Non PS Tools Photomatix FDRTools Picturenaut

Photomatix

HDR Generate

Basic settings.

This is an HDR image displayed on a LDR device

HDR Tone Mapping Maps the HDR image to a low dynamic range space.

Details Enhancer is the best starting point. Better adjusted in PS Some fine tuning possible but defaults are usually ok

Sample with Tone Compressor

Save as

In PS

Final is PS

Using PS Local Adaptation HDR.

PS LA HDR version.

FDRTools

Note: HDR is technically not required for this series – there is no clipping at either end.

Click Images and select the images to combine

Click Align

Click HDRI Creation then Creative – defaults are usually ok.

Click Tone Mapping Adjust sliders, other defaults are OK.

Click Save

Image in PS Magenta lines are trial version Adjustment layers are off

PS adj layers on, final version.

Picturenaut: Freeware! File Generate HDRI Add

For this series the Automatic image alignment didnt work, so I used PS to align the images then exported the layers separately. Unfortunately this loses the EXIF, which Picturenaut (and PS HDR) needs to generate the HDR. As shown, with the same time, this will not process.

Using the exif information from Bridge I manually entered the time

Heres the HDR image.

Image Tone Mapping Photoreceptor gives the best results

Tweak the exposure, dynamic compression and histogram. In this case based on the preview I did not adjust the white point. File Save as then open in PS.

In PS

Using Shadow/Highlights to recover highlight detail. Notice how the histogram previews the change. This is a good example of why you cant just pull the white point all the way to the right.

Final version. Note the motion issue was dealt with automatically.