HDR Tutorial – How to Make Beautiful HDR Photos with Ease! Free HDR Photography Tutorial I wrote this HDR photography tutorial over 9 years ago and I update it about every few months.

Jun 20, 2017. Read online Information Technology Project Management Revised With Premium Online Content Printed Access Card 6th Edition by Kathy Schwalbe Textbook Buy Information.

I recently rewrote it from scratch to incorporate all of the new things I’ve learned and I’m happy to share them with you here. Hundreds of thousands of people have used this free tutorial to learn how to make beautiful HDR photos — I am sure it can teach you too! Remember, anyone can do this stuff. All it takes is a tiny bit of curiosity. You will surprise yourself in no time!

Let’s get going! 🙂 Aurora HDR 2018 Now for Mac or Windows! Is now available for both Mac AND Windows!

That’s right, the world’s leading HDR photography software has been entirely redesigned with exciting new features, improved user interface, speed improvements, Windows support and more. I’ve been using it a ton and I think you’ll be blown away! Current users of Aurora HDR should to see if you qualify for the upgrade price. New users can purchase Aurora HDR 2018 and my new Aurora HDR tutorial in.

Already own Aurora HDR Pro and want to upgrade? To find out if you qualify. Sneak Peek Inside Aurora HDR 2018 Below is a sneak peek video I made that shows off just SOME of the new features! Interested in a Video Tutorial instead? If you prefer to learn by watching videos, go grab my It’s great because it has 17 different lessons that start out for the beginner and then gets into ALL the aspects of the software. As the lessons go on, I show more and more tools and some pretty fancy stuff I think you’ll like. And hey, I’m a great teacher, well, according to my students!

Plus, you’ll get access to all my source photo files so you can follow along! 🙂 What is HDR? HDR is an acronym for High Dynamic Range. If you use some special HDR software, you can see all the light in the final photo that you can see when you are standing on the scene. Perhaps you’ve been in a beautiful place and taken a photo and it comes out flat and disappointing. With HDR processing there is no longer a need for that; now the final image can be as truly evocative as it was when you were there.

The human eye can see so much more than a single shot that your camera takes by itself. I’ll show you how you can get these files into this software and make the scene as beautiful as it was when you were actually there. I’ll show you how.

Don’t worry, it’s easy and super fun! Sample HDR Photos Here are a few interesting HDR photographs that people seem to enjoy. This shows the sort of style I have arrived at over the years by using the techniques described in this tutorial. You can see many more in my. Step 1: Get your box of 128 Crayons ready!

The first step is to get the. It works on Windows and Mac. The software has now been through at least 10 iterations and it’s absolutely amazing. Do you need a new camera or lens too? Most any camera nowadays will do, but I have a bunch of.

Hey, go ahead, get some more stuff; you know you want it! 🙂 Some optional things you may want to pick up are and the. Step 2: Get your photo(s) ready Notice I said photo(s) with an “s” because you can use a single photo or multiple photos. Personally, I use a single photo about 75% of the time, but I’ll explain more.

A Single RAW Photo RAW photos are the format most cameras now use and write them to the memory card. Note that if you have a new camera, sometimes JPG is turned on by default. You might have to go into the settings and change it over to RAW. Single RAW files make a great source for the new Aurora HDR, which is especially tuned for these. I used to do multiple photos in bracketing (see next section if you don’t know what that is), but I find a single RAW is sufficient for almost all situations. Note you CAN use a single JPG in Aurora HDR as well, but a RAW is recommended because it has more light stored inside. Bracketed Photos You can also import a series of photos called bracketed photos.

Many cameras have a setting that will let it take a burst of photos at different brightness levels. So, you would end up with three photos: a dark, medium, and bright photo. This setting in your camera is typically called Auto-bracketing. I put my camera in A (Aperture) mode, and then the camera will automatically adjust the shutter speeds. Most of the time, I shoot with the basic exposure settings of -2, 0, and +2. I still use bracketed photos when I’m shooting and there is a big difference in the lighting, from bright to dark.

