A test and need for advice

Here in Auckland we are just coming out of winter in the easrly days
of spring. In the last two months we have had as much rain as Houston
has had in two days but we are fortunate that it rains into the sea on
each side of us. We are starting to get bright clear days with harsh
light which seemed to me to be ideal to try out Photoshop CC's HDR
capability (never having used it before). So, taking the local bus
(free to me) I finished up at Victoria park on the outskirts of the
CBD. Harsh light, naked deciduous trees and almost no wind. It seemed
ideal.

I was experimenting to hell so I set the D750 to Auto ISO, f8,
exposure bracketing in groups of 3 at +1EV, 0EV and -1EV. I hadn't
realised it but the exposure was still on -0.7EV from a previous
shoot. The lens was the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The camera settled on an
ISO of about 1250 and a shutter speed of around 1/1000sec which suited
my shaky hands, and at continuos low I fired of bursts of three.

Everything I have read about HDR has told me that it is essential to
mount the camera on a tripod but I have had success in the past with
hand held HDR using Paint Shop Pro so had deliberately decided to not
use a tripod on this occasion.

The images were processed in Photoshop's 'Merge to HDR Pro' and saved
as PSDs. The PSDs were lightly edited using the ACR filter and
received sharpening from Smart Sharpening. I also removed perspective
distortion. Here is a typical result
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dif31zuit3zv3vp/HDR1.jpg?dl=0

The old building in the corner was extremely harshly lit and it could
really have used a wider range of bracketing, but still it worked. I
was most impressed by the resolved detail in the branches and twigs of
the tree. Photoshop has done a very good job of aligning three
slightly different images.

I walked around the park taking a number of shots and as I got to the
end I had a bright idea. Could I construct a panorama from a number of
hand-held HDR shots? So I stood there at the end and, swivelling
around my hips, I took six sets of HDR shots. I processed them as
above and then put them through Photomerge. I ticked all the boxes and
the resulting entirely hand-held HDR panorama may be found at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjschkqxtl...rama1.jpg?dl=0
It's best to view it at full screen if you can.

I have one problem and at the moment I am not quite sure how to deal
with it. You will see that the image of the park gives the impression
that it is slightly dish shaped. What is the best way to flatten it?

The dishing may be due to the photographs being taken at 24mm. The
workflow I followed did not seem to enable me to make a correction for
lens distortion and this might be the root cause. I will continue to
experiment.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On Aug 29, 2017, Eric Stevens wrote
(in ):

Here in Auckland we are just coming out of winter in the easrly days
of spring. In the last two months we have had as much rain as Houston
has had in two days but we are fortunate that it rains into the sea on
each side of us. We are starting to get bright clear days with harsh
light which seemed to me to be ideal to try out Photoshop CC's HDR
capability (never having used it before). So, taking the local bus
(free to me) I finished up at Victoria park on the outskirts of the
CBD. Harsh light, naked deciduous trees and almost no wind. It seemed
ideal.

I was experimenting to hell so I set the D750 to Auto ISO, f8,
exposure bracketing in groups of 3 at +1EV, 0EV and -1EV. I hadn't
realised it but the exposure was still on -0.7EV from a previous
shoot.

The -0.7EV shouldn’t be too much of an issue, you will still end up with a
3 shot bracket with a 2 EV range. However, when shooting deliberate HDR
brackets Auto ISO can screw things up adding in an additional factor besides
the EV bracket. There is the potential to neutralize the EV bracket. So it is
best to settle on a set ISO. I have made the same goofs, and auto ISO is the
most problematic for HDR brackets. An EV correction to the entire bracket
group is not an issue.

The lens was the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The camera settled on an
ISO of about 1250 and a shutter speed of around 1/1000sec which suited
my shaky hands, and at continuos low I fired of bursts of three.

Everything I have read about HDR has told me that it is essential to
mount the camera on a tripod but I have had success in the past with
hand held HDR using Paint Shop Pro so had deliberately decided to not
use a tripod on this occasion.

