Tried fiddling around with a free trial tone mapping program after I used photoshop to merge it into HDR ... It turned out pretty bad but yeah, lol. Anyone know of any aftermarket tone mapping programs that are good for HDR photography?




Normal Picture




HDR + light/hue adjustment





HDR + crappy aftermarket tone mapping program

 

You need to learn what you are doing, it's not the program it is the user. Photomatix is a great HDR third party program. I'm moving this to photography too.

 

That second pic looks pretty cool

 

The second pic is very cool. Looks like it could be an advertisement.

 

Photomatrixs is IMO the best HDR merging software out there., learn to use it!

HDR can be nice, but I HATE the ones that are way overdone, looks too cartoony.

Example; I lent my friend my D40 for his trip to Mexico. He took this photo, and it was not very colorful.



Split the RAW image twice into -3 and +3 exposure, then combined them in photomatrix, and tweaked.

 

if you're looking fo aggresive tone mapping for hdr photos then try the Photomatix plugin for CS3... it really creates a surreal/sometimes catoonish looking eel to the picture.

Persnally, I prefer a more realistic interpriation for hdr photography, however it is crtianly fun to apply some photomatix tone mapping to pics and really make them pop.

 

Did you take 3 - 5 bracketed RAW images? Seperate files, each with different exposure, is the correct way to make a HDR image.

 

You need multiple different exposures to create a true HDR photo. Your second shot doesn't looke HDR to me at all.

Tone mapping, based on my reading, is actually about taking an HDR shot and converting it to a low dynamic range shot for reproduction - especially paper, which doesn't have a very large dynamic range.

Tone mapping can produce a more "realistic" look because it compresses the range to something closer to what the human eye can see.

(The above based on my reading at Photomatix's website.)

 

an HDR image is supposed to make you say "what the #### is going on?" when you see one. Since your mind can't process all of the colors and tones in the image at the same time.

 

like the second pic!