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09/12/2009 11:24:43 AM · #1 |
I'm liking the HDR idea, but I don't have the software. I think it's something that I'd use again in the future, however.
I downloaded photomatx, played for just a few minutes and got something that I kind of liked (that had Photomatix pasted all over it since I just have the trial version.)
I downloaded Qtpfsgui played with it for a couple of minutes, and got something completely awful and very dull. Then saw someone had posted that it has a high learning curve.
So here's the question: Should I spend the money on Photomatix (I'm saving up for a 10-22mm, so I'd have to take the money from that fund.) Or should I spend the time learning Qtpfsgui? Is Qtpfsgui worth learning? Or is photomatix so much better that I should just spend the money? Or is there a third option of which I haven't thought? I currently use photoshop elements, and it doesn't sound like there's a plug in for that... |
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09/12/2009 11:38:22 AM · #2 |
I vote for the 10-22! Great lens.
Use Qtpfsgui, although I found Photomatrix easier, particularly the latest version. Just updated mine, I hadn't used it since 2008! I have not used Qtpfsgui for well over a year. |
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09/12/2009 11:43:41 AM · #3 |
Save for the lens.
However, if you want both the lens and the software and you want the software NOW you'll just have to wait a little longer for the lens. ;o) |
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09/12/2009 11:45:05 AM · #4 |
| I have been playing with the trial version of Dynamic Photo HDR and found it just as easy to use as Photomatix, and it leaves a single watermark at the bottom of the image. I also tried Qtpfsgui and found it to be very user-unfriendly. I recommend trying the Dynamic trial... the program cost is $55 if you decide to buy it. |
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09/12/2009 11:48:14 AM · #5 |
Originally posted by fldave:
I have been playing with the trial version of Dynamic Photo HDR and found it just as easy to use as Photomatix, and it leaves a single watermark at the bottom of the image. I also tried Qtpfsgui and found it to be very user-unfriendly. I recommend trying the Dynamic trial... the program cost is $55 if you decide to buy it. |
thanks! I hadn't heard of that one--I'll give it a shot. At least if it's good, it's cheaper than photomatix! |
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09/12/2009 12:31:11 PM · #6 |
I just bought the Photomatx program and I can't believe how fricken amazing it is.... I say, buy the lens & the program... I don't think of lenses & programs as being in the same category so I never chose between the two.. They are such separate animals that work in dependently of eachother...
Now, I went out to shoot for the challenge, but forgot to bring my manual and had never used my bracketing option on my camera so, I couldn't get it to work.. I just manually exposed my shot 3 different ways and then came home and used it in photomatix.. It didn't work perfectly because no matter how still I tried to be, I moved enough that all 3 images didn't line up perfectly.. Duhh, at that point I wasn't bothering to use my tri-pod since I figured it wasn't going to work anyway.. Little did I know how awesome this program was and if I had been using my tripod, my manual adjustment of the exposure would have worked out perfect.. So, now I have to go back out and reshoot tonight..
I'm not going to the same place to reshoot for the challenge, and I can e-mail you the examples of the 3 shots and then the ending result... You really need to see what I consider to be 3 simple snap shots can produce once merged into this program.. Andddddd, I didn't read any instructions, I just kinda went with it and played with it's settings as they popped up and got the ending result..
Message edited by author 2009-09-12 12:31:53. |
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09/12/2009 12:39:21 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by kandykarml:
I just bought the Photomatx program and I can't believe how fricken amazing it is.... I say, buy the lens & the program... I don't think of lenses & programs as being in the same category so I never chose between the two.. They are such separate animals that work in dependently of eachother...
Now, I went out to shoot for the challenge, but forgot to bring my manual and had never used my bracketing option on my camera so, I couldn't get it to work.. I just manually exposed my shot 3 different ways and then came home and used it in photomatix.. It didn't work perfectly because no matter how still I tried to be, I moved enough that all 3 images didn't line up perfectly.. Duhh, at that point I wasn't bothering to use my tri-pod since I figured it wasn't going to work anyway.. Little did I know how awesome this program was and if I had been using my tripod, my manual adjustment of the exposure would have worked out perfect.. So, now I have to go back out and reshoot tonight..
