Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Step One:
Here, I selected three bracketed shots in Bridge (one that's the normal exposure, one that's
2 stops underexposed, and one that's 2 stops overexposed), then went up under the Tools
menu, under Photoshop, and chose
Merge to HDR Pro
. After a few moments, the Merge
to HDR Pro dialog appears (as shown here; I'm being pretty gratuitous when I say “a few
moments,” because I timed it and, on my laptop, it took 19 seconds). Anyway, it merges
these three images into one single HDR image that looks pretty bad, because it's using the
default 16-bit settings, which should be named simply “Bad” for clarity's sake.
SCOTT KELBY
Step Two:
When HDR Pro came out, I made a lot of fun of the presets that came with it because I
couldn't find a single image that they didn't look awful on. So, I set out to create a preset of
my own that worked pretty consistently for most of the images I tried it on. It took a while,
but I came up with one, and Adobe liked it enough that they included it in Photoshop. It's
named “Scott5,” so choose that from the Preset pop-up menu, then turn on the checkbox
for Edge Smoothness, which takes a lot of the harshness out of the effect (I created that
preset before Adobe added Edge Smoothness, so I always turn it on). If you want a little
