What is Reddit's opinion of Luminance HDR?

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Sorry to be an internet cock. I do like what happened to the reflective building on the left and the escalator area in the bottom right... in an artistic kinda way not a photographic way though. What are you using for post? Did you just ramp up your contrast? I think the resounding message in the sub I mentioned is that HDR is excellent but fails once you notice it.

Some things you may want to look out for:

• see how the lights on the top of the city national bank building have this kind of halo around them in the edited picture? that's an immediate no-no. I'm not talking about the vertical smearing - I mean the blobby stuff
• the noise in your sky is pretty intense, especially where it transitions from lavender to blue
• if you look at the top of the tower with the mosaic on it and look at the white part underneath the pyramid, comparing your before/after you lose a ton of detail - see? it goes from almost white to white and you lose all your definition.
• the bluish tint is very distracting

Luminance is a free HDR processing program you may want to check out. GIMP is also the open-source Photoshop in case you're looking for that kinda thing. Sharing your stuff is important, and I'm glad you did.

tl;dr if you need more exposure latitude, it's typically a better idea to take multiple photos for each of your exposure areas and combine them. or shoot RAW.

Edit: added tl;dr

If you don't mind getting a bit into the weeds, there's a pretty neat HDR software called Luminance. It used to be the much-worse-named "Qtpfsgui" (seriously), but I find it really powerful. It's got a bunch of different tone mapping solutions available, and you can tweak them to fine detail. It can handle raw images, or images with different exposures, automatic fine alignment, and several other neat tricks. It's open source and cross platform. Downloads are still available on SourceForge, though the project is moving to Git Hub. http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/?page_id=10

> different exposures and I'd like to use layer masks to merge the layers. This would be useful for real-estate type shots with bright windows and dark interior.

http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

Luminance HDR is pretty good. Free and open source.

Fairly easy to use. Take a few normal photos with various exposures and drop them in. Usually able to figure out the image's EV automatically. Will automatically align the images (using Hugin's pretty awesome stack algorithm). It can use various tonemapping algorithms to produce the final .tiff/.png/.jpeg output images, or save the originally generated HDR image as OpenEXR file if you want to tonemap it later again.

Yes you may :) I use a combination of The Gimp and Luminance HDR. The Gimp is used for adjusting light and dark levels and clearing up image artifacts. Then I create false exposures (I use the program to simulate over exposing and underexposing) and save anywhere from 2 to 6 different versions of both over and under exposed images. Then it's over to Luminance HDR to create a false high dynamic range image. I use the same program to tonemap the image. Finally I head back over to The Gimp to clean up any more image distortions and wind up with something that is usually more defined and easier to identify.

There's a more up to date windows version on the website then the one I have in the software centre (http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/?page_id=10) it's the one I'm using atm, and according to the dev there could be another update by christmas or a little after.

There are also free HDR utilities that are easy to use that will do this, just save the resulting image off as a TIFF file and finish processing in Lightroom.

• http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

• http://www.hdrlabs.com/tools/links.html

• https://www.photoworkout.com/best-hdr-software-business/

Does Photoshop not handle 32-bit TIFF? You might be able to do only one render for the HDR effect if you use 32-bit TIFF output in Chunky.

I don't use Photoshop myself, but I was able to use Luminance HDR to generate HDR images from 32 bit output.

Here man (link below)... so you can screw it up all you like or get it right. Whatever flavor suits you.

I suggest you play with (this will make sense post install) "Mantiuk".... just goof around with the sliders until you get a feel for it.

Note that for some of these, the resolution you choose has a bearing on output, so even with the sliders the same, an image at 1024 wide will look significantly different than one at 2048.

Also... shoot RAW and note also that there's a fairly large difference in the kinds of results you'll get shooting 12 or 14 bit and also a difference between Adobe RGB and Adobe sRGB... in relation to the kind of result you'll get when making an HDR image.

Regardless of the software you use, this will be true.

For me personally... I like to expose a little dark and pull the images into light. Some folks do just the opposite, and some expose normally. YMMV.

Good luck...

http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

A RAW image has a larger dynamic range than individual JPEGS (which have a low dynamic range, LDR); however, it cannot capture the same amount of dynamic range as multiple individually exposed images which are used to create a true HDR image.

My point being is that you cannot tonemap a RAW file (compress the dynamic range into a LDR image) to the same degree you can a "true" HDR image. That being said, the A5100 will auto tonemap the individual exposures into an LDR image. The OP would be better off using exposure bracketing with RAW images and post-process them into HDR images with something like Luminance HDR.

http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/

There are many many configurable settings and I've had some luck producing images that weren't obvious HDR.

It can be very slow, the default setting produces very small images and that's the only way to keep your sanity as you experiment, then make a hi-res version once you've found settings you ~~like~~ don't hate.

Setting should be the same as any other photograph.

The only thing changing between shots should be the shutter speed.

If you have no blown highlights on your shortest exposure, and no black areas on your longest, then you can begin. Lob them into Enfuse (lots of free versions of that, no need for aligning if you were on a tripod).

You could try Luminance HDR or one of the other "proper" HDR programs, but frankly, the results will end up like all the others on /r/shittyHDR. Nobody wants that.

I use Lumanince HDR which is amazing for the price - FREE!!!

Here is an HDR set I did using it.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jcwolfe00/sets/72157635741562863/

Of the cameras I own only two support automatic bracketing (I'm too lazy to fiddle with manual exposure bracketing; plus poking at the buttons and menus tends to push the camera off aim even on a firm tripod):

• Casio Exilim EX-F1 Pro (noisy sensor in dark areas.. but surprisingly versatile for a camera)
• Nokia 808 PureView (awesome for a camera phone, but takes some poking to get it to work right)

For tonemapping I use Luminance HDR. Sometimes I combine tone-mapped images into a panorama. For that I use either Microsoft ICE or AutoStitch.

Sometimes, after the tonemapping, I also apply a bit of Unsharp Mask with GIMP.

Camera used is the Canon Eos Rebel T1i - it was set on Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) - which is done in manual function. Three shots are taken - one in regular exposure that you set via aperture and shutter speed, one is under exposed and one is over exposed. You then combine all three photos together and do tone mapping. Photomatix seems to be the most popular program but I used the free Luminance HDR program.

• edit: yes, dog sat still :)

I disagree - I have been eating up HDR/Tonemapped imagery since the late 90's (maybe early 2000s). I still eat them up. Also, I think you are confusing HDR & Tonemapped stuff - the Tonemapping is what gives images the blown out 'painterly' look to the photos. If you don't want to spring for Photoshop, Luminance (qtfpsgui) can do it the open source route. http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/?p=180

you can try using picasa for easy things like straightening. gimp is also a free photoshop that may give you more options than nikon's default software. http://picasa.google.com/#utm_campaign=en&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-bk&utm_medium=ha&utm_term=google%20picasa

http://www.gimp.org/

you can even use http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/ for open-source hdr software

in short, there is plenty of freeware that competes with lightroom/adoberaw that will really take your photos to the next level. this all of course assumes you are shooting in raw :)