HDR Images in Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop CS3 has many capabilities for working with HDR images. For those not familiar with the concept, normal images are either 8 or 16 bit, with luminance storage from black to white. HDR images store much higher luminance values using 32 bit floating point values. Photoshop has the ability to create 32 bit images. The command is found under the Automate menu, and is listed as Merge to HDR…

The process begins by taking a series of photographs using different exposures, from dark to light. It is best to use a tripod and take the exposures a couple f-stops apart. The minimum number of shots is three, five to seven shots are better. The Merge to HDR command will automatically align the images and create the 32 bit file. The last stage of the process allows setting the preview balance. This setting is for previews only and does not affect the actual luminance range. The file should be saved as a 32 bit file to preserve the entire range of luminance values.

 

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