I'm not going to the same place to reshoot for the challenge, and I can e-mail you the examples of the 3 shots and then the ending result... You really need to see what I consider to be 3 simple snap shots can produce once merged into this program.. Andddddd, I didn't read any instructions, I just kinda went with it and played with it's settings as they popped up and got the ending result.. |
I'd love to see your example. I've played with it a bit, but I'm always up for learn more/adding more info. |
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09/12/2009 12:51:40 PM · #8 |
Qtpfsgui works great if you can use it properly. Along with Gimp it is amazing. Use the link below to learn how to effectively use the program. Here are 2 samples from it.
 
//garmahis.com/tutorials/hdr-tutorial-free-software/ |
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09/12/2009 01:29:15 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by kandykarml:
I just bought the Photomatx program and I can't believe how fricken amazing it is.... I say, buy the lens & the program... I don't think of lenses & programs as being in the same category so I never chose between the two.. They are such separate animals that work in dependently of eachother...
Now, I went out to shoot for the challenge, but forgot to bring my manual and had never used my bracketing option on my camera so, I couldn't get it to work.. I just manually exposed my shot 3 different ways and then came home and used it in photomatix.. It didn't work perfectly because no matter how still I tried to be, I moved enough that all 3 images didn't line up perfectly.. Duhh, at that point I wasn't bothering to use my tri-pod since I figured it wasn't going to work anyway.. Little did I know how awesome this program was and if I had been using my tripod, my manual adjustment of the exposure would have worked out perfect.. So, now I have to go back out and reshoot tonight..
I'm not going to the same place to reshoot for the challenge, and I can e-mail you the examples of the 3 shots and then the ending result... You really need to see what I consider to be 3 simple snap shots can produce once merged into this program.. Andddddd, I didn't read any instructions, I just kinda went with it and played with it's settings as they popped up and got the ending result.. |
Kristin - you may not have to go out and shoot again. If you have one good exposure from the shots you took previous and you shot RAW then run it thorugh your RAW conversion at three or five different exposure settings to produce 3 or five copies. I normally would use +2, -2 and 0 for a three shot set or +1, +2, -1, -2 and 0 for a five shot set. You can then run those through Photomatix and get very good results, at least most of the time. It makes for a sharper shot since tehy are all the same and you turn off the alignment feature. |
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09/12/2009 05:42:38 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by jbsmithana:
Originally posted by kandykarml:
I just bought the Photomatx program and I can't believe how fricken amazing it is.... I say, buy the lens & the program... I don't think of lenses & programs as being in the same category so I never chose between the two.. They are such separate animals that work in dependently of eachother...
Now, I went out to shoot for the challenge, but forgot to bring my manual and had never used my bracketing option on my camera so, I couldn't get it to work.. I just manually exposed my shot 3 different ways and then came home and used it in photomatix.. It didn't work perfectly because no matter how still I tried to be, I moved enough that all 3 images didn't line up perfectly.. Duhh, at that point I wasn't bothering to use my tri-pod since I figured it wasn't going to work anyway.. Little did I know how awesome this program was and if I had been using my tripod, my manual adjustment of the exposure would have worked out perfect.. So, now I have to go back out and reshoot tonight..
I'm not going to the same place to reshoot for the challenge, and I can e-mail you the examples of the 3 shots and then the ending result... You really need to see what I consider to be 3 simple snap shots can produce once merged into this program.. Andddddd, I didn't read any instructions, I just kinda went with it and played with it's settings as they popped up and got the ending result.. |
Kristin - you may not have to go out and shoot again. If you have one good exposure from the shots you took previous and you shot RAW then run it thorugh your RAW conversion at three or five different exposure settings to produce 3 or five copies. I normally would use +2, -2 and 0 for a three shot set or +1, +2, -1, -2 and 0 for a five shot set. You can then run those through Photomatix and get very good results, at least most of the time. It makes for a sharper shot since tehy are all the same and you turn off the alignment feature. |
I did shoot them in RAW.... How do I do this...... I just went out and drove around for 2 hours and got nothing close to what I got yesterday... so, if you can just give me a quick instruction on how to get those different exposures of the same shot, then I'm all in.. I have cs4, bridge & lightroom.. What program do I do this in.. |
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09/12/2009 05:49:08 PM · #11 |
Use Lightroom, underexpose by -4, then -2 then 0, then +2, then +4, export each one. Once you have all 5, open your chosen HDR prog and add the files, let it do its work and you should have something like HDR.
