# Why I Switched to Photoshop's HDR Pro for easy and natural Exposure Blending



## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 8, 2014)

This is about a six minute video tutorial on how to easily blend multiple exposures into first a 32bit HDR, tone it in Adobe Camera Raw, and then convert it into a fully editable 16B file with the full range of the blended exposures. Easy to use, and now that the there is the "Photography" option for Creative Cloud it is also a very reasonable way to get high end landscape imagery.

The link to the brief article and video tutorial is here: http://dustinabbott.net/2014/09/why-i-switched-to-hdr-pro-for-natural-exposure-blending/

Here is the image that we blend in the tutorial with no processing other the blend of three exposures:


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## distant.star (Sep 8, 2014)

.
Thanks, Dustin. Looks helpful.


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 8, 2014)

distant.star said:


> .
> Thanks, Dustin. Looks helpful.



My pleasure. It was really helpful to me when I learned the workflow. I like using luminosity masks, too, but that can be a very time consuming process.


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## Sporgon (Sep 8, 2014)

Not sure which version of photoshop you're using, but certainly on CS6 I'm finding that the stitching is as good as, if not better than, PTGui pro. 

You're certainly right about the need to still B&B despite the likes of Exmor, just need to write it in really BIG letters.


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 8, 2014)

Sporgon said:


> Not sure which version of photoshop you're using, but certainly on CS6 I'm finding that the stitching is as good as, if not better than, PTGui pro.
> 
> You're certainly right about the need to still B&B despite the likes of Exmor, just need to write it in really BIG letters.



I'm using the most recent version of Photoshop, which is CC 2014 edition.

I was really impressed when I moved to the 6D by the ability to pull shadows (and to a lesser extent, recover highlights), but there are still a lot of scenes that require far more dynamic range than what current sensors are capable of recording in a single exposure.


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 9, 2014)

Here's another example created with this blending process:



Late Summer Bliss by Thousand Word Images by Dustin Abbott, on Flickr


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 12, 2014)

Here's one more example using this technique. 



When the Sky Rolled Back by Thousand Word Images by Dustin Abbott, on Flickr


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## klickflip (Sep 12, 2014)

Brilliant! These are great, lovely balance in the tonal range. Thankfully not HDR in the slightest!


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## climber (Sep 12, 2014)

TWI by Dustin Abbott said:


> Here's one more example using this technique.
> 
> 
> 
> When the Sky Rolled Back by Thousand Word Images by Dustin Abbott, on Flickr



For my taste, that part around the sun is very strange. There are some kind of halos or something like that. I see that in my case too, when I was merging several exposures in Photoshop's HDR Pro. That's the reason why now I prefer to blend exposures manually by using luminosity masks. Especially when you have straight horizon, it's quite easy to do.

And there is quite a lot of "ghost-ing" around the clouds, too.

Otherwise, it's nice image.


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## westr70 (Sep 12, 2014)

Nicely done and great information. Already tried it out and worked great. 
Thanks.


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## mmenno (Sep 12, 2014)

I also use this technique a lot, be it in lightroom (make basic edits like wb and lens correction, sync to all brackets, merge to hdr in photoshop and then further edit the 32 bit tiff in lightroom again). 

When I run into stuff like the halos around the sun mentioned above I just manually blend in one of the brackets, works great!


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## Northstar (Sep 12, 2014)

lovely images Dustin!


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## jrista (Sep 12, 2014)

Beautiful images. I love the texture you manage to preserve in the clouds, really excellent.


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 12, 2014)

climber said:


> TWI by Dustin Abbott said:
> 
> 
> > Here's one more example using this technique.
> ...



The area around the sun is due to the MKII's inability to natively bracket 3 stops in both directions. I never have similar issues when shooting with my 6D, but you're right about the way to rectify it.

I initially thought there was some ghosting around the clouds, too, but that is actually the way that the clouds were. ;D It looks the same in single exposure files.


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 12, 2014)

Thanks everyone else for the nice feedback. Glad to help


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## horshack (Sep 13, 2014)

TWI by Dustin Abbott said:


> climber said:
> 
> 
> > TWI by Dustin Abbott said:
> ...



