HOW TO – HDR photography in Gimp or Photoshop

Craft & Design

hdr_20071219.jpg
Jason writes –

High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is the process of taking several images at different shutter speeds and combining them into a single photo that contains no washed out or underexposed areas.  The result is a surreal, almost too perfectly lit photograph that contains a high level of detail throughout the image.

Photoshop has a built-in HDR photo merging tool which produces some incredible results without too much effort.  The image above, from Ryan McGinnis’ excellent Photoshop HDR tutorial, is pretty surreal.  It reminds me of a high-res rendering from a video game.

If you’re using the GIMP, you can get similar results by carefully masking and merging layers, or you can download and use the exposure-blend plugin which will simplify the process a little.  Below are links to both processes – you can see which works best for you.

Whatever package you use, the important thing is to use a solid tripod and only adjust the shutter speed between shots.  For the best results, you’ll also want to set your camera to RAW mode.

More:

  • How to Create Professional HDR Images in Photoshop – Link
  • HDR photos with the GIMP – Link
  • Using the GIMP exposure-blend plugin – Link

12 thoughts on “HOW TO – HDR photography in Gimp or Photoshop

  1. stephen says:

    well… i do believe that that picture was stolen from a linux magazine.

  2. Isaac says:

    great lighting in that pic… however, maybe someone should also post a how-to for ridding of converging verticals and other lens distortions!…

  3. Drone says:

    Actually, Tone mapping is “the process of taking several images at different shutter speeds and combining them into a single photo that contains no washed out or underexposed areas.”

  4. dorbie says:

    WRONG, HDR is something else, combining images into a high dynamic range image that you then need to expose appropriately to view (and you won’t see the full range if done correctly), you’re doing something else here.

  5. aesthete says:

    HDR sucks sucks sucks, except for maybe 0.0001% of the time. It’s an artless pox.

  6. DoÄŸan says:

    güzel, teşekkürler.

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