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PS3 and the world of 32 bits

High in my To Buy list is the new Photoshop, and not because it runs native on the Intel chip, --I have a 1.67 GHz PowerPC G4 portable-- but for a not yet well understood (by me), but interesting new capability.

My interest is to be able to do "HDR imaging" or High Dynamic Range.

There are new concepts to learn too. I quickly found this interesting blog --you may be aware of it -- and have a look at this video .. http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/player.cfm?id={753A2FD2-D6A1-4AA7-8258-A91AAE5A7D88}

Now, in that same blog there is this image of a church http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/images/ChristChurchCathedralHDR.jpg
that

this is what the photographer Trevor Morris wrote about the How To of this image

"This photo was shot inside the Christ Church Cathedral, located in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. For this particular shot, I used a tripod and remote to capture 12 exposures, from 1/125s to 20s, with a Nikon D70 @ f/16, ISO 200, FL 18mm. I combined the exposures using Merge to HDR, increased the local contrast, and gave the image a slight saturation boost."

Take a look also at the "source frames" http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/images/CCC_HDR_Frames.jpg

It is easy to see by looking at each of the frames how it the obviously are in "Low Dynamic Range" because either the high lights or the shadows are blocked or washed out.

All of this is new to me, the question is: Can I do this in Photoshop CS2? and, what is your experience in general merging two or more shots in one with HDR??

thanks
 
I will answer my own post, as usual. First discovery is that there is an article in LL about this in CS2 that is about 2 yeas old ! ( in computer terms 14 years old) I really am not up to date. The other thing that I remembered is that I only have CS, so no super merge to HDR there... any way, I think that the thread may yet be of general interest since CS3 is bringing new capabilities in this field.. and for me, there are more reasons to go get the money for the upgrade..
 
Leonardo
so whats new in PS-CS-3 vs Ps-CS-2 concerning Merge to HDR?
After some use of PS-CS-2 for that duty, I found Photomatix way better to generate HDR's: http://www.hdrsoft.com/

Michael, thank you, I think that this is the time for me to research software that complement PS.

There are tree applications or tasks to be addressed:

1) Correcting the barrel distortion of --mostly-- my Mamiya 35mm.
For this I am testing LensFix http://www.kekus.com/software/plugin.html
2) An interesting program that evens the image of light fall off using a second shot of a white wall http://secure.netsolhost.com/664583...vc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CI&Product_Code=EQ2 ($49)

and

3) HDR. In that case I will test the Fotomatix thanks to your suggestion.

All of this takes time but it is a bit slow at the moment, so it is a good time to do it. May be I can talk about it here..

thanks
leonardo
 
The idea is similar to lens cast correction and, yes, to fixing vignetting but not exactly.

When you are lighting a painting it is almost impossible to make all corners absolutely the same in terms of exposure values. Most of the time this is done with normal lenses (like an 80mm Mamiya AF), so the lens fall of problem may not even be present.

So, since the problem of uneven exposure is not coming from the lens, the pattern is intrinsically much more unpredictable and difficult to cure.

The program uses an image of the wall shot under the same circumstances to map the density and be able to apply the necessary correction to the wall whit the paining on.

I suppose that this is useful only to the few photographers that regularly shoots art-on-white-wall, but the idea of producing perfectly balanced captures may be worth the extra $50 or so.
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
The idea is similar to lens cast correction and, yes, to fixing vignetting but not exactly.

When you are lighting a painting it is almost impossible to make all corners absolutely the same in terms of exposure values.
Well, I got my studioflashes as precise, as the flasmeter goes, o.1 EV...

Most of the time this is done with normal lenses (like an 80mm Mamiya AF), so the lens fall of problem may not even be present.

using a macro is fine; here it's the 100 mm...

So, since the problem of uneven exposure is not coming from the lens, the pattern is intrinsically much more unpredictable and difficult to cure.

The program uses an image of the wall shot under the same circumstances to map the density and be able to apply the necessary correction to the wall whit the paining on.

I suppose that this is useful only to the few photographers that regularly shoots art-on-white-wall, but the idea of producing perfectly balanced captures may be worth the extra $50 or so.[/QUOTE]

My fear is that this plugin is changin the artwork as well; which is in my terms a nono...

best, Michael
 
It will do something to the artwork if the wall image is not clean. For instance, a black screw was left on. In that case the program considers that a "shadow" and compensates.

