Three photos were taken without a tripod. They were loaded into easyHDR PRO and aligned
automatically to correct for small misalignment. Then they were combined into a HDR radiance map that was later tone mapped. The "vivid-colors"
preset was used as a base for the tone mapping settings - just the "Local contrast strength" was increased and the "saturation" was slightly reduced
as compared to the original values. No further post-processing was applied.
The Master of the Nets Garden in Suzhou, China. Three photos (AEB sequence) were taken without a tripod, however only two of them were
used: the under-exposed and the over-exposed. The images were loaded into easyHDR PRO and merged into High Dynamic Range radiance map using the
True-HDR method with "normal" selectivity. Settings very similar to the "dramatic-dark" preset were used. Increase of the "compression"
parameter allowed brightening of the entire photo without loosing color saturation. High "Local contrast strength" preserved the details,
while high "Local contrast highlights" parameter caused the photo to look dramatic.
Courtyard at the Laurentian Library in Florence. The goal was to achieve a very realistic result. HDR image was generated using the True-HDR
method with "normal" selectivity. Default tone mapping settings were changed a bit - gamma, saturation and local contrast's strength were slightly
increased. Also the white clipping point was moved further right in order to preserve the detail in the clouds.
Sunset over the Arno river in Florence - view from Ponte Santa Trinita. Three photos were taken without a tripod, so they must have been
aligned with easyHDR PRO manual alignment tool before being merged together. True-HDR method with "Normal" selectivity was used to generate
the HDR image, that was later tone mapped. The tone mapping settings were just slightly modified in respect to the defaults. The "compression"
was slightly increased to make the photo a bit brighter, without loosing color saturation. Also the "Local contrast strength" was increased
a bit to make the photo look more dramatic.
This example shows the advantages of using easyHDR PRO on a single RAW photo. Digital camera records the same dynamic range of the
scene regardless in what format it stores the image data - in JPEG or in RAW. However image in RAW format is better
for further processing as it contains more detail.
When the camera writes JPEG it compresses the recorded 12-bit (or better) data to fit it into 8-bit per channel format.
By doing this quantization losses occur and also typically some dynamic range is lost, because of the compression curve
characteristics that is used.
The photo on the left is a JPEG as it is produced by the camera. On the right side there is a RAW image after treatment in
easyHDR PRO 2. Note that there is more detail in clouds. The tone mapping settings were close to the default. Only the "compression"
parameter was a bit increased. Also the white clipping point was moved maximally to the right to preserve as much detail in the clouds
as it is possible.
EasyHDR PRO and its tone mapping operators can also be used to enhance single JPEG photos. A well exposed photo is enhanced in the example
above to bring out the detail in clouds and to make the colors more vivid. Default tone mapping settings were used.
In this example a single JPEG photo was enhanced using the tone mapping parameters similar to the "dramatic-dark" preset. Because of the
very dark area in the top of the image, where the signal to noise ratio is very low, the "Local contrast shadows" parameter
was increased, so the shadows were not brightened so much.
