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User Manual Photomatix Pro for Mac

1. csssscscccscececsesesssscscssscssesesssseseesessscscesecsssesessceacscssecerssseseres 22 316028 MEUISIOM SEINO S E A A A SE AAE e A EA AE E EA E S A de 23 30 likusio A 23 30 2R Fusion Reak Estate SCUUIINGS en ae A E ARA A A A T 24 30 LEUSION AINLENSIVE SECTINAS ER ane e A E er A T E tree oe 25 3 6 4 Fusion Average Auto 2 Images Settings sssscscscscscscssesssscscscecssesecssssssesessscscesecsssesasscscacsestecesseseseess 25 3 72 MReplace Selection WICH SOUFCE c c ca2ccsssccccssasesscasaccessssasssscsdesdusossasa acosavesiasueacussbassacsssbasdessesavvarabacasedevaustvsetease gt 26 3 7 Le Selectingithe Arearto DE Replace osas leido einem ta nes ail 26 3 7 2 Fitting the Selection to the Area s Edges nn 27 gt 7 3 MheDlacinditne Selected Are aE tn men arse latte do aan mn dia 28 4 Automating with Batch Processing ccccccsccsssscssssccsssccssssccssscccsssccsssccsssccssssccscscoes 29 4 1 Batch Processing Bracketed PROTOS a Ea a a a a A E 29 AUS In Gu ACES O O a 29 4 1 2 Custom Settings or Multiple Presets Window nn 30 A ES SIMOFGHE Ke DKOGESSIING OPTIONS a O 31 4 1 4 32 bit HDR File Creation Advanced Settings nn 31 AS UBATCRPIOceSs ing SUITE nn en eer OMe rece et 32 Altos Advanced selecto Opos Re nn nan ee ee nn in ee 32 42 J Batch Processing single Image Files Rae A e A 33 A ANdTeCRNIQUES ER TT EA SSeS SEACE cee Ste Dee nn ne Loue sance Se eee 34 5 1 Integrating Lightroom with Photomatix Pro sn 34 5 2 Processing RAW fi
2. 3 6 3 6 1 Fusion Settings Fusion Natural Settings Strength Sets by how much local contrast is accentuated Moving the slider to the right tends to brighten the shadows and to show more details in the highlights Moving to the left produces a more natural effect Brightness Controls the brightness of the fused image by adjusting the influence each of the input photos has on the final result Moving the slider to the right gives the overexposed photos more influence resulting in a brighter result Moving to the left darkens the result by giving the underexposed photos more influence Local Contrast Increases the contrast and sharpness of details in the image Increasing local contrast may have the side effect of making noise more visible and of creating thin halo effects around strong luminosity edges Values near the maximum tend to give a surreal look to the image The default value is 2 White Clip Adjusts the amount of highlights clipping Moving the slider to the right brightens the image and increases global contrast Moving to the left decreases global contrast and reduces highlights clipping Black Clip Adjusts the amount of shadows clipping Moving the slider to the right darkens the image and increases global contrast Moving to the left decreases global contrast and reduces shadows clipping Midtone Adjusts the brightness of the midtones which also has an impact on the overall contrast Moving the slid
3. ghost removal noise reduction and whether to create and Sa save an unprocessed 32 bit merged file The More Preprocessing Options button provides access to deeper preprocessing 4 Select the number of exposures to combine using the pull settings down menu below the checkboxes For example select 3 if your bracketed sets consist of three exposures each 5 Inthe Source area select the folder where the bracketed photo sets are located The files are arranged in alphabetical order N files at a time are processed with N being the number specified in the previous step 6 To save the results in a different folder than the folder containing the source photos select Custom location option in the Destination frame at the bottom right of the window and then click Choose Location to specify where to save the processed images OR Accept the default of Created under source folder to create a subfolder with the name PhotomatixResults in the source image folder 7 Inthe Destination pane select the output file type When using JPG file output select the amount of JPEG compression 100 gives the least compressed JPEG file with most image quality retained 8 Click Naming and Output Options if you would like to rename resize add contrast or sharpen the saved images 9 Click Run to start batch processing While the batch is running the processing status will display in the area below the Run button When processing is co
4. photos To process a single image file load the image file using the information in Section 2 2 PO Note To remove the watermark Photomatix Pro requires that the image was not retouched after the watermark was added to it If the brightness or contrast of the image was changed or the image was double tone mapped or cropped or resized then Photomatix will not be able to remove the watermark 33 5 Tips and Techniques This section provides tips for working with images in Photomatix Pro More tips and techniques and regularly updated information can be found on the Photomatix Pro FAQ on the HDRsoft website at http www hdrsoft com support faq_photomatix html 5 1 Integrating Lightroom and Photomatix Pro You can export photos for processing in Photomatix Pro directly from Lightroom and reimport them back into the Lightroom library The Lightroom Export to Photomatix plug in is free and included with the Photomatix Pro package Please refer to the HDRsoft website at http www hdrsoft com download Irplugin html for installation instructions and a short tutorial showing how to use the Lightroom export plug in for HDR processing in Photomatix Pro 5 2 Processing RAW files in Third Party RAW Converters When using a third party RAW converter develop the RAW images with the following settings As an example the screenshots show the settings in Lightroom Treatment Color Black amp White As Shot jf Exposure
5. AEB AEB settings on a Nikon D7000 If possible use the camera s self timer setting a cable release or 3 frames at 2 EV a wireless shutter release to minimize camera shake 4 Note Set the exposure increment to 2 for optimal exposure range R If your camera does not offer 2 exposure increments select The continuous shooting mode may not the maximum possible Consult the camera manual for model always be the best strategy because camera specific instructions for choosing this setting shake may build up It is recommended to use a method that ensures the least possible 1 2 Selecting the Exposures shake for each single shot such as mirror lock up functionality if available To get good results with HDR processing your bracketed sequence must include photos that correctly expose highlights as well as photos that correctly expose shadows The latter is especially important to prevent noise in the processed HDR image In the lightest photo of the sequence the darkest shadow areas of the scene should be shifted at least into the mid tones To check this use your camera s histogram preview in playback mode In your most overexposed photo the left part of the histogram should be empty until 1 3rd of the histogram s width If this is not the case add one or more photos taken with longer exposure times Another option is to re shoot the exposure sequence with the normal exposure set one or more EVs higher if your m
6. Contrast Highlights Shadows Region Highlights inf V AITeS El at K 5 Presence Clarity Vibrance Linear Saturation Basic Settings in Lightroom Working with curves in Lightroom e White Balance Use the same white balance for all source photos e Basic settings Set all to zero It is particularly important to set the Blacks setting to zero e Curves Parametric and Point Curves should be linear e Details Set the Sharpening Amount to zero Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 34 5 3 Dealing with Noise When you process your photos using Exposure Fusion the fused image will tend to show less noise than the source images This is because Exposure Fusion works by directly combining your bracketed photos thus averaging out noise However when you create a 32 bit HDR image your bracketed photos are assembled in linear space into an image that spans the full range of luminance values captured by the camera If the lightest photo of your exposure sequence is not bright enough to expose the shadows of the scene then the noise in the source photographs will be transferred to the HDR image Noise in the HDR image will then be made more apparent by tone mapping especially with Details Enhancer as this tone mapping method increases local details Though Photomatix Pro includes options to reduce noise it is still always better to avoid noise at capture time as much as possible There are two tips to ensure a low noise leve
7. creer the lage Lo select a regios andl mart i et ghoned The Deghosting Options window The Deghosting Options window provides two deghosting methods A Selective Deghosting Tool e An adjustable Automatic Deghosting algorithm The Selective Deghosting Tool enables you to lasso select the specific areas of the image that require processing to remove ghosting caused by image to image movement of elements in the scene Photomatix Pro uses the single image that it deems best exposed for the selected area s brightness as the default deghosting target image You may change the automatically selected deghosting target image to any other image of your choice using the tool Automatic Deghosting processes the entire image with an automated ghost reduction algorithm Itis useful with scenes with many small changes image to image which are not practical to manually lasso This deghosting method has the disadvantage of potentially degrading image quality depending upon the nature of the scene the type of ghosting the number of source frames and other factors When applying Automatic Deghosting use the lowest setting that successfully deghosts the image Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual nee O Selective Deghosting Automatic Deghosting 1 Drag your mouse over the image to select a ghosted region 2 Control click or right click inside the selection to mark it as ghosted A Quick selection mode ctive Deghosting opt