For example, if I’m shooting into a very bright sunrise and something quite dark is also in the image. What should you do?

Well, I suggest you do shoot bracketed RAW images and then try bringing the middle RAW photo into Aurora HDR and see if that has enough light for you. If it doesn’t, you have the other two brackets ready to go. Step 3: Import your photos into Aurora HDR Okay now the fun starts!

Use Aurora HDR to open your files. You can also use the Lightroom Plugin if you wish. Depending on what you import, you have slightly different options: Importing a single photo You’ll see an option to tick the box by “Tone Mapping” – yes, do this. There are other options under the gear, but I almost never use them. They have good explanations inside. Importing a set of bracketed photos You’ll see an option for “Auto Alignment” – yes, do this. I do this even when I am using a tripod to get all the shots.

Inside the gear, you’ll see another good option for “Ghosts Reduction.” If you have movement between your frames in the photo (like you are shooting horses mating or something), then check that box too along with the default options. Step 4: Play with the Presets! Okay now that you’re in, you may notice your photo already looks a bit different! If you click on the eyeball on the top bar, you’ll see the before/after. Pretty slick eh? Now, we can make more changes to amp it up even more!

First, let’s talk artistically here. There’s no RIGHT and WRONG decisions here, so don’t be hard on yourself.

You can choose if you want it to be a subtle HDR or a more extreme one. You may want it cartoony or glowy or desaturated or even more grungy. A great way to get started is with the Presets. Open up the presets panel along the bottom and have a gander.

You’ll notice there are different categories as well. Architecture, Landscape, even some from me, Trey! Once you fall in love with the presets, I hope you will also enjoy buying my – they’re great! Here’s a special note about the presets. If you hover over them, you’ll see a slider with 100. That means percent. So if you like the preset, but not too much of it, you can slide that back to 50% or 25% or whatever you like.

Presets are very powerful and they keep the tool very simple so you don’t really need to use all those controls on the right that we’ll get to next. I know all that can be intimidating to new beginners, so don’t feel like you need to understand all of them.

Presets are your friends! Step 5: Play with my favorite sliders for more powah!

Once you have the panels open on the rights (you’ll see a toggle above in the top bar to open and close them, just like the presets), you’ll see there are a TON of sliders. Don’t get scared, I’ll start out by just showing you my 4 or 5 favorite ones. First, mosey on over to the “HDR Enhance” slider. Crank that thing all the way over to the right to see what happens. Then just move it back and forth until you like the look.

This is a new slider and is very powerfulalmost AI-level stuff going on behind the scenes. Command And Conquer Generals Zero Hour Crack File Free Download. Second, check out the looks on that “Smart Tone” slider.

This allows you to bring up the dark bits of the photo while protecting the bright parts. Third, somersault down to the “HDR Structure” area. This is where you can really AMP IT UP if you so choose. Again, try moving the slider all the way to the right just to see what it does, then back off. This whole area can be used to make your photo look as “HDRish” as you want.

See that “Softness” slider in there? That is handy if you don’t want your edges to be too sharp sometimes soft is nice. But, then again, if you want a really hard edge and quite a bit of sharpness, move that Softness slider to the left. Fourth, head down to frozen food section and find the “HDR Denoise” panel. Often times, when you move the sliders above, the sky can get a little noise.

This will get rid of that lickity McSplitickity. Wow, imagine if that was really your last name and you’re stuck talking to customer service in India and they’re trying to find your customer name. Fifth, parkour using only one hand down to the “Image Radiance” panel. This area gives it that Fairy Tale Glow I love so much. Amp up that first Amount slider, then be sure to go down and pull up the Shadows a few sliders down. Quite a cool effect, eh? Step 6: Discover Layers Layers allow you to do different things to different parts of the photo.

For example, sometimes I want just part of the photo to have a very strong HDR look. Other times, I might just want a silky smooth sky. Let’s try it. 1) Go click on the + in the Layers section and add a new Adjustment Layer.

