In HDR Processing: Top 10 Mistakes

TOP 10 MISTAKES
IN HDR PROCESSING
AND HOW TO FIX THEM - TREY RATCLIFF
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10 BY TREY RATC
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Trey Ratcliff and Stuck In Customs Present:
TOP 10 MISTAKES
FRO
IN HDR PROCESSING
MT
TR HE
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a pe EY RA ESK O 2010 First Edition StuckInCustoms.com/ebook
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I’ve already made
every mistake in the
Welcome to the first “Top 10 book. I think detailing
my old mistakes will
Mistakes” eBook! help you!
TAKE THESE TO HEART, AND

YOU’LL SAVE COUNTLESS
HOURS OF PAIN AND SILENT
SOCIAL REJECTION
INTRODUCTIONS
Hello! I am Trey Ratcliff. It's nice to meet you!
Perhaps you are a regular reader of
StuckInCustoms.com or are familiar with my
various tutorials. I really get a kick out of
This is ugly
teaching people new ways to approach their
digital art. This is the latest in that ongoing
effort. I hope you enjoy it, and I look forward
to your feedback.
TOP 10 COMMON MISTAKES

I have processed and seen more HDR than
almost anyone in the world. I am not HDR does Denis no favors The evil halo
necessarily proud of this... it’s just the way it is.
I often do critiques of HDR photos for large
groups of people, and I know what rings true. Many good
By the end of this eBook, you should have a remedies for the
good grasp of my general sensibilities on the most common HDR
matter. woes reside within
the following pages.
Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

TOP 10 COMMON HDR MISTAKES! PAGE 4
Yes, this is how my stuff used to look... back in the day So many bad HDRs...
A PERSONAL JOURNEY
I believe any
IF I CAN SAVE A FEW BAD one can get
HDR PHOTOS FROM BEING better by
So instead, I decided to use my very own
UPLOADED TO THE SWEET photos from a long time ago! analyzing
INTERNET, I’LL FEEL LIKE mistakes,
I’VE DONE SOMETHING I started HDR many many years ago, and, forgiving the
RIGHT IN THIS LIFE. slowly, over time I have self-corrected all of
mistakes, and
the top mistakes. I wish I’d had this guide 5
years ago! then moving
on to create
ORIGIN OF THE EBOOK more,
I went through many years of photos and
When I began thinking about this eBook, I
found ten of my old photos that have all the different, and
was quite flummoxed! My first impulse was to
jump on Flickr and comb through thousands
same problems that I still see nowadays. I better
hope that by critiquing my own work, that it mistakes in the
of photos until I could find 10 horrible HDRs becomes a source of ideas and “a-ha”s for
that fit each of my 10 points. future.
you.
I then started worrying a bit about it. Even if INSPIRATIONAL TIMELINE

I chose Creative Common photos, I didn’t
really relish the thought of tearing each of I’ve often considered removing my “old” work
them apart in text. Even though my critique from Flickr and the blog. I really HATE the
would be honest (and probably spot-on), it old stuff and can’t stand looking at it. I had
could be interpreted as downright mean. the occasional winner, but most were
Now, on one hand, I don’t really care what embarrassingly bad.
other people think... but on the other hand, I
don’t do things out of spite or malice... I did However, I hope this helps prove the case that
not want that to be the interpretation. anyone, including you, can improve and make
great strides over time just by sticking with it.

Free HDR Tutorial and the Tools I Use

BETTER PHOTOGRAPHY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS....
Most readers will already have these tools and links, but in case you are new to the subject matter,
the following are the most critical bits.
FREE HDR TUTORIAL

On the web and very helpful
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial
PHOTOMATIX PRO
My HDR Software of choice
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/links/Photomatix
Use coupon code “STUCKINCUSTOMS” to save money
TOPAZ ADJUST
Great sharpening software to help the photos “pop”
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/links/get_Topaz
Use coupon code “STUCKINCUSTOMS” to save money
MORE REVIEWS
I only review software that I actually use... so go here for the latest!
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/reviews/
A beautiful set of tones made perfect, thanks to Photomatix Another Photomatix success from Japan

TOP 10 COMMON HDR MISTAKES! PAGE6
All Mistakes Corrected
Only because I have

made so many
mistakes can I now
create new HDRs
that are more
satisfying on almost
any level.
In the following
pages, you will see
how these two
images do not suffer
from the 10
unmentionables.
It has been a joy overcoming past mistakes
HDR can still be used in powerful ways

TOP 10 COMMON HDR MISTAKES! PAGE7
Every Problem in the Book (the eBook!)