8. depends on ISO sensitivity This is the right mode for shooting bracketed shots for HDR refer to Sec tion 1 for more information Bits represent digital data in computers Digital Images are made of bits A bit depth corresponds to 2 Bit Depth levels e g 256 for 8 bit The number of bits a file type uses to represent a pixel s color at a given location in an image A group of photos taken with the Automatic Exposure Bracketing function of a cam era resulting in photos of the same scene taken with different exposures As the lens focuses different wavelengths slightly differently chromatic aberration occurs For example the purple fringing you often find around edges leaves in front of a bright sky Another way to describe the dynamic range of a scene The ratio between the darkest and brightest areas Digital Single Lens Reflex camera In the context of photography the total range of light intensity in a scene from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights The Exchangeable Image File header contains information about the image the cam era location date and time and camera settings The amount of light that enters a camera for the length of time the shutter is open Exposure depends on aperture and shutter speed as well as the camera s sensitiv ity to light controlled by the ISO Exposure is also shorthand for a photograph or frame a frame of film Combination of bracketed photos in such a way that
9. exposure sequence at the same time so the files are properly processed by the merge Note Newer camera models may not be supported by older versions of Photomatix Pro To ensure your camera is supported upgrade to the latest version 22 Note If you have Lightroom you can use the Lightroom Export Plug in to load images into Photomatix Pro Refer to Section 5 for more information Using the Workflow Area or the File Menu To load images using the Workflow Shortcuts panel or the File menu 1 Click Load Bracketed Photos in the Workflow Shortcuts panel OR Select Load Bracketed Photos from the File menu The Loading bracketed photos dialog displays Select bracketed photos Click Browse to navigate to your photos or drag and drop image files from the Finder pose Browse venice_normal jpg AA venice_under jpg Remove venice_over jpg _ Show 32 bit unprocessed image Cancel OK Selecting bracketed photos to load 2 Drag and drop the files into the Loading bracketed photos dialog OR Note If you check the Show 32 bit unprocessed image box you will be able to save the unprocessed merged image in an HDR image file format such as Radiance or OpenEXR Saving the 32 bit HDR image is useful when you want to be able to process the image with other tone mapping settings later without having to pre process and merge your bracketed photos again However you will st
10. moved between the bracketed shots In this case setting a maximum shift lower than 12 will restrict the number of alignment corrections searched thereby reducing the risk of selecting an improper alignment correction Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual Deghosting Options Deghosting addresses the problem of artifacts that appear when combining the bracketed images of a dynamic scene For example if the moving subjects are people walking the people will appear multiple times in the combined image once for each 4 Note The deghosting option is effective when you apply a Tone Mapping method Details Enhancer Contrast Optimizer Tone frame faded and in a different position as if they were ghosts Compressor or the Fusion Natural method It This is why artifacts that arise from movement in a scene are is not effective for the other Exposure Fusion commonly referred to as ghosting and the techniques to methods eliminate them are referred to as deghosting Show options to remove ghosts activates the Deghosting Options window which will open after you select your merge to HDR options and then click the Align amp Show Deghosting button The Deghosting Options window provides an adjustable image wide Automatic Deghosting algorithm and for more control over deghosting a manually applied Selective Deghosting Tool Noise Reduction Options The Reduce noise on option processes source photos with a high quality noise
11. reduction M Show options to remove ghosts algorithm and is recommended when processing RAW files directly in Photomatix Noise reduction normal exposure and underexposed is typically most helpful in dark areas of the source M Reduce noise on v all source images images and these dark areas are more prevalent in Strength i gt 150 the underexposed and sometimes in the normally exposed frames Reduce chromatic aberrations Noise reduction options With this in mind you can use the Reduce noise on menu to specify that noise reduction be applied only to the darkest images in the bracketed set Or if you wish noise reduction can be applied to all images in the set Strength Increases or decreases noise reduction strength relative to the automatically determined default strength value which is based on the noise level in the image Values range from 50 to 150 Reduce Chromatic Aberrations The Reduce Chromatic Aberrations option automatically corrects color fringing due to chromatic aberrations of the lens Checking this option is recommended given that chromatic aberrations tend to show around high contrast edges and are particularly an issue for HDR images Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 2 1 3 The Deghosting Options Window Select Show options to remove ghosts in the Preprocessing Options window to subsequently access the Deghosting Options window T TY O Selective Ceghosting i hatomaik Dephcair Drag veer ropas
12. 3 images at a time Advanced selection Options SOURCE Select Source Folder Select Le Folder IMG _2344 CR2 IMG_2345 CR2 IMG_2346 CR2 IMG_2377 CR2 IMG_2378 CR2 IMG_2379 CR2 Remove From list Filter by All Process subfolders sequentially Individual Files Filter All gt i Crop aligned images Skip HDA Processing Batch will merge 3 files at a time from the Source list below DESTINATION le Created in Source Folder Custom Location Save processed image as Save intermediary 32 bit HDR file as Naming amp Output Options Batch Processing of bracketed photos 4 1 1 Using Batch Processing To batch process multiple sets of bracketed photos follow these steps 1 Open the Batch Processing of Bracketed Photos window by Clicking the Batch Bracketed Photos button in the Workflow Shortcuts panel OR Using the 38B keyboard shortcut OR Clase Run A Choose Location TIFF 16 bit Radiance AGBE hdr The Custom settings or multiple presets Selecting Batch Bracketed Photos from the Automate menu 2 Select a preset from the Use Preset menu This preset will be applied to all the bracketed sets in this batch Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual window allows you to process multiple bracketed sets with multiple presets This more advanced batch option is explained in section 4 1 3 below 29 3 Configure basic preprocessing options to specify alignment
13. 5 0 User Manual 2 Loading and Pre Processing Images This section describes how to load and merge bracketed image files of a scene taken under different exposure settings as well as how to load single images into Photomatix Pro 2 1 Merging Bracketed Images Photomatix Pro merges bracketed images that are in 8 bit or 16 bits channel mode as well as Camera RAW files Supported file types include JPEG TIFF PSD DNG and RAW files from many camera models Photomatix Pro is updated frequently to add support for RAW files of new camera models 2 1 1 Loading Bracketed Images To load bracketed image files do one of the following e Drag and drop the files into Photomatix Pro e Use the Workflow Shortcuts panel to load the files Dragging and Dropping Bracketed Image Files To drag and drop a group of image files to Photomatix Pro Windows Drag the files from Windows Explorer and drop them on the open Photomatix Pro program e Macintosh Drag the files from the Finder and drop them on the Photomatix Pro icon on your Dock Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual The term bracketed images refers to images of the same scene taken under different exposure settings This manual uses the term bracketed images to simplify how these images are defined It also applies to the case when you have not used the Automatic Exposure Bracketing function of the camera to take the exposures Note Drag the image files for the
14. Photomatix Pro Version 5 0 User Manual 2013 HDRsoft All rights reserved Table of Contents MOA E D nn E E A Seyret eras rie reer 1 Fe Taking Photos for MDR o 2 1 zetting U tae CAMERA a ce E E a A A E T E tee ete 3 A a S 3 Ee singiFilim Based Camera li lodo o ai 4 2 Loading and Pre Processing Images ccccccssccsssccsssccssscccscssccsscccssscccsssccssscocssscesescoeses 5 2 1 MerdingiBrac kete dimaag eS nai ire oes ua a ne A 5 2 ole IkOaGiin Gg Bracketea IMAGES de cane Gan eect eae cach riers ee ne ce 5 21 2 General Pre Processing OLIOMS ancora ne ne inicio ca nc A A 7 2 She DEJO tind OPUOMS VWINGOW Rem E E 9 2 1 4 Using the Selective Deghosting TOON nAn a a nr 10 2 Von USING Aromatic DE NON eto 11 2 LOMPIE PIoceSiINngiObtiOons TORA Wes o aaa te 12 22 NORMA Mit SIN Ole IMAGES Ra dr a rece te 13 2 2 1POprions tor Single RAW Image les a al do 13 3 Adjusting Images Using Tone Mapping or Exposure FUSION ss 14 A A amine oie Cite ater Us 14 3 1 1 Undoing Adjustments and Reprocessing an Image sn 15 2 2 Melina GeAGIUSTIMEME VVINGOWS S aaa a cesar erent veers re deco ir sde Dee en Sere 16 3 2 1 Image Adjustment Interface Overview nr 16 32 PTO VIEN A E A E A RO ER A 16 a Preset MUM Mall S PANEI ESE a A E nie tates E E A A S 17 3 3 Tone Mapping Details Enhancer Settings ee nan ea a A a a a ae 19 3 4 Tone Mapping Contrast Optimizer Settings mermisi iisa iE TAE EEA AAEE EAR TN 21 3 5 Tone Mapping Tone Compressor SettiNS
