There are several ways to create an HDR image. I prefer to shoot the 5 exposures from my camera and tone map them straight to Photomatix and retouch everything later. But what happens when you only have one RAW file, you can tone map it by itself but sometimes that makes for some messy shadow noise and blown out highlights. Have no fear, you have other options!
Follow this simple tutorial and be on your way to tone mapping multiple exposures from a single Raw (or any single file for that matter).
Feel free to download the free Actions that I have created for making multiple 16 Bit Tiffs. Head on over to my EverydayHDR store if you would like to see more of the Actions that I offer.
- To install the free Actions, simply download the .atn file to your desktop (or ideal location). Double click the .atn file and it will automatically install into your Actions panel within Photoshop.
f.64 Academy and f.64 Elite are the brainchildren of Blake Rudis. While he is a landscape photographer, he is most passionate about post-processing images in Photoshop and mentoring others.
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
For Blake, it's all about the art and process synergy. He dives deep into complex topics and makes them easy to understand through his outside-the-box thinking so that you can use these tricks in your workflow today!
great video.. i’ve had a hard time with “HDR from a single exposure” in the past. This helps! It will be even easier to do in lightroom. LR makes it super easy to create virtual copies / change exposure / and export to photomatix (and back into LR). 🙂
Thanks Jason, HDR from a single Exposure can be difficult, especially if that single exposure was not a RAW file. If it was even close to compressed in any way shape or form, it may cause trouble in the multiple exposure creation. I tend to stay away from this with JPG’s and try to use a program like Topaz Adjust to try and pull something out of it. However, this is my most common way of making multiple exposures as I always tend to shoot in RAW. Take care Jason.
Are you using noise reduction in Photomatix as well when importing the tiff files? if yes, which type (on source images or on the merged image)?
Anyone here interested in sharing some Photomatix presets? I am aware that every image is different thus need different processing but presets are good starting points and make our lives easier just like the photoshop actions above 🙂
I used to use noise reduction almost religiously I Photomatix. I would do it on the dark exposures, but I have turned it off recently as I use Noise Ninja now for most all of my noise reduction during post processing. I agree, at one point I had over 300 presets, however, that machine crashed and I had to start from square one! I may start posting more of my presets from now on, we’ll see. It is difficult as they are very subjective to the dynamic range of the image. Take care Jac, thanks for stopping by!
Hi and thanks for the great tutorials. Extremely useful for a complete beginner like me.
In this particular one I’d like to ask if it would be better to change the exposure for the different images in Camera RAW rather than using the Photoshop filter? Would that not pull more information out of each image?
Hello Steve,
Based on your comment I ran a little test and found something interesting. The Camera Raw does a very subtle job at creating a natural +2 exposure, but the Exposure Adjustment in Photoshop creates a fake exposure very similar to the original in camera +2 exposure, if you set the Gamma to 2 as well. On the other hand set the Gamma in the Exposure Adjustment to .85 for the -2 Exposure. The reason I would go with the Exposure adjustment layer over the Camera Raw even though the Camera Raw handles the +2 increase without blowing the highlights is simply because I can make it an Action and save those fake exposures much quicker! I will have to update my Action now that you brought that to my attention. Thank you Steve. Take care my critical thinking friend!
Hi Blake,
For some reason the action will not play in CS3. Any Idea’s?
It was designed for CS5 and above. It may be something with the way 3 was designed compared to 5or 6. Sorry about that.
I click on the actions and there not there???
They should be there, check your download folder. I just tested the link and everything worked fine. I hope you can resolve the issue.
Hi Blake,
As a headsup, when I try to download the action, I just get strange code, not an executable file. Not sure what’s causing that. Take care.
Hi Blake. Just watched the video (thanks for the great tutorial!) and tried to download the Actions however, all I can see is an entire page of….�������P�s�e�u�d�o� �T�i�f�f� �E�x�p�o�s�u�r�e�s���������������#�7� �E�V� �@� �+�/�-�1� �S�t�e�p�s� �S�a�v�e� �1�6� �B�i�t� �T�I�F�F��������TEXT���convertMode���Convert Modeÿÿÿÿ���
Any ideas?
Hmm that is very odd. I have no idea? This is the first I have heard of this.
Hi Blake. Thanks for the great video.
Still getting the strange code when try to download the atn. Nothing shows up in my Download Folder. Thanks.
That’s odd. I don’t know why that would be. I can see it alright. Mac or PC?
Blake, I just finished the Creating Multiply Exposures for HDR. I love it! I went into the Free action Download page and tried to locate the Multiple 16 bit Tiff Action. Not sure which one to download for this particular action. I’m new at this, so please forgive my ignorance.
No problem. Here is the download link to it:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/65697856/Pseudo%20Tiff%20Exposures.atn
Like everyone else, I’m getting a lot of code??
Are you on a Mac?
No, I use a PC with Windows 8.1
That’s odd. The zip file link I posted should fix it
https://db.tt/qViIzoPh Try this, I just put it into a .zip file which should fix it for Mac users.
I’m a PC user, and the zip file worked well. First time I’ve used an Action! Will have to download the your Package. It will save me a whole lot of time, and the price is right. Thanks
Thanks very much – immensely useful.