I have even light on normal artwork, but sometimes there is a situation when the room is too small, the work to big and/or they said we would shoot a small --two flash head -- painting and the art handler comes with this huge installation of two diptychs.

I don't know yet if I will buy it or not, at the moment I'm thinking about it.
 
Now, going back to LensFix and ImageAlign PRO http://www.grasshopperonline.com/

The first impression on LensFix is that it is really good that it had my Mamiya 35mm in the databank and that the program "knows" that I'm using a P 25 PhaseOne.

What I don't like is that there is no manual way to fine tone the effect as in ImageAlign, difficult to understand why because It has controls for everything else -- even vignette, that is not provided in ImageAlign.

LensFix is $39.95
ImageAlign $79
 
I'm testing exactly that on my poor old PowerBookG4 (1.5G Ram) It crashes every now an then, but the problem that I have is that the 45mm lens, the other wide angle and the one that is used for (assault) when cornered is not in the list so I'm not being able to correct an example photo...
 
ImageAlign-PRO.gif


This is a display capture of the ImageAlign PRO.

I like the fact that it is a plug in, so you save time not having to go from one stand alone app to PS.
What I don't like so much is that the interface sits in the middle of my screen and there seams to be no way to maximize it, in other words, it forces you to work at a distance.

It is pretty precise and relatively fast...
 
Ok, I need your help here, I'm confused.

This is in relation to LensFix

http://www.kekus.com/software/plugin.html

in this page I can see the interface of a LensFix that is different than the one that I downloaded for trial (LensFix CI (Beta) for OS X.4 and later)

I will paste the captures of the interfaces:
First: this is what I wish I had because i comes with lens database AND manual finetoon.
lensfix_main_large.jpg


this is the interface of the LensFix CI Beta

Are this two different LensFix programs and, where do I get the other one?? thanks
interface.JPEG
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
The first image shows the "Current LensFix and Panorama Tools Photoshop plug-ins", meanwhile the second image shows the beta of Lensfix CI, a standalone application.

If you haven't a powerfull graphic card, I'd rather go for the plugins, as they use the ressources of the cpu & RAM, and not the graphic card.

You' ll find both on the download-site at http://www.kekus.com/download/
 
Thank You, Thank You

THANK YOU

Sorry for the capital letters, but this is really good for me, it is a lens correction on PS with manual controls. I could not find this by myself in the site. I don't know why they have two different programs, but this is better, I think.

any way, thank you
 

Michael Fontana

pro member
Leonardo your' re welcome.

The plugins are older, they exist since Os-9, meanwhile the standalone app: the CI-version is in beta now.

FYI: If you've some "exotic" lens, not beeing in the database, you can calibrate it with PTMac, from the same site.
But, it's not alwith easy.

Or you' ve a look at Lenscorrector, from http://www.proxel.se
The calibrating is much easier with it.
 

Klaus Esser

pro member
ImageAlign-PRO.gif


This is a display capture of the ImageAlign PRO.

I like the fact that it is a plug in, so you save time not having to go from one stand alone app to PS.
What I don't like so much is that the interface sits in the middle of my screen and there seams to be no way to maximize it, in other words, it forces you to work at a distance.

It is pretty precise and relatively fast...

Leonardo - please correct me if i get this wrong: your picture seems to show that you didn´t shoot absolutely frontal, right? You seem to have a perspective-distortion there rather than a lens-distortion.
That´s two kinds of businesses.
But maybe my interpretation of the example is wrong . .

best, Klaus
 
You are correct, this is work by an artist named Marco Maggi, the title is "On / Off" or something like it, the drawing was done over a black matte surface and was only "on" when lighting was placed directly in front of it, so I had to shoot from the side so that the light (4 strobes bouncing on the galleries ceiling could reach it)

Sometimes you can't shoot directly at the work, and I understand what is barrel distortion as opposed to perspective. As a matter of fact, I corrected this image to PC and cropped it so that the client would not notice the barrel factor. This is like putting dust under the carpet, the gallery probably had not paid attention one way or the other, but since I am (paying) I wold have liked to run some LensFix, correct the PC, crop just outside of the work and sleep knowing how professional I am becoming.
 
...one more thing, this was shot with the Mamiya 45mm on a 645 AFD/P 25 PhaseOne, so the lens has a really small amount of lens barrel, but even my norma 80mm has some and it annoys me like Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), does to my wife.
 
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