Photomatix Pro User Manual Version 4.2 HDR soft © 2012 HDRsoft. All rights reserved.
Contents 1 2 3 4 5 Introduction.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . Taking Photos for HDR .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction Cove Point Lighthouse photo © Ferrell McCollough Photomatix Pro works with photographs of the same scene taken under different exposure settings, often called “bracketed” images in reference to the auto-bracketing exposure functions available on many camera models. If you have not taken bracketed photos, you can start using Photomatix Pro with the sample images available from the download page of the Photomatix Pro website – http://www.hdrsoft.com.
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 must properly cover the dynamic range of the scene, especially the shadows. The number of photos you need depends on the scene. It also depends on the Exposure Value (EV) spacing separating the photos.
1.1 Setting up the Camera • Set your camera to Aperture priority ("A" setting) so that only the shutter speed varies between the exposures. • Select a low ISO, such as ISO 100 or lower. • Turn off the flash. The flash may try to balance the exposure of all the images, when the goal is a range of exposures. • Mount the camera on a tripod whenever possible. Even though Photomatix Pro offers automatic alignment of handheld photos, using a tripod is always better.
1.3 Using Film-Based Cameras • Follow the camera setup listed at the top of Section 1.1 and the tips on selecting exposures in Section 1.2. Keep in mind that you will not have the option of previewing the live histogram to determine your exposure range. • Scan film or slides, not prints. Photo labs attempt to make the best print from each of your source images, and you will not achieve good results scanning these for HDR generation. • Turn off your scanner’s auto-exposure options.
2 Loading and Pre-Processing Images This section describes how to load and merge bracketed image files of a scene taken under different exposure settings as well as how to load single images into Photomatix Pro. 2.1 Merging Bracketed Images Photomatix Pro merges bracketed images that are in 8 bit or 16 bits/channel mode, as well as Camera RAW files. Supported file types include JPEG, TIFF, PSD, DNG, and RAW files from many camera models.
Using the Workflow Area or the File Menu To load images using the Workflow Shortcuts panel or the File menu: 1. Click Load Bracketed Photos in the Workflow Shortcuts area OR Select Load Bracketed Photos from the File menu. The Loading bracketed photos dialog displays. Note If you check the Show intermediary 32-bit HDR image box, you will be able to save the pre-processed 32-bit image in an HDR image file format such as Radiance or OpenEXR.
2.1.2 General Pre-Processing Options After the bracketed images are selected, the pre-processing settings for the images may be customized before the 32-bit HDR image is generated. Refer to the following list for a description of the available options for merging bracketed images: Alignment Options The Align source images option is checked by default. It corrects misalignment problems when the camera moves slightly between the bracketed frames.
• Detection: Sets the criteria for determining if a pixel is or is not ghosted when using automatic deghosting. Noise Reduction Options The Reduce noise option processes source photos with high-quality noise reduction and is recommended when processing RAW files directly in Photomatix. • Strength: Increases or decreases the strength of the noise reduction relative to the automatically determined value based on the noise level in the image. Values range from 50% to 150%.
Right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac) inside the selected region and select Mark selection as ghosted area from the pop-up menu. The line around the selected region changes from dashed to solid to indicate that the area has been selected for deghosting. At any time, use the Brightness slider to increase or decrease the brightness of the image. Or, use the Zoom slider to zoom in and out. If necessary, you can remove a region from the deghosting selection.
To view a preview of the deghosted image, click Preview deghosting. To make more selections or modify existing regions selected for deghosting, click Return to selection mode. You may continue selecting regions of the image and previewing the results until you are satisfied with the results. Click OK to apply the deghosting to the image or click Cancel to stop merging the images. 2.1.4 Pre-Processing Options for RAW Files Photomatix Pro offers additional pre-processing options for RAW files.
2.2 Working with Single Image Files Photomatix Pro supports Tone Mapping of single image files. To load a single image file: 1. Drag the image file to the Photomatix Pro application (Windows) or icon on your Dock (Mac). OR Select Open from the File menu. A file browser window displays. Navigate to the file and open it. Reducing noise on a single image JPEG file 2. To process the image using Tone Mapping, click Tone Mapping from the Workflow Shortcut bar.
3 Adjusting Images Using Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion Photomatix Pro provides access to HDR Tone Mapping and Note Exposure Fusion methods in one window. The window includes Exposure Fusion is only available when bracketed a preview, so you can see how adjustments to settings or changing the adjustment method affect the result. This section photos are loaded. When a single image is loaded describes the workflow for adjusting and processing images and only tone mapping is available.
Undoing Adjustments and Reprocessing an Image After processing an image, you can return to Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion to make further changes if you are not satisfied with the results. You may also undo processing, before returning to Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion: • Select Undo Tone Mapping or Undo Exposure Fusion from the Process menu (Windows) or Edit menu (Macintosh). Photomatix Pro returns the image to its original state.
3.2.2 Preset Thumbnails Panel The Presets panel lists the available presets, showing a thumbnail preview of the effect of the preset on your image. When you click on a preset thumbnail, the preview window is refreshed to show the result of processing your image with the settings of the selected preset. By default, the panel displays one column of small thumbnails. Click on the “plus” icon on the top of the panel to display the thumbnails at a larger size.
