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Mixed feelings on the CS5 vs Photomatix Debate

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

I noted a short while ago that I was pretty enamored with Photoshop’s new “Merge to HDR Pro” feature in CS5. I need to reiterate: when it comes to merging the images, there’s just no comparison: CS5 merges far better.

However, after a few days of heavy use I’m really noticing that it’s rendering is… well, passable. But Photomatix kicks CS5′s but all over town.

So the bottom line: for HDR shots that don’t align too well, CS5 is probably better. But your tone mapping will be the poorer for it, unless you can get it into Photomatix.

I’ve wasted far too much time trying to get the images to move over with quality between the two; for now, I post this. In a day or two, maybe more.

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Photoshop CS5 and Content-Aware Fill

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

The transition from CS4 to CS5 seems to be going pretty well – there are a few changes, but nothing that’s really thrown me for a loop. A couple things are extremely (potentially) cool, in the sense that it takes very little time to issue certain fixes.  Take the image below, for example:

A View from the Kihei Boat Harbor

A View from the Kihei Boat Harbor

This is a crop from the original, but it has the important part (I’ll post the non-cropped version in a day or two).  Take a close look at the palm trees: looks like a great silhouette of a lone palm, right?  Well, the reality wasn’t so: there were two bunches of palms, one just to the left of the ones you see here.  I didn’t like these extra palms – I felt it distracted from the overall feeling of individual oneness: one set of palms, one Molokini, One Kaho’olawe, one ocean… so the extra palms needed to go.

Click to continue »

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HDR Merging comparison

Sunday, June 6th, 2010
Underwater HDR, Redux

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 »

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Evening HDR in CS5

Saturday, June 5th, 2010
Evening HDR

Evening HDR

Just a test shot that I thought I’d post. I may be putting up a couple more over this evening. Testing CS5′s “Merge to HDR Pro” function, comparing it to Photomatix Pro. This one is an excercise in rescuing a screwed up frame: I had the color balance set to tungsten when I took this, so everything was hyper-blue. Arguably still is, but that’s the HDR saturation effect. Click to continue »

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