15. Selecting the Attach to Edges checkbox causes Photomatix to search for an edge near the selection path you drew The selection path is then redrawn along the edge in this case the mountains MA Polygonal Lasso 7 MEA CATE 30 px OC Medium Scaling ois A Y g Preview Polygonal selection after clicking Attach to Edges The Contrast setting Low Medium High determines whether a difference in brightness is large enough to be detected as an edge The higher the setting the greater the brightness difference has to be The Width box next to the Attach to Edges box sets the maximum distance Photomatix searches in pixels from the original selection path If Photomatix finds an edge within the Width setting the selection is redrawn to fit the edge If Photomatix finds a border of the image the selection is redrawn along the border Changing the Width or Contrast setting immediately redraws the selection path to reflect the new value To undo the edge fit clear the Attach to Edges checkbox Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 27 3 7 3 Replacing the Selected Area Right click Windows or control click Macintosh anywhere within the selection A contextual menu appears If you loaded bracketed photos the menu identifies them by their exposure difference relative to the normal exposure Click the photo at the EV you want If you loaded a single image click Replace with source Replace with photo at E
16. V 2 Replace with photo at EV 0 Replace with photo at EV 2 Remove selection Replacing the selected area If you prefer not to see the lines marking your selection uncheck the Selection Mode checkbox To discard the replacement and return to the initial preview right click within the selection and select the checkmarked item in the contextual menu Y Replace with photo at EV 2 Replace with photo at EV 0 Replace with photo at EV 2 Remove selection Returning to the initial preview Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 28 4 Automating with Batch Processing Use batch processing to automatically process image files The batch processing tool saves time processing many images Photomatix Pro offers two different batch modes e Batch Bracketed Photos Processes bracketed sets using HDR Tone Mapping and or Exposure Fusion all in one step which can save you a lot of time when you have many bracketed sets to process Batch Single Photos Processes multiple single image files using Tone Mapping 4 1 Batch Processing Bracketed Photos This section describes batch processing of bracketed photo sets taken under multiple exposure settings Batch Processing of Bracketed Photos HDR SETTINGS Use e Preset Default Custom settings or multiple presets Align images taken on tripod hand held Remove ghosts Reduce noise Create 32 bit unprocessed merged file More Preprocessing Options Process
17. alance options let you change the white balance if desired and preview the effect of changing it The default value is As Shot which reads the white balance setting from the EXIF metadata To adjust the white balance select a pre defined value from the White Balance drop down list or type a color temperature in Kelvin in the text box Click Preview sample to view the effect of the white balance change on the source image RAW conversion settings White Balance As Shot Preview sample Color primaries based on Adobe RGB RAW conversion settings in Merge to HDR Options The Color primaries based on drop down list provides options for converting the RAW data from the camera s native color space to the display profile of the selected value AdobeRGB is the default value and is appropriate when you want to print the resulting image If you would like to display the resulting image only on the web and do not intend to print it then select sRGB to avoid having to convert the image from AdobeRGB to sRGB 60 0 Merge to HDR Options M Align source images taken on tripod te hand held Maximum shift Crop aligned images i include perspective correction 12 Show options to remove ghosts Reduce noise on underexposed image s only Reduce chromatic aberrations RAW conversion settings White Balance As Shot Preview Sample Color primaries based on Adobe RGB Checking the Reduce N
18. apply several different ook favorite presets to multiple image sets Be aware while exploring this tool that the batch results can Save custom settings in XMP file become very large Custom Settings or Multiple Presets window Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 30 For example 30 Presets applied to 30 bracketed sets will output 900 processed images Plan ahead for the processing time and the disk space required when combining large preset batches with large image set batches To set up a batch of existing presets follow these steps 1 Select a Built in preset or one of your own saved presets from the Preset menu and then click Add This preset will appear in the list frame 2 Repeat step 1 as many times as you like to add additional presets to the list If you wish to remove a preset from the list frame select it and click Remove 4 You may now click OK to close this window The specified presets will be applied the next time a batch is run To set up a batch of modified presets or new custom settings follow these steps 1 Select a method from the Custom Settings menu and then click Set The Settings Adjustments window for the selected method will open 2 Select a method preset from the Presets menu and modify as desired OR Modify the existing settings The existing settings are the default for that method 3 Click OK The new custom setting will be added to the list frame 4 Repeat steps 1 2 and 3 as many
19. as in the image The slider sets the aggressiveness Deghosting of ghosting detection None A high Deghosting setting removes more ghosting artifacts but increas es the possibility and severity of unwanted artifacts Try to use a setting as low as possible to preserve the quality of the merged HDR image Base Photo Exposure info F 6 7 100 1 750s If you need high settings to remove ghosts completely it is recommended that you use the Selective Deghosting Tool instead if possible When automatic deghosting is used one of the source photos is used to create the HDR image in areas detected as ghosted The Base Photo is the one selected to do this By default this is the median exposure but you can select one of the other photos instead by clicking on its thumbnail F 6 7 100 1 455 After using the Selective Deghosting tool or applying Automatic Deghosting click OK to apply the deghosting adjustments to the image or click Cancel to stop merging the images If you wish to continue working with the current bracketed set but with no deghosting applied then set the Automatic Deghosting amount to 0 or make no Selective Deghosting Tool selections and simply click OK to proceed Automatic Deghosting tools Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 11 2 1 6 Options for RAW Files Photomatix Pro offers additional options for RAW files These options are automatically available when RAW files are loaded The White B
20. aw a freehand selection Release the mouse button to close the selection e Magnetic lasso Click and drag the mouse as with the Normal lasso If an edge is within the Width setting the selection path snaps to the edge To close the selection double click or single click on the starting point Choosing a Lasso The Polygonal lasso is ideal for areas with straight sides and good for large areas because you don t have to hold down the mouse button The Normal lasso is good for areas with curved sides It s not the best choice for large areas because you have to hold down the mouse button as you drag Scaling 00 E Preview MRC REE Polygonal Lasso DE ed 30px M Medium A selection drawn with the polygonal lasso Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 26 3 7 2 Fitting the Selection to the Areas Edges The area to be replaced usually has at least one irregular border such as the mountains in this sample photograph It s difficult to draw irregular borders exactly and you don t have to You can draw approximate borders and Photomatix will fit them for you by finding the edges Finding the edges The borders of the area you want to replace are almost always Cy Selection Mode at edges large changes in brightness between adjacent Attach to Edges Contrast pixels In the sample photo the transition between the light sky and the darker mountains is an edge Attach to Edges checkbox
21. ble to organize your photos in such a way that all exposures of the same levels are in the same folder Let s take as an example a panorama composed of four views that need to be stitched with each view having been taken under three exposures 2 0 2 You will then have 12 photos and may need to place them in three separate subfolders composed of four photos each as follows e Subfolder1 contains the four photos for the panorama taken at EV 2 e Subfolder2 contains the four photos for the panorama taken at EV O e Subfolder3 contains the four photos for the panorama taken at EV 2 If you check Process subfolders and select grouped by exposures the batch will combine the first file of Subfolder1 with the first file of Subfolder2 and the first file of Subfolder3 The batch will then combine the second file of Subfolder1 with the second file of Subfolder2 and the second file of Subfolder3 and so on for the third and fourth file of each subfolder Automatically detect number of bracketed frames 4 1 6 Advanced Selection Options Eracketed sets have between 3 and 3 frames Bracketed sets may have an even number of frames The following items are accessed from the Process frame when you click Advanced and click Options to configure automatic selection of bracketed image files Maximum time between two successive bracketed frames 2 seconds Click Automatically detect the number of bracketed frames whe
22. d region and click Remove selection from the pop up menu You may also change the image used as the deghosting target Control click or right click inside an already marked region and click Set another photo for selection from the pop up menu The tool displays a pop up menu with a list of the available exposures Select A dotted selection being marked for deghosting an exposure value from the list The photo that the tool automatically sets for the selection is not always the most appropriate exposure choice It is thus a good idea to check whether changing to another photo produces a better deghosting result AAs el calas am 3c mk Wark Selection as gi Remove selection 2 EV photo 0 EV photo Right clicking a marked selection to choose a different replacement photo Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 10 To view a preview of the deghosted image click Preview deghosting To make more selections or modify existing regions selected for deghosting click Return to selection mode You may continue selecting regions of the image and previewing the results until you are satisfied with the results In Quick Selection Mode every completed selection lasso will automatically be converted into a deghosting selection without the need to individually Mark selection as ghosted area 2 1 5 Using Automatic Deghosting The Automatic Deghosting option automatically detects ghosted are
