# sedona AZ pic



## sedonaaz (Feb 5, 2010)

OK what do you think. Also I am lost on how to get that almost painted look any tips?


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## Provo (Feb 6, 2010)

Are you sure you did something in photomatix with this picture I see the photomatix logo overlay but the image looks like a standard image that nothing has been applied to. There are countless resources available to tech you the process here and other locations online did you try youtube videos?

here follow this *tutorial* <<<< Click Here


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## Brick (Feb 6, 2010)

Looks a little washed out.  Did you bracket your shots or are you using a single raw?  What Photomatix settings did you use? (strength, saturation, luminosity, microcontrast, smoothing)  You might also post the middle shot so we can get a sense of the original images.

HDR takes a lot of trial and error to perfect.  I generally only adjust the above settings and adjust everything else in photoshop.


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## fokker (Feb 7, 2010)

It does look slightly washed, but I think its a nice shot regardless, and a good candidate for HDR. To me, it looks pretty good as it is, I wouldn't worry about trying to go more over the top.


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## astrostu (Feb 7, 2010)

It's a nice shot, but I'm not sure you actually needed to do an HDR for this one.  In terms of color, I agree that they looks somewhat washed out, and there also seems to be an overall green tint to it.


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## loki05 (Feb 7, 2010)

Hope you don't mind, but I tried to work on your pic, and came up w/this. Not the greatest, but more dramatic effect (which is really what HDR is):


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## sedonaaz (Feb 8, 2010)

That is the look I am talking about. So what settings are you using to get that look. Is that all done in photomatix or did you use photoshop?


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## loki05 (Feb 8, 2010)

Photomatix - 7 total exposures (3xneg + 3xpos+ original exposure)...adjusting strength, contrast, gamma, etc.


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## sedonaaz (Feb 8, 2010)

Thank you for your info. One last question. How did you change the exposures and reuse them in photomatix?


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## Firefly Lighting (Feb 24, 2010)

I like the original better.  Better color overall on the stone. Also the HDR image makes the stone look very opaque, notice all the shadowing and depth of the stone in the original image.  It is gone in the retouch.  JMHO


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## Vautrin (Feb 25, 2010)

You might want to try just using 3 bracketed shots.  
Some of it is just experimentation, and learning what each setting does.

Try setting photomatix to default.  Then move the white point and the black point...  

That'll control how dark or bright the picture is.

Saturation causes the colors to get more intense.  So that really blue sky and really red rock is probably because you pushed saturation up?  Try moving the slider all the way in both directions.  You'll see vivid (and unrealistic) colors at 100% saturation, and no colors at 0%

The contrast slider makes things sharper to a point, although too much looks ugly...  

I think really you just want to play around with each slider to get a feel for what it does to learn how to make your images what you want.  

Part of the problem with trying to give you advice is each picture is different.  One picture might look great when you bump up saturation, while another will look terrible.  You really just need to familiarize yourself with what each of the settings does to get an idea of how to change your pictures.

Most of this will come through experimentation...

And try to understand what the terms mean.  The more knowledge you have the easier it'll be for you to know what you're trying to do...


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