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Pro - 4.2 - Windows
User Manual
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HDR Soft Pro - 4.2 - Windows User Manual

Photomatix Pro User Manual
HDR soft
Version 4.2
© 2012 HDRsoft. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1
1 Taking Photos for HDR ............................................................................................................... 2
2 Loading and Pre-Processing 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
2.2.1 Options for Single RAW Image Files ................................................................................. 11
3 Adjusting Images Using Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion ................................................. 12
3.2.1 Preview Window ........................................................................................................... 13
3.2.2 Preset Thumbnails Panel ............................................................................................... 14
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
4.1.1 Using Batch Processing ................................................................................................. 22
4.1.2 Batch Processing Settings .............................................................................................. 23
4.1.3 Batch Processing Subfolders .......................................................................................... 24
4.1.4 Advanced Options ........................................................................................................ 24
5 Tips and Techniques ................................................................................................................... 26
Glossary ......................................................................................................................................... 28
Resources ........................................................................................................................................ 30
Photomatix Pro User Guide
Introduction
Cove Point Lighthouse photo © Ferrell McCollough
Photomatix Pro works with photographs of the same scene taken under dierent 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.
Photomatix Pro User Guide 1
This manual contains information about how to use Photomatix Pro to adjust images using dierent Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion methods. All of the methods are accessed from one window within the application, making it easy to try dierent 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 dierent settings that are available.
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 sucient 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 that 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 oers automatic alignment of hand­held photos, using a tripod is always better.
DSLR cameras and some compact digital cameras oer 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 oers AEB mode:
• Select the Continuous shooting mode on the camera’s
drive setting. Consult your camera manual for model-specic instructions for using this setting.
Canon Rebel T2i/550D LCD showing
AEB with +/-2 EV increments selected
• Set the camera to Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB)
• If possible, use the camera’s self-timer setting, a cable release
AEB settings on a Nikon D7000
(3 frames, at +/- 2 EV)
or a wireless shutter release to minimize camera shake.
• Set the exposure increment to +/- 2 for optimal exposure
range. If your camera does not oer +/- 2 exposure increments, select the maximum possible. Consult the camera manual for model-specic instructions for choosing this setting.
1.2 Selecting the Exposures
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.
Note
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 sucient, 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 dierences 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 dierent 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 is updated frequently to include the newest camera models. 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 Workow 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 dened. 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 Workow Area or the File Menu
To load images using the Workow Shortcuts panel or the File menu:
1. Click Load Bracketed Photos in the Workow 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 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.
Loading bracketed photos
2. Drag and drop the les into the Loading 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 automatically evaluates 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 dierences, as well as perspective distortion if selected. 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 dierences.
• 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.
Selecting pre-processing options
• 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.
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.
Note
Deghosting Options
Note
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.
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
• 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 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 movement of elements in the image. 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 lasso 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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