[tattoodjay]

HDR Photos and comparing Lightroom Photoshop and Photomatix

In a discussion with @johannpiber recently we were talking about the different ways of merging HDR photos and I said I would do a comparison of doing it in Lightroom, Photoshop, and Photomatix.

if that sounds confusing or you have no idea what I am talking about, I will try and keep it simple

Let me start with the final photo from this experiment then I will explain how I edited this photo

^{Sony A7iii 35mm F8 1/60 Sec ISO 100
Click here to view larger}



This is a few of the properties along one of the beaches here in Milford, I know where I started the walk was WIldemere Beach but I am not sure if it changed to another beach along the walk

Sometimes when there is quite a bit of mixed light and dark in a scene I am taking a photo of I take three exposures, One at Normal Exposure, such as the next image

Normal Exposure

^{Sony A7iii 35mm F8 1/60 Sec ISO 100
Click here to view larger}



One at two stops Under exposed, ie Darker
this brings part sinthe shot that may be too bright down to a more pleasing range to work with

Note, this shot I probably did not need to do a three-shot image for and it would have been fine, but its the one I happened to be up to in my folders and so went with it, and it still is useful for explaining the process

Under Exposed two stops

^{Sony A7iii 35mm F8 1/250 Sec ISO 100
Click here to view larger}

and one at two Stops Over Exposed ie brighter

The brighter shot brings some of the area that may be dark or in shadow out into the light for working with

** Overexposed two stops**

^{Sony A7iii 35mm F8 1/15 Sec ISO 100
Click here to view larger}



Then one can use a few programs to merge the three photos together capturing the lights and darks from the various images, there are quite a few programs that can do this but the ones I had to try were;

Lightroom

And here is the result of the merge using lightroom

^{Sony A7iii 35mm F8 1/60 Sec ISO 100
Click here to view larger}



Lightroom is simple to use, no user adjustments to make other than the deghosting level

And here is the result of the merge in Photroshop

^{Sony A7iii 35mm F8 1/60 Sec ISO 100
Click here to view larger}



Photoshop has a few more sliders you can use, I did play around with them

And lastly a merge I did in Phootomatix

^{Sony A7iii 35mm F8 1/60 Sec ISO 100
Click here to view larger}



Photomatix comes with built in presets and a lot of sliders so you can tweak the result a lot.

My preferred result is the last one done in Photomatix, and that is the one I edited in Lightroom to produce the first shot I shared in this post.

Now to be fair to Photoshop and Lightroom, I have been merging HDR photos in Photomatix for a couple of years at least and I now know it well and have a few presets saved and hence I may have been a little biased or would have got different results if I was not experienced with it.

Note None of these programs are free, I pay a monthly fee of $10 for Lightroom and Photoshop and bought Photomatix a few years ago for $99 if I remember correctly, There may be free or cheaper options out there but I haven't tried them

And that’s all folks

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unless stated otherwise all photos used in my posts are taken and owned by myself, if you wish to use any of my images please contact me.

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Comments

[codingdefined]

I use DarkTable which is open source and free and it is actually does have a lot of good feature.

[kunschj]

I use GIMP. I installed Darktable, but haven’t tried it yet. Is it pretty intuitive, or would you recommend a tutorial?

[codingdefined]

If you have worked on any other image editing software, then it's fairly easy to grasp the knowledge about it. Going through readme is more than I guess.

[tattoodjay]

Thanks for the info I will check it out

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[johannpiber]

I think, you have slided the Photoshop sliders to the wrong side JJ 😉 lol

Thanks for this comparison, and I really like, what Photomatix has done. The colors and overall image looks a lot better than the Lightroom and the Photoshop version. The Lightroom HDR isn't too bad, of course, but there are no colors, and the image looks quite dark.

You are right, apart from the deghosting levels there is not much to do in Lightroom, but you can edit the finished HDR in Lightroom to your needs ;)
I was not really satisfied myself with my Photoshop HDR test the other day. So, there you are completely right in my opinion.

Thanks a lot again for the work you have done to bring this comparison online,
and I wish you much fun watching the Rugby World Cup 2019 further on - hey, the All Blacks won over South Africa - you can celebrate with a !BEER 🙂

!tip
$trdo

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[tattoodjay]

I tried the sliders every which way with photoshop
But maybe I missed something I will try it again sometime
But I am used to photomatix and will most likely stick with it
It was great to have a win for our team and worthy of a !BEER

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[johannpiber]

I know you have 🙂 I didn't like the Photoshop HDR functions either, and if for me, you don't need to try it again, because I will keep it with Lightroom.
Photomatix does a very good job, and you are used to work with it. I will give Lightroom next time a try again.
The win is worth a second !BEER 🙂

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[tattoodjay]