Adobe's merge to HDR will produce halos and posterized gradations when the exposures are more than 1EV apart. I use Magic Lantern on my 5D to achieve that. Btw even with stock Canon firmware you can bracket 3EVs in both directions - you just have to change the centered exposure accordingly. For example, meter the scene to produce your darkest exposure (ie, the brightest exposure that retains highlights). Then change your exposure to be 3EV brighter than that. Then shoot a 3-shot 3EV bracket; your darkest exposure will be the one that retains highlights, the next brighter exposure will be 3EV above that, and the brightest exposure 6EV above the base.


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## drjlo (Sep 14, 2014)

Is there difference between Mac and Windows?
On my Win 8.1 machine with Photoshop CS 6.0, I do not get the check box "Tone in ACR." In its place is check box "OK," which then gives me an image to view in photoshop but no step to tweak things in ACR, such as shadows ???


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 14, 2014)

drjlo said:


> Is there difference between Mac and Windows?
> On my Win 8.1 machine with Photoshop CS 6.0, I do not get the check box "Tone in ACR." In its place is check box "OK," which then gives me an image to view in photoshop but no step to tweak things in ACR, such as shadows ???



Someone else wrote to me about this, and it seems like the option wasn't there until Photoshop CC. A workaround is that you can take the file back into Lightroom and edit it there (instead of ACR), and then bring it back to Photoshop if you want to do more edits there.


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## Krob78 (Sep 14, 2014)

TWI by Dustin Abbott said:


> Here's one more example using this technique.
> 
> 
> 
> When the Sky Rolled Back by Thousand Word Images by Dustin Abbott, on Flickr


Hey Dustin, Thanks for sharing the tutorial and the images! Looks like a great new option, I'm looking forward to trying it out soon after my next outing! Thanks again!


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 14, 2014)

Krob78 said:


> TWI by Dustin Abbott said:
> 
> 
> > Here's one more example using this technique.
> ...



No problem. Thank you for the nice feedback.


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## JustMeOregon (Sep 16, 2014)

Have you ever tried the "Merge to 32-bit HDR" Lightroom plugin by HDRsoft (the Photomatix folks)?

http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/merge_lrplugin.html

I find it to be a much more straight forward way to get a virgin (NOT tone mapped) 32-bit HDR file that can then be processed in Lightroom (or ACR). It does not require Photoshop and allows me to simply stay in Lightroom for all my basic post-processing. Also, the resulting 32-bit files, that can be really big as you know, can be cut to half-size (while retaining the entire 32-bit tonal range & edit-ability) if you select the "use half floating point format" option.


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## aroo (Sep 19, 2014)

Dustin, thank you so much for sharing this. I've been wishing for *exactly* this workflow for some time now. Great to know it's there in PS CC! Now I can go back and get the intended results from a couple years of exposure bracketed files. Also appreciate your succinct and helpful video tutorial.


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 19, 2014)

JustMeOregon said:


> Have you ever tried the "Merge to 32-bit HDR" Lightroom plugin by HDRsoft (the Photomatix folks)?
> 
> http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/merge_lrplugin.html
> 
> I find it to be a much more straight forward way to get a virgin (NOT tone mapped) 32-bit HDR file that can then be processed in Lightroom (or ACR). It does not require Photoshop and allows me to simply stay in Lightroom for all my basic post-processing. Also, the resulting 32-bit files, that can be really big as you know, can be cut to half-size (while retaining the entire 32-bit tonal range & edit-ability) if you select the "use half floating point format" option.



I have used that plugin, and there is one major shortcoming that I encountered: if you have handheld your images (which I often do) the alignment is frequently off by a hair, and that plugin does not seem to do "auto-align" particularly well. It's fine if you work off of images taken on a tripod, but... By contrast the workflow that I have detailed here does a great job of compensating for images that are not perfectly aligned.


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## TWI by Dustin Abbott (Sep 19, 2014)

aroo said:


> Dustin, thank you so much for sharing this. I've been wishing for *exactly* this workflow for some time now. Great to know it's there in PS CC! Now I can go back and get the intended results from a couple years of exposure bracketed files. Also appreciate your succinct and helpful video tutorial.



Thanks. One of the most practical advancements in Photoshop is the ability to run ACR at any time. I use it sometimes in post when some step has raised highlights or lowered shadows a bit too much.


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