Merge to HDR?
 

Photoshop CS2 has a new function "Merge to HDR"
Is anything like that available for any of these programs?
Gimp, Photoshop 7, Paintshop Pro X or Photoshop Elements 5.
Thanks,
--
Nathan Gutman

Re: Merge to HDR?
 

Not something that I have ever used, however from memory doesn't the program
need to support 32bit images to merge to HDR?


"Nathan Gutman" <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
news:t7pXh.16170$Kd3.9673@newssvr27.news.prodigy.n et...
> Photoshop CS2 has a new function "Merge to HDR"
> Is anything like that available for any of these programs?
> Gimp, Photoshop 7, Paintshop Pro X or Photoshop Elements 5.
> Thanks,
> --
> Nathan Gutman

Re: Merge to HDR?
 

"Robin" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:s-CdnZKa9vGlo7PbRVnyhgA@pipex.net...
> Not something that I have ever used, however from memory doesn't the
> program need to support 32bit images to merge to HDR?
>
>
> "Nathan Gutman" <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:t7pXh.16170$Kd3.9673@newssvr27.news.prodigy.n et...
>> Photoshop CS2 has a new function "Merge to HDR"
>> Is anything like that available for any of these programs?
>> Gimp, Photoshop 7, Paintshop Pro X or Photoshop Elements 5.
>> Thanks,
>> --
>> Nathan Gutman
>
>

Well one would think that if the program has an HDR feature that it DOES
support 32-bit. I know Photoshop CS2 and 3 does. However, unlike Photomatix
software it requires actual separate images shot with different exposures.
You can not take a single RAW file and process it with different exposure
amounts and have Photoshop accept it. The reason being is that Photoshop
already sees all of the image data even if the human doesn't. So using a
single image over and under exposed just won't cut it. Besides even if it
did it isn't a true HDR image.

I use exposure compensation with my camera. I start at the darkest under
exposure I can, for mine that is -2 stops and then in 1/3 stop increments go
to +2 stops. This gives me a nice set of images perfect for true HDR
merging.

=(8)

Re: Merge to HDR?
 

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:12:25 +0000, Nathan Gutman wrote:

> Photoshop CS2 has a new function "Merge to HDR"
> Is anything like that available for any of these programs?
> Gimp, Photoshop 7, Paintshop Pro X or Photoshop Elements 5.
> Thanks,

Could not find that in gimp - but cinepaint does.

Re: Merge to HDR?
 

"Nathan Gutman" <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> schreef in bericht
news:t7pXh.16170$Kd3.9673@newssvr27.news.prodigy.n et...
> Photoshop CS2 has a new function "Merge to HDR"
> Is anything like that available for any of these programs?
> Gimp, Photoshop 7, Paintshop Pro X or Photoshop Elements 5.
> Thanks,
> --
> Nathan Gutman


No.

Rutger

Re: Merge to HDR?
 

=(8) wrote:
> "Robin" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
> news:s-CdnZKa9vGlo7PbRVnyhgA@pipex.net...
>> Not something that I have ever used, however from memory doesn't the
>> program need to support 32bit images to merge to HDR?
>>
>>
>> "Nathan Gutman" <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
>> news:t7pXh.16170$Kd3.9673@newssvr27.news.prodigy.n et...
>>> Photoshop CS2 has a new function "Merge to HDR"
>>> Is anything like that available for any of these programs?
>>> Gimp, Photoshop 7, Paintshop Pro X or Photoshop Elements 5.

> Well one would think that if the program has an HDR feature that it DOES
> support 32-bit. I know Photoshop CS2 and 3 does. However, unlike
> Photomatix software it requires actual separate images shot with
> different exposures. You can not take a single RAW file and process it
> with different exposure amounts and have Photoshop accept it. The reason
> being is that Photoshop already sees all of the image data even if the
> human doesn't. So using a single image over and under exposed just won't
> cut it. Besides even if it did it isn't a true HDR image.

Some facts wrong here -- the workflow for raw images in Photoshop has
the conversion from RAW happen in the Adobe Camera Raw plugin, and what
Photoshop itself sees is merely a single 8 or 16-bit version (as you
selected in the plugin) of the image. Depending on your selections in
ACR, that may or may not include all the information present in the raw
file (for a 16-bit rendering it should be possible to get all the
information into it).

There's some utility to doing HDR merges from multiple raw conversions,
or even from a single file -- see the synthetic HDR article at
<http://www.findatlantis.com/wiki/index.php/Synthetic_HDR>. While it
doesn't exactly give you extra information, it represents the
information in a form that the HDR software can do very useful rendering
tricks with, so you can get a better-looking picture that way than other
ways, sometimes.

> I use exposure compensation with my camera. I start at the darkest under
> exposure I can, for mine that is -2 stops and then in 1/3 stop
> increments go to +2 stops. This gives me a nice set of images perfect
> for true HDR merging.

That's much too small a step; I'd suggest 2 or 3 stop steps. And you're
not going nearly far enough from the "correct" exposure; I'd suggest -7
to +7 stops, or some such.

Re: Merge to HDR?
 

In article <t7pXh.16170$Kd3.9673@newssvr27.news.prodigy.net >,
nzgutman@sbcglobal.net says...
> Photoshop CS2 has a new function "Merge to HDR"
> Is anything like that available for any of these programs?
> Gimp, Photoshop 7, Paintshop Pro X or Photoshop Elements 5.

qtpfsgui.exe is a free standalone program for merging multiple exposures
into an HDR. Works well in my limited experience.