This incredibly horrible old photo below from yours truly has many of the telltale HDR mistakes.
MISTAKE #2: DIRTY WHITES (PAGE 32)

MISTAKE #3: BLACK CLOUDS IN DAYTIME WHITES (PAGE 29)
MISTAKE #6: LOSING ALL SENSE OF COLOR (PAGE 20)
MISTAKE #10: TOO MANY COLORS (PAGE 8)
MISTAKE #5: EARLY PROCESSING (PAGE 25)

Mistake #10: Too Many Colors

Mistake #10: Too Many Colors

SOLUTION recently came across an article that talks about this very
issue.
Don’t saturate more than one of the primary colors.
As you know, the retina has rods and cones. There was
I find that people (and, when I say people - now and in a lot of eye-tracking research done to see what people’s
the future - I am often referring to myself in the past) eyes do around color. It turns out that the eye is indeed
often use HDR to saturate more than one of the three attracted to saturated colors, but the cones “burn out”
primary colors. Below, you can see that I saturated all and become fatigued when looking at saturated colors
three! for too long. When these cones get burned out, they
move away to find relief and rest for a few
This is not good and not necessary at all. microseconds. Well, if their eye immediately drifts to a
different highly saturated color, then it gets even more
THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT fatigued.
Many of you may know how one of my hobbies is So make sure your photo has places to “give the viewer’s
researching the visual system and brain interaction. I eye a break”.

Illustrated HDR Colors Done Right

Correction In the photo below, you can see that I’ve chosen to only focus on
one of the main three primary colors.

Mistake #9: Forest & Jungle

Mistake #9: Forest and Jungle

SOLUTION COLOR SOLUTION
Don’t take photos of jungle or dense trees with the HDR Have you noticed that your “greens” in HDR processing
technique. It just doesn’t work as well as you think it might. look a little fake? You may have the sense of “food-
It’s always challenging to take photos of tree-heavy areas coloring-green”. To fix this in photoshop, open up the
for some reason. You would think that HDR might help to Hue/Saturation dialog, choose “Yellow” from the
bring out all the light and “feeling” of being in these areas, dropdown, and decrease the saturation.
but it does not. The only time I get these tree-heavy photos
to work is when I am able to: Note this is counter-intuitive. What appears to be “too
green” is actually “too yellow”. You will see this problem
1) Single out one or two of the most interesting trees more in daytime greens because the biomass is actually
2) Make the whole scene not look too busy somewhat translucent, and the sunlight is giving it a
3) Make the colors look natural and real yellowish color.
4) Use the sun either in the background or the
foreground, and use its light in an interesting manner.

Illustrated A Well-Executed HDR

Correction Forest
After countless mistakes in taking photos of tree-heavy areas, I
have found that there are only certain compositional and lighting
conditions that work well.
Using a wide-angle lens to give the bamboo forest the “feeling” of

closing in around you helped achieve the overall look of this
image.

Mistake #8: The Localized Halo

Mistake #8: The Localized Halo
SOLUTION sweeps across the photo, it will try to make

“slightly” different areas “much” different. In the
Watch the Luminosity Slider in Photomatix. The example below, it saw the tree was a little darker
more you move it to the right, the less halo you get. than the background, so it decided to make it a lot
darker than the background by lightening the area
Or clean up in Photoshop after the HDR around it.
processing.
Often times, there is just no good way to tweak the
sliders to make it look perfect, and that means the
HDR ALGORITHM solution is to clean everything up in Photoshop.
The algorithm does its best to make many This photo has other problems as well, such as
“photos within photos.” That is, as the algorithm over-saturated and too-yellow trees.

Illustrated Localized Halos Fixed

Correction You can see how the darker mountain looks acceptable in front of the
lighter mountain. There is none of the halo problem. This was
achieved by remixing the HDR result with one of the original photos.
You will note that the photo below also has no “blue sky halo,” which
is the #1 Most Common Mistake you will come to at the end of this
eBook. In this case, I fixed that by remixing the -1 exposure because I
thought the blue tones looked best.