23. d while adjusting your images or presets created by other Photomatix users that you have imported To access custom presets click on the My Presets tab located at bottom of the Preset Thumbnails panel To create your own custom presets refer to the Saving Custom Presets paragraph below You can also import custom presets created by other Photomatix users that you downloaded to your computer as XMP files To import the presets select the item Import Presets on the pop up menu on the top left of the Preset Thumbnails panel and browse to the location on your computer where you downloaded the XMP preset files Saving Custom Presets There are two ways to save custom presets as an XMP file for future use during the image adjustment phase or after Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion is complete To save custom presets during image adjustment 1 Inthe Adjustments panel click the Presets drop down list Select Save Preset from the list Enter a name for the preset in the File name field and click Save To save the processing selections as a preset after Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion processing 1 Click Save Preset from the Workflow Shortcuts panel or select Save Preset from the File menu A dialog prompts for the file name 2 Enter the file name and click OK Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual All Short List Artistic Realistic Black amp White Details Enhancer Contrast Optimizer Tone Compressor Fusion Pain
24. decreases global contrast and reduces highlights clipping The default value is 0 25 Black Point Sets the minimum value of the tone mapped image Moving the slider to the right increases global contrast Moving to the left sets a lower minimum value which decreases global contrast and reduces shadows clipping Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual Lighting Adjustments A Lighting Effects Mode Details Enhancer Lighting Adjustment settings Lighting Adjustments Details Enhancer Lighting Effects Mode Medium Lighting Effects Smooth Highlights White Point de Black Point Gamma Temperature Details Enhancer More Options 19 e Gamma Adjusts the brightness of the midtones which also has an impact on the overall contrast Moving the slider to the right brightens the midtones and decreases the contrast Moving to the left darkens the midtones and increases the contrast The default value is 1 0 e Temperature Adjusts the color temperature of the tone mapped image relative to the temperature of the HDR source image Moving the slider to the right gives a warmer more yellow orange colored look Moving it to the left gives a colder more bluish look A value of 0 default preserves the original color temperature of the HDR source image Advanced Options 42 Important Note e Micro smoothing Smoothes out the enhancement of The Loupe may not properly show the effect of small
25. details which has the effect of reducing noise in the the sie oie la RE dn the ad i magnified is uniform If you want to see the Ar instance and tends to give a cleaner look to the Mi oo bio seta 1002 resolution on a uniform area such as the sky e Saturation Highlights Adjusts the color saturation of the you will have to select an area that contains an highlights relative to the color saturation set with the Color Object in the scene in addition to the sky Saturation slider Values higher than 0 increase the color saturation in the highlights Values lower than 0 decrease it The default value is 0 e Saturation Shadows Adjusts the color saturation of the shadows relative to the color saturation set with the Color Saturation slider Values higher than zero increase the color saturation in the shadows Values lower than zero decrease it The default value is 0 e Shadows Smoothness Reduces contrast enhancements in the Mico csmoothing shadows e Shadows Clipping The value sets how much of the shadows range Saturation Highlights 0 is clipped This control may be useful to cut out noise in the dark r area of a photo taken in a low light situation Saturation Shadows e 360 image Checking this option eliminates the seam between lt the left and right sides of a panorama viewed in a 360 degree Shadows Smoothness panoramic viewer This option is intended for a stitched panorama a it should not be used for individual frames o
26. e correction This option requests that the hand held alignment method corrects for all types of camera movement including rotation in all three dimensions as well as horizontal vertical forward and backward motion 600 Merge to HDR Options M Align source images Crop aligned images taken on tripod te hand held wf include perspective correction i 12 Maximum shift Show options to remove ghosts Reduce noise on underexposed image s only Reduce chromatic aberrations Checking the Reduce Noise option applies high quality noise reduction to images in your bracketed set Note that checking this option increases processing time _ Align amp Merge to HDR Selecting options to merge to HDR JJ Note The Align source images option should not be checked when your source images are stitched panoramas or when they are fake exposures derived from a single RAW file Crop aligned images This option removes the unneeded borders resulting from alignment adjustments Unchecking it disables this so that the resulting image has exactly the same width and height as the source images but may have white areas around the edges Maximum shift Sets the maximum mis registration shift that the alignment attempts to correct for expressed as a percentage of the image dimensions This setting does not need adjustment in most cases A situation when adjusting this setting may be useful is when the camera barely
27. edited and re saved Statistical variations inherent in the sensor system cause noise Noise is always pres ent but higher sensitivities and smaller sensors usually generate more noise Digital pictures consist of pixels the smallest units Each pixel has a color that can be represented by 8 or 16 bits or as a floating point number 32bit HDR Pixels per Inch Can be used to describe the actual pixels per inch of a print Often confused with DPI Dots per Inch used by color printers to print an image A file containing the raw data from the camera sensor RAW files do not have a color profile or other stylistic preferences permanently applied A comprehensive image format that offers lossless compression schemes for smaller file sizes with higher quality This format is suitable for editing and printing but not publishing on the Web Processing a 32 bit HDR image into an image that can be properly viewed on monitors and in prints Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 37 Resources FAQ You can find more tips techniques and regularly updated information in the Photomatix FAQ on the HDRsoft website at http www hdrsoft com support faq_photomatix html Learn More Additionally the resources page at http www hdrsoft com resources lists Internet tutorials book and DVDs on the subject of HDR photography that along with your own experience will help deepen your understanding of it Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 38 www hdrso
28. er to the right brightens the midtones and decreases contrast Moving to the left darkens the midtones and increases contrast Color Saturation Adjusts the color saturation of the image The greater the saturation the more intense the color Setting the slider to its lowest value 10 produces a grayscale image 360 Image Checking this option eliminates the seam between the left and right sides of a panorama viewed in a 360 degree panoramic viewer This option is intended for a stitched panorama it should not be used for individual frames of a panorama that have not yet been stitched Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual Strength Brightness Local Contrast White Clip e Black Clip 4 Midtone eo Color Saturation B 360 image Fusion Natural Settings 23 3 6 2 Fusion Real Estate Settings Highlights Adjusts bright areas in the image Moving the slider to the right brightens the highlights Moving to the left darkens highlights and recovers more highlight details Shadows Adjusts dark areas in the image Moving the slider to the right brightens shadows and recovers more shadows details Moving to the left darkens shadows Local Contrast Increases the contrast and sharpness of details in the image Increasing local contrast may have the side effect of making noise more visible and of creating thin halo effects around strong luminosity edges Values near the maximum tend to give a surreal look to
29. etting options for the Fusion Average or Fusion Auto methods The Fusion 2 Images method allows you to choose to fuse any combination of two images from among the loaded bracketed set ds A Waterfall 5 M Waterfall 3 00 2 Waterfall 2 pee Waterfall 1 Second image Waterfall 4 Waterfall 3 Waterfall 2 Waterfall 1 Fusion 2 Images Settings Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 25 3 7 Replace Selection with Source An HDR processed image might look exactly the way you want except for one area For example the sky might have more contrast or be darker than desired The Replace selection with source feature lets you replace that area with the same area from any one of the source images to bring the tonemapped or fused image closer to what you want 3 7 1 Selecting the Area to be Replaced To enable this feature click the Selection Mode checkbox The Polygonal Lasso is the default tool Selection Mode amp We recommend using the Polygonal tool but you can use the Normal or Magnetic tool if you prefer Selection works differently depending on the tool Selection Mode checkbox e Polygonal lasso Click to set the selection line s starting point Move the mouse and click to create a straight segment attached to the previous point Repeat to create additional segments To close the selection double click or single click on the starting point e Normal lasso Click and drag the mouse to dr
