In this example, I’m going to review an alternate option of HDR processing within Photomatix called “Fuse”. I’ve been experimenting with some of my recent landscape images. It seems to provide a very nice HDR touch to landscape images with a much lower risk of over processing. If you are not familiar with HDR, check out my other two HDR Tutorials: Sunset Example; Cityscape Example.
- Select the bracketed images in Lightroom and export to Photomatix
- The export Photomatix dialog will pop up with option to select Fuse exposures or Generate HDR image
- I went ahead with the HDR Tone Mapping option so I can later show a comparison between the tone mapped and the fused images.
- After I saved and imported the tone mapped image, I repeated the process but this time I selected to “Fuse exposures”
- The “Exposure Fusion” window will pop up with default set to “Highlights & Shadows – Adjust” option
- I’ve found the “Adjust” option to provide the best results.
- After making some minor adjustments, save and re-import into Lightroom.
- Here is a side by side comparison of the HDR Fusion vs HDR Tone Mapped image.
- The HDR Fusion image really pops compared to the HDR Tone Mapped image.
- For the final image, I decided to open the two images up in Photoshop where I used the Tone Mapped image to bring out some detail in the clouds and buildings.
Well, thats all for this one! If you haven’t already, I highly recommend trying out the “HDR Fusion” process on a HDR landscape.
-Ken Snyder
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[...] If you are not familiar with HDR or would like some additional supporting information, check out some of my other HDR tutorials: Sunset, Cityscape, Macro, Fusion. [...]
[...] If you are not familiar with HDR or would like some additional supporting information, check out some of my other HDR tutorials: Sunset, Cityscape, Macro, Fusion. [...]
[...] to use my trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS5 to process the HDR but I ended up preferring the HDR Fusion image processed by Photomatix which remains my favorite landscape HDR processing [...]
[...] to use my trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS5 to process the HDR but I ended up preferring the HDR Fusion image processed by Photomatix which remains my favorite landscape HDR processing [...]
Thanks for the kind feedback! The HDR Fuse process is by far my favorite for more natural looking landscape and nature HDRs.
-Ken
I just googled to find what the differences were, since I'm too lazy to experiment myself, and found this post. I was playing with fuse earlier and the images were surprisingly pleasing.
About a year ago I began to use the high speed bracketing method frequently to have the option to merge to HDR and tonemap in photomatix.
The fuse style seems to be more my taste for image making. Thanks for clarifying.
[...] to use my trial version of Adobe Photoshop CS5 to process the HDR but I ended up preferring the HDR Fusion image processed by Photomatix which remains my favorite landscape HDR processing [...]
[...] HDR Photography Processing – Fusion Example [...]