Mistake #7: Dirty Flowers

Mistake #7: Dirty Flowers
SOLUTION SELECTIVE MASKING

Although you can still HDR Flowers, do not use the In my HDR Tutorial and in the HDR DVD, I always
technique on the white, shiny, or silky parts of the recommend masking. This is a process in which you can
flower. remix the result of the HDR with the original photo.

Illustrated Clean Flower Colors

Correction HDR threatened to darken and discolor these white-pink cherry
blossoms. It required remixing with the original image to keep things
clean and pure in color and tone.

Mistake #6: Losing All Sense of Color

Mistake #6: Losing All Sense of Color

SOLUTION The color of a scene in HDR can get worse because
surfaces pick up reflected colors, which then re-reflect on
Shoot at a higher ISO to get less reflected light, other surfaces. You may notice this in “too-yellow”
remember the original color, and ensure it is reflected in interiors where warm lights end up making everything
the final photo. look more orange and yellow than in reality.
COLOR REFLECTION PROBS A long shutter speed can make this problem even worse.
To combat it, decrease your shutter speed by increasing
Sometimes, we get so into the HDR processing that the your ISO.
image becomes a distant memory of the actual scene.

Illustrated Ensuring Proper Color

Correction The Saturation slider in HDR programs can sometimes over-color the clouds.
Don’t let that happen. Remember, I recommend using programs like
Photomatix to make 70% of the photo look good, and then go do any
corrections (including cloud color correction) by remixing with one of the
original photos.
The photo below threatened to make the clouds too blue in the processing, so I
needed to make them their original white to keep it realistic.

Mistake #5: Early Processing

Mistake #5: Early Processing

SOLUTION Milan, Italy. The lighting conditions were amazing; it
will never be like that again.
Save some of your best photos, and wait a few years
before you process them. I went home and processed it immediately. Now I see
that was a mistake, because I could do so much better
FIRST IN, LAST OUT now. If I would have saved this for a few years, I would
have been able to avoid the obvious mistakes of too-dark
Inevitably, we all will end up wasting some of your best clouds, too-strong HDR, and white-point problems.
photos with your mediocre technique. That is a shame.
As you can see in this photo below, I was in beautiful Don’t pressure yourself into processing photos in the
order in which you take them.

Illustrated Late Processing

Correction I processed the photo below a very long time after I actually left Paris.
I picked up a lot of processing tricks in the meantime, and it helped
me to make this one look much better than it would have if I had
processed it immediately.
For example, here I used the Wow Landscape filter from Nik
Software. Use the coupon code STUCKINCUSTOMS to save
money if you want to try it. You can grab it from the website below.
http://www.niksoftware.com/index/usa/entry.php

Mistake #4: Sickly, Coalminer People

Mistake #4: Sickly, Coalminer People

SOLUTION #8, I recommend that you selectively mask in the real
skin tones from one of the original photos.
Very simply, don’t HDR people’s skin. It never works.
You will also notice that HDR skin not only looks dirty,
but it gets a bit of a “green tone” or sheen on top. It’s
HDR EVERYTHING ELSE very strange and certainly doesn’t feel right.
As you can see in the photo below, everything else looks Sometimes (and only sometimes), it looks interesting if
pretty cool. The shirt looks shiny and interesting. The you use the HDR technique on the iris, but nowhere
wall is nice and textured. As described above in Mistake else. The success of this depends on a number of
conditions, and I invite you to try it!

Illustrated HDR and People

Correction The photo below has everything in HDR except for the skin tones of
the Indian boy. It helps to bring out the rich texture of the environs
without making his face and skin look mottled or strange.
If you want more help to see exactly how I do masking to remix the
HDR result and the original image, I have an HDR DVD that will be
of great service to you!
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-dvd/

Mistake #3: Black Clouds in Daytime

Mistake #3: Black Clouds in Daytime

SOLUTION If you are going to have dark clouds in your photo, be
sure that the entire sky is cloudy. That’s a bit more
If you are going to make some nice HDR “dark clouds,” believable.
make sure there is no blue sky also in the scene.
Still, I recommend not letting your clouds get to “pure”
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE black. Keep it a dark grey... it’s still cool.. don’t worry
about being too extreme. The viewer’s eye will
I think you’ll agree with me that it is just not possible to immediately adjust to the darkest thing in the sky, and
have sunny skies, blue skies, and black-dark clouds out at that will become their anchor.
the same time. These sorts of scenes are immediately
rejected by the viewer as impossible.

