# My Faux HDR



## boon4376 (Sep 18, 2011)

Made from a single RAW image divided into 3 exposures. This is my first "Good" HDR opportunity. Any suggestions? I didnt have a tripod so a real HDR was out of the question.

CS5 Merge to HDR Pro.

Thanks!


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## 480sparky (Sep 18, 2011)

Single frame?  You could probably do the same thing adjusting the curves, and in a lot less time.


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## boon4376 (Sep 18, 2011)

480sparky said:


> Single frame?  You could probably do the same thing adjusting the curves, and in a lot less time.



Hmmm, I've just tried that but cannot get anything to come close.

This is the original Jpeg from the camera's jpeg engine. I do a Raw+Jpeg save.

How would you suggest adjusting the curves to achieve the same effect?


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## Bynx (Sep 18, 2011)

Your second shot is better than the first. The first one is too contrasty. The headlight and the drivers windshield post is overexposed. The shadow areas in both shots are about the same. The sky in your second shot is also better.


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## boon4376 (Sep 19, 2011)

Bynx said:


> The first one is too contrasty.



Good, thats what I was going for 

Its supposed to be surreal.


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## Bynx (Sep 19, 2011)

It doesnt look surreal, it just looks too contrasty. This is just shadow/highlight adjustment and a touch of unsharp mask. First time I noticed the dog.


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## 480sparky (Sep 19, 2011)

boon4376 said:


> This is the original Jpeg from the camera's jpeg engine. I do a Raw+Jpeg save.
> 
> How would you suggest adjusting the curves to achieve the same effect?



Not sure if I can work with Pentax raw files, but if I had access to either that, or a full-size jpeg, I could toy around with it to see what I could do.


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## Compaq (Sep 19, 2011)

Here's a quick edit. Adjustment curves layers, hue/saturation (toned down the blue and cyan a bit on car), upped the exposure on treeline, tried to whiten the clouds a bit. .GIF for easy comparison.








Sorry about poor quality gif!


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## boon4376 (Sep 20, 2011)

480sparky said:


> boon4376 said:
> 
> 
> > This is the original Jpeg from the camera's jpeg engine. I do a Raw+Jpeg save.
> ...



I have it set to record as .DNG, can you work with those? 
I have it hosted on my Amazon storage here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/BoonsFiles/Public+Files/IMGP0827.DNG

Thanks.



Compaq said:


> Here's a quick edit. Adjustment curves layers, hue/saturation (toned down the blue and cyan a bit on car), upped the exposure on treeline, tried to whiten the clouds a bit. .GIF for easy comparison.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks Compaq for your comparison. Definitely better than the bland camera jpg. How did you preserve the shadow under the car, if I had just cranked up the contrast I assume that would have just become a big black void. Did you change exposures on different areas of the image dynamically? or did you modify the tone / curves of the entire flat image? Just stacked mine next to it so I could see a direct comparison


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## boon4376 (Sep 20, 2011)

Bynx said:


> It doesnt look surreal, it just looks too contrasty. This is just shadow/highlight adjustment and a touch of unsharp mask. First time I noticed the dog.



Maybe we have very different monitors but that looks terrible to me. The colors and tones are way off.


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## Compaq (Sep 20, 2011)

I agree there's something off about Bynx's thing. The scene looks like it's sick.

Anyway, I tried to preserve some detail in the shadow, but I didn't get as much as I'd like. What I did, was to apply a curves adjustment mask to image (to up the contrast and vibrance of the colours), and then masked out the shadow area. I only worked with a low res jpeg, so I wouldn't be able to do much. Perhaps an exposure mask could bring out something on raw or high res jpeg?


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## spacefuzz (Sep 20, 2011)

+5 pts for driving a subaru


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## DiskoJoe (Sep 29, 2011)

You could have done this with just one photo in photoshop. Use the raw convert to lower the exposure first. This will make the clouds pop. Then add fill to get the car to the exposure you want. Then add additional contrast and brightening as needed. Makes life real easy.


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## marmots (Sep 29, 2011)

here's my quick over done version that i did with nothing but lightroom


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