# What's your workflow for non camera-bracketed HDR?



## JayhawkCWE (Sep 28, 2010)

Obviously, there are two different ways to do HDR.  Bracket the photograph with the camera when you're shooting, or adjust the photo once you have taken it.

I have always used Aperture with the Photomatix plugin, so it's always kinda been done for me (I don't really understand how Aperture does it, I just make duplicate versions and adjust the exposure high on one and low on the other, I'm not sure how it actually works or what type of file it uses, very confusing).  Recently, however, I've been trying some other methods and I'm getting somewhat confused.

I know it is not possible to change a RAW photograph and save it as a RAW photograph again.  I've had some people tell me to save it as a DNG, but I'm having some problems with that as well.

I open the NEF up in Adobe camera raw, change the exposure, and then save it as a DNG.  Thing is, the exposure changes do not take effect when I save it.  Just like a RAW.  And then I don't have the option to save it as a DNG when I open it in Photoshop.  When I do it with a 16-bit TIFF,  I can see the exposure changes, it just shows up as black once the CS5 HDR processor is done with it...  Again, what's really confusing is how the Photomatix Plugin in Aperture takes the photograph and actually applies the adjustments to the original RAW when it's run.  Photoshop seems to not be capable of that and that doesn't make sense to me.

What is the correct way to do it in Photoshop CS5?  I know that's kindof a subjective question, but this is driving me nuts.  There has to be a way to do it like I do it in Aperture but using Photoshop instead. 

Thanks in Advance.


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## Robin Usagani (Sep 28, 2010)

Ive always just save it as 3 different jpegs with different exposure and open all 3 files on PS.  Then you can do HDR merge with the opened files.


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## Overread (Sep 28, 2010)

DNG as far as I'm aware is just another RAW type format - the difference being that the code to read a DNG is owned by Adobe and remains static - whilst with camera RAWs almost every single DSLR has its own codex to read its own RAW. This is a problem is a particular camera brand gets old enough the newer editing softwares might not be able to read the codecs - which is why adobe is trying to push DNG in as a "standard" RAW format. 

So yes you still have to edit and adjust the DNG just like a RAW (because it is a RAW) and then save the output. Typicaly when I work like this I do the following (working with photoshop elements, though the process will be similar for other adobe editing products).

1) Open the RAW shot and process it for normal lighting (using photoshops built in RAW processing software) - then open that shot directly into photoshop elements. 

2) Save that as a PSD/TIFF and change the file name to something different from the original.

3) Open the RAW again (note you have to save it first otherwise it will just assume you've already opened it in photoshop) and process for either the whites or the dark depending what I am after with the shot

4) Open it into photoshop - if you want to work with more than 2 versions you just save the second under another name and open up the RAW again. 

5) You then have the shots you need ready in photoshop to run software over or perform auto HDR merging.


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## JayhawkCWE (Sep 28, 2010)

Overread said:


> DNG as far as I'm aware is just another RAW type format - the difference being that the code to read a DNG is owned by Adobe and remains static - whilst with camera RAWs almost every single DSLR has its own codex to read its own RAW. This is a problem is a particular camera brand gets old enough the newer editing softwares might not be able to read the codecs - which is why adobe is trying to push DNG in as a "standard" RAW format.
> 
> So yes you still have to edit and adjust the DNG just like a RAW (because it is a RAW) and then save the output. Typicaly when I work like this I do the following (working with photoshop elements, though the process will be similar for other adobe editing products).
> 
> ...



Thanks overread, but that brings up another problem.

If I'm saving an adjusted raw, I'm saving it as a TIFF.  I've always been taught TIFF is the most uncompressed format so therefore the best to use for pretty much anything you can't use RAW for.

CS5 just gives me a black window after processing three TIFF files with different exposure settings.  It's like it doesn't work with TIFFs.  It works with JPEGS but as you can imagine the results are less than stellar.

In another thread I was told that making two copies of an image and adjusting the exposure is not real HDR, and I realize that, I just figured there was a way to do it with a file type that didn't have a lot of compression and therefore get better results...


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## Overread (Sep 28, 2010)

Something sounds odd with the way you are saving TIFFs - CS5 should have no problem at all saving and processing TIFFs so something in your workflow must be tripping up at some stage. Sadly I don't have CS5 to know where you might be making a wrong choice  that is resulting in these black files.


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## JayhawkCWE (Sep 28, 2010)

Overread said:


> Something sounds odd with the way you are saving TIFFs - CS5 should have no problem at all saving and processing TIFFs so something in your workflow must be tripping up at some stage. Sadly I don't have CS5 to know where you might be making a wrong choice  that is resulting in these black files.



I've been working with Photoshop since Photoshop 4 (1996) and am saving the TIFFs the way I've always saved them.  Uncompressed with Mac byte order.

I can only think there's something wrong with my CS5 at this point...


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## ann (Sep 28, 2010)

hm, interesting about cs5, if i have time this weekend i will run some files using it and see what happens.

basically i run the raw files , making ca adjustment, etc. applying changes to all files, save them as tiff files. Move them to photomatrix, do what ever there, and then move them back to PS for a bit of tweaking, usually contrast adjustments and leave them as tiff files.

I have been having a discussion with Garbz about the use of tiff vs jpeg and one comment he made to me was when doing heavy editing, and he mentions HDR, specificly use only tiff files, which of course what i have been doing.

I will get back to you with my results from cs5. I would do it sooner by my class schedule this week is pretty heavy.


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## JayhawkCWE (Sep 28, 2010)

ann said:


> hm, interesting about cs5, if i have time this weekend i will run some files using it and see what happens.
> 
> basically i run the raw files , making ca adjustment, etc. applying changes to all files, save them as tiff files. Move them to photomatrix, do what ever there, and then move them back to PS for a bit of tweaking, usually contrast adjustments and leave them as tiff files.
> 
> ...



Thanks Ann, I'm glad I signed up here, getting some great feedback so far.

TIFF just retains so much more information than JPEG that I can't think of any reason not to use it... other than your chosen most-popular-photo-editor-in-the-world not reading them in the HDR processor... lol


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## ann (Sep 28, 2010)

No problem, i only use RAW then to TIff, but something came up in one of my classes that led me to ask Garbz as he really knows the ins and outs of how these numbers work.

The answer i receive most often from students; oh, takes up so much room and extra work. What can one do


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## JayhawkCWE (Sep 28, 2010)

ann said:


> No problem, i only use RAW then to TIff, but something came up in one of my classes that led me to ask Garbz as he really knows the ins and outs of how these numbers work.
> 
> The answer i receive most often from students; oh, takes up so much room and extra work. What can one do



Yeah, I teach mostly people who've recently retired and are taking up photography as a hobby.  When I show them HDR they almost universally jump on it and start working.  I'm really proud of the work that some of my students have produced.

But, I do know what you're saying, everyone is concerned about size.  I generally expand upon how enormously large today's hard drives are and introduce the concept of an external library to them to get them to use RAW.  Not a whole lot I hate more than seeing one of my students buy a $2000 camera and shoot JPEGs in Auto...


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## Provo (Sep 28, 2010)

Manual mode and increase or decrease the exposure level
then resume normally photomatix merge,lightroom,photoshop adjustments,photoshop layer masking if ghosting problems,photoshop plugins such as topaz or nik plugins, noise ninja or noiseware noise reduction plugin and the post on here or flickr.


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