How can I blend 3 images without PS3 HDR?

[Kris]

For some silly reason, PS CS2 says theres not enough dynamic range in my shots yet I want to blend 3 shots together for a class I'm doing.

Can anyone help me out using PS CS2?

Thanks!

[rooboy]

 PS reads the Exif data for shots being loaded into HDR...if all 3 shots are different versions of the same RAW file, it won't let them merge to HDR. To get around this, strip the Exif data first (using Save for Web or one of the many exif modifiers available on the internet), or use properly bracketed shots to start with

[Kris]

M shots were actually bracketed correctly.. or in manual mode, there were 3 different exposures...

[aaron1]

Kris,
I have used this technique whenever HDR wont play ball with realative success

http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials ... ding.shtml

aaron

[Kris]

Thanks aaron, im going to try this tonight

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[radar]

Or you can use photomatix, great HDR tool. Will work also with just one raw file, it will create and HDR from that.

Very easy to use.

http://www.hdrsoft.com/

Comes in a Mac and Windows version.

Cheers,

André

[DVEous]

... Obsolete ...

[B01NG]

i think for you to merge a HDR image in PS CS, you need atleast 4 images. i've tried merging 3 together before, it didnt work, so i added in another one and it worked fine. hope that helped

[Wocka]

Thanks for the links.

I just tried the FredMiranda DRI Action (on the same RAW file that I had made with 2 exposures) as I had it on my laptop. Works quite nicely.

Cheers

[radar]

Thanks for the link.
I just downloaded the basic version, and gave it a go.

Very easy to use, but results are extremely dissapointing, and far behind what I can achieve with multiple layers & masks in PS.

I'm surprised you had dissapointing results. All the ones I did, I was very pleased with. The HDR file itself usually does not look like much but once you do the tone mapping, the images usually pops after that, even with only a bit of adjustments. Not sure if you did the tone mapping or not.

Cheers,

André

[chet]

i think for you to merge a HDR image in PS CS, you need atleast 4 images. i've tried merging 3 together before, it didnt work, so i added in another one and it worked fine. hope that helped

I've tried 3 shots before and got pretty crappy results. I'll try 4. Thanks for the tip.

ps. how do I bracket 4 shots? Think my 30D can only do 3?

[iluxa]

May be it's a little bit late but here is the excellent tutorial for HDRI technique.
I've played a lot with HDR and I can say that there is no universal solution for HDR. Different images require different tools. For some images you need to use PhotoMatix Pro from HDRSoft. If you have only two images (or one RAW file) you can use FredMiranda DRI Action. Some times you need to merge HDR in Photoshop CS2/CS3. And some times I'm even manually creating layer masks for digital blending in PS. So you need to try all tools before get a good result. HDR is a tricky stuff...

[chet]

cheers iluxa. I'll have a read

ps I can't bracket 4 shots with the 30d can I?

[iluxa]

ps I can't bracket 4 shots with the 30d can I?

If you are talking about automatic bracketing then probably you cannot do that. Only 3 shots are allowed as far as I know. (not sure about top cameras).

Personally I rarely use automatic bracketing for HDR. Usually after each shot I change exposure for the next one, controlling exposure by LCD (histogram, highlights, etc). Doing it this way I can make any number of shots (2-3-4-5...) with the exposure I need. Sure it's better to use tripod.