Not a review, but a thank you to a company that’s doing it right: HDRSoft. Instead of pulling a trick from the pockets of a Microsoft. or an Apple, or Adobe, they’re effectively giving away upgrades to Photomatix Pro 4. Bought Photomatix 3? 4 is yours. I bought Photomatix 2, but I still received the upgrade – courtesy of purchasing after March 2007.
In this day & age, it’s refreshing to see a company that rewards loyalty and doesn’t overdo it in the charging department.
There’s no real reason for posting this, other than “I wanted to.” Originally posted last night on 1x.com (currently pending screening). It’s easily one of my favorites over the last few weeks.
Fly on 'Shroom
(click image for larger view).
How about an overly-saturated HDR for a post?
Backyard Sunset
There, isn’t that nice?
Well… I like some parts of it, actually – that’s why I’m posting. This HDR was taken with three frames on the Panasonic LX3, handheld. That it came together so well, I like. The saturation? Well, I didn’t realize how over-saturated it was when I did it. But I sat on it for two days, and now the sky and grass just feels radioactive.
So I’m posting this as a reminder to everyone: don’t oversaturate your HDRs!
Sunrise in HDR
Originally posted (today, in fact) to Flickr. The more I look at this, the more I like it. It’s not without faults – he home is a bit off-kilter and oversaturated, and the trees could use some aligning, but overall I’m quite pleased. The reds in the leaves are wonderful, the sky is alight as I would like it to be, and the sharpness is spot on exactly where I wanted it to be.
Check it out on Flickr in the full size for maximum effect.
The moon sets
Technical details: shot through the bedroom window as a 7-frame HDR on a monopod. The monopod and the window account for the blurriness – not a single frame was sharp. The colors came out nicely, though.
A rare double-post for a day. The reason:
Rainbow, the other side
This is my preferred version between the two…
An image from last night, in HDR:
Rainbow, behind the house
Click the image for a better view.
Update: the other side of the rainbow is here.
Taken in the backyard of my Aunt & Uncle’s place, barely two weeks ago:
HDR at Sunset, Vista
There are several pics in the whole series; this is only one of them. Color-wise, this is my favorite. The overall series is possibly my most successful HDR series to date, as far as sharpness and merging is concerned.
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.
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 »