is it possible to hdr with humans i the image..

[lunaxxxxxx]

i love to photograph people but once i a while i do nature and sometimes i do 3-5 bracket expo. and stuff them into photomatix or cs5 to see how it looks. Now - when i do people images doing one expo. with 3 light setup studioflash i like to do some d&b to especially on skin to get a more 3 d kind of feel. i often think it is to great a work to d&b surroundings to get 3 d effect ( i do inviromental portræts , sports an so on) and ive come to the conclusion that its ok to use HDR toning layer in PS for surroundings and mask persons out. For the most i think HDR toning misses something - sometimes i put layer in soft light mode and other times i do luminostitymode - still i think its not that good.So my question is . Is there a better way to get photomatix HDR look for surroundings than using PS HDR toning layer - or do i have to do 3-5 bracket shots with studio light and person . the person in the picture certainly has to stay still then and if that worked i still couldnt mask out persons and skin which i DONT want to catch the hdr effect. hope u understand what i mean. thanks

[lunaxxxxxx]

sorry for my spelling! btw i see that joel grimes do use photomatix for his backgrounds but he also composite the images..

[Boneappetit]

Hi lunax: Perhaps you might want to take a look at my gallery where I have some works using mixed techniques, like D&B and Photomatix and Frequency Separation among others... Just click on my signature link below...

I never use Ps HDR feature.

[lunaxxxxxx]

hi boneappaetit - nice images but i want the hdr effect to be ever so ever so ever so everso slightly actually i dont like the effect that much but as i mention above it could be usefull in some ocasions - and.... can you point me to a image where youve used that famous frequenzy sepearation and tell me what u used it for. I do have Natalias dvd and here she use i for cloning and healing. Sounds like you used for some kind of effect or..?

[Boneappetit]

Ok, on this image in particular, I used "FS" as follows: I created my 2 extra images, 1 Low (blur) and the other one High but, on the apply image I didn't assign the high layer to Add / Subtract, I used multiply instead and lowered the opacity to 40-50 % as I recall, in order to get that dark blury look. (BTW-this was one of my chef secrets LOL).
Note: This was just one step on the process... http://boneappetit.deviantart.com/ga...et=24#/d3clgp1

[Boneappetit]

This one is a retouch all the way around... Here, I used "FS" to sharpen the image... Create your FS process, and then just clip a Brightness and Contrast to your High F layer, adjust to your like... This is applied at the final part of your work.

I didn't use Photomatix here.

http://boneappetit.deviantart.com/ga...t=144#/d31wzif

[Boneappetit]

Last but not least: This one is a combination of Photomatix and "FS". As in the other one I used FS for sharpening the image just a little bit...

http://boneappetit.deviantart.com/ga...et=48#/d38l8uo

[Boneappetit]

I don't know if this tutorial is part of Natalia's DVD but just in case: Here she explains how to apply any texture, using split frequencies...

https://www.digitalphotoshopretouchi...als/candy-lips

[mistermonday]

Originally Posted by lunaxxxxxx

i love to photograph people but once i a while i do nature and sometimes i do 3-5 bracket expo. and stuff them into photomatix or cs5 to see how it looks. Now - when i do people images doing one expo. with 3 light setup studioflash i like to do some d&b to especially on skin to get a more 3 d kind of feel. i often think it is to great a work to d&b surroundings to get 3 d effect ( i do inviromental portræts , sports an so on) and ive come to the conclusion that its ok to use HDR toning layer in PS for surroundings and mask persons out. For the most i think HDR toning misses something - sometimes i put layer in soft light mode and other times i do luminostitymode - still i think its not that good.So my question is . Is there a better way to get photomatix HDR look for surroundings than using PS HDR toning layer - or do i have to do 3-5 bracket shots with studio light and person . the person in the picture certainly has to stay still then and if that worked i still couldnt mask out persons and skin which i DONT want to catch the hdr effect. hope u understand what i mean. thanks