I have heard in a comment about a free one which more out of curiosity that ever other reason I will check that out sometime
Well I cant drink alone so here is a !BEER for you

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[johannpiber]

Cool, and then we might see another post comparing free software vs paid software? 👍
Let's have a !BEER on this plan 🙂

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[tattoodjay]

I know it wont be for this week or next with allt he Rugby LOL

!BEER

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[johannpiber]

Take your time, watch your games, and if you have time one day, then play with this software if you like :)
!BEER

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[beerlover]

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[beerlover]

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[johannpiber]

Kutenda doro 🙂

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[trendotoken]

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[johannpiber]

_{Posted with}

Thank you @trendotoken 👍🙂

[beerlover]

^{View or trade BEER at steem-engine.}

BEER for you. Enjoy it! Hey @johannpiber, here is a bit

[johannpiber]

Hvala za pivo 🙂

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[pixresteemer]

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[tattoodjay]

Thanks kindly always appreciate the support

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[tattoodjay]

Thanks kindly 👍

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[truelovemom]

Good day. Greetings I will take these recommendations into account.

👍

[tattoodjay]

Cheers and Have a great day

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[light.photo]

Congratulations and keep up the great work!

This post has been manually curated by PhotoStream: The Photography Tribe!

Join Photostreem DISCORD
Follow the curation trail to support great photography

[tattoodjay]

Thanks kindly appreciated

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[mister-omortson]

It could be good place for painting

[tattoodjay]

Ohh yes I think it would be

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[beerlover]

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BEER for you. Enjoy it! Hey @tattoodjay, here is a bit

[tattoodjay]

Cheers

_{Posted with}

[tipu]

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Sending tips with @tipU - how to guide :)

🎁 Hi @tattoodjay! You have received 0.1 STEEM tip from @johannpiber!

[tattoodjay]

Thanks so much so kind of you

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[prettypictures]

Awesome tutorial and breakdown of the different results! I've used standalone HDR tools in the past, but I've never tried Photomatix - will definitely have to check that out.

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[tattoodjay]

Thanks for your visit I do like ohotomatix but I should check what other options are out there maybe there are free ones now that my be useful for others

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[silversaver888]

WOW... okay... I always say wow, because I am wowed by all the photos above!!! Three-photo-shot? Everything is in Latin to me, LOL! But I am learning... I have much to research about this afternoon, LOL!

[tattoodjay]

Lol 😂 it does sound more confusing than it is and I would suggest fir now don’t worry about taking multiple exposure shots save that for later
But if you do decide to try the way to take the three photos is called exposure bracketing

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[bethvalverde]

Great information. I did have no idea but i am just starting to play around with photography. I usually just post phone pics though. Lol

[tattoodjay]

The camera on phones these days are very impressive 👍

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[soyrosa]

Definitely a great end result!!! Lovely. I don't love overdone HDR images that were a 'trend' for while, but the technique in it's core is very useful and if kept 'natural' you can achieve amazing results :-)

[tattoodjay]

I felt the same when HDR became a fad i bought photomatix at the time, and thought buying it a a waste as I did not like the results it was giving me early on and I stopped using it then I read a review that they had made a lot of changes and tried it again and I liked it then and now use it often especially for shots around the city with lots of shadows

I try not to go over the top with them and to keep it natural and like what I saw but sometimes I will admit I do go over the top

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[orjantomarcelo]

These make me to explore the world of photography edited apps. Im just use photoshop express and lightroom. I should give try to use photomatix after this maybe the free one. By the way thanks for great information comparison man. ;)

Posted using Partiko Android

[tattoodjay]

Photomatix does not have a free version as far as I know Lightroom does a good job and if you already have it there is no cost

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[steem-plus]

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[tattoodjay]

Thanks Kindly appreciated

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[c-squared]

This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community
community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.@c-squared runs a

[tattoodjay]

Thanks so much truly appreciated

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[bozz]

That is pretty impressive. I had no idea that people did things like that. I guess it makes sense though when you are trying to get the best shot. A lot of cameras have that built in now don't they where it takes the three and then combines them together automatically?

[tattoodjay]

I do this with a lot of my photos, I think on average I spend at least 10 to 20 Minutes editing for each photo I share, well not my cell phone ones of course

Yes many cameras and even phones have HDR as a feature, but I don't use it on the camera I like doing it my way :)

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[creativecrypto]

The Creative Crypto is all about art on the blockchain and learning from creatives like you. Looking forward to crossing paths again soon. Steem on!Hello @tattoodjay, thank you for sharing this creative work! We just stopped by to say that you've been upvoted by the @creativecrypto magazine.

[tattoodjay]

Thanks so much truly appreciated ;)

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[tattoodjay]

Thanks Kindly appreciated :)

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