HDR Soft Photomatix Essentials User Manual

HDR soft

Photomatix Essentials 4.1

User Manual

Photomatix Essentials 4.1 User Manual i

Table of Contents

Each section listed above is a clickable link.

All page footers in this document link back to this page.

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

Section 1: HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography ....................................................... 2

1.1 What Is HDR Photography? ....................................................................................................... 2

1.2 How to Take Photos for HDR Processing ................................................................................. 3

1.3 Set Up Your Camera .................................................................................................................... 3

1.4 Recommended EV Separation .................................................................................................. 4

Section 2: Installing Photomatix Essentials ...................................................................... 5

2.1 Install Standalone Edition.......................................................................................................... 5

2.2 Install Plugin Edition ................................................................................................................... 5

Section 3: Using Photomatix Essentials............................................................................. 6

3.1 Three Essential Steps .................................................................................................................. 6

3.2 Step 1: Load Bracketed Photos ................................................................................................. 7

3.3 Step 2: Adjust & Preview .......................................................................................................... 12

3.4 Step 3: Finish & Save .................................................................................................................16

Section 4: Preferences ....................................................................................................... 19

4.1 Skip Merge Dialog ..................................................................................................................... 19

4.2 Noise Reduction Options ......................................................................................................... 19

4.3 Refresh Preview Continuously (standalone edition) ............................................................. 20

Glossary ...................................................................................................................................................... 21

Learning More and Getting Help .............................................................................................................. 23

Photomatix Essentials 4.1 User Manual ii

Introduction

COVE POINT LIGHTHOUSE PHOTO © FERRELL MCCOLLOUGH

Photomatix Essentials works with photographs of the same scene taken under diﬀerent exposure settings. These diﬀerently exposed images of the same scene are often called “bracketed” images, in reference to the autobracketing exposure functions available on many camera models.

This manual ﬁrst explains the steps for capturing your own bracketed photo sets. The manual then guides you through the following 3 simple steps, which constitute the workﬂow of Photomatix Essentials:

Step 1- Load Photos: Load your bracketed photos into Photomatix Essentials. Step 2- Adjust & Preview: Adjust the HDR image to get the results you want. Step 3- Finish & Save: Add ﬁnishing touches, and save your image.

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Section 1: HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography

1.1 What Is HDR Photography?

The central premise of HDR photography is that there are few situations where a single photograph can capture the true dynamic range (the total range of light in a scene, from very dark to very light) of a scene accurately.

In other words, today’s digital camera can’t properly expose everything at the same time in scenes with even moderate contrast ratios. This results in two main problems (which sometimes happen together in the same photo):

• Blown highlights When the exposure is raised to make sure the foreground or subject is properly exposed, brighter ar eas of the scene suﬀer. They “blow out” and turn white because they have very little or no usable data in them.

• Lost detail in the shadows Conversely, when bright areas of a scene are pro tected (by lowering exposure), there is not enough light to register details on the camera’s sensor in dark areas of the scene. These turn to shadow and black ness.

HDR photography solves these problems by taking enough photos (typically 3, separated by 2 EV steps) to contain the entire exposure range of a scene. With that data in hand, Photomatix Essentials can merge the different photos and process them to rescue details from shadows and keep highlights from blow ing out.

For some photographers the key purpose and signiﬁcance of HDR is its ability to increase photographic realism. HDR to this photographer is not an “eﬀect”, but is a remedy to the dynamic range limitation of camera image sensors. To some of these photographers, in fact, it is the standard photograph which is somewhat non-realistic, in that it does not accurately capture the full dynamic range of most photographed scenes

For many other photographers, HDR is approached more as a creative tool, one that aﬀords great artistic latitude. From a practical point of view, however, every style of HDR photography is built on the same foundation, a well shot bracketed set.

The next section provides guidelines and best practices for properly capturing bracketed sets.

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1.2 How to Take Photos for HDR Processing

Taking photos for HDR is easy. All it takes is a diﬀerent mindset than for traditional photography, which emphasizes taking and editing a single photo, independent from any others.

Instead of taking a single exposure of a scene, for HDR you take at least 3 exposures: one optimized for midrange tones (as normal), plus one optimized for highlights and one optimized for shadows. This strategy for capturing more of a scene’s true dynamic range, with exposures above and below a standard exposure, is called “exposure bracketing”.

The resulting “bracketed set” of photos contains, as a group, more complete and true exposure information than any single image capture can possibly contain. The purpose of HDR software like Photomatix Essentials is to artfully combine this bracketed set into a single image, to achieve more faithful realism, or heightened realism, or artistic eﬀect.