30. f a panorama that have Shadows Clipping not yet been stitched amp B 360 image Details Enhancer Advanced Options Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 20 3 4 Tone Mapping Contrast Optimizer Settings Strength Affects the amount of enhancement given to contrast and detail in the image A value of 100 gives the greatest Strength enhancement Moving the slider to the left gives a more natural A effect The default value is 50 Tone Compression Tone Compression Alters the dynamic range of the tone mapped image Moving the slider to the right decreases the dynamic range MAITRE brightening the shadows and darkening the highlights Moving to de the left has the opposite effect giving a more natural look to the image White Clip Lighting Effect Controls the prominence of the shadows affecting a the overall look of the image Moving the slider to the right Black Clip brightens the shadows giving a more vibrant or 8 surreal look A value of zero disables the effect leaving the Midtona shadows unaffected The default value is 20 i _ White Clip Adjusts the amount of highlights clipping Moving the Color Saturation slider to the right brightens the image and increases global contrast h Moving to the left decreases global contrast and reduces highlights E mrss clipping Black Clip Adjusts the amount of shadows clipping Moving the Slider to the right darkens the image and increases global contrast Moving to
31. ferences to change the setting The Preferences are available from the View menu Windows or Photomatix Pro menu Mac Raw Processing Options 100 2 2 1 Options for Single RAW Image Files M Reduce noise A l Reduce chromatic aberrations When your single image is a RAW file Photomatix must first convert the RAW data The following options are available for pre processing the RAW data _ White Balance As Shot Preview White Balance The Reduce noise option processes the converted RAW file with high quality noise reduction It is checked by Color space Adobe RGB default as reducing noise is always recommended when processing RAW files The Strength slider lets you increase or decrease the strength of the noise reduction relative to the automatically determined value based on the noise level in the image Values range from 50 to 150 Enable Exposure Fusion Cancel TT The Reduce chromatic aberrations option automatically corrects color fringing due to chromatic aberrations of the lens RAW Processing Options dialog box The White Balance options let you change the white balance if desired and preview the effect of changing it The default value is As Shot which reads the white balance setting from the EXIF metadata To adjust the white balance select a pre defined value from the White Balance drop down list or type a color temperature in Kelvin in the text box Click Preview sample to vie
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33. g Photos for HDR The shooting phase is essential for getting good results with Photomatix To photograph a high contrast scene you need to take several exposures in order to capture information in both the highlights and the shadows of the scene The exposures taken must properly cover the dynamic range of the scene especially the shadows The number of photos you need depends on the scene It also depends on the Exposure Value EV spacing separating the photos If you take them in one EV steps e g 1 0 1 EV you will need more photos than if you take them in two EV steps e g 2 0 2 EV We recommend shooting in two EV steps whenever possible High contrast scenes can be grouped into roughly two types depending on their dynamic range e Medium dynamic range scene Most landscapes and other types of outdoor scenes fall into this category Three exposures taken in two EV steps i e 2 0 2 EV or five exposures taken in one EV steps are usually sufficient for this type of scene High dynamic range scene A typical example is the interior of a room with a view outside the window on a sunny day You need to take at least five exposures in two EV steps or nine exposures in one EV steps to capture this type of scene but you may need more Taking the exposures manually is recommended in these cases Three exposures of a medium dynamic range scene taken in two EV steps The source photographs for HDR process
34. highlight details are taken from the underexposed photos and shadow details from the overexposed ones A measure of exposure which is the equivalent of a stop In the absolute sense EV is defined as the exposure from a photo taken at 1 second f 1 and ISO 100 In the relative sense the correct exposure is normally 0 EV and any deviation is measured in positive or negative EV from that mark High Dynamic Range Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 36 HDR Image Histogram JPEG Noise Pixel PPI RAW File TIFF Tone Mapping Strictly speaking an HDR image is an intermediary image with 32 bits per color chan nel 96 bits per pixel An HDR image is the result of merging photos of the same scene taken under different exposure settings and stored in special HDR image format The 32 bit intermediary HDR image must be processed with tone mapping for proper display on standard monitors and prints It has become very common to define HDR image as the result of processing the 32 bit HDR image with tone map ping i e the tone mapped output but this is not technically correct Histograms represent brightness distribution in digital images They help evaluate correct exposure The y axis represents the amount of pixels and the x axis represents the brightness value A common image file format with two primary strengths a relatively small file size and universal compatibility JPEGs use a lossy compression scheme and should not be
35. ill need to pre process and merge the photos if you want to use exposure fusion You will have to click the Tone Map Fuse button in the Workflow Shortcuts window to go to the next step if you choose to Show 32 bit unprocessed image 4 Note The order of the files in a bracketing sequence does not matter Photomatix Pro automatically sorts the images based on the exposure information in the image files EXIF metadata If exposure information is not available in the EXIF data Photomatix Pro directly evaluates the relative brightness of the photos Click Browse A dialog displays prompting for location of the files 3 Select the files to load using one of the following methods e Click the first file then press and hold the Control key Windows or Command key Mac While holding down the Control or Command key click each of the other files you wish to select e Click the first file then press and hold the Shift key While holding the Shift key down click the last file This will select all the files in between the first and last file 4 Click Open Windows or Select Mac 5 Click OK Entering Exposure Values If the exposure information cannot be located in the metadata of the image files Photomatix Pro displays a dialog prompting your input of the relative Exposure Values of the images Photomatix Pro also displays this dialog if two or more source images have the same exposure metadata Phot
36. ing can be taken with digital or film based cameras The only requirement is that the exposure can be adjusted when taking pictures If you use a film based camera you will need to scan the photographs into your computer before processing them refer to Section 1 3 Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 1 1 Setting up the Camera k Exposure comp AEB setting e Set your camera to Aperture priority the A setting so that only shutter speed will vary between the exposures Darker Brighter Seta low ISO such as ISO 100 or lower if available M 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 i O co LE gt Turn off the flash The flash may try to balance the exposure of E Qui il Hi m all the images when the goal instead is a range of exposures e Usea tripod whenever possible Even though Photomatix Pro offers automatic alignment of hand held photos using a tripod Canon Rebel T2i 550D LCD showing is almost always better AEB with 2 EV increments selected DSLR cameras and some compact digital cameras offer Automatic Exposure Bracketing AEB This enables you to automatically take three or more exposures in a row one at the proper exposure one or more underexposed and one or more overexposed Follow these steps if your camera offers AEB mode e Select the Continuous shooting mode on the camera s drive setting Consult your camera manual for model specific instructions for using this setting e Set the camera to Auto Exposure Bracketing
37. ion lets you gions amd if necessa iN o assigned to each region Recommended for preserving the gualiry of the merged HOR image 0 8 6 Selective Deghosting O Automatic Deghosting Deghosting None Base Photo Exposure info F 6 7 100 117505 0 F 6 7 100 1 455 The Automatic De g hostin g option i ghosted areas in the image Automatic de does mot always accurately identify ghosted areas and artifacts may appear when an area is incorrectly ed To minimize artifacts ng Fel sect Ume anualhy using the Selectiee The two alternate Deghosting method panels 2 1 4 Using the Selective Deghosting Tool To use the Selective Deghosting tool click and drag the mouse to draw a lasso around a region that requires deghosting Ensure that the dashed line forms a fully closed loop Right click Windows or control click Mac inside the selected region and select Mark selection as ghosted area from the pop up menu The line around the selected area changes from dashed to solid to indicate that the area is now selected for deghosting You may make additional deghosting selections following these same steps to mark other image areas for deghosting At any time use the Brightness slider to increase or decrease the brightness of the image Or use the Zoom slider to zoom in and out If necessary you can remove a region from the deghosting selection Control click or right click inside an already marke
