HDR Soft Pro - 4.1 - Windows User Manual
Photomatix Pro User Manual
Version 4.1
© 2011 HDRsoft. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
1 Taking Photos for HDR ............................................................................................................... 2
1.1 Setting up the Camera ............................................................................................................ 3
1.2 Selecting the Exposures .......................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Using Film-Based Cameras ...................................................................................................... 4
2 Loading and Pre-Processing Images ........................................................................................ 5
2.1 Merging Bracketed Images ..................................................................................................... 5
2.1.1 Loading Bracketed Images ............................................................................................. 5
2.1.2 General Pre-Processing Options ..................................................................................... 7
2.1.3 Using the Selective Deghosting Tool ............................................................................... 8
2.1.4 Pre-Processing Options for RAW Files .............................................................................. 10
2.2 Working with Single Image Files .............................................................................................. 11
2.2.1 Options for Single RAW Image Files ................................................................................. 11
3 Adjusting Images Using Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion ................................................. 12
3.1 Image Adjustment Workow ................................................................................................... 12
3.2 Image Adjustment Windows ................................................................................................... 13
3.2.1 Preview Window ........................................................................................................... 13
3.2.2 Preset Thumbnails Panel ............................................................................................... 14
3.3 Tone Mapping Details Enhancer Settings ................................................................................. 15
3.4 Tone Mapping Tone Compressor Settings ................................................................................ 17
3.5 Exposure Fusion Adjust Settings ............................................................................................. 18
3.6 Exposure Fusion Intensive Settings ......................................................................................... 18
3.7 Replace Selection with Source ................................................................................................ 19
3.7.1 Selecting the Area to be Replaced ................................................................................... 19
3.7.2 Fitting the Selection to the Area’s Edges ........................................................................... 20
3.7.3 Replacing the Selected Area ........................................................................................... 21
4 Automating with Batch Processing .......................................................................................... 22
4.1 Batch Processing Bracketed Photos ......................................................................................... 22
4.1.1 Using Batch Processing ................................................................................................. 22
4.1.2 Batch Processing Settings .............................................................................................. 23
4.1.3 Batch Processing Subfolders .......................................................................................... 24
4.1.4 Advanced Options ........................................................................................................ 24
4.2 Batch Processing Single Image Files ........................................................................................ 25
5 Tips and Techniques ................................................................................................................... 26
5.1 Integrating Lightroom with Photomatix Pro ............................................................................ 26
5.2 Processing RAW les in Third-Party RAW Converters ................................................................. 26
5.3 Dealing with Noise ................................................................................................................. 27
5.4 Photomatix Pro and Color Management .................................................................................. 27
Glossary ......................................................................................................................................... 28
Resources ........................................................................................................................................ 30
Photomatix Pro User Guide
Introduction
Photomatix Pro works with photographs of the same scene taken under dierent 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. Use the
information in Section 1, Taking Photos for HDR to try Photomatix with your own images.
This manual contains information about how to use Photomatix Pro to adjust images using dierent
Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion methods. All of the methods are accessed from one window within the
application, making it easy to try dierent settings to achieve the results you want. Refer to Section 2,
Loading and Pre-Processing Images and Section 3, Adjusting Images Using Tone Mapping or Exposure
Fusion for detailed information about the dierent settings that are available.
Photomatix Pro User Guide 1
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. If you take them in one-EV steps
(e.g., -1, 0, +1 EV), you will need more photos than
if you take them in two-EV steps (e.g., -2, 0, +2 EV).
We recommend shooting in two-EV steps whenever
possible.
High contrast scenes can be grouped into roughly two
types depending on their dynamic range:
• Medium dynamic range scene: Most landscapes
and other types of outdoor scenes fall into this
category. Three exposures taken in two-EV steps (i.e.
–2, 0 +2 EV), or ve exposures taken in one-EV steps,
are usually sucient for this type of scene.
• High dynamic range scene: A typical example is the
interior of a room with a view outside the window on
a sunny day. You need to take at least ve exposures
in two-EV steps (or nine exposures in one-EV steps) to
capture this type of scene, but you may need more.
Taking the exposures manually is recommended in
these cases.
Three exposures of a medium dynamic
range scene, taken in two-EV steps
2
The source photographs for HDR processing can be taken with digital or lm-based cameras. The only
requirement is that the exposure can be adjusted when taking pictures. If you use a lm-based camera, you
will need to scan the photographs into your computer before processing them (refer to Section 1.3).
