Title • out of the darkness

One of the things I like most about HDR work, though this is also what makes it frustrating at times, is that there doesn't seem to be any reliable way of working out what the final image will look like. In this instance for example I had a more vibrant/brighter image in mind but the tone mapped image ended up looking a lot darker than I expected. This is partially a consequence of the fact that the lightest shot in the sequence wasn't quite light enough (i.e. it was underexposed by at least a stop), but I also think that the tone mapping algorithms in Photomatix Pro sometimes behave as though they had a mind of their own :)

Anyway, all that said I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out and would be interested to hear your thoughts.

If you're interested, the (rather uninteresting) metered exposure of the sequence is here:

.../archives/out_of_the_darkness.php

On a totally different matter ...

Those of you who subscribed to our online tutorials from the outset will know that the first one we posted was the Tonal Range and the Curves Tool tutorial. Well, there are now two more versions: one in catalan and the other in spanish, both of which were translated by Eduard J. (atzu). Over the coming months we're hoping to translate all the tutorials, but in the meanwhile, if you do know anyone who a) speaks catalan or spanish, and b) would like to know more about the Curves tool, you know where to send them :)

    Gamma tonal i l'eina Corbes (catalan translation)
    Gama tonal y la herramienta Curvas (spanish translation)