01 September 2012

Test Driving HDR, Part 2

Well, my first attempt at HDR, over a year ago, didn't work out so well.  I wasn't happy with the results.  Yet in that unbeatable American spirit, I have refused to give in.

I have been working with Photomatix Pro® for a few days now, and I am blown away with what this program can do.  You can certainly do minor tweaks and adjustments, but so often the selection of pre-set options is as far as you will need to go.  What is surprising, and not really surprising at the same time, is that you won't necessarily use the same pre-set for each photo.  One might look better "natural", another "soft 3", yet another in "default".  It simply depends on the scene and the subject matter.

Another surprising benefit is that you often need never even enter Photoshop.  I prefer to work with RAW files... just import them in here, use the program and its magic, and save.  Could it be more simple?

Today's shot is a church in a small town well after dark in Greenfield, Iowa, about a year ago.  I took a range of shots with HDR in min, but never got to processing them until now.

I'll admit, this one doesn't look 100% natural, but I like it.  I have some others of barns and such that do look 100% natural as I saw them with my naked eye.  More often than not, that is the real selling point of HDR... finishing photos and you can't even tell it was used.