[HDR-photo] Starting out...

[Royce Howland]

Ferrell McCollough wrote:
> Have you been successful with method #2? I haven't had success although 
> the PM tutorial uses the method. It doesn't work because the blending 
> process that creates a seamless pano changes the tonality of the image. 
> If tonal adjustments are made then the merge to HDR process gives poor 
> results. Perhaps I'm attributing my poor results to the wrong process?

Yes, as I mentioned typcially I have used method #2 with Panorama 
Factory and Photomatix. It's what I describe in the article, at the end 
of which I show a few sample images including pano's.

Note that in Panorama Factory there are a couple of blending settings, 
one to seamlessly blend frames and the other to "correct" the exposure. 
I never use the latter, only the former. I want the stitcher to do the 
minimum amount of work possible to produce the cleanest images designed 
for HDR merging and tone mapping, where the big tonal adjustments will 
start to be made.

I find that the tonal changes made during tone mapping are much more 
extreme than those made by the stitcher when blending frames. Therefore 
while both methods #1 and #2 involve compromises, my experience is that 
#2 is more satisfactory. (Of course #3 is potentially better than both 
#1 and #2, and I hope more HDR stitchers appear to join Autopano Pro.)

Here are a few examples I've worked up by stitching first with Panorama 
Factory, then processing for HDR in Photomatix followed by finishing 
work (sometimes a lot) in Photoshop CS2:

http://www.vividaspect.com/pix/BestOf/LakeMinnewanka20051225_EOS10D_2b/LakeMinnewanka_SZ24_0120_NSNlg.jpg
http://www.vividaspect.com/pix/BestOf/Banff20060929_EOS5Dc/VermillionLakes_SZ24_0013_01_NSNlg.jpg
http://www.vividaspect.com/pix/BestOf/BarrierDam20051130_EOS10D_2/BarrierDam_SZ24_0001_NSNlg.jpg
http://www.vividaspect.com/pix/BestOf/FishCreekPPVotiersFlats20060621_EOS5Da/VotiersFlats_SZ24_0001_NSNlg.jpg
http://www.vividaspect.com/pix/BestOf/LakeMinnewanka20060426_EOS5Da/LakeMinnewanka_SZ24_0007_NSNlg.jpg
http://www.vividaspect.com/pix/BestOf/BeaverHillLake20060117_EOS10D_2c/BeaverHillLake_SZ24_0126_TM_NSNlg.jpg
http://www.vividaspect.com/pix/BestOf/Banff20060225_EOS10D_2/VermillionLakes_SZ24_0025_Stitched_TM_NSNlgb.jpg

Royce Howland