Shout out to JDG, thanks for the compliment and the question at the same time. Layers? Well, here goes. I was digging in some past photos and found one I wanted to buff out a bit. I ran it through a program called PhotoMatix Pro. Typically, you would load three or more images into PhotoMatix that were exposed a stop or two high and low of what you camera feels is dead on. As I did not have a three shot bracketed burst to play with, I saved my original untouched image in PhotoShop-- three times, and titled it Image, A, B, and C. I loaded those three into PhotoMatix. PhotoMatix smells them and says, hey dude, these were all exposed at the same uhh, exposure. So I let the software "alter" the exposure after the fact, going about a stop and a half high, same low, and leave one dead on or so. The end result, is a pseudo attempt at HDR. There are many brothers here that have better examples, from better cameras too. After PhotoMatix, I returned to PhotoShop with my HDR -like image. In PhotoShop I "desaturated" my image, which removes the color and flips it black and white. After desaturation, I jacked it up to like 600% viewing size, and "hand painted" or hand brushed back in the colors that were removed, using the history brush tool in PhotoShop. After that, a bit of contrast, hue and brightness and you end up with either something you like, or a MUDPIE. Guess I got lucky with this one Again, I would not know what I know if our brothers here had not TAUGHT ME from scratch. Many of these other fellows really rock in the HDR department here, so hats off to them first. Thanks, Paul
Thanks for the explanation. I thought you might have done a desaturation layer on top of the original and then erased the desaturated areas where you wanted color - something that still baffles me when I try it. I'll give your process a try - it might work for me. However you did it, it looks great. Thanks, jdg
What a great thread. This is my first attempt at HDR, might not be the best setting but with it being 12 degrees outside, I'm not riding anywhere..
There are lots of beautiful photos here lately. I took April for a chilly test ride after getting her back together today.