I'll find an example if I can later.
Here they are, just done them:
Then using Dynamic photo HDR trial:
 Once this was processed, I tone mapped it and was able to save a Jpeg.
Message edited by author 2009-09-12 17:55:54. |
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09/12/2009 05:50:27 PM · #12 |
Originally posted by kandykarml:
I did shoot them in RAW.... How do I do this...... I just went out and drove around for 2 hours and got nothing close to what I got yesterday... so, if you can just give me a quick instruction on how to get those different exposures of the same shot, then I'm all in.. I have cs4, bridge & lightroom.. What program do I do this in.. |
You can do it in Lightroom easily. Just export your correctly exposed image as 1. Then drop the exposure to -2.00 and export that as image 2. Then export one with the exposure at +2.00 and export that as 3. Then import those three images into Photomatrix (or photoshop HDR) and there you go. |
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09/12/2009 05:55:27 PM · #13 |
| forgive me here... I got lightroom and I'll be totally honest, it intimidated the hell out of me, so it sits on my desktop and basically collects dust... once i've got my image into lightroom, then where do I go to change the exposure??? |
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09/12/2009 05:56:50 PM · #14 |
| GOT IT.......... i think... LOL. I do this under "develop"... |
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09/12/2009 05:58:25 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by kandykarml:
forgive me here... I got lightroom and I'll be totally honest, it intimidated the hell out of me, so it sits on my desktop and basically collects dust... once i've got my image into lightroom, then where do I go to change the exposure??? |
Go from Library to develop, change exposure, back to Library and save with unique number. Do this with each exposure til you have as many as you want. Dynamic Photo HDr won't let you save it as an .HDR file, but tone map it and you get the end result. |
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09/12/2009 05:58:32 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by kandykarml:
Originally posted by jbsmithana:
Originally posted by kandykarml:
I just bought the Photomatx program and I can't believe how fricken amazing it is.... I say, buy the lens & the program... I don't think of lenses & programs as being in the same category so I never chose between the two.. They are such separate animals that work in dependently of eachother...
Now, I went out to shoot for the challenge, but forgot to bring my manual and had never used my bracketing option on my camera so, I couldn't get it to work.. I just manually exposed my shot 3 different ways and then came home and used it in photomatix.. It didn't work perfectly because no matter how still I tried to be, I moved enough that all 3 images didn't line up perfectly.. Duhh, at that point I wasn't bothering to use my tri-pod since I figured it wasn't going to work anyway.. Little did I know how awesome this program was and if I had been using my tripod, my manual adjustment of the exposure would have worked out perfect.. So, now I have to go back out and reshoot tonight..
I'm not going to the same place to reshoot for the challenge, and I can e-mail you the examples of the 3 shots and then the ending result... You really need to see what I consider to be 3 simple snap shots can produce once merged into this program.. Andddddd, I didn't read any instructions, I just kinda went with it and played with it's settings as they popped up and got the ending result.. |
Kristin - you may not have to go out and shoot again. If you have one good exposure from the shots you took previous and you shot RAW then run it thorugh your RAW conversion at three or five different exposure settings to produce 3 or five copies. I normally would use +2, -2 and 0 for a three shot set or +1, +2, -1, -2 and 0 for a five shot set. You can then run those through Photomatix and get very good results, at least most of the time. It makes for a sharper shot since tehy are all the same and you turn off the alignment feature. |
I did shoot them in RAW.... How do I do this...... I just went out and drove around for 2 hours and got nothing close to what I got yesterday... so, if you can just give me a quick instruction on how to get those different exposures of the same shot, then I'm all in.. I have cs4, bridge & lightroom.. What program do I do this in.. |
In Lightroom go to the Develop module and click on the photo you want to us. Pick the one that is as close to properly exposed as you have. Without changing it go to the File menu and Export it as a 16 bit TIFF file using the renaming feature and choosing filename - sequence number and give a number of 1. I just save it back to the same directory as it came from. Now go back to the Develop module and change the original file to +1 (or whatever you want the steps to be) and repeat the Export process changing the Sequence number to 2. Do this for a +2 and then a -1 and -2 exposure Exporting and changing the Sequence number each time.
