playback mode.
Section 2: Creating an HDR image and processing it with Tone Mapping There are two steps involved in creating and processing HDR images: Step 1 merges your photos taken under different exposure settings into a single 32bit HDR image. Because of its high dynamic range, the 32-bit HDR image will not display properly on conventional monitors. Step 2 processes the 32-bit HDR image via the Tone Mapping tool.
2.1.1 Settings for Generate HDR Alignment settings The “Align source images” option is checked by default. This option corrects misalignment problems when the camera moves slightly between the bracketed frames. This always happens with hand-held photographs, but may even happen when shooting with the aid of a tripod. Photomatix Pro offers two alignment methods. The first one, “By correcting horizontal and vertical shifts”, is fast but corrects for translation movements only.
applied to the raw sensor’s data. If no profile is available, it uses the tone reproduction curve of the Adobe RGB color profile. When the images are scanned films or taken with a compact camera, it may be worthwhile to check the option “Attempt to reverse-engineer tone curve applied”.
2.1.2 Comments on the generated HDR image In the companion “HDR viewer” window, the small image area at the top displays a zoomed-in section of the properly exposed HDR image at the current pointer location. The generated 32-bit HDR image is in an unprocessed state, which means that the large range of highlight and shadow details contained in the HDR image cannot be properly displayed on screen at this stage.
2.2 Processing the HDR image with Tone Mapping Tone Mapping is necessary to reveal the details in shadows and highlights in your 32-bit HDR image created from multiple exposures. You can either use Tone Mapping immediately after having generated an HDR image or after opening an existing HDR image file that was previously saved. To access the Tone Mapping tool, click on the “Tone Mapping” button on either the HDR Viewer window or the Workflow Shortcuts window, or choose Process >Tone Mapping.
2.2.1 General controls The image adjustment controls are specific to the tone mapping method activated and are described in the next subsection. The Tone Mapping Settings and Preview dialogs include additional general controls, which apply to both tone mapping methods. Preview size The radio button across the top of the Preview dialog let you choose between two or three sizes for the preview, related to the size of the original.
Presets The “Presets” menu lets you quickly access default or previous settings, as well as specific settings you had defined earlier. It also allows you to save the current settings and load settings available outside the Presets location. Default: Sets to the default “factory” values. Previous: Recalls the values set the last time you used the tone mapping tool. Built-in Presets: Settings for a specific “look”. The built-in presets are “Natural”, “SmoothSkies”, “Painterly” and “Grunge”.
2.2.2 Details Enhancer controls The controls for the Details Enhancer tone mapping method are divided into four groups. The general adjustments appear at the top of the Tone Mapping Settings dialog, while further other adjustments (“Tone Settings”, “Color Settings” and “Miscellaneous Settings”) are located under expandable sections. General settings Strength Controls the strength of the contrast enhancements. A value of 100 gives the maximum increase in both local and global contrast enhancements.
Tone settings White Point – Black Point Both sliders control how the minimum and maximum values of the tone mapped image are set. Moving the sliders to the right increases global contrast. Moving them to the left reduces clipping at the extremes. The White Point slider sets the value for the maximum of the tone mapped image (pure white, or level 255). The Black Point slider sets the value for the minimum of the tone mapped image (pure black, or level 0). The default value is 0.
Miscellaneous settings Micro-smoothing Smoothes out local detail enhancements. This has the effect of reducing noise in the sky for instance, and tends to give a “cleaner” look to the resulting image. The default value is 2. Important note: The Loupe may not properly show the effect of the Micro-smoothing setting when the area magnified is uniform.
2.2.3 Tone Compressor controls Brightness Adjusts the overall brightness of the tone mapped image. The default value is 0. Tonal Range Compression Controls the compression of the tonal range. Moving the slider to the right has the effect of shifting both shadows and highlights toward the mid-tones in the tone mapped image. The default value is 0. Contrast Adaptation Adjusts the influence of the average brightness in relation to the intensity of the processed pixel.
