HDR - Manually (with layers - not automatic)

The HDR (High Dynamic Range) process was designed to provide for a wider range of lights and darks in an image than a camera's senor, or film, can process. To do this the process uses a number of images (most often three to nine) and takes the darkest parts of the overexposed images, and the lightest parts of the underexpose images to create an image with a wide, or high, dynamic range. But this process doesn't work for every image. Sometimes you have to do it the old fashioned way (relatively speaking), and just work with the layers in Photoshop manually. This tutorial does just that.

Before I start with the tutorial, let me just say that I see a lot of HDR images that I don't really like. That's because the photographer uses the technique to create a dramatically different image from the one that was shot originally. While these may be very popular, I personally will go against the trend and use the process merely to create an image that is more like the original image that I saw in person (albeit there may be some slight addition of color and saturation). But overall, I'm not trying to create a piece of art. Instead I like the photograph itself (the topic, the composition, the color, etc) to become the piece of art.

I took a picture of a statue of Brigham Young in the Utah State Capitol building. I took the picture from the front with the statue facing the camera, but the windows let in a lot of light that spilled over onto the statue. On the images where the exposure was long enough to capture the shadows on the front of the statue (including his face), the windows were so bright the light overflowed onto the sides of the statue, so that even after the HDR process, parts of the statue were highlighted with light from the windows. So here is the process: (Note: In order to be successful with this process, you still need to follow the steps in my HDR post about how to capture the images used in this process.)

Note: The instructions will be for PCs. I know that most 'real' photographers, designers, and artists use MACs, but hey - not everyone. And while virtually all instructions you read will be from a MAC, with the PC equivalent in parentheses, I'm sure MAC users will able to follow these instructions with hints on how to translate.

1. Open up (img: 5058, 5050, 5051, 5056). I chose images that had the highlights in normal range (under exposed image), and detail in the shadows (over exposed image), and then a couple with middle range.









2. Start with the darkest image. Use Levels and/or curves to bring out the detail in the windows. The detail in the windows all that matters in this image (the other images will be used for the highlights). Other than the windows, the rest of the image will be dark, if not black, but that's OK at this point.



3. Make a copy of this image in a new window.
a. Flatten the image:
(Layer > Flatten Image).
b. Copy the image to the clipboard:
(Ctrl+A, selects the image, then Ctrl+C copies the image).
c. Create a new window:
Click on File > New
A new window will be created with the same dimensions as the one copied.
d. Paste the image into the new window: Ctrl+V

4. Select the next darkest image and copy that image and paste into the new 'untitled' image that you just created. You will now have a blank background layer, and a layer 1, and a layer 2.



In step 4, you copied that image and pasted it on top of layer 1. This means that Layer 2 covers up everything on the layers below it. What we are going to do is stack all of the images, from dark to light, on top of each other. Then starting with the second darkest image, we will erase the lightest parts of the image, then continue with the next one, so that we will what we will see when we finish is the lightest parts of the image from the darkest image (the windows from the darkest image so we can see all the detail in the lightest part of the image.), and the darkest parts of the image from the lightest image (the darkest parts of the statue from the lightest image so we can see all the detail in the shadows).

5. Create a mask for that layer:
a. Click on Layer 2. (You should have a background, and layer one is the darkest image.
b. Click on the 'Add Layer Mask' button at the bottom of the Layers panel. A blank mask is added to the right of the image in layer 2.
c. Press the letter D on your keyboard to make sure that the background colors for your new mask are set to the default (foreground = black, background = white)
d. Click on the blank mask in layer 2(click inside the mask box).

6. Erase all the darker areas over the windows, so that the detail in the windows from the darkest image shows through. Erase over the light fixtures at 50% strength.
a. Press the letter B to select the Brush Tool.
b. Select the appropriate brush size by pressing [ for a smaller, or [ for a larger brush size.
c. Hold down the mouse and drag over the areas that you want to mask (erase from that layer so the the layer beneath will show through).
In this case, when you erase the over exposed lights in layer two, the properly exposed light fixtures in layer one will become visible.


7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 for all of the rest of the images that you are working with. With each image, erase the darkest parts until you end up with the image as you want it.



This image shows the mask on Layer 3. If you select the mask, then click the \ key, the part that you have masked out (erased) will be red. If you erase too much, you can click on the letter X, and the brush will reverse the mask when you hold down the mouse and move it over what you just erased.



This image shows the mask on Layer 4. As you can see, I let a lot of the image from below come through.


This is the image using Photoshop Merge to HDR program. Notice the light overflowing from the window onto the statue.





This is the final image, using the Manual HDR process described in this Post. Click on image to view in larger size.