Can one achieve HDR from one image?

[OnkelMorfar]

hey all..

It may have slipped my radar.. BUT.. is it possible to take 1 raw pic.. screw around with the levels to create 3 diff exposured pics and THEN merge them in the HDR software?

or does it have to be 3 pics taken in the given situation?

[DannyRaphael]

Excellent question worthy of its own thread. As one new to RAW, ACR and HDR, I, too, would be interested in the opinions of others.

[Ziaphra]

I wouldn't have thought so as even though all 3 seemingly have different exposures, they would essentially still all have the same information. Having said that however, this makes for an interesting read: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=237266

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Ziaphra

I wouldn't have thought so as even though all 3 seemingly have different exposures, they would essentially still all have the same information. Having said that however, this makes for an interesting read: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=237266

You rock! Very good info. The light is growing a little less dim.

Is it fair to say, then...

Generally speaking combining multiple images with varying exposures of the same high contrast scene has the potential for more dynamic range than what's possible by exposing a single image to extremes (via RAW converter) and combining the RAW-generated exposures?

[DannyRaphael]

A plugin for .jpg files:
http://www.mediachance.com/plugins/redynamix.html

[palms]

I thought i would do a experiment

all done in dynamic photo hdri software (from the same people in the link Danny has provided )

1. one image opened then apply image applied with multiply selected as blend mode, and again with apply image and screen as blend mode ( making three images with the original ) then took into dynamic photo and i let the software "guess" the values ( I had read somewhere of someone doing this )

2. the same images as above used but this time i manualy put the values in of -1 for the multiply, 0 for the original, and +1 for the screen

3.Then i used just one image on it's own ( refered to as fake hdr)

In dynamic photo i used the same setting for all three (eye catching at the default settings) just for comparison other wise i would probably of tweeked them

for more comparison take a look here as i posted the outcome i made with 5 separate images (same subject) and took through the same software

http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/hdr...rying-out.html

I suppose it depends on the outcome you want and the image subject

perhaps someone would like to do a similar experiment using the merge to hdr function in cs3 or one of the other softwares ?

Palms

[crazyfly1]

[QUOTE=OnkelMorfar;184086]hey all..

It may have slipped my radar.. BUT.. is it possible to take 1 raw pic.. screw around with the levels to create 3 diff exposured pics and THEN merge them in the HDR software? QUOTE]


No.

Weelll, OK it's possible, but what you get is not a true HDR image. You can use any of a number of different software programs/plugins to attempt that and you will get a greasy grimy oversaturated, highly contrasty...copy of the same image.

I just posted a photo in the april contest that is a blend of the same image developed three times in raw, but not with the idea of creating an HDRI. Same concept, sort of. One side of the face was underexposed so I did one exposure just for that and then blended it with the others.

Anyway, HDR is about taking the best of each exposure capture and blending it, this gives you the High Dynamic Range, that is to say, darks and lights that are outside of what your monitor can show you and, as a byproduct you get deeper, richer color.

If you just want more color take a regular jpeg and take it into 32bit mode you can way oversaturate it just by virtue of the fact that it (32bit) is an increadibly larger color environment to work in.

[Joe M]

I just joined the forum and I love it. Already gotten a bunch of useful information.

I enjoy shooting HDR, but recently pseudo HDR from a single RAW file has sparked my interest.

Here are some images processed from a single RAW file using LR 2.0, Photomatix, and Photoshop CS3.

Edit: I should mention I started with a single RAW file and converted it to 3 DNG files using LR.

http://NC-Retouched.smugmug.com/gall...868_4mdD5-A-LB

http://NC-Retouched.smugmug.com/gall...114_eXd4a-A-LB

http://NC-Retouched.smugmug.com/gall...669_J7hqa-A-LB

http://NC-Retouched.smugmug.com/gall...343_V76PM-A-LB

[palms]

Hi and welcome Joe
that is some nice work especially the buildings, look forward to seeing more from you

Palms

[Janet Petty]

Joe M. What Palms said. And more. Although not technically speaking true HDR, I like what you have done a lot. Nobody said it had to look like everyone else's HDR to achieve something perfectly acceptable.

Janet

[Joe M]

Thank you Palms and thank you Janet.

I was a little surprised myself at the images that could be produced from a single RAW file processed as an HDR.

[jimi62]

I've tried to do HDR with a single image and have not had good results. According to the books I've read it doesn't really work with one image. you can however tone map a single image and get a decent HDR look to it. I've had decent results using Photomatix and a 16bit TIFF.

[consciouseye]

I made this from one image....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3186/...abd52805_b.jpg

[palms]

Originally Posted by consciouseye

I made this from one image....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3186/...abd52805_b.jpg

HI and welcome to posting consciouseye nice work that, which software did you use ?

Palms

[consciouseye]

Photmatix....Thanks for looking!

[winu]

here an interresting Link about SINGLE IMAGE TONE MAPPING VS. HDR

http://beforethecoffee.wordpress.com...ber-of-images/

[Frank Lopes]

I've played with the Photomatix Photoshop free download and, for the most part, it does a very nice job.

However, I find sometimes the noise created to be unacceptable.

What have your experiences been with the product?

I wouldn't be surprised if it was me...

[GaryC]

Yes you can, but there are some tricks. First off, using Photomatix's ability to convert a raw image into a pseudo-32-bit image has limited potential. What I've found to work much better is to take an image and open that image in Adobe Camera Raw, save that image as a tif, then while still in ACR, drop the exposure value 2 stops and save it, then push the exposure value 2 stops and save it. Then process those saved images as if you had taken those images with three exposures in your camera in Photomatix.

If you like to really really push the shadow region in images to achieve the fairyland look, you probably will be dissapointed. If you like creating realistic images, you will be generally satisfied. You will NOT get as good results as if you had take the three shots properly.

Below is a link to two different photos, one was taken with my Canon 30D and was a raw original, the other was taken with my Olympus 100RS, a 1.3 Megapixel camera and had a jpeg output. Can you tell which was which?

http://photosbycoyne.com/sample_hdr.php

Best,

Gary Coyne

[ChrBau]

Photomatix does a good job from one image but you (most of the time) get better results with multiple, AEB, images.
http://www.hdrsoft.com/

[djbunty]

use mediachance software


see this one
http://www.modelmayhem.com/pic.php?p...313&the_count=

[DannyRaphael]

Really, really good info here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...hread=31282174