Underwater HDR, Redux

Following up on the thoughts on this post, witness the  image to right.  Now, I’m not claiming it’s the best image, nor am I trying to even state that I’m done with post-processing.  I am, but only because I’ve decided I’m not happy with the composition.

But I am happy with the results of my tests.  In this case, I now know: when doing handheld bracketed shots, Photoshop CS5′s “Merge to HDR Pro” function is incredibly more useful than Photomatix 3.2.  It’s not just the ghosting, although that sure cleaned up a lot.

No, it’s how easily CS5 finds like components and merges them together.  Seriously, it’s just incredible: this is a three-frame HDR, in JPG.  Compare the sharpness (not the contrast) and the merging to this: Click to continue »