Waiting for the storm

[Ian]

Taken yesterday at Keyhaven, on the Solent (taken on a group outing with some people from the Olympus UK E-System User Group site that I also run (e-group.uk.net). It was a very grey day, so I thought I'd have a go at Photoshop CS4's merge to HDR.



There is a slight colour shift from the original (Web colour space issue) so if you have a colour managed browser, this will look slightly more saturated.

Ian

[Barr1e]

Re: Waiting for the storm

Hi Ian -

A pity you weren't blessed with better weather conditions for a fine pic.

Regards. Barr1e

[Pol]

Re: Waiting for the storm

Taken yesterday at Keyhaven, on the Solent (taken on a group outing with some people from the Olympus UK E-System User Group site that I also run (e-group.uk.net). It was a very grey day, so I thought I'd have a go at Photoshop CS4's merge to HDR.

There is a slight colour shift from the original (Web colour space issue) so if you have a colour managed browser, this will look slightly more saturated.

Ian

I'm interested to know how many pics you used, exposure range and whether or not CS4 has its own tone mapper included. D'ya reckon you could've got something similar if you hadn't merged to HDR?

I'm not sure whether the picci is carrying that overall 'greyness' that can 'overlay' an HDR image or whether that's down to the grey day. It strikes me as kinda flat - though I suppose that could be due to the flat/grey lighting of the day.

Dunno. I'm truly sick and tired of all the grey days we've been having this year.

I haven't really looked into the new features of the CS4 upgrade yet. Are there any new features that you especially like in the the upgrade?

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Waiting for the storm

I'm interested to know how many pics you used, exposure range and whether or not CS4 has its own tone mapper included. D'ya reckon you could've got something similar if you hadn't merged to HDR?

I'm not sure whether the picci is carrying that overall 'greyness' that can 'overlay' an HDR image or whether that's down to the grey day. It strikes me as kinda flat - though I suppose that could be due to the flat/grey lighting of the day.

Dunno. I'm truly sick and tired of all the grey days we've been having this year.

I haven't really looked into the new features of the CS4 upgrade yet. Are there any new features that you especially like in the the upgrade?

Pol

P.S. does that horizon have a wavy line or is it some sort of optical illusion?

Looks like some sort of 'bump' in the horizon approximately behind the covered boat left of where the wall ends.

Pol

[Ian]

Re: Waiting for the storm

P.S. does that horizon have a wavy line or is it some sort of optical illusion?

Looks like some sort of 'bump' in the horizon approximately behind the covered boat left of where the wall ends.

Pol

The horizon is the headland of the Isle of Wight

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Waiting for the storm

The horizon is the headland of the Isle of Wight

Ian

Oh well.

Poor thing can't help it if it has a carbuncle on its bum, eh.

Pol

[kombizz]

Re: Waiting for the storm

nice one
ok

[Ian]

Re: Waiting for the storm

I'm interested to know how many pics you used, exposure range and whether or not CS4 has its own tone mapper included. D'ya reckon you could've got something similar if you hadn't merged to HDR?

I'm not sure whether the picci is carrying that overall 'greyness' that can 'overlay' an HDR image or whether that's down to the grey day. It strikes me as kinda flat - though I suppose that could be due to the flat/grey lighting of the day.

Dunno. I'm truly sick and tired of all the grey days we've been having this year.

I haven't really looked into the new features of the CS4 upgrade yet. Are there any new features that you especially like in the the upgrade?

Pol

Here is a version without HDR, from one image, though it has been fiddled with in PS Shadows and Highlights.

PS CS4 - I haven't really spent enough time playing with it, but it is now much more fluid to use thanks to hardware-accelerated functions like zooming and rotating. The smart resizing feature, which retains objects while altering the background seamlessly, is now featured in the extended version, as is three dimensional mapping of images onto surfaces. The user interface now looks a lot more like Elements.

There is loads more...

Ian

[Pol]

Re: Waiting for the storm

Here is a version without HDR, from one image, though it has been fiddled with in PS Shadows and Highlights.

PS CS4 - I haven't really spent enough time playing with it, but it is now much more fluid to use thanks to hardware-accelerated functions like zooming and rotating. The smart resizing feature, which retains objects while altering the background seamlessly, is now featured in the extended version, as is three dimensional mapping of images onto surfaces. The user interface now looks a lot more like Elements.

There is loads more...