38. l e Tip 1 Set alow ISO setting ISO 100 or lower whenever possible e Tip 2 Overexpose sufficiently ensuring that the lightest image of your exposure sequence has its shadows in the mid tones 5 4 Photomatix Pro and Color Management Photomatix Pro supports color management even if RAW files are processed You should use the same working space in Photomatix Pro as you use in other image editors e g Photoshop Photomatix supports the three most popular working spaces e SRGB Use if the images are created only for the web e Adobe RGB Popular working space for printing if extremely saturated colors are not used ProPhoto RGB Wide gamut working space This should never be used for 8 bit images For all JPEG and TIFF files Photomatix Pro preserves the color spaces of the source files Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 35 Glossary AEB Mode Aperture Priority Bit Bit Depth Bracketed images Chromatic Aberration Contrast Ratio dSLR Dynamic Range EXIF Exposure Exposure Fusion EV Exposure Value HDR Automatic Exposure Bracketing DSLR cameras and some compact digital cameras offer this feature It enables you to automatically take three or more exposures in a row one at the proper exposure one or more underexposed and one or more over exposed In Aperture Priority mode you select the aperture and the camera determines the correct shutter speed for the available light The shutter speed also
39. les in Third Party RAW Converters nn 34 3327 Deal ina nin Nos a a econ ine Ree cee eter NAO 35 54 gt Photomatix Pro ana Color Mana Mentalidad oa eee eos astas 35 A 36 A O On 38 Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual Introduction Photomatix Pro works with photographs of the same scene taken under different exposure settings These differently exposed images of the same scene are often called bracketed images in reference to the auto bracketing exposure functions available on many camera models If you have not taken any bracketed photo sets you can start using Photomatix Pro with the sample images available from the download page of the Photomatix Pro website http www hdrsoft com Use the information in Section 1 Taking Photos for HDR to try Photomatix with your own bracketed images lt lt D 2 0 O Q O oO g oO LL O O O a o oO N 2 O 1s hs a D oF a O a oO gt O O MP This manual contains information about how to use Photomatix Pro to adjust images using different Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion methods All of the methods are accessed from one window within the application making it easy to try different settings to achieve the results you want Refer to Section 2 Loading and Pre Processing Images and Section 3 Adjusting Images Using Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion for detailed information about the different settings that are available Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 1 Takin
40. look to the image but also has a darkening effect Moving to the left decreases the contrast of details and brightens the image Lighting Adjustments pane The two lighting adjustment modes affect the overall look controlling the extent to which the image looks natural or surreal Lighting Adjustments slider Affects the overall look controlling the extent to which the image looks natural or surreal Moving the slider to the right makes the image look more natural Moving to the left makes it look more painterly or surreal Lighting Effects Mode checkbox Lighting Effects Mode lets you switch between two modes for the Lighting Adjustments setting where each mode produces slightly different results Checking the box tends to produce results with a type of Magic Light effect Note that finer control is not possible in this mode Lighting Effects Mode Affects the overall look controlling the extent to which the image looks natural or surreal More Options Smooth Highlights Reduces contrast enhancements in the highlights preventing white highlights from turning grey or preserving a uniform blue sky It is also useful for reducing halos around objects placed against bright backgrounds White Point Sets the maximum value of the tone mapped image Moving the slider to the right sets a lower maximum value which brightens the image and increases global contrast Moving to the left sets a higher maximum value which
41. may require that you work with your image zoomed out to a small Preview or that you have a powerful computer that is able to quickly reprocess the Preview This option is not available if you are running e Preview The Preview checkbox quickly toggles between a 0nas2 bitOS preview of the image and the normal exposure OEV of You can access application Preferences from the the set This is helpful to compare the effects of the image ew enn dl adjustments e Fit Resizes the preview to fill the available space on the program s main window e Magnifier icons Increases or decreases the preview image by 20 and recalculates it at the new size e Selection Mode Checking the selection mode checkbox Pi OeOtistonrainbighthouseunommacs enables you to select an area of the preview and replace it with one of the source images See section 3 7 for details MENA Red Green Blue e Histogram This floating window contains four selectable tabs to assist in analysis of the image Luminance Red Green and Blue In addition move the mouse back and forth across the histogram to display Level Count and Percentile information If the histogram is turned off enable it by y selecting 8 bit Histogram from the View menu Level Je Count 2522 Percentile 14 86 8 bit Histogram Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 16 3 2 3 Preset Thumbnails Panel The Presets panel lists the available presets showing a thumbnail previe
42. merged your source images or opened a single image Strength file the next steps are Sos 1 Adjust the image to your liking Choose a style you like from the RE me thumbnails listed on the Presets window You can then refine the effect by adjusting the controls in the Settings window Refer to ade Sections 3 3 through 3 6 for detailed descriptions of the settings es Refer to Section 3 2 3 for more information about using presets E Lighting Effects Mode 2 Process the image When you are satisfied with the adjustments click on the Apply button located at the bottom of the Adjustments panel v Hide More Options to apply your settings to the image at its original resolution amorti oi a 3 Finishing Touch Once you have processed the image and before rie Saving it you may use the options on the Finishing Touch palette in Black Point order to increase the contrast of your image sharpen it or adjust the 2 saturation of individual colors 4 Save the image When you have processed the image you can save vila ia it Select File gt Save As Navigate to the folder where the file should be stored Use the default file name or enter a name in the File name field Select a file type TIFF 16 bit the best choice for further processing E b Show Advanced Options e TIFF 8 bit for use in applications that cannot work with 16 bit or for avoiding too large a file size on disk e JPEG for use on the web witho
43. mes in each set using the drop down list Select the specific frames to process from the list Select more than one file by holding down the Control key Windows or Command key Mac and clicking on the desired frames 4 2 Batch Processing Single Images To process a batch of single image files 1 Open the Batch Tone Mapping of Single Photos window by Click the Batch Single Photos button in the Workflow Shortcuts panel OR Select Batch Single Photos from the Automate menu 2 To select the source folder that contains the files click Select Folder and Navigate to the folder that contains the files and click OK The folder path and the files in the folder will be displayed 3 Optionally you may select a subset of the displayed files to process Hold the Control key Windows or Command key Mac and click to specify files for processing 4 To process the selected files using an existing preset select a preset from the Use Preset menu To Process the selected files using a new custom setting select a method from the Use 948 0 Source _Batch Tone Mapping of Single Photos _ _ ____ N Select Folder Users fune Pictures All files listed on the right will be processed unless you select specific files with your mouse f you rather wish to tone map one photo with a preview to adjust the settings close this window and open the photo via File gt Open Processing Optio
44. mplete a link to the batch results will be displayed 4 1 2 Custom Settings or Multiple Presets window The Custom Settings or Multiple Presets window is accessed by clicking the Set button Use C Preset Default E PT atthe top of the batch processing window 5 Le Custom settings or multiple presets Set This window allows you to compile a list of multiple built in presets and or custom settings Click Set to set up preset batches to be applied to a single bracketed image set or toa batch of bracketed image sets This feature may be thought of as Preset batches The presets batch en z reset Default Add lists compiled in this window are applied to the Shor an image set batches which are specified in the Source frame of the main batch window Custom Settings Details Enhancer Set Preset batches applied to bracketed sets provides a ee ee wide range of processing options You may wish in User Preset Tone Compressor Custom Settings 01 Update some instances to work with just a single bracketed Peg oe Remove uilt in Preset Painterly set and apply a batch of 20 or 30 different presets to Built in Preset Painterly 2 e e User Preset Fusion Natural Custom Settings 01 It allowing you to conveniently test which presets User Preset Fusion Natural Custom Settings 02 Clear List give the most pleasing results for a given image set Built in Preset Natural Built in Preset Creative Another strategy is to
45. n processing a folder that contains files in addition to those in the set of bracketed frames or when the number of frames in the set varies Photomatix Pro uses the metadata from the image files to perform automatic bracketed set detection Select only some of the frames in bracketed set Bracketed sets have 5 2 frames each but only process the frames selected below first frame second frame third frame fourth frame last frame Specify a range using the two drop down lists to automatically detect the number of bracketed frames Move the Maximum time between two successive frames slider right or left to allow more or less time read from the metadata If your camera is set on continuous shooting and takes 3 frames second for example then the slider could safely be set on 1 second This option is useful when some of the photos in the processed folder are not part of a bracketed set and or when the number of frames per bracketed set varles Note that the automatic detection is based on the metadata information of the image files and not on the image content it can therefore only work with photos shot under different exposure settings such as Auto Exposure Bracketed photos with their EXIF data preserved inal Advanced batch processing options Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 32 Click Select only part of the frames in bracketed set to load only selected frames from a bracketed set e Specify the total number of fra
