Have you ever photographed something and you just couldn't get the light to work just right? You expose for the dark areas, and the light ones are blown out, or you try to get the detail in the light areas and the darks areas are just have no detail; they are just black. Sure you can bracket some exposures and then through the magic of masking in Photoshop, or your favorite editor, you can piece something together, but that just turns into a lot of work.
Photomatix 4 is a program that gives you the ability to take multiple exposures and merge them all together into one well balanced image. It will also let you take a single image and adjust the highlights and shadows to achieve a balanced image. The first method is through Exposure Fusion where differently exposed photographs are merged into one with an increased dynamic range. The second is through HDR Tone Mapping where the highlight and shadow detail in a single image are adjusted.
A High Dynamic Range Image (HDRI or HRD image) is an image that is encoded in a format that allows the largest range of values possible so as to accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes ranging from direct sunlight to deep shadows. First developed in the 1930s and 40s by Charles Wyckoff, it has only recently taken off due to the availability of digital cameras and available computer power needed to process the image.
The standard method of creating a HDR image using Photomatix is to take a series of exposures changing only shutter speed. Generally, you must use a tripod so as not to move the camera and it is best to use a remote triggering device. You should use at least three exposures generally bracketing a "normal" exposure. You set up your camera in Aperture priority mode so that the shutter speed is the only thing that changes. You want to set the ISO to a low value of 100 or lower. You do not want any flash used as well. If you have an auto bracketing feature on your camera, you can use that, but from there, I bracket at least 3, but usually between 5 and 9 shots at varying speeds.
Article comments
1 - Jim
Good article, i use 3 apps for my HDR work. I use Photoshop CS4, Photomatix 4 and i have just starting using Artizen HDR (their latest beta). After using Artizen for about 3 weeks now i think will be making the complete transition to Artizen cause for the last 3 weeks i have touched any app other Artizen for my HDR work.