2.2.4 Processing and saving the tone mapped image Once you are satisfied with the settings, click the “Process” button to apply the tone mapping to the complete image (instead of the preview only). You will then be able to save the tone mapped image by choosing File > Save As. If you would like to undo the Tone Mapping, click the “Undo Tone Mapping” item of the “Process” menu on Windows and the “Edit” menu on Macintosh.
Section 3: Exposure Fusion Exposure Fusion is the process of combining your photos under multiple exposures into one image with details in both shadows and highlights. The resulting image with increased dynamic range is achieved in one step with Exposure Fusion, whereas HDR Tone Mapping requires two steps. Exposure Fusion was known as Exposure Blending in prior versions of Photomatix Pro.
3.1 Fusing Exposures To start Exposure Fusion, drag your images to the opened Photomatix Pro application (Windows) or to the Photomatix icon in the Dock (Macintosh). Then, choose “Fuse exposures”. Alternatively, you can also click on the “Exposure Fusion” button of the “Workflow Shortcuts”, or choose Process > Exposure Fusion. If you have Lightroom, you should use the Lightroom Export Plug-in to Photomatix Pro for your RAW images. Please refer to section 5 of this manual.
3.1.2 Highlights & Shadows – Adjust Accentuation Adjusts the strength of local contrast enhancements. The default value is 0. Blending Point Adjusts the weighting given to the underexposed versus overexposed images. When you move the slider to the right, overexposed images are favored, which has the effect of brightening the image. The reverse applies when you move the slider to the left. The default value is 0. Shadows Adjusts the brightness of the shadows without affecting the highlights.
3.2 Processing and saving the fused image Once you have found a method that gives you results you like, click the “Process” button to fuse to the images at full resolution (instead of fusing a low resolution for the preview). After the files are processed, you can save the fused image by choosing File > Save As. The resulting fused image always has a bit-depth of 16 bits/channel. This is even the case if the source images were JPEGs or 8-bit TIFF files.
Section 4: Automating with batch processing Batch processing lets your computer automatically process image files with no user intervention. This can save you a lot of time when you have many series of photos to process. Photomatix Pro offers two different batch modes.
Choose Automate > Batch Processing or click on the “Batch Processing” button on the Workflow Shortcuts panel. Note: This section describes the batch processing of photos taken under multiple exposure settings. In some cases, you may be interested in batch processing single files instead, such as tone mapping previously created 32-bit HDR image files saved as Radiance or OpenEXR. In such cases, you will have to use the “Batch Single Files” item under the Automate menu instead of “Batch Processing”.
4.2 Settings specific to Batch Processing The “Settings...” buttons allow you to specify the settings for HDR generation, Tone Mapping, and Exposure Fusion. Please refer to sections 2 and 3 for a description of these settings. In the case of the settings for Generate HDR, there are a few settings that are specific to Batch Processing and are described below: Force Exposure Values spacing to: The checkbox will force the EV spacing to the specified value.
the same folder. Let's take as an example a panorama composed of four views that need to be stitched, with each view having been taken under three exposures: -2, 0, +2.
Section 5: Tips and Techniques 5.1 Integrating Lightroom with Photomatix Pro If you have Lightroom, you can export photos for processing in Photomatix Pro directly from Lightroom, and have them re-imported back into the Lightroom library if you wish to. The Lightroom Export plug-in to Photomatix is free and delivered in the Photomatix Pro package. Please refer to the HDRsoft website at http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/lrplugin.
5.3 Processing RAW files in third-party RAW converters Even though Photomatix Pro can process RAW files from most camera models, we recommend converting RAW files using a third-party RAW converter (such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, DxO or other applications specialized in RAW conversion) before processing them in Photomatix Pro.
5.4 Dealing with noise When you process your images using Exposure Fusion, the fused image will tend to show less noise than the source images. This is because Exposure Fusion works by directly combining your bracketed photos, and thus averaging out noise. However, when you create a 32-bit HDR image, your bracketed photos are assembled in linear space into an image that spans the full range of luminance values captured by the camera.
Resources You can find more tips and techniques, and regularly updated information, in the Photomatix Pro FAQ on the HDRsoft website at http://www.hdrsoft.com/support/faq_photomatix.html.