Ian

Thanks for all that. I'll need to go and have a serious look at the upgrade features then I'll have a think about whether or not to go for it. I may decide to upgrade my Xara software instead. I'm starting to get the urge for playing about with graphics and clipart again - not that I was ever any good at it, but hey ...

BTW - I much prefer this non-hdr version. It's much more lively and punchy imho.

Pol

[Ian]

Re: Waiting for the storm

Thanks for all that. I'll need to go and have a serious look at the upgrade features then I'll have a think about whether or not to go for it. I may decide to upgrade my Xara software instead. I'm starting to get the urge for playing about with graphics and clipart again - not that I was ever any good at it, but hey ...

BTW - I much prefer this non-hdr version. It's much more lively and punchy imho.

Pol

Yes, there has been a similar debate on the e-group site. This was the first time I had used the CS4 Merge to HDR function. I knew that there was strong possibility that the definition of the clooudscape would be lacking. So I ran three bracketed exposures, with the bias towards underexposure. (from memory - -1.6EV, -.6EV and +.3EV.

The sky is better in the HDR version, but there is a lack of contrast in the mid-tones, which I need to think about, especially compared to the non-HDR version.

Xara is a great piece of software. I know some of the people who coded the early versions. The software house responsible for Xara is just a few miles up the road from us here in Hemel.

Ian

[Stephen]

Re: Waiting for the storm

The sky is better in the HDR version, but there is a lack of contrast in the mid-tones, which I need to think about, especially compared to the non-HDR version.

Ian

Not sure if your original was in Raw Ian, but the clarity slider in ACR should help with contrast in the mid tones. I have found it really does help in bringing out the shape of clouds

[Pol]

Re: Waiting for the storm

PS CS4 - I haven't really spent enough time playing with it, but it is now much more fluid to use thanks to hardware-accelerated functions like zooming and rotating. The smart resizing feature, which retains objects while altering the background seamlessly, is now featured in the extended version, as is three dimensional mapping of images onto surfaces. The user interface now looks a lot more like Elements.

There is loads more...

Ian

I must say I really like the looks of some of those new features in CS4.

Here's a link to the Napp Learning zone CS4 videos.

Pol

[Pol]

Re: Waiting for the storm

Yes, there has been a similar debate on the e-group site. This was the first time I had used the CS4 Merge to HDR function. I knew that there was strong possibility that the definition of the clooudscape would be lacking. So I ran three bracketed exposures, with the bias towards underexposure. (from memory - -1.6EV, -.6EV and +.3EV.

The sky is better in the HDR version, but there is a lack of contrast in the mid-tones, which I need to think about, especially compared to the non-HDR version.

Xara is a great piece of software. I know some of the people who coded the early versions. The software house responsible for Xara is just a few miles up the road from us here in Hemel.

Ian

It might be interesting to see what sort of results you can get by adjusting the sky in the RAW images by using the graduated filter tool in CS4 ACR - then tweaking brightness,contrast and clarity in those same images and blending them together. I have a hunch those new ACR tools might do a better job than an HDR merge.

I'm not sure yet but I get the impression you can do all sorts of tweaks to small areas of a RAW image in the new CS4. It looks as though it can do a form of 'layering' with those ACR tools.

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I love Xara. It's a superb vector imaging proggie. I have a rather old 1999 or maybe it was 2000 version of XaraX but the chap who was teaching and helping me learn to draw graphics and clip art and general techniques gave it all up - doesn't even own a computer these days. I need to revive what meagre skills I had with it before I do anything else. I never used Xara for editing photos though - just used it for gifs, animations with ungrouped clipart etc. None of mine was ever much good but it's lot of fun. Very addictive too.

I think I'd probably go for the PS CS4 upgrade rather than the Xara Xtreme. I'll think about it and I'll also update my Amazon wishlist.

Pol

[jojo]

Re: Waiting for the storm

Thanks for the link Pol (hope it's not going to have me flexing my plastic!)

jo

[Ian]

Re: Waiting for the storm

I must say I really like the looks of some of those new features in CS4.

Here's a link to the Napp Learning zone CS4 videos.

Pol

I have just received CS4 Web premium, so I can uninstall the PS CS4 beta, which has been a tad fragile

Stephen will be running PS CS4 very soon for his Mac.

I hope that between us we can explore all the magic of CS4 for everyone here!

Ian