It has a host of editing options and the interface is very user-friendly, but it doesn’t have quite the fine-grained control compared to the next product on this list. Part of the Nik Software product suite, now owned by Google, HDR Efex is an interesting tool for creating HDR images that’s both power and easy to use. It’s certainly capable of producing great results with the right input, but the interface isn’t very intuitive, and control over your final image is fairly limited.įree, available for Windows and MacOS Nik Software HDR Efex Pro It’s also open-source, if that sort of thing floats your boat. Luminance HDR was the first HDR program I used, and has the huge advantage over other software of being free. Here’s a quick run-through of three of them. There are a number of options on the market. Merging images of varying exposure into each other requires some effort on a computer, and the use of a dedicated software package. The key part of creating an HDR image is the software processing. If a tripod isn’t available, then finding some nearby scenery to rest on will work most of the time, although you can’t always frame the scene how you’d like. To eliminate shutter shake (the movement of the camera as you press the button), you’ll ideally want to also use a remote release switch, but it isn’t critical. The easiest way to do this is with a tripod. When shooting multiple exposures of the same scene, you need to ensure your camera doesn’t move between exposures. The greater the dynamic range of the scene, the more images you will probably want to take in order to get all the details. For example, you could take just three images, exposed at –2ev, 0ev and +2ev, or you could take five images, at –4ev, –2ev, 0ev, +2ev and +4ev. Some more advanced cameras will also let you decide how many images you want to take. This will depend on the nature of the scene, and the difference between the bright and dark areas, but in most cases a setting of +/- 1 or 2 will suffice. You will usually have the option as to how many stops of under- or overexposure you want to shoot. Check your manual to figure out where to find it. This setting is often referred to as AEB, or auto exposure bracketing, and is included on many models of camera. These will consist of a normally-exposed image, an underexposed image, and an overexposed image. This means the camera will take a number of images automatically when you depress the shutter. The easiest way to take images for use in an HDR environment is to use a camera that lets you “exposure bracket” your images. Using HDR, we can take the useful parts of both of these images, and turn them into something closer to the reality of the actual scene. The sky turns into a white washout, while the valley and contents are clearly discernible. In the overexposed version of the shot (top), the situation reverses. In the underexposed shot (bottom,) we can see clouds on the horizon and around the sun, while the valley is just a black abyss. The difference between the far-right images featuring the sun are most pronounced. This image was shot directly into the sun, which is obviously a fairly powerful light source. Each image shows the three different exposures this was taken with, just arranged differently. Take a look at the shots above of the church.
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