Photomatix Pro User Guide 2
1.1 Setting up the Camera
• Set your camera to Aperture priority (A setting) so only the
shutter speed varies between the exposures.
• Select a low ISO, such as ISO 100 or lower.
• Turn o the ash. The ash 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 oers automatic alignment of handheld photos, using a tripod is always better.
DSLR cameras and some compact digital cameras oer
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 oers AEB mode:
• Select the Continuous shooting mode on the camera’s
drive setting. Consult your camera manual for model-specic
instructions for using this setting.
Canon Rebel XTi/400D LCD showing
AEB with +/-2 increments selected
• Set the camera to Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB)
• If possible, use the camera’s self-timer setting, or a cable
release to minimize camera shake.
AEB settings on a Nikon D80
(3 shots with +/- 2EV)
Note
• Set the exposure increment to +/- 2 for optimal exposure
range. If your camera does not oer +/- 2 exposure
increments, select the maximum possible. Consult the camera
manual for model-specic instructions for choosing this
setting.
The continuous shooting mode may not
always be the best strategy because
camera shake may build up. It is
recommended to use a method that
ensures the least possible shake for
each single shot, such as mirror lock-up
functionality, if available.
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 prevent noise from
showing in the processed HDR image.
In the lightest photo of the sequence, the darkest shadows should be at least in the mid-tones. To check this,
use your camera’s histogram preview in playback mode. In your most overexposed photo, the left part of
the histogram should be empty until 1/3rd of the histogram’s width. If this is not the case, add one or more
photos taken with longer exposure times. Another option is to re-shoot the exposure sequence with the
normal exposure set one or more EVs higher if your most underexposed image in the exposure sequence was
too dark. This is the case when the histogram of your darkest image is completely empty on the right half.
The number of exposures needed depends on the dynamic range of the scene, in addition to the exposure
increment. For most outdoor scenes, three exposures taken at +/- 2 exposure increments is sucient,
provided the scene does not include the sun. However, for the interior of a room with a bright view out the
window, you will need at least ve images taken with an exposure increment of +/- 2, or nine images taken
with an exposure increment of +/- 1.
In scenes with extreme dierences between light and dark details, you should change the exposures
manually to ensure you capture a wide enough range to cover your scene.
Photomatix Pro User Guide 3
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 lm 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 o your scanner’s auto-exposure options. This allows you to manually control the exposure.
• Make sure you select the Align images option in Photomatix Pro when combining your images.
Photomatix Pro User Guide 4
2 Loading and Pre-Processing Images
This section describes how to load and merge bracketed
image les of a scene taken under dierent 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 les.
Supported le types include JPEG, TIFF, PSD, DNG, and RAW
les from many camera models. The list of supported camera
models for RAW les changes frequently. You can check the
the Photomatix Pro FAQ page on the HDRsoft website at
http://www.hdrsoft.com/support/raw.html to determine
whether or not your camera model is supported.
2.1.1 Loading Bracketed Images
To load bracketed image les, do one of the following:
• Drag and drop the les into Photomatix Pro
• Use the Workow Shortcuts area or the File menu to load
the les
Note
The term “bracketed images” refers
to images of the same scene taken
under different exposure settings.
This manual uses the term “bracketed
images” to simplify how these images
are dened. It also applies to the case
when you have not used the Automatic
Exposure Bracketing function of the
camera to take the exposures.
Note
Drag the image les for the exposure
sequence at the same time, so the les
are properly processed by the merge.
Dragging and Dropping Bracketed Image Files
To drag and drop a group of image les to Photomatix Pro:
• Windows: Drag the les from Windows Explorer and drop
them on the open Photomatix Pro program.
• Macintosh: Drag the les from the Finder and drop them
on the Photomatix Pro icon on your Dock.
Note
Newer camera models may not
be supported by older versions of
Photomatix Pro. To ensure your camera
is supported, upgrade to the latest
version.
Note
If you have Lightroom, use the
Lightroom Export Plug-in to load images
into Photomatix Pro. Refer to Section 5
for more information.
Photomatix Pro User Guide 5
Using the Workow Area or the File Menu
To load images using the Workow Shortcuts Area or the File
menu:
1. Click Load Bracketed Photos in the Workow Shortcuts area
OR
Select Load Bracketed Photos from the File menu.
The Select 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 le format such
as Radiance or OpenEXR. Saving the
32-bit HDR image is useful when you
want to be able to process the image
with other tone mapping settings later
without having to pre-process and
merge your bracketed photos again.
