# Sepia Tone or Black and White HDR's



## revup67 (Nov 11, 2012)

I'll start this one off with a photo taken with the 24-105 at a Historic Blacksmith Shop in Allaire Historic Town Wall, New Jersey. Done in Photomatix using Fusion (not Tone Mapping) on 3 bracketed images then post processed in ACDSee Pro 5:




Historic Allaire Town - Wall, New Jersey by Revup67, on Flickr


----------



## blaydese (Nov 12, 2012)

Very nice, I too use Photomatix & ACDSee.

I feel as if the picture is tilted to the left, as if I'm going to fall over in the shot. A little more gray in the shot would have given it a deeper effect, the trees outside look as if they are right against the windows and or painted in cardboard and pasted to the windows. Lost some depth under the workbenches too, I would have like to seen what's on those benches, would have made me feel as if I can reach out and touch them. The anvil on the left would have made for a great part of the picture, I would have brought that into the frame more. 

Great stuff, I've not done much with sepia in HDR, so bold step, I really like the shot, stone is by far the best thing to shoot in HDR in my opinion. And this room has a lot of that. Please post some other shots, color, black and white, grunge etc. lets see what else can be done.

Peace! 8)


----------



## willis (Nov 14, 2012)

Nice one, I'll continue line with B/W old-school boat.


----------



## @!ex (Nov 15, 2012)

glowing sepia




The Light Seeps In by @!ex, on Flickr


----------



## @!ex (Nov 15, 2012)

A classic view of the Salk Institute, CA.




March of Lines (AKA The Fountainhead) by @!ex, on Flickr


----------



## dasgetier (Nov 15, 2012)

@!ex, your shots are absolutely awesome


----------



## @!ex (Nov 16, 2012)

dasgetier said:


> @!ex, your shots are absolutely awesome


Thanks!

Here is another...

Saint Louis cemetery #1, the oldest above ground cemetery in New Orleans. Made Famous by the acid trip scene in the classic movie Easy Rider. These above ground crypts can hold upwards of 200 bodies, and this cemetery is still active today, although many of the tombs lie in ruins.




Above Ground... by @!ex, on Flickr


----------



## Haydn1971 (Jan 10, 2013)

HDR is ideal for these "non colour" images - I often just cringe at the colour HDR images that I see


----------



## blaydese (Jan 12, 2013)

Even in black and white, mine look like crap. :'(






peace.


----------



## wickidwombat (Jan 12, 2013)

blaydese said:


> Even in black and white, mine look like crap. :'(
> 
> 
> 
> ...



the main problem with your processing is you are destroying the contrast, you need to keep shadows and b&w relies heavily on contrast and shadows vs highlights

try adjusting your black point so you keep some shadow (you can have shadow that contains detail. (this helps improve the realism) also dont try to pull the shadows up to the same exposure as the highlights try increase the shadow detail so you can see in clearly but try keep it a little below the mid tones 

also pull the highlights down a little helps to flatten the image but again if you do it too much the image looks to flat.

if your lenses are not naturally very contrasty it might benefit you to increase the overall contrast a bit too

shadows are just as important as light!


----------



## blaydese (Jan 13, 2013)

Thanks wickidwombat,

I'll give it a try / more work.

I'm looking now for some shadow heavy shots I've taken, so I can play around with them.


I think my stock lens and using Photomatix is also a double whammy.


Peace! 8)


----------



## wickidwombat (Jan 13, 2013)

so you are only processing within photomatix? nothing else?
you should at least have canons DPP available for some basic editing too

18-55? kit lens
stop it down to f8 to f11 and it should not be too bad

also try not to go crazy with the strength slider in photomatix between 70 and 80 is not too bad 
over 80 is too much most of the time
increasing micro contrast can help reduce halo effects but really with blue sky i have never ever been happy with photomatix results. I also think photomatix does really wierd things to folliage 
also people really dont look good after tone mapping the develop a zombie like look to them due the sickly cast their skin takes on.


----------



## Heavyweight67 (Jan 13, 2013)

The Jeweller...


----------



## blaydese (Jan 14, 2013)

Heavyweight67,

Nice picture, thanks for share, very deep feeling, looks almost 3D.

;D






wickidwombat said:


> so you are only processing within photomatix? nothing else?



Yup, well ACDSee Pro to rotate, and apply Lomo effect or Olton effect, 
or some minor color changes, but really Photomatix is it.




wickidwombat said:


> you should at least have canons DPP available for some basic editing too



What's that, got a link? Is it free? I'm a poor guy, so no "Adobe expensive Shop" for me.




wickidwombat said:


> 18-55? kit lens?



18-135 lens




wickidwombat said:


> stop it down to f8 to f11 and it should not be too bad



Okay, woooosh! Right over my head, 
I'm a super super noob / novice at this, 
how do I do that? A youtube video is 
best for me. I'm a hands on learner. 



wickidwombat said:


> also try not to go crazy with the strength slider in photomatix between 70 and 80 is not too bad
> over 80 is too much most of the time



LOL! Yeah, I've learned that, so now I decide to either go as "natural a look" as possible, or go stright to grunge. 



wickidwombat said:


> increasing micro contrast can help reduce halo effects but really with blue sky i have never ever been happy with photomatix results.



Yeah, Okinawa is all blue skies, and I've learned that one too, ... :-\




wickidwombat said:


> I also think photomatix does really wierd things to folliage also people really dont look good after tone mapping the develop a zombie like look to them due the sickly cast their skin takes on.



Ha ha ha ... ;D yup, so true !


