HDR

[PGTips91]

I've just had my attention directed towards Luminance HDR, or Qtpfsgui as it is otherwise known as.

This is what they say about it : --

About

Luminance HDR is an open source graphical user interface application that aims to provide a workflow for HDR imaging.
Supported HDR formats:

    * OpenEXR (extension: exr)
    * Radiance RGBE (extension: hdr)
    * Tiff formats: 16bit, 32bit (float) and LogLuv (extension: tiff)
    * Raw image formats (extension: various)
    * PFS native format (extension: pfs)

Supported LDR formats:

    * JPEG, PNG, PPM, PBM, TIFF(8 bit)

Supported features:

    * Create an HDR file from a set of images (formats: JPEG, TIFF 8bit and 16bit, RAW) of the same scene taken at different exposure setting.
    * Save load HDR images.
    * Rotate, resize and crop HDR images.
    * Tonemap HDR images.
    * Copy exif data between sets of images.
    * Supports internationalization.

Luminance HDR is available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, see Download below.
A wiki space provided by Sourceforge acts a central place for all the documentation.
A great deal of discussions and images related to Luminance HDR can be found on flickr.
If you want to contribute translating Luminance HDR for your language here's an howto that explains the procedure to become a maintainer.

There is a tutorial about using this tool in the PCLinuxOS Magazine, here HDR Photography With Qtfpsgui & Gimp.

I have to thank gemlog of the Linux Internationals Forum for this information.

Paul

[Jaws]

Actually Paul, I was going to post about that program but I found a much better tutorial than what you read there. Will post latter.

[PGTips91]

Actually Paul, I was going to post about that program but I found a much better tutorial than what you read there. Will post latter.

Will look forward to that.

Meanwhile, I started trying to do this entirely in the GIMP, without any success so far. Here was my subject matter : --



[First three shots]

Of course, these photos were taken hand-held, so they would be hard to use any way.

Paul

[Jaws]

This is the site I mention in the previous post.

http://garmahis.com/tutorials/hdr-tutorial-free-software/

This site has a pretty good explanation of the algorithms and the parameter of each one.

http://osp.wikidot.com/parameters-for-photographers

You probably don’t want to go too crazy with the setting unless you’re looking for an unrealistic image. But some are very well done and the resulting photos are stunning.

Here is a site you can practice with as there are 3 photos examples with different exposure times for you to play with and get to know the software.

http://www.hdrsoft.com/examples.html

Towards the middle of this page you get a good 10 step summary of how the actually take the 3 photos for use with HDR without a tripod.
“OK, so how do you do it?”

http://www.idigitalphoto.com/high-dynamic-range-photography-explained/

This site doesn’t use ?Qtpfsgui but shows that even a point and shoot camera can be used for HDR.

http://abduzeedo.com/how-create-hdr-photos-hdrphotomatix-tutorial

Again this site doesn’t use ?Qtpfsgui but show the absolutely fabulous photos you can create with HDR. BTW, I’m using the blue mountain water scene for my wallpaper.

http://www.stuckincustoms.com/hdr-tutorial/

This site has over 11,000 HDR photos for your perusal.

http://hdrcreme.com/top-rated

Have fun.

[rji]

Thanks for those

btw:  

Try to find something to lean on, or rest your camera on. Compose your shot and check it’s in focus. If you can’t find something to rest the camera on, and have only an LCD screen on your camera then: frame up, hold the camera steady and bring your face against the camera to steady it.
Now breathe out gently, and before you take the in-breath, squeeeeeeeze the shutter button gently, and hold down until all three exposures click off.

from http://www.idigitalphoto.com/high-dynamic-range-photography-explained/

Is good advice for any picture that requires a long exposure (Like an over-exposed, silky smooth waterfall) when you don't have a tripod with you.

[dubigrasu]

For those interested in HDR there is also "enfuse". I used it from  the command line but recently some GUI were made for it, such as KimageFuser.

http://panorama.dyndns.org/index.php?lang=en&subject=KImageFuser&texttag=KImagefuser

http://wiki.panotools.org/Enfuse

Give it a try.

[Jaws]

Thanks Dubigrasu, surprised I didn’t run across that app in my research. The choices Linux have been coming up with is good to see.

Cheers

[janvl]

Hi,

I know the programmer, he made the HDR easy to use in fotoxx,
packages are available for several distros.

http://kornelix.squarespace.com/fotoxx/

Give it a try!

Kind regards,
Jan

[Jaws]

Hmm, yet another app that does HDR that I missed. That looks very interesting because of all the other functionality it has.

Very good, Jan, Thanks

[PGTips91]

For those interested in HDR there is also "enfuse". I used it from  the command line but recently some GUI were made for it, such as KimageFuser.

http://panorama.dyndns.org/index.php?lang=en&subject=KImageFuser&texttag=KImagefuser

http://wiki.panotools.org/Enfuse

Give it a try.

Enfuse is also incorporated into Hugin. It is used there to automatically adjust the exposures of photos incorporated into a panorama, but it could be used just as easily to blend differing exposures of the same scene. I'll have to have a try and see how good the results are. Having one tool to do both actions could save on the learning curve.

Paul

[janvl]

Hi Jaws,

don't thank me, Thank Mike!
I will try to get him to this Forum, it could give him some ideas . . . .

Kind regards,
Jan

[Jaws]

OK here you go, thanks Mike for fotoxx!!! I've checked it out and this is my new dream app for photo editing and HDR, period.

Works fast, easy to use, and a great user interface. I haven’t even scratched the surface of all the processes this program can perform, but it looks like it’s going to be a pleasure to use.

The example page that highlights the features is awesome. Instead of rambling on, just check out this page...

http://kornelix.squarespace.com/fotoxx-gallery/

... it looks like Mike threw everything in, plus the kitchen sink.

I can’t thank you enough Jan, for bringing this app to our attention.

Cheers

**EDIT** I went ahead and renamed the thread HDR to reflect that it's not just about one app anymore.

[Jaws]

Some good info on HDR and why not to over do it.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/hdr-plea.shtml

[rji]

This quote from that link made me smile:  

"you just load your images in the software, press a button, and that's it".

The people using this argument have apparently forgotten that to take photographs "you just point your camera and press the button."  

Anywho, the biggest use of HDR is image based lighting for 3D renderings that are meant to be composited in live action sequences, like those giant transforming robots from Hasbro that continually attack Shia LaBeouf for some reason.  Currently none of the open source 3D programs fully support HDR floating point images.

Edit:  I take that back, Aqsis supports 32-bit IEEE float tiff and exr materials it just doesn't output 32-bit floating point images. 

Blender barfs on 32-bit IEEE float tiff but does accept 32-bit exr somewhat gracefully so HDR environment maps used for image based lighting need to be in exr format if you are using Aqsis as a renderer.

Pixie does not accept exr materials and because of blender's 16-bit tiff limitation, your image based lighting is limited to 16-bit environment maps, but only if you want a preview from within blender.  32-bit IEEE float materials are still exported properly by mosaic.py and accepted gracefully by Pixie.

So basically blender has issues with 32-bit IEEE float tiff used in materials, not the open source renderers.