Apsens IVa Photoshop HDR

Thank you for viewing

This one looks good, withouth that weird glow that Photomatix adds to dark subjects standing against light ones. That's what you mean, right?

Based on some on the results you posted earlier of HDR CS2 generated, it looks like the ideal tool should be a combination of components from both packages.

Maybe there is a way to actually accomplish this result with Photomatix. During these last weeks I have realized that this software has many strengths, but being intuitively easy to use is not one of them.

Yes that's what I mean. HDR in PS has a dialog, that allows minimal but adequate adjustment, when the HDR file is converted to 8 or 16 bits. Local adaptation option has two sliders, radius and threshold (like usm?), which can produce wierd affects. Also, this option allows manipulation of the curve, AND this is where the weird radius and threshold settings can be ampliphied/dampened to get a resonable affect. But not the noise that Photomatix seems to add. I'll play with it some more.

A very beautiful scenery, wonderful colors (sky blue is a bit over the top, IMO). Very good HDR example, not many good ones here on PN ;-) Anyway, my preferred workflow for HDR is still handwork with tone mapping, tailored with layer masks for selective effect

Thanks Carsten

I used LAB color adjustments to get more yellow and blue. And how is multiple image composting done by hand?

Do you know the TLR tone mask tool ? Very handy to get a quick luminance mask in PS, presets for different tasks like highlights or shadow tone masks, wide or narrow (or for a special luminance mask, taylored for your needs from scratch). Here I would have tried a highlight mask, narrow. The advantage is that you can mask/ unmask tone tweaks and work selectively