Luna, one effective way to include human subjects in HDR images is to take a set of bracketed photos of the background without the human in it, then without moving the camera place the human into the scene and take one normal exposure. Afterward you can merge and tonemap the BG and add the layer with the human and just mask the person into the scene. In fact Photomatix 4.1 Beta 5 (available for evaluation at the moment because it is in beta mode) has a new feature that allows you to select an area from a source image and then blend it into a set of bracketed images which are being merged and tonemapped.
Another program you may wish to evaluate is Oloneo Photoengine. It has a neat module called Relight which will allow you to take a set of images in your studio with a different light source on for each shot (between 2 and 6). Afterward it allows you to control and adj eack light source color, brightness and intensity independently of the other light sources.

Regards, Murray

[lunaxxxxxx]

ok - very helpfull guys - ill have a look on the new photomatix beta - very interesting feature there i think.. and to bonneappetit: those images i like bacause it is clearly overdone - more artistic! still havent figured out .. did you only use fs with contrast layer to sharpen on the black woman? - and maybe i am a very very very very slow learner, what do FS besides giving some layers to clone and heal on without affecting texture and tone. I had a look on natlias aplying candy lips - for me totaly useless movie (sorry) - read chains tut ..hmm

[lunaxxxxxx]

ok bonneappetit - i think i got it - found a youtube movie on FS - very nice techniques - much more manual control compared to what i use - imagenomics skin plugin

[lunaxxxxxx]

hmmm i just tryied out that FS with image apply on a portrait when apply a surfaceblur filter on the lowfrequency on which ive allready applied gaussian at 15 (16 bit image) it just rearranges the contrast in the face - it doesnt smoothen because of the linear light layer (high frequency layer above) - i dont get it ! - please explain...

[Der_W]

Blurring the low frequency layer is not supposed to smooth out all the details, but rather smooth out larger contours without blurring the high frequency details.

If the smoothing is too little for you, try using a lower initial separation radius or a larger amount of blur on the low frequency layer.
Though I would rather not overdo it (which is pretty easy), because it'll look real fake and blurry (especially if seen from a distance).

[Boneappetit]

Originally Posted by lunaxxxxxx

ok - very helpfull guys - ill have a look on the new photomatix beta - very interesting feature there i think.. and to bonneappetit: those images i like bacause it is clearly overdone - more artistic! still havent figured out .. did you only use fs with contrast layer to sharpen on the black woman? - and maybe i am a very very very very slow learner, what do FS besides giving some layers to clone and heal on without affecting texture and tone. I had a look on natlias aplying candy lips - for me totaly useless movie (sorry) - read chains tut ..hmm

Lunax: May i ask you, what is your main language? If you talk Spanish there is a very good tutorial made by Omar Josef (Flexmanta) where you can see the process in depth.

The above written posts are various ways on how to use split frequencies, or frequency separation... As I wrote before, that is just "one step in the process of retouching". On the black model retouch, I used D&B, healing tool, liquify, "split frequencies" color adjustment, color correction, levels, curves, maybe Black & White layer in Luminosity mode, and then again "split frequencies for the final touch (sharpening). I understand if you didn't like Natalia's tutorial, that's ok, but you can still learn from it on "the use of the technique", on the other hand I'm sure that on her DVD she explains how the technique is used... I don't have the DVD but I think it has a part where she shows how to retouch hair using split frequencies. Again, this technique is used along with other tools. Pro retouchers use it with D&B, sharpening, add texture etc. The bottom line is this: The technique and tools are there you use them as you like...

[lunaxxxxxx]

thanks Der W and boneappetit. Im from sweden . To Der w - ok i get it and to boneappetit - ok i get it . To day you helped me very much in uderstanding the FS thing- t. boneappetit: then i better understand the hole picture of your retouch on the black woman! - first got the impression that FS was a wonder shortcut in pS . But now its there and i will give a shot from time to time. Yes Natalia explains only how to use healing brush and not to blur or sharpen as i recall. thanks guys