--
josh@phred.org is Joshua Putnam
<http://www.phred.org/~josh/>
Updated Infrared Photography Gallery:
<http://www.phred.org/~josh/photo/ir.html>

Re: Merge to HDR?
 

"David Dyer-Bennet" <dd-b@dd-b.net> wrote in message
news:462e49ae$0$954$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.ne t...
> =(8) wrote:
>> "Robin" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
>> news:s-CdnZKa9vGlo7PbRVnyhgA@pipex.net...
>>> Not something that I have ever used, however from memory doesn't the
>>> program need to support 32bit images to merge to HDR?
>>>
>>>
>>> "Nathan Gutman" <nzgutman@sbcglobal.net> wrote in message
>>> news:t7pXh.16170$Kd3.9673@newssvr27.news.prodigy.n et...
>>>> Photoshop CS2 has a new function "Merge to HDR"
>>>> Is anything like that available for any of these programs?
>>>> Gimp, Photoshop 7, Paintshop Pro X or Photoshop Elements 5.
>
>> Well one would think that if the program has an HDR feature that it DOES
>> support 32-bit. I know Photoshop CS2 and 3 does. However, unlike
>> Photomatix software it requires actual separate images shot with
>> different exposures. You can not take a single RAW file and process it
>> with different exposure amounts and have Photoshop accept it. The reason
>> being is that Photoshop already sees all of the image data even if the
>> human doesn't. So using a single image over and under exposed just won't
>> cut it. Besides even if it did it isn't a true HDR image.
>
> Some facts wrong here -- the workflow for raw images in Photoshop has the
> conversion from RAW happen in the Adobe Camera Raw plugin, and what
> Photoshop itself sees is merely a single 8 or 16-bit version (as you
> selected in the plugin) of the image. Depending on your selections in
> ACR, that may or may not include all the information present in the raw
> file (for a 16-bit rendering it should be possible to get all the
> information into it).
>
> There's some utility to doing HDR merges from multiple raw conversions, or
> even from a single file -- see the synthetic HDR article at
> <http://www.findatlantis.com/wiki/index.php/Synthetic_HDR>. While it
> doesn't exactly give you extra information, it represents the information
> in a form that the HDR software can do very useful rendering tricks with,
> so you can get a better-looking picture that way than other ways,
> sometimes.
>
>> I use exposure compensation with my camera. I start at the darkest under
>> exposure I can, for mine that is -2 stops and then in 1/3 stop increments
>> go to +2 stops. This gives me a nice set of images perfect for true HDR
>> merging.
>
> That's much too small a step; I'd suggest 2 or 3 stop steps. And you're
> not going nearly far enough from the "correct" exposure; I'd suggest -7 to
> +7 stops, or some such.


It really doesn't matter what you do or don't do in RAW. Photoshop WILL NOT
allow you to merge to HDR using images derived from the same RAW file. That
tells me that Photoshop is seeing something that we may or may not be
seeing. There is a reason for this.

Also, I would like to state for the record that I am not the one that said
Photoshop can see all of the information in a image and that is why HDR
won't work from multiple images derived from a single RAW image. That is
what the program that created the merge to HDR feature said. I can only
guess that he would know what he is talking about.

While merging using images derived from the same file can give... useful
results they are not true HDR images.

=(8)

Re: Merge to HDR?
 

=(8) wrote:
> "David Dyer-Bennet" <dd-b@dd-b.net> wrote in message
> news:462e49ae$0$954$8046368a@newsreader.iphouse.ne t...

>> There's some utility to doing HDR merges from multiple raw
>> conversions, or even from a single file -- see the synthetic HDR
>> article at
>> <http://www.findatlantis.com/wiki/index.php/Synthetic_HDR>. While it
>> doesn't exactly give you extra information, it represents the
>> information in a form that the HDR software can do very useful
>> rendering tricks with, so you can get a better-looking picture that
>> way than other ways, sometimes.
>
> It really doesn't matter what you do or don't do in RAW. Photoshop WILL
> NOT allow you to merge to HDR using images derived from the same RAW
> file. That tells me that Photoshop is seeing something that we may or
> may not be seeing. There is a reason for this.

Works fine, I've done it. You have to strip out the EXIF data, and then
when it pops up a dialog box asking for the exposure info (which it
doesn't do if the EXIF info has already supplied the exposure data),
give it something plausible. If you *don't* strip out the EXIF, it uses
it, and decides the photos don't present any variation at all, and
refuses to use them; that's probably what you've encountered.

> Also, I would like to state for the record that I am not the one that
> said Photoshop can see all of the information in a image and that is why
> HDR won't work from multiple images derived from a single RAW image.
> That is what the program that created the merge to HDR feature said. I
> can only guess that he would know what he is talking about.
>
> While merging using images derived from the same file can give... useful
> results they are not true HDR images.

I'd agree with that last; and that's why the person with the "synthetic
HDR" work is calling it that -- she knows it's not real HDR too. But it
may well still be useful. (Haven't played enough with the synthetic
version to have an opinion yet. I've definitely found combining
multiple renderings from a raw file to be useful.)