But these artistic choices come later. The ﬁrst step is capturing good bracketed sets.

1.3 Set Up Your Camera

HDR photography requires that you set up your camera a bit diﬀerently than normal:

• 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.

• A tripod is typically recommended, but is not required, as Photomatix Essentials includes options to automatically align hand-held bracketed sets.

DSLR cameras and some compact digital cameras oﬀer Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB). This 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. Follow these steps if your camera oﬀers an AEB mode:

• Select the Continuous Shooting mode on the camera’s drive setting. Consult your camera manual for model-speciﬁc instructions for using this setting.

• Set the camera to Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB)

• If possible, use the camera’s self-timer setting, a remote control or a cable release to minimize camera shake.

• Set the exposure increment to +/- 2 EV for optimal exposure range. If your camera does not oﬀer +/- 2 EV exposure increments, select the maximum possible. Consult your camera’s manual for model-speciﬁc instructions for choosing this setting.

You can ﬁnd videos and screenshots on how to set up Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) with various camera models on the page here:

Canon Rebel T2i/550D LCD showing

AEB with +/- 2 EV increments selected

http://www.hdrsoft.com/resources/camera-aeb-selection.html

AEB settings on a Nikon D7000

(3 frames, at +/- 2 EV)

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1.4 Recommended EV Separation

Under-exposure (-2 EV):

Captures highlight detail

Well-balanced exposure (0 EV):

Captures mid-range detail

Over-exposure (+2 EV):

Captures shadow detail

Bracketing allows you to extend the dynamic range of your camera so it can capture the full range of light in a scene. Mechanically, you accomplish this by taking multiple photos with diﬀerent exposure settings. Although there is no single method that is better than all others in every circumstance (indeed, cameras vary in their abilities), a good rule of thumb is to shoot three photos, separated by 2 EV using AEB. However, not all cameras have the same AEB capabilities. Some limit you to a 1 EV spacing or less.

For many outdoors scenes, 3 exposures spaced one or two EVs apart is usually suﬃcient. However, this won’t be suﬃcient for an interior with an outside view on a sunny day, for instance.

An EV (Exposure Value) increment is also referred to as a “stop” or “f-stop”. One EV increment corresponds to a doubling of the amount of light hitting the camera’s sensors. For instance, this means that you can capture a range of 8 EV steps, by using exposures ranging from 1/250 to 1 second (assuming a ﬁxed aperture and ISO setting). If you use +/-1EV step increments, you will need 9 frames to capture 8 EV of dynamic range. If you set it to +/-2EV, you will need just 5 frames to capture 8 EV of dynamic range. Photomatix Essentials can process bracketed sets of up to 5 images, so 2 EV spacing would be preferable in this example.

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Section 2: Installing Photomatix Essentials

Photomatix Essentials is available as a standalone application, and as a plugin compatible with Photoshop Elements (version 6 or later).

The plugin and standalone editions of Photomatix Essentials are functionally identical, except for how the application is started and how images are loaded, due to the desktop versus the plugin context.

There are also minor diﬀerences in how the two versions are installed, as described in the following two sections.

2.1 Install Standalone Edition

To install Photomatix Essentials as a standalone application, download the installer from the HDRsoft download page. Once downloaded, use the installer as you would normally to install the application.

Once installed, access the application from your Start menu (Windows) Launchpad (Mac).

2.2 Install Plugin Edition

To install Photomatix Essentials as a plugin for Photoshop Elements, download the installer from the HDRsoft download page. Once downloaded, use the installer as you would normally, to install the plugin.

Once installed, to access the Plug-In in Photoshop Elements:

1. Start or restart Photoshop Elements.

2. Choose File > Automation Tools > Photomatix Essentials

Note: In Photoshop Elements 11 or higher, the Plug-In is only available in Expert mode. To switch to Expert mode, click on the “Expert” tab below the main top menu.

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Section 3: Using Photomatix Essentials

3.1 Three Essential Steps

The Photomatix Essentials workﬂow is comprised of three main steps:

Step 1. Load a bracketed photo set (or a single photo) into Photomatix Essentials.

Step 2. Adjust the Preview of the combined image to your liking.

Step 3. Add optional ﬁnishing adjustments to the image, and then save it.

Once your image is saved at the completion of Step 3, you are returned to Step 1 ready to load your next photos.

The Step 1 window: Load Photos

The Step 2 window: Adjust & Preview

The Step 3 window: Finish & Save

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