However, you will still need to preprocess and merge the photos if you
want to use exposure fusion.
You will have to click the Tone Mapping
/ Fusion button to go to the next step if
you check this box.
Selecting bracketed photos
2. Drag and drop the les into the Selecting bracketed photos
dialog
OR
Click Browse. A dialog displays prompting for location of the
les.
3. Select the les to load, using one of the following methods:
• Click the rst le, then press and hold the Control key
(Windows) or Command key (Mac). While holding down the
Control or Command key, click each of the other les you
wish to select.
• Click the rst le, then press and hold the Shift key. While
holding the Shift key down click the last le. This will select
all the les in-between the rst and last le.
4. Click Open (Windows) or Select (Mac).
5. Click OK to pre-process the les.
Entering Exposure Values
Note
The order of the les in a bracketing
sequence does not matter.Photomatix
Pro systematically sorts the image les
based on the exposure information
retrieved from the EXIF data. If the
exposure information is not available
in EXIF data, Photomatix Pro uses the
relative brightness levels of the photos.
If the exposure information cannot be located in the metadata of the image les, Photomatix Pro displays a
dialog prompting for input of the relative Exposure Values for each image. Photomatix Pro also displays this
dialog if two or more source images share the same exposure information.
Photomatix Pro User Guide 6
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. Hand-held photographs and even some
images shot with a tripod have camera movement.
• By correcting horizontal and vertical shifts: Faster method,
but only corrects for translation movements.
• By matching features: Corrects for rotation, translation
and scaling dierences, as well as perspective distortion if
included. Recommended for hand-held shots.
• Include perspective correction: Requests that the alignment
by matching features corrects for perspective distortion in
addition to correcting for translation, rotation and scaling
dierences.
• Crop aligned images: Checked by default. Removes the
unused borders that appear when the images are shifted to
correct for mis-registration. Leave this box unchecked if you
need the resulting image to have the same width and height
as the source images.
• Maximum shift: Sets the maximum mis-registration shift
that the alignment attempts to correct for, and is expressed
as a percentage of the image dimensions. This setting does
not need adjusting in most cases. A situation when adjusting
this setting may be useful is when the camera barely moved
between the bracketed shots. In this case, setting a maximum
shift lower than 12% will restrict the number of alignment
corrections searched, thereby reducing the risk of selecting an
improper alignment correction.
Selecting pre-processing options
Note
The Align source images option should
not be checked when your source images
are stitched panoramas or when they are
"fake exposures" derived from a single
RAW le.
Deghosting Options
The Remove ghosts option addresses the problem of artifacts
that appear when combining images of a dynamic scene. For
example, if the moving subjects are people walking, the people
appear multiple times in the combined image as if there were
“ghosts”. This is why artifacts arising from movements in the
scene are commonly referred to as “ghosting” and the attempt to
eliminate them as “deghosting”.
• With selective deghosting tool: Activates the Selective Deghosting Tool, which lets you select ghosted
regions and choose the exposure used for each ghosted region.
• Automatically: Automatically detects ghosted zones in the merged image.
• Detection: Sets the criteria for determining if a pixel is or is not ghosted when using automatic deghosting.
The deghosting option is effective for
images processed with Tone Mapping or
with the default Exposure Fusion method.
It is not effective for the other Exposure
Fusion methods.
Photomatix Pro User Guide 7
Note
Noise Reduction Options
The Reduce noise option processes source photos with high-quality noise reduction and is recommended
when processing RAW les 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%.
Reduce Chromatic Aberrations
The Reduce Chromatic Aberrations option automatically corrects color fringing due to chromatic
aberrations of the lens. Checking this option is recommended, given that chromatic aberrations tend to show
around high contrast edges, and are particularly an issue for HDR images.
2.1.3 Using the Selective Deghosting Tool
The Selective Deghosting Tool lets you select the portions of the image that require processing for
removing ghosting due to the movement of the subject. Photomatix Pro uses the image that it deems the
best exposed for the selected area as the default image for deghosting. You may change the image to one of
your choice using the tool.
Select With selective deghosting tool from the Remove ghosts preprocessing options to access the
Selective Deghosting tool. To use the Selective Deghosting tool, click and drag the mouse to draw a line
around the region that requires deghosting. Ensure the selection is a fully closed loop with a dashed line.
Selective Deghosting tool
Photomatix Pro User Guide 8
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