Now that you have multiple TIFF files saved select them as a group (control click each of them) right click and chose Export / Photomatix. A screen will come up giving you choices on the HDR process. Unclick the Align photos box as it is not needed and then click OK. The files will be combined and placed in tone mapping for you to play with. When done it will save an HDR version back to whatever directory you chose. You’re now free to work on it in PS if you want.
I end up deleting the TIFF's I created just to save space as I still have the original NEF to recreate if needed.
Hope that helps.
Message edited by author 2009-09-12 22:48:02. |
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09/12/2009 06:09:45 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by vawendy:
I'm liking the HDR idea, but I don't have the software. I think it's something that I'd use again in the future, however.
I downloaded photomatx, played for just a few minutes and got something that I kind of liked (that had Photomatix pasted all over it since I just have the trial version.)
I downloaded Qtpfsgui played with it for a couple of minutes, and got something completely awful and very dull. Then saw someone had posted that it has a high learning curve.
So here's the question: Should I spend the money on Photomatix (I'm saving up for a 10-22mm, so I'd have to take the money from that fund.) Or should I spend the time learning Qtpfsgui? Is Qtpfsgui worth learning? Or is photomatix so much better that I should just spend the money? Or is there a third option of which I haven't thought? I currently use photoshop elements, and it doesn't sound like there's a plug in for that... |
pm sent. |
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09/12/2009 06:24:46 PM · #18 |
Originally posted by jbsmithana:
Originally posted by kandykarml:
Originally posted by jbsmithana:
Originally posted by kandykarml:
I just bought the Photomatx program and I can't believe how fricken amazing it is.... I say, buy the lens & the program... I don't think of lenses & programs as being in the same category so I never chose between the two.. They are such separate animals that work in dependently of eachother...
Now, I went out to shoot for the challenge, but forgot to bring my manual and had never used my bracketing option on my camera so, I couldn't get it to work.. I just manually exposed my shot 3 different ways and then came home and used it in photomatix.. It didn't work perfectly because no matter how still I tried to be, I moved enough that all 3 images didn't line up perfectly.. Duhh, at that point I wasn't bothering to use my tri-pod since I figured it wasn't going to work anyway.. Little did I know how awesome this program was and if I had been using my tripod, my manual adjustment of the exposure would have worked out perfect.. So, now I have to go back out and reshoot tonight..
I'm not going to the same place to reshoot for the challenge, and I can e-mail you the examples of the 3 shots and then the ending result... You really need to see what I consider to be 3 simple snap shots can produce once merged into this program.. Andddddd, I didn't read any instructions, I just kinda went with it and played with it's settings as they popped up and got the ending result.. |
Kristin - you may not have to go out and shoot again. If you have one good exposure from the shots you took previous and you shot RAW then run it thorugh your RAW conversion at three or five different exposure settings to produce 3 or five copies. I normally would use +2, -2 and 0 for a three shot set or +1, +2, -1, -2 and 0 for a five shot set. You can then run those through Photomatix and get very good results, at least most of the time. It makes for a sharper shot since tehy are all the same and you turn off the alignment feature. |
I did shoot them in RAW.... How do I do this...... I just went out and drove around for 2 hours and got nothing close to what I got yesterday... so, if you can just give me a quick instruction on how to get those different exposures of the same shot, then I'm all in.. I have cs4, bridge & lightroom.. What program do I do this in.. |
In Lightroom go to the Develop module and click on the photo you want to us. Pick the one that is as close to properly exposed as you have. Without changing it go to the File menu and Expoert it as a 16 bit TIFF file using the renaming feature and chosing filename - sequence number and give a numer of 1. I just save it back to the same directory as it came from. Now go back to the Develop module and change the original file to +1 (or whatever you want the steps to be) and repeat the Export process changing the Sequence numer to 2. Do this for a +2 and then a -1 and -2 exposure Exporting and chnaging the Sequence number each time.
Now that you have multiple TIFF files saved select them as a group (control clcik each of them) right click and chose Export / Photomatix. A screen will come up giving you choices on the HDR process. Unclick the Align photos box as it is not needed. and then click OK. The files will be combined and placed in tone mapping for you to play with. When done it will save an HDR version back to whatever directory you chose. Your now free to work on it in PS if you want.
I end up deleting the TIFF's I created just to save space as I still have the original NEF to recreate if needed.
Hope that helps. |
OMG........ yahhhhhh !!! that helps tremendously.. I was doing it wrong... Thank you soooooo very much !!! |
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