Illustrated HDR Clouds in the Day

Correction The default HDR processing will almost always over-darken clouds.
In this example below, there was blue sky, and it was obviously
daytime. I did not want to “blacken” the clouds too much because it
looks unrealistic.
The bottom half of the photo has most of the HDR process in force,
and there you can see the strong textures and colors. The clouds on
the top are maybe “half ” HDR, since they have been heavily
remixed with the -1 exposure from the component photos.

Mistake #2: The Dirty Whites

Mistake #2: The Dirty Whites

SOLUTION There is another HDR program from Nik Software
that will allow you to use “control points” to fix these
Don’t worry about moving the sliders around in your issues without needing Photoshop. See more at http://
HDR program to make the whites look clean. It is very www.niksoftware.com/index/usa/entry.php
difficult!
AGAIN WITH THE MASKING
If you use Photomatix 4 or later, you can use the
“ghosting” tool to go in, select this area, and then choose Otherwise, it becomes absolutely necessary in these
which exposure to use in its stead. I’d suggest the -1 or situations to correct the HDR mistakes in Photoshop.
the -2 EV version. Simply remix the HDR version with the original picture
where the sky looks clean.

Illustrated Pure Whites in HDR

Correction In the initial processing of this photo below, the sun came out that
dirty color that one comes to expect with the HDR process. There is
no good “slider situation” where you can get it to look okay inside the
HDR program. So, I recommend fixing that bit by remixing with the
original sun.

Mistake #1: The Blue-Sky Halo

Mistake #1: The Blue Sky Halo

SOLUTIONS #2: Remix the final HDR with one of the original
photos in Photoshop. Mask in the blue sky that looks
This is the #1 question and mistake in HDR! I have the best.
found three workable solutions.
#3: Don’t take the photo with plain blue sky! Come
#1: Slide the luminosity bar far to the right back to this spot at sunset, sunrise, or dusk. The varied
colors and light levels in the sky will hide the halo effect.

Illustrated The Blue Sky Halo

Correction The photo below is a good example of how to face the perpetual
problem of the blue sky halo. There are two main structures here.
The one on the left is not a problem because of the particolored skies
and clouds beyond. The HDR algorithm is busy there with all the
various tones and shades, but on the right, there is just plain blue sky.
To fix this bit, I had to softly remix the original photo that had the
same sorts of blues that blended in with the left side of the photo.

A Big Thank You from
the Ratcliff family!
I hope you enjoyed this eBook. Not only do they take a long time to
make, but they have taken me many years of toil and expertise (and
hundreds of mistakes!) to make this possible.
Many Bothans died to bring you this information.
Visit StuckInCustoms.com/ebook to see the latest offerings,

and I would LOVE to hear your feedback!

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TOP 10 MISTAKES

TAKE THESE TO HEART, AND

TOP 10 COMMON MISTAKES

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

I then started worrying a bit about it. Even if INSPIRATIONAL TIMELINE

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Free HDR Tutorial and the Tools I Use

FREE HDR TUTORIAL

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

All Mistakes Corrected

Only because I have

HDR can still be used in powerful ways

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Every Problem in the Book (the eBook!)

MISTAKE #2: DIRTY WHITES (PAGE 32)

MISTAKE #10: TOO MANY COLORS (PAGE 8)

MISTAKE #5: EARLY PROCESSING (PAGE 25)

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #10: Too Many Colors

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #10: Too Many Colors

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Illustrated HDR Colors Done Right

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #9: Forest & Jungle

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #9: Forest and Jungle

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Illustrated A Well-Executed HDR

Using a wide-angle lens to give the bamboo forest the “feeling” of

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #8: The Localized Halo

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #8: The Localized Halo

SOLUTION sweeps across the photo, it will try to make

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Illustrated Localized Halos Fixed

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #7: Dirty Flowers

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #7: Dirty Flowers

SOLUTION SELECTIVE MASKING

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Illustrated Clean Flower Colors

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #6: Losing All Sense of Color

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #6: Losing All Sense of Color

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Illustrated Ensuring Proper Color

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #5: Early Processing

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #5: Early Processing

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Illustrated Late Processing

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #4: Sickly, Coalminer People

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Mistake #4: Sickly, Coalminer People

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook

Illustrated HDR and People

Stuck In Customs | A unique collection of digital eBooks | StuckInCustoms.com/ebook