Custom Presets Custom presets are presets that you saved when adjusting your images, or that you imported from presets created by other Photomatix users. To access custom presets, click on the My Presets tab located at bottom of the Preset Thumbnails panel. To create your own custom presets, refer to the Saving Custom Presets paragraph below. You can also import custom presets created by other Photomatix users that you downloaded to your computer as XMP files.
3.3 Tone Mapping Details Enhancer Settings General Settings • Strength: Affects the degree to which contrast and detail are enhanced in the image. A value of 100 gives the maximum amount of enhancement. To get a more natural effect, move the slider to the left. The default value is 70. • Color Saturation: Controls the saturation of the RGB color channels. The greater the saturation, the more intense the color. Details Enhancer – General settings Move the slider right or left to change the setting.
Advanced Options • • • • • • Micro-smoothing: Smoothes 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.
• Temperature: Adjusts the color temperature of the tone mapped image relative to the temperature of the HDR source image. Move the slider to the right for a warmer, more yellow-orange colored look. Move it to the left for a colder, more bluish look. A value of 0 (default) preserves the original color temperature of the HDR source image. • Saturation: Adjusts the color saturation of the tone mapped image. The greater the saturation, the more intense the color.
3.6 Fusion/Intensive Settings • Strength: Adjusts the strength of local contrast enhancements. The default value is 0. • Color Saturation: Adjusts the saturation of the color channels. The greater the saturation, the more intense the color. A value of zero produces a grayscale image. The default value is 0. • Radius: Controls the area used to calculate the weighting of the source images. A higher radius reduces halos, but increases processing times. The default value is 70. 3.
Choosing a Lasso – The Polygonal lasso is ideal for areas with straight sides, and good for large areas (because you don’t have to hold down the mouse button). – The Normal lasso is good for areas with curved sides. It’s not the best choice for large areas, because you have to hold down the mouse button as you drag. Selection drawn with the lasso tool 3.7.
The Contrast setting (Low, Medium, High) determines whether a difference in brightness is large enough to be detected as an edge. The higher the setting, the greater the brightness difference has to be. The Width box (next to the Attach to Edges box) sets the maximum distance Photomatix searches (in pixels) from the original selection path. If Photomatix finds an edge within the Width setting, the selection is redrawn to fit the edge.
4 Automating with Batch Processing Use batch processing to automatically process image files. The batch processing tool saves time processing many images. Photomatix Pro offers two different batch modes: • Batch Bracketed Photos: Processes bracketed sets using HDR Tone Mapping and/or Exposure Fusion all in one step, which can save you a lot of time when you have many series of photos to process. • Batch Single Photos: Processes single image files using Tone Mapping. 4.
3. In the Source area, select the folder where the bracketed photos are located. The files are arranged in alphabetical order. N files at a time are processed with N being the number specified in the previous step. 4. To save the results in a different folder than the folder containing the source photos, select the Custom location option in the Destination frame at the bottom right of the window.
4.1.3 Batch Processing Subfolders When your bracketed series are located in multiple folders, they can Note all be processed in one run, provided they are in subfolders of the same parent folder. To batch process multiple subfolders, check the All of the subfolders must be contained in the main parent folder for this option Process subfolders option at bottom of the Source frame on the to work properly. Batch Processing dialog and select sequentially.
Click Select only part of the frames in bracketed set to load only selected frames from a bracketed set. • Specify the total number of frames in each set using the drop-down list. • Select the specific frames to process from the list. Select more than one file by holding down the Control key (Windows) or Command key (Mac) and clicking on the desired frames. 4.2 Batch Processing Single Image Files Photomatix Pro supports processing of single image files using tone mapping.
5 Tips and Techniques This section provides tips for working with images in Photomatix Pro. More tips and techniques, and regularly updated information, can be found on the Photomatix Pro FAQ on the HDRsoft website at http://www.hdrsoft.com/support/faq_photomatix.html. 5.1 Integrating Lightroom and Photomatix Pro You can export photos for processing in Photomatix Pro directly from Lightroom and reimport them back into the Lightroom library.
5.3 Dealing with Noise When you process your photos 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, 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.
Glossary AEB Mode (Automatic Exposure Bracketing). DSLR cameras and some compact digital cameras offer this feature. It enables you to automatically take three or more exposures in a row: one at the proper exposure, one or more underexposed, and one or more overexposed. Aperture Priority In Aperture Priority mode, you select the aperture and the camera determines the correct shutter speed for the available light. The shutter speed also depends on ISO sensitivity.
HDR Image Strictly speaking, an HDR image is an intermediary image with 32 bits per color channel (96 bits per pixel). An HDR image is the result of merging photos of the same scene taken under different exposure settings and stored in special HDR image format. The 32-bit intermediary HDR image must be processed with tone mapping for proper display on standard monitors and prints. It has become very common to define "HDR image" as the result of processing the 32-bit HDR image with tone mapping, i.e.
Resources You can find more tips, techniques, and regularly updated information in the Photomatix Pro FAQ on the HDRsoft website at http://www.hdrsoft.com/support/faq_photomatix.html.
