# HDR Photography issue



## osumisan (Dec 16, 2013)

I am starting to experiment with HDR photography.  Using Photomatix 5.0 and bracketing 5 shots at 1 f/stop intervals.  Most of my stacks blend just fine with Photomatix but some, in the sky area, show shapes that were not there in any of the bracketed exposures.  

The specific image I am having issues with is one of a ocean pier with lapping water around the base at sunset.  None of the bracketed images show the shapes (they look like possibly the pilings of the pier superimposed into the sky) but when combined in Photomatix, they are very much a part of the image.  The shapes also have no detail, they are just squares and rectangles.  As I adjust the sliders in Photomatix, the shapes become more or less noticeable, but always there.

Anyone else have this problem?


Shooting a Nikon D700, Sigma 17-55mm f/2.8 lens.  Exposures ranging from 1/4th of second to 15-20 seconds in the same brackets.


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## Steve5D (Dec 16, 2013)

I cannot begin to adequately express how helpful it would be to see an example of what you're trying to describe...


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## 480sparky (Dec 16, 2013)

Steve5D said:


> I cannot begin to adequately express how helpful it would be to see an example of what you're trying to describe...


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## hirejn (Dec 16, 2013)

It's possible the software doesn't know what to do with five images that closely bracketed, or you don't. Any DSLR can capture 5 stops of brightness in a single frame so there's little to gain by bracketing five frames in 1-stop increments. Almost no scenes require more than three images, which could encompass up to at least a 15-stop range on most DSLRs (3 images 5 stops apart). Even with your camera's spot meter you can pretty easily tell with a little calculation that most scenes are not 15 stops. The exact bracketing can be figured out with a light meter calibrated to the dynamic range of your camera, such as the Sekonic L-758. What you need to do is figure out the midtone, shadows and highlights and compare it with the dynamic range of the camera, and then shoot to encompass the range of the scene. Everything else is guessing. Once you learn more about HDR and how to actually do it, you'll be able to take fewer images and process them more easily. I'd also recommend Nik instead of Photomatix for more intuitive controls.


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## osumisan (Dec 16, 2013)

Well at the time of post, I did not render any photos that gave me the problem.  Here is one that I did that shows my issue.  the shadows under the pier are very heavy and the sunrise is very bright.  Maybe combine that with the moving water.  But for sure, I have no clue what I am doing with Photomatix, thus, posting here for help.  check out my image and see if you have had this happen.  The problem areas are in the sky, top/right and sky between pilings, lower/left.  Thanks in advance!


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## vipgraphx (Dec 16, 2013)

What kind of files are you using? NEF, JPEG, TIFF ? what are the steps that you are using to get them into photomatix? IF you like to post those files I would be more than happy to see if it happens to me as well. Those defiantly look like something is not right.


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## osumisan (Dec 16, 2013)

Here are the 5 images I used.  I shoot in RAW (NEF files), import from camera to Lightroom 3, import from lightroom 3 to Photomatix for editing and merging, then back to lightroom 3.  Most of the images I have processed turned out great.


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## 480sparky (Dec 16, 2013)

Try building the HDR by taking one image out of the stack and see what happens.  Take a different image out of each attempt.  Maybe it's just one image the software is having problems with.


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## Steve5D (Dec 16, 2013)

osumisan said:


> View attachment 62317



That issue has nothing to do with the pylons, and those artifacts don't seem to be on any of the single images. There's something goofy going on in the processing...


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## vipgraphx (Dec 16, 2013)

Those images are pretty small but it worked fine for me. Must be something on your end. Have you updated Photomatix yet?


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## osumisan (Dec 17, 2013)

I had just downloaded Photomatix 5.0 before editing the photo in question.  I will look to see if there are any updates but I would think that they would have given me the most recent version on the download?


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## HughGuessWho (Dec 17, 2013)

Steve5D said:


> That issue has nothing to do with the pylons, and those artifacts don't seem to be on any of the single images. There's something goofy going on in the processing...



Looks to me like there is an image in the stack that doesn't belong in the group. I see windows on the left. I would recheck the files that you are selecting.


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## 480sparky (Dec 17, 2013)

HughGuessWho said:


> ...... see windows on the left............



Why are they windows?  Yeah, they're _rectangles_.  But that doesn't make them windows.  Unless you're seeing something the rest of us are missing.