2) Go move the HDR Enhance Slider pretty far to the right. 3) Go move the Image Radiance Slider pretty far to the right as well as the Shadows down below it 4) Now, go up to your new layer and you’ll see a little brush in the rectangle.

5) Now start painting by clicking on your photo and dragging around. She what happened there? All your adjustments are just where you are painting. Note you were painting at 100%, but you can see that can be lowered in the panel along the top.

This is all called “Masking” by the way, but I know that terminology can be confusing to newbies. That’s how layers work. Of course, now you can still go back and make adjustments to all the sliders, and it will only happen where you’ve painted. You can make as many layers as you like! (Optional) Step 7: Have fun with all the other panels! Wow there’s a lot of panels.

Where do I start? Well, my first suggestion is to have you go play with all of them like a kid. You’re not going to mess anything up, and it’s a great way to get to know the tool. Remember when you try a new slider, be sure to violently move it around so you can see what it does. I’ll bring special look at a few panels that are pretty sweet. History Panel This panel is actually on the top bar. It gives you all your history, except for when girls made fun of you in high school.

You can go back and reverse any decision you made, except for that pesky high school stuff. HDR Details Boost You might think this is like the HDR Microstructure, but it’s not.

Think of it more as very detailed sharpener. When you use this tool, be sure to zoom into 100% so you can see the effects. You won’t otherwise.

Top and Bottom Tuning This area is handy for making different adjustments to the top and bottom of your photo. Some people like to use this when not using layers. For example you can make the top part of the image a cooler color and the bottom part warmer.

Dodge and Burn This is a new area and allows you to selectively brighten and darken different areas of the photo. But hey, why not become a Passport Member? I have something new here on the site called the. I make a bunch of special videos, presets, how-tos, behind-the-scenes videos. Come see all the goodies you get! I have a bit of an odd question, and I should note I have searched all over the internet using google to no avail (clearly I am not using the right search terms).

How in the world does one get the exif data from one of the multiple shots (let’s say the 0 EV version) back into the processed HDR photo following the layers of editing. I find that by the time I am done, the exif data is no where to be found. I should note I use LR 2.3, PS CS4 and Nik Filters, and somewhere in the various layers I am losing the exif data. BTW, love, love, love the tutorial! I need some personalized HDR help! I am really struggling with noise in some of my images.

I need someone who is well versed in Photomatix to take a look at three images for me to see if it’s possible to get a decent HDR out of it. I don’t care so much about this image, but it provides a good example of what I’m struggling with. Anyone interested in helping — please e-mail at: Thank you in advance.

• Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •. You r my inspiration if that counts for you. I had 2 questions i always wanted to ask you: 1)How do you keep your data?What i mean is that you have each picture 5 times and as we are talking about raws in 12-24megapixels we have about 12-25 mb each photo = ~100mb for 1HDR.Do you keep them after the process, in case you come up with sth new or after processing them there is no return, so you delete them? 2)I know that you r using Nikon, but i am “stuck” between Canon and Nikon.I am going to buy a mid-range D-SLR for now, not very expensive, but i will invest in very very very good lenses and after a year or two i will buy a full-frame D-SLR(i have once shoot with a D3X and loved the full frame result). My question is which brand should i choose?I don’t want to buy expensive lenses and then change make and sell them for nothing. I want to start “building” my equipment and i believe that lenses endure in time while cameras change. *I don’t have any lenses atm, so i am starting from 0* I am waiting impatiently for your answers.;-) • Pingback: () •.

For your fireorks shot you provided the following info on flickr three exposures at -2, 0 and +2. The Aperture was f6.3 ISO 200 Focal Length 27mm. Could you let us know what was the shutter speed?

In the two days after the HDR class I have two co-workers purchasing camera upgrades and three purchasing protomatrix in addition to myself. For anyone on the fence, these test shots were done at the class with the jpg in front of the HDR processed image. I finished downloading CS4 this morning so I will try processing with photoshop this week. HDR is unbelievable.

