I have photoshop CS2 and am trying to use the merge to HDR function as described in this tutorial- http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hdr.shtml
I took one raw image, and processed the raw file to -2,-1,0,+1,+2 exposures and saved them as JPEG files. I then opened those 5 files (also tried with 3) as described in the tutorial. It opened the files and eventually a message came up saying something like, "not enough dynamic range available". After clicking OK, the processed stopped.
So my questions:
Am i doing something wrong?
Do i need a specific plug in that i dont have to run this function?
Am I going about the process correctly by processing the raw file to 5 exposures?
Photoshop reads the EXIF data of the file, so a manual tweak of -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 on the exposure compensation during RAW conversion isn't going to do anything at all, and Photoshop will still think you're trying to merge 5 files of the same exposure, which is what it means by "not enough dynamic range".
You need 5 files that were actually taken at different exposure compensation intervals.
The best you can do now is layer masks on the 5 "pushed" and "pulled" files you have, which to me looks better anyway (YMMV).
I got around this problem by saving the files without the EXIF information and then inputting it manually when Photoshop asks.
The result of course isn't a true HDR as the result is no different than taking one exposure into photoshop and masking and pulling and pushing parts of the photo however sometimes it works out to be more convenient.
yes, there is a reason Photoshop is complaining. you are using the HDR procedure and not getting any additional dynamic range. all you are doing is tonemapping a single RAW file and that can be done much more easily by importing as 16-bit, converting to 32-bit, and then back to 16-bit. Merge to HDR without multiple actual exposures just wastes time.
Herb...
Sn0man wrote:
Am I going about the process correctly by processing the raw file to 5 exposures?