46. ns Use Preset Default Filter An Custom Settings for Details Enhancer Set M Reduce noise before tone mapping 100 _ Reduce chromatic aberrations before tone mapping With RAW files set White Balance to As Shot Color Space to Adobe RGE Remove Photomatix watermark from images created when Photomatix was in trial mode Destination te Created under Source Folder Customized location Choose Save tone mapped image as JPEG JPEG Quality 100 Append suffix Run Cancel Batch Tone Mapping of Single Photos Custom Settings for menu then click Set and then configure the preset as desired 5 Click the checkboxes for noise reduction and CA correction if needed 6 To select a destination folder click Created under Source Folder to save the images in the same folder as the source files OR Click Customized Location to save the images ina different folder Click Choose to select the destination folder The folder path will be displayed 7 Select the output file type When using JPG file output select the amount of JPEG compression 100 gives the least compressed JPEG file with most image quality retained 8 Click Run The batch processing status displays When batch processing is complete a link to the batch results will be displayed Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 4 Note The Batch Single Photos feature is intended for automating the processing of a lot of
47. oise option applies high quality noise reduction to images in your bracketed set Note that checking this option increases processing time Align Merge to HOR Merge to HDR Options window for RAW files Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 12 2 2 Working with Single Image Files Photomatix Pro supports Tone Mapping of single A Do you want to process your image with noise reduction before tone mapping image files To load a single image file No Yes 1 Drag the image file to the Photomatix Pro application i Windows or icon on your Dock Mac Do not ask me again OR Reducing noise on a single image JPEG file Select Open from the File menu A file browser window displays Navigate to the file and open it LD OR Tone mapping with the Details Enhancer method makes any noise present in the image Click Load Single Photo in the Workflow Shortcuts window much more visible so it is a good idea to pre process your image with noise reduction 2 To process the image using Tone Mapping click Tone p pee ee pe before tone mapping Mapping from the Workflow Shortcuts panel If the file is a JPG a dialog will show to let you decide whether to reduce the noise on your image before tone mapping If desired check Do not ask me again to skip this dialog and use your Yes or No selection for all single JPGs that you process with Tone Mapping If you need to re enable the dialog later access the Photomatix Pro Pre
48. omatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 2 1 2 General Merge to HDR Options After the bracketed images are selected you can customize the steps performed before merging the images such as aligning the images or removing ghosts Refer to the following list for a description of the options when merging bracketed images Alignment Options The Align source images option is checked by default It corrects misalignment problems when the camera moves slightly between the bracketed frames Hand held photographs have camera movement but even images shot on a tripod may have some slight camera movement as well such as movement caused by wind for example taken on tripod Select this alignment method when you used a tripod to take automatic bracketed photos This method is fast but corrects only for horizontal and vertical camera movement and not for rotation or other types of motion Note This method was named by correcting shifts in Photomatix Pro version 4 and earlier hand held Select this method when you did not use a tripod or when the images are difficult to align The hand held method corrects for several types of camera movement including horizontal and vertical motion rotation and forward and backward movement When the include perspective option is selected it corrects for every kind of minor camera movement Note This method was named by matching features in Photomatix Pro version 4 and earlier Include perspectiv
49. ost underexposed image in the exposure sequence was too dark This is the case when the histogram of your darkest image is completely empty on the right half The number of exposures needed depends on the dynamic range of the scene in addition to the exposure increment For most outdoor scenes three exposures taken at 2 exposure increments is sufficient provided the scene does not include the sun However for the interior of a room with a bright view out the window you will need at least five images taken with an exposure increment of 2 or nine images taken with an exposure increment of 1 In scenes with extreme differences between light and dark details you should change the exposures manually to ensure you capture a wide enough range to cover your scene Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 1 3 Using Film Based Cameras e Follow the camera setup listed at the top of Section 1 1 and the tips on selecting exposures in Section 1 2 Keep in mind that you will not have the option of previewing the live histogram to determine your exposure range Scan film or slides not prints Photo labs attempt to make the best print from each of your source images and you will not achieve good results scanning these for HDR generation Turn off your scanner s auto exposure options This allows you to manually control the exposure e Make sure you select the Align images option in Photomatix Pro when combining your images Photomatix Pro
50. ows and highlights toward the midtones Contrast Adaptation Adjusts the contrast in relation to the average brightness Moving the slider to the right tends to decrease contrast and give more pronounced colors Moving to the left tends to increase contrast and give a more natural look White Clip Adjusts the amount of highlights clipping Moving the slider to the right brightens the image and increases global contrast Moving to the left decreases global contrast and reduces highlights clipping Black Clip Adjusts the amount of shadows clipping Moving the slider to the right darkens the image and increases global contrast Moving to the left decreases global contrast and reduces shadows clipping Color Saturation Adjusts the color saturation of the image The greater the saturation the more intense the color Setting the slider to its lowest value 10 produces a grayscale image Color Temperature Adjusts the color temperature of the tone mapped image relative to the temperature of the HDR source image Move the slider to the right for a warmer more yellow orange colored look Move it to the left for a colder more bluish look A value of 0 default preserves the original color temperature of the HDR source image Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual Brightness Tonal Range Compression Contrast Adaptation White Clip amp Black Clip Color Saturation Color Temperature Tone Compressor Settings 22
51. s 2 1 2 and 2 1 6 above for a description of the other preprocessing settings Preview Sample Color primaries based on Adobe RGB More Preprocessing Options window Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 31 4 1 5 Batch Processing Subfolders When your bracketed series are located in multiple folders they can all be processed in one run provided they are in subfolders of the same parent folder To batch process multiple subfolders check the Process subfolders option at bottom of the Source frame on the Batch Processing dialog and select sequentially When Process subfolders sequentially is selected the batch will process the bracketed image files in one subfolder and then move on to the next subfolder all of which are contained in the main parent folder All of the subfolders must be contained in the main parent folder for this option to work properly Processing Series of Photos with Varying Numbers of Exposures When your bracketed sets are composed of varying numbers of exposures you can use Process subfolders sequentially to combine the exposures in these sets in one batch run Place each set in a separate subfolder group the subfolders under a parent folder select Process subfolders sequentially and select All from the pull down menu for the number of images to process at one time Grouped by Exposures Option If you are processing bracketed photos that will be part of a panorama you may find it useful to be a
52. terly 3 SR ka Painterly 5 Artistic built in Presets Two column small thumb view RL Note If you save the preset in the default location which is the Presets folder of the Photomatix Pro application the preset is automatically added to the Presets combo box list and also shows on the My Presets tab of the Preset Thumbnails Panel 18 3 3 Tone Mapping Details Enhancer Settings General Settings Strength Affects the amount of enhancement given to contrast and detail in the image A value of 100 gives the greatest enhancement Moving the slider to the left gives a more natural effect The default value is 70 Saturation Adjusts the color saturation of the image The greater the saturation the more intense the color Setting the Slider to its lowest value 0 produces a grayscale image The default value is 46 Strength Color Saturation Tone Compression 7 Detail Contrast Details Enhancer General settings Tone Compression Adjusts the dynamic range of the tone mapped image Moving the slider to the right decreases the dynamic range brightening the shadows and darkening the highlights Moving to the left has the opposite effect giving a more natural look This setting was named Luminosity in older Photomatix versions Detail Contrast Controls the amount of contrast applied to detail in the image Moving the slider to the right increases the contrast of details and gives a sharper