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## HughGuessWho (Dec 18, 2013)

480sparky said:


> Why are they windows?  Yeah, they're rectangles.  But that doesn't make them windows.  Unless you're seeing something the rest of us are missing.


Ok, the rectangles LOOK like windows. Regardless of what they are, they don't belong in the image and I am convinced that they are the result of an image being included in the stack that should not have been. Give it a shot. Stack three images to import into your favorite HDR app, and add another that doesn't belong. You will see the same type of artifacts in the the resulting image.


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## vipgraphx (Dec 19, 2013)

HughGuessWho said:


> Steve5D said:
> 
> 
> > That issue has nothing to do with the pylons, and those artifacts don't seem to be on any of the single images. There's something goofy going on in the processing...
> ...



I don't think its an image in the stack that doesn't belong. IT did not do that to me when I processed them. It could be a bug in photomatix though on his computer.

OP try uninstalling the the software and reinstalling.Maybe that will help.


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## osumisan (Dec 19, 2013)

Very much appreciate all the comments of help.  I will give all your ideas a try....thanks!


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## Trblmkr (Dec 19, 2013)

another suggestion... you're doing the same work flow I was doing.
When you export out of Lightroom, it's converting the files to either TIFF or JPEG.  DONT!!!!
You can directly load the files into Photomatix 5 as .NEF files so you retain all the detail your camera can produce.


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## osumisan (Dec 19, 2013)

Ok, thanks for the suggestion of not using all 5 images in the stack.  I chose the best sky exposure, water, and pier images and just used those three and came out with this imagewith slight adjustments in Photomatix.  Now, even though I check the 'remove chromatic aberrations' box, I can still see them along the vertical edges of the wooden piers.  Is that a problem with the image exposures I used or problems with my editing?  Thanks again for any help.


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## HughGuessWho (Dec 19, 2013)

vipgraphx said:


> HughGuessWho said:
> 
> 
> > Steve5D said:
> ...



Which supports my theory. I have no doubt that the OP inadvertently included an image that did not belong in the series.


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## Steve5D (Dec 20, 2013)

HughGuessWho said:


> Which supports my theory. I have no doubt that the OP inadvertently included an image that did not belong in the series.



I'm not so sure.

I did a shoot yesterday, and did a five-image HDR. This was the result:






Now, it's obvious that the "windows" to the left are the result of them being in the original images, but I'll be damned if I know why they're showing up where they are. They don't show up in the three-image HDR...


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## vipgraphx (Dec 20, 2013)

Trblmkr said:


> another suggestion... you're doing the same work flow I was doing.
> When you export out of Lightroom, it's converting the files to either TIFF or JPEG.  DONT!!!!
> You can directly load the files into Photomatix 5 as .NEF files so you retain all the detail your camera can produce.



You do know that Photomatix converts files from RAW to JPEG before you  even see them to adjust in photomatix? Thats why Converting them in light room or photoshop as jpegs or tiffs will yeild you better results and is faster.


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## HughGuessWho (Dec 20, 2013)

vipgraphx said:


> You do know that Photomatix converts files from RAW to JPEG before you  even see them to adjust in photomatix? Thats why Converting them in light room or photoshop as jpegs or tiffs will yeild you better results and is faster.


I second that. I seems to get noisy looking reds when loading raw files directly into Photomatix.


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## HughGuessWho (Dec 20, 2013)

Steve5D said:


> I'm not so sure.  I did a shoot yesterday, and did a five-image HDR. This was the result:  Now, it's obvious that the "windows" to the left are the result of them being in the original images, but I'll be damned if I know why they're showing up where they are. They don't show up in the three-image HDR...


Yes, that is quite strange. However, in your example, the "ghost" images in you picture do appear elsewhere in the shot. In the OPs example the "windows" are nowhere else in the image. That's why I suggested that it looked like an image that didn't belong in the stack. Where else could the windows have come from?


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## 480sparky (Dec 20, 2013)

HughGuessWho said:


> Steve5D said:
> 
> 
> > I'm not so sure.  I did a shoot yesterday, and did a five-image HDR. This was the result:  Now, it's obvious that the "windows" to the left are the result of them being in the original images, but I'll be damned if I know why they're showing up where they are. They don't show up in the three-image HDR...
> ...




Same place this gray card came from.


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