Thanks for the tips.

I want an L lens so freaking bad ! What's the cheapest L lens that'd be best for landscape?



Peace! 8)


----------



## wickidwombat (Jan 14, 2013)

DPP is free it comes with your canon camera its digital photo proffesional its on the disc that came with your camera. 

ok i'm guessing you might be shooting wide open on your lens all the time which is why your shots always look especially soft this lens is soft wide open but respectable when stopped down

stopping down means changing your F stop so instead of shooting at f3.5 or f 5.6 try change your aperture to f8 or f11 in aperture priority mode (AV)

this will also give you more depth of field (more stuff in fiocus and sharp) for your landscape shots
the trade off here is either the shutter speed needs to slow down or iso increase so if you use a tripod and set iso 100 in AV and use Auto exposure bracketing with the timer the camera will automatically take 3 shots and it will calculate the shutter speeds and do that automatically since your camera probably only does 3 shot AEB set your range to 2 stops so it will take 0EV -2EV and +2 EV

hope that helps


----------



## blaydese (Jan 20, 2013)

wickidwombat said:


> DPP is free it comes with your canon camera its digital photo proffesional its on the disc that came with your camera.
> 
> ok i'm guessing you might be shooting wide open on your lens all the time which is why your shots always look especially soft this lens is soft wide open but respectable when stopped down
> 
> ...




Thank you very much! 

Here are some more questions / more info:

1) After I shoot in RAW 16 BIT, I process in Photomatrix Pro (64bit), 
then use ACDSee Pro to crop, rotate, adjust tones, etc. but....

2)_ WHEN_ I use ACDSee, it warns me that the image is 16 Bit RAW 
and _IF_ I use ACDSee, the image will be converted to JPEG and 8 BIT. 

I say okay, and BAM, there goes the sharpness I once had  :-\ 


2) I _MUST_ learn how to do that whole f stop thing. I've never shot
anything other than P mode (Three bracketed shots) and Auto mode. 
Got Youtube video for that / what one of these?...

Canon 60D tutorial videos


a) Will Digital Photo Professional, crop, rotate, etc. RAW images?

*EDIT* Answered: Canon Digital Photo Professional Tutorial - What is DPP (1/19)

b) Should I dump ACDSee Pro because it won't process RAW images and learn DPP?

*EDIT* Looks like I'm going to be learning a new program, LOL! 

c) If DPP does not crop or rotate or allow me to adjust tones, etc., what FREE program do you recommend?

*EDIT* None needed, DPP will do that and more: Canon Digital Photo Professional Tutorial - What is DPP (1/19)

Thanks!
Peace! 8)


----------



## wickidwombat (Jan 21, 2013)

1st off rather than use P mode switch the camera to AV mode
use a tripod and set your F stop to say f11 for landscapes or night scenes
the shutter speeds will be quite slow this is why you need a tripod
the camera will determine the speed itself, set AEB in the menu and set the 2 second timer
then when you press the shutter after the 2 second timer goes the camera will automatically take the 3 exposures in succession and they will be aexposed for 0ev -ev and +ev since your camer does 3shot AEB i suggest you use a 2 stop bracket.

doing this should mean you are starting with sharper base images, always a good thing, at f11 even witht he 18-135 the images will be respectably sharp.

also the CR2 raw files are 14 bit not 16 bit, when you save out of photomatix save the files as tiff.
I am not sure if DPP can open these but it should be able to i generally dont use DPP because i prefer the adobe stuff. however DPP will let you do all the image editing you want as far as cropping, exposure colours, highlight and shadow recovery, sharpening and noise reduction too so its quite powerfull it just has a very clunky dated interface. but its free with your camera so pretty good on that front right? 

(you could also look at getting photoshop elements which is a much cheaper program than the full blown photoshop if DPP cant open the tiff files


----------



## 1982chris911 (Jan 23, 2013)

Vintage New York Feelings von 1982Chris911 (Thank you 1.000.000 Times) auf Flickr




Atlas at the Rock B&amp;W von 1982Chris911 (Thank you 1.000.000 Times) auf Flickr




Infinity at Chek Lap Kok von 1982Chris911 (Thank you 1.000.000 Times) auf Flickr




ICC Hong Kong - 484 meters 118 floors von 1982Chris911 (Thank you 1.000.000 Times) auf Flickr


----------



## blaydese (Jan 24, 2013)

Thanks wickidwombat,

I'm busy right now, but when I get time, I'll give all those a try.

Thanks again !

Peace! 8)


----------



## Reiep (Aug 14, 2014)

The forest, the road and the snow by Pierre Pichot Photography, on 500px, DeviantArt, Flickr or my portfolio


----------



## blaydese (Sep 3, 2014)

Reiep said:


> The forest, the road and the snow by Pierre Pichot Photography, on 500px, DeviantArt, Flickr or my portfolio




I like that set!


Peace! 8)


----------



## nineyards (Sep 3, 2014)

My Home town Edmonton Alberta
Kinda severe HDR wise but with this shot I think it works


----------



## candc (Sep 3, 2014)

a couple of some old equipment in the gravel pit across the road. these are one shot hdr done with dxo


----------



## DominoDude (Sep 3, 2014)

nineyards said:


> My Home town Edmonton Alberta
> Kinda severe HDR wise but with this shot I think it works


*I like it very much* when I look at it as it's presented here in the thread. (If I bring it up to its full size it feels a tad oversharpened, but I think that to get the look and feel you want, one has to be on this thin line of too much, or not enough.)


----------