After discovering your tutorial, I went back to a Kodachrome slide that I was trying to scan using Nikon Coolscan V. I downloaded the Photomatix for Aperture trial and scanned the slide five times varying the gain from high to low. I combined the images in Photomatix. I was so pleased with the result that I bought Photomatix the same day. Now to try some other Kodachromes from my 30+ years of photography.

I put the image on Flickr “Expressionist Camel” photostream. I would appreciate any advice on HDR and scanning slides- seems to me there is a lot of potential to transform slides this way. • Pingback: () •. Regarding the question from Maria(number 23 in the list above) Elements does not allow masking. However you can find a plug in at Its a free plug in for Element users for masking. Just remember in order to find the files that they are talking about go to your control panel/appearance and personalization/foler options/show hidden files and folders. Under the view tab click ‘show hidden files and folders.

Now just follow their instructions and you will be able to mask using Elements. I hope that helps. Thanks for the great info, Trey – First came across your work on Flickr – wasn’t ready to even consider HDR at that point – Just finishing up a college photo class and HDR is our last project – Photomatix was highly recommended – I searched for coupon codes and there you were! SOOO much to learn, but your tutorial is a big help.

Thanks so much for sharing your skills with us! Much appreciated! (FYI, I also forwarded your website info to my Photo instructor, since he’s a fan of HDR and Photomatix) Thanks again.

This is unbelievably cool. I’ve been into amateur travel photography for a while (it kind of goes with being driven to travel!), but I hadn’t heard of HDR photography before. After spending thousands of dollars on lenses, filters, and miscellaneous items to feed my photography addiction, I thought I had reached critical mass. My credit card company will be happy to hear I’ve discovered a new avenue for the addiction: I’m buying the book and the software today!

Thanks for sharing. It’s exciting to know I’ve found something I’m a total newbie to and have something new to learn about! Trey HELP ME!!!

I just got your book and it’s incredible but I don’t know what is happening to all my pictures. When i generate images through photomatix there are vertical lines running through the image that don’t seem to go away but just get smaller after tone mapping and even tone mapping is screwing me up because all my images turn out green and these are all RAW format photos. So I just imported them to photoshop to see if I could fix it there but it doesn’t help. Thanks and once again youre stuff is incredible. • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •.

Excuse me sir but I must tell you something about your websitemy god man your images have given me back faith in this world. This truly is life as seen by the human soul. Many have used a lens to capture life, but so far you are the only person to have used the Human soul as your looking glass into this life. Exquisite, fantastical, captivating, enthralling, enticing, grab-you-by-the-___lls, choose a word or a phrase but can’t describe it still.

Only way I can sum up how I feel now that I found your websiteblessed. Thank You • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •. Your tutorial is very nice. And i really enjoyed reading about HDR imaging. There was something i was wondering though.

I’m still amateur in the field. I was wondering if i took only one picture with normal exposure.

And on adobe bridge i change the exposure value and save them. I’ll get 5 images under different exposure.

And if i follow all your steps to turn it into HDR image, will it be as good as if i took the pictures with auto bracketing (like what you usually do)? Thnx very much. 🙂 really appreciate your work! • Pingback: () •. High dynamic range (HDR) images enable photographers to record a greater range of tonal detail than a given camera could capture in a single photo.

This opens up a whole new set of lighting possibilities which one might have previously avoided—for purely technical reasons. The new “merge to HDR” feature of Photoshop allows the photographer to combine a series of bracketed exposures into a single image which encompasses the tonal detail of the entire series.

There is no free lunch however; trying to broaden the tonal range will inevitably come at the expense of decreased contrast in some tones. • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •. Hi Trey You are still on Leo’s the Tech Guy radio show as I write this. I am thrilled that you will consider being on a show with Ray Maxwell. I was really impressed by the simplicity you used to explain some of the little secrets. You mentioned the 50mm the 80mm lens, your 3 choices of DSLRs, the good, better and best. You explained the single RAW file or a camera that can take 3 shots with 1 F-stop between photos, is F-Stop the right term?