53. the image The default value is 2 Color Saturation Adjusts the color saturation of the image The greater the saturation the more intense the color Setting the Slider to its lowest value 10 produces a grayscale image Highlights Depth Affects the colors of the highlights in the image Moving the slider to the right adds depth to the highlights darkening the highlights and increasing their colorfullness 360 Image Checking this option eliminates the seam between the left and right sides of a panorama viewed in a 360 degree panoramic viewer This option is intended for a stitched panorama it should not be used for individual frames of a panorama that have not yet been stitched Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual Highlights Shadows Local Contrast Color Saturation Highlights Depth de 360 image Fusion Real Estate Settings 24 3 6 3 Fusion Intensive Settings Strength Adjusts the strength of local contrast enhancements Strength e Color Saturation Adjusts the color saturation of the image The 2 greater the saturation the more intense the color Setting the slider to SAM its lowest value 10 produces a grayscale image e Radius Controls the area used to calculate the weighting of the source images A higher radius reduces halos but increases processing times significantly The default value is 70 Fusion Intensive Settings 3 6 4 Fusion Average Auto 2 Images Settings There are no s
54. the left decreases global contrast and reduces shadows clipping Midtone Adjusts the brightness of the midtones which also has an impact on the overall contrast Moving the slider to the right brightens the midtones and decreases contrast Moving to the left darkens the midtones and increases contrast 360 image Contrast Optimizer Settings Color Saturation Adjusts the color saturation of the image The greater the saturation the more intense the color Setting the slider to its lowest value 10 produces a grayscale image Color Temperature Adjusts the color temperature of the tone mapped image relative to the temperature of the HDR source image Moving the slider to the right gives a warmer more yellow orange colored look Moving it to the left gives a colder more bluish look A value of 0 default preserves the original color temperature of the HDR source image 360 Image Checking this option eliminates the seam between the left and right sides of a panorama viewed in a 360 degree panoramic viewer This option is intended for a stitched panorama it should not be used for individual frames of a panorama that have not yet been stitched Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 21 3 5 Tone Mapping Tone Compressor Settings Brightness Adjusts the overall brightness of the image Tonal Range Compression Controls the compression of the tonal range Moving the slider to the right has the effect of shifting both shad
55. times as you like to add additional custom settings to the list 5 If you wish to update a previously added custom setting select it in the list frame and click Update 6 Ifyou wish to remove a custom setting from the list frame select it an d cli ck Rem ove Image Alignment Advanced Settings Include perspective correction 7 You may now click OK to close this window LE EE II 12 The specified presets will be applied the next time a batch is run Ghost Removal Advanced Setting Deghosting D 30 4 1 3 More Preprocessing Options ps Use the More Preprocessing Options button to access more Hosa Reduction ae nas advanced settings some of which provide deeper control over the Reduce noise on underexposed image s only basic preprocessing settings available in the main batch window Strength A 100 Other Preprocessing Setting 4 1 4 32 bit HDR File Creation Advanced Settings Reduce Chromatic Aberrations Force Exposure Values spacing to Forces the EV spacing to the specified value This option can be used when the exposure information is not available in the EXIF data if two or more images SF ROTTS mo mers have the same exposure information or to force the EV spacing in D allcases all cases In the latter case the exposure information in the EXIF data is ig nored RAW Conversion Settings White Balance As Shot 32 bit HDR File Creation Advanced Settings Force Exposure Values spacing to Please refer to section
56. ut further editing S Image adjustment settin S anel If you would like to automatically view the file with a photo viewing T aii application after saving you can click Open Saved Images with in the Save dialog Accept the default program or select a a Note program from the drop down list If a desired program is noton The settings are automatically embedded the list click Add application navigate to the folder containing in the saved processed image To view the program select the program and click Open the settings click View Settings from the Workflow Shortcuts bar All saved images will now automatically open into the selected application To turn off this option un click Open Saved Images with in the Save dialog To undo changes made during the adjustment process click the undo arrow at the bottom of the adjustments panel To redo adjustments click the redo arrow to reapply changes Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 14 3 1 1 Undoing Adjustments and Reprocessing an Image After processing an image you can return to Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion to continue working with the same image set There are two different ways to do this both accessed from the Workflow Shortcuts panel Redo With Other Settings or Double Tone Map e Redo With Other Settings allows you to start fresh with the current image set to apply entirely new presets and settings e Double Tone Map allows you to add additional effects using
57. w of the effect of the preset on your image When you click on a preset thumbnail the Preview image is refreshed to show the result of applying the settings of the selected preset By default the panel displays one column of small thumbnails Click on the plus icon on the top of the panel to display the thumbnails at a larger size Click on the icon on the top right of the panel to display the thumbnails in two columns There are two types of presets built in and custom Built in Presets Built in presets are factory presets that are provided with the software Photomatix Pro offers 36 built in presets when you are processing a bracketed photos and 27 when you are processing a single file ee Black amp Whi The pop up menu at the top left of the Presets panel lets you view subset i Details Enhancer categories of built in presets You can display a selected subset of presets contra Ostia from all categories by selecting the Short List item e A There are three categories of built in presets corresponding to effect styles They are Artistic Realistic and Black amp White There are four categories of built in presets corresponding to processing methods They are Details Enhancer Contrast Optimizer Tone Compressor and Fusion Balanced Photographic Preset panel Single column large thumb view Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 17 Custom Presets Custom presets are presets that you save
58. w the effect of the white balance change on the source image The Color Space drop down list provides options for converting the RAW data from the camera s native color space to the display profile of the selected value AdobeRGB is the default value and is appropriate when you want to print the resulting image If you do not intend to print the image select sRGB for web only images to avoid having to convert the image from AdobeRGB to sRGB Enable Exposure Fusion allows the image to be processed using the Fusion methods Normally Fusion methods are applicable only to multiple image sets This option will split the single RAW file into darker and lighter images which can then be fused This allows to use presets belonging to Exposure Fusion methods such as the Natural preset for instance Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 13 3 Adjusting Images Using Tone Mapping or Exposure Fusion Photomatix Pro provides access to HDR Tone Mapping and Exposure Fusion methods in one interface with three main sections Adjustments panel Preview and thumbnail Presets Exposure Fusion is normally only available when bracketed photos are loaded When a single This section describes the workflow for adjusting previewing image is loaded only Tone Mapping is available and processing images and describes each Tone Mapping and Exposure Fusion setting oe Process Tone Mapping Exposure Fusion 3 1 Image Adjustment Workflow reuse After you have
59. your already processed image as the Starting point Note that you will still be able to use the Redo With Other Settings option if you first save the image with the current settings applied Photomatix Pro 5 0 User Manual 15 3 2 Image Adjustment Interface 3 2 1 Image Adjustment Interface Overview The image adjustment interface consists of three main sections setting Adjustments image Preview and Preset thumbnails The features of these three main interface sections are described in detail below 3 2 2 Preview Preview Lighthouse normal over under Pret Selection Mode Scaling 100 Fit o e Preview Image adjustment Preview panel controls The image Preview displays the result of your current settings for whichever Tone Mapping of Fusion method you are working amp Note in When using the Details Enhancer or Contrast Optimizer methods the Preview is not always Preview Is updated immediately after a setting has been an accurate representation of the final tone changed Preview provides the following controls mapped image e Scaling Slider Zooms in or out the refreshed preview from 50 to 150 The preview is not recalculated but quickly scaled Each time Fit or one of the Magnifier icons is clicked the preview is recalculated and the Zoom Slider resets to 4g Note 100 As an option selectable in Preferences the Preview will update continuously as you move a Slider This option

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