Free HDR plug-in for CS4 and CS5

Found this link in the latest issue of Photoshop user. ; Yes it is FREE.

http://www.georgedewolfe.com/freehdr.html

 

I'm liking it- thanks for the link!

I can't get the auto-allingnment to work in CS-5 so far though- with tripod shots it works great.

 

4 Shot merge I did last night- this is a set I could never seem to get right with CS5 alone. ; Click for Flickr to see the daytime version.


Tower HDR by ~Life by the Drop~, on Flickr

 

Glad the plug-in is working for everyone. ; Now I just need to upgrade from my ancient CS3!

 

I love this plug-in! ; I've been using it exclusively. ; Thanks again!

By the way- I got around the alingment issue on the handheld shots by letting CS5 do the alignment first. ; File> Scripts> Load Files Into Stack


Morning Commute by ~Life by the Drop~, on Flickr


Sunlight on the #5 by ~Life by the Drop~, on Flickr


AK Gear 3x HDR by ~Life by the Drop~, on Flickr


Tree of LIfe 3x HDR by ~Life by the Drop~, on Flickr


American Adventure 3xHDR by ~Life by the Drop~, on Flickr


Epcot 3x HDR by ~Life by the Drop~, on Flickr

 

All are from 3x brackets -2/0/+2

The Tree of Life shot is most impressive to me because it was a gray drab night and it just pulled color out of nowhere.

The SSE you probably don't like the Topaz processing after-the-fact- not the HDR itself. ; The water is so bright in that frame compared to the top of the fountain and the trees and even a few stars I think it's pretty impressive what this free plugin can do. ;

 

I'm also loving this plugin. I can't believe a free plugin outperforms the built in HDR in CS5 (at least for me!). Here are a couple of my results:


Eat At Tusker House! by Tom Bricker (WDWFigment), on Flickr


Celebrate the Future Hand in Hand by Tom Bricker (WDWFigment), on Flickr

However, like Jeff, I also cannot get the auto-alignment to work. I get some error message (can't remember off the top of my head). I don't know why I didn't think to just let PS do that first. Will try that tonight with another batch.

 

Outperforms it by a mile for me. ; I had horrible luck using CS5 alone.

 

Totally agree on both counts. The best part about this plugin is it quickly produces realistic looking HDR. From there, if you want something more dream-like, you have the option to edit how you please. In my mind, that's the intuitive way to do things. ; When I start with Photomatix, I often get something with a more processed look, and I have to mess with its many sliders to get that reigned in a bit. ; As for CS5, it's really hit-or-miss. Sometimes the results look great quickly, sometimes they're a mess.

It's really annoying that Nikon doesn't allow for more than 3 bracketed exposures on the D7000. However, given its dynamic range, in 95% of scenarios, that's plenty. I fear that if I had the option for 7 exposures, I'd over-use it, and waste time (during night shots) and memory card space. ; I would at least like the option, though.

 

For me a lot of times the CS5 'preview' would look good then once it rendered the final merged image it was horrible and nothing like the preview I had 'worked' on at all.

Now that I finally have an HDR engine that works for me I'm going back thru two years of D700 shots I did with 5x 7x and even 9x brackets and still pretty much just picking out the best of the bunch and a +2 and -2 exposure and going from there. ; Of course more is always better but I don't find my latest D7000 3x bracket sets to be much of a hindrance to work with unless the initial exposure is off.

 

If the 3 frame bracket isn't enough, why can't you just use the exposure compensation button and dial in as many different versions as you want? Not quite as convenient or quick, but i don't see why it wouldn't work. The camera is already locked down on the tripod, and you can use the alignment functions in PShop or whatever to handle any slight movements that still might occur.

Erich

 

I was thinking dialing in each individual exposure, but your way is definitely faster.

Erich