It was a real pleasure to listen to your views. I was so impressed your book is on my list! The Streets Everything Is Borrowed RARE more. I will say that I use to take photos and my favorite time to take photos was late at night. I am dreaming on and off of getting back into photography. Believe it or not, you brought that spark of interest in photography back into my heart. Many thanks Kindest Regards Alex •. Aw, this was a really nice post.

In thought I would like to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and actual effort to make a very good article however what can I say I procrastinate alot and under no circumstances seem to get something done. • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •.

Might I simply say nice to read a help to search out anyone who essentially knows just what they’re talking about on the web. You definitely have learned to take a problem to light and allow it to critical. Even more people require to study this and understand it all section of the story. I cant believe you aren’t very popular because you essentially have the gift. • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •. Trey- First off Your work is AMAZING! Secondly, I am inspired by your work and have decided to jump head first into HDR, while I have taken photos for various things from contests to some professional work.

I just started getting into HDR I have the software, equipment (Even the Promote Control), but like most that are learning HDR, allot of my images are “Over the Top” as they say, which is good for some photos, as I like the artistic look, being a Graphic Designer (what I do for a living), but I really like the “Realism” look. The Question is I am interested in your HDR Tutorial DVD, and while I am sure its well worth the money, If anyone here has it and or if you personally respond, how will I benefit from it? I have watched the intro and everything, but still apprehensive on what I will get out of it Another Question is can I put that DVD video on my iPad which would make it much easier for me to watch and follow along as I am sure is needed. Thanks and keep up the amazing work! HDR Noob = Me •.

Absolutely concur with this. I’m making an attempt to determine which blogging software program to use, and its awareness to yahoo is vital to me. Leading a have any idea tumblr blog, I attempted searching what the Title of the weblog is, AND immediate estimates from the blog’s articles. Didn’t come up in the initially 5 search final results webpages!

• Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •. Thanks for all you provide and contribute here. Quite munificent! Im considering buying your extended HDR tutorial and wanted to ask a few things prior.

My question is this. In the tutorial are you covering from the download point of RAW and up to final export and posting stage? Or is it just the Photomatix stages? Im very curious as to how you convert your RAW files and how much adjusting you typically do prior to dropping them into Photomatix. I understand you like to sharpen as well as reduce noise much later in the process but are you pushing the RAWs over to jpeg methodically(adjusting sliders) or is it more of an automatic/preset style conversion?

I’ll understand if you dont elaborate here but could you give me the start and end points that are covered with in what I expect to be a tutorial. Its over 11 hours and I feel silly asking but Im dying to know your recommendations on RAW conversion and if there is quality to be squeezed out in this crucial stepThanks so much. Have fun with the REDS! Why this people do tutorials about HDR if dont know nothing about the subject. If you are merging jpgs 8bits images you will produce a LDR (Low dynamic range) and never a HDR. High Dynamic Range images can only be achieved if you are deal with 16/32/64bits images(RAW, EXR, TIFF-16, etc), never with jpeg 8bitsthat is ridiculous You should never take less then 8 different exposures, 5 images is not enough. Will not look realistic.

For the best results, use Photoshop or HDRShop • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •. Hi Terry, I’ve been a fan of yours for awhile now, and when ever I read a piece written about you the one thing that always stands out is what a terrific guy and photographer you are. I’m 64 and a disabled vet from the vietnam war, I was a combat correspondent for my 10 years in the Marine Corp and love taking photographs. Thank you so much for being so generous with your photo skills and HDR photography that I enjoy so much. The patience and skill you have is a gift, I continue to watch and enjoy your work and articles that come out about you. Keep smiling, be happy and enjoy each day we are given!

• Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () • Pingback: () •. I just watched your tutorial and tried the techniques and applied them to some shots of old covered bridges I took last weekend. While I have never composed pictures well or had much luck with lighting, the wow factor and comments from friends and family was enough to encourage me to buy Photoshop and will be purchasing your full tutorials this week. I already had Photomatix Pro. Thanks for sharing the knowledge on HDR. It has made my “regular” snapshots that much more impressive (trying to be modest here).