A tripod helps, but if you are confident with your hand holding technique you
should be OK.

The images were processed in Photoshop's 'Merge to HDR Pro' and saved
as PSDs. The PSDs were lightly edited using the ACR filter and
received sharpening from Smart Sharpening. I also removed perspective
distortion. Here is a typical result
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dif31zuit3zv3vp/HDR1.jpg?dl=0

Personally, when using either PS/ACR or LR to create HDR images, the only
ACR, or LR adjustment I make for the RAW files is lens profile correction. In
LR I sync this and only then do I select the Merge to HDR function. That
gives me a 32-bit DNG returned to LR for that adjustment. It becomes a tad
more complicated in PS, but you will still have a 32-bit file to adjust.

The old building in the corner was extremely harshly lit and it could
really have used a wider range of bracketing, but still it worked. I
was most impressed by the resolved detail in the branches and twigs of
the tree. Photoshop has done a very good job of aligning three
slightly different images.

I think you will get closer to what you want with a 5 shot bracket -2, -1, 0,
+1, +2 EV

I walked around the park taking a number of shots and as I got to the
end I had a bright idea. Could I construct a panorama from a number of
hand-held HDR shots? So I stood there at the end and, swivelling
around my hips, I took six sets of HDR shots. I processed them as
above and then put them through Photomerge. I ticked all the boxes and
the resulting entirely hand-held HDR panorama may be found at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjschkqxtl...rama1.jpg?dl=0
It's best to view it at full screen if you can.

That is pretty good. Nice work.

I have one problem and at the moment I am not quite sure how to deal
with it. You will see that the image of the park gives the impression
that it is slightly dish shaped. What is the best way to flatten it?

Consider your problem feature, the shadow of the structure behind you. You
probably should have positioned yourself 10-20 feet further forward to negate
that shadow.

The dishing may be due to the photographs being taken at 24mm.

Perhaps, 35-50mm for a 6 shot pano would be better.

The workflow I followed did not seem to enable me to make a correction for
lens distortion and this might be the root cause. I will continue to
experiment.

There are two ways to deal with HDR panos:
1: Stitch the lens corrected/profiled 32-bit HDR image files into the pano,
and only then apply adjustments to the result.

2: Create 3, or more individual panos to reflect the exposure bracket, and
then merge those to HDR to adjust when complete. Just remember to make the
lens profile correction to each component file as a starting point.

--

Regards,
Savageduck

On 8/30/2017 1:34 AM, Savageduck wrote:
On Aug 29, 2017, Eric Stevens wrote
(in ):

Here in Auckland we are just coming out of winter in the easrly days
of spring. In the last two months we have had as much rain as Houston
has had in two days but we are fortunate that it rains into the sea on
each side of us. We are starting to get bright clear days with harsh
light which seemed to me to be ideal to try out Photoshop CC's HDR
capability (never having used it before). So, taking the local bus
(free to me) I finished up at Victoria park on the outskirts of the
CBD. Harsh light, naked deciduous trees and almost no wind. It seemed
ideal.

I was experimenting to hell so I set the D750 to Auto ISO, f8,
exposure bracketing in groups of 3 at +1EV, 0EV and -1EV. I hadn't
realised it but the exposure was still on -0.7EV from a previous
shoot.

The -0.7EV shouldn’t be too much of an issue, you will still end up with a
3 shot bracket with a 2 EV range. However, when shooting deliberate HDR
brackets Auto ISO can screw things up adding in an additional factor besides
the EV bracket. There is the potential to neutralize the EV bracket. So it is
best to settle on a set ISO. I have made the same goofs, and auto ISO is the
most problematic for HDR brackets. An EV correction to the entire bracket
group is not an issue.

The lens was the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The camera settled on an
ISO of about 1250 and a shutter speed of around 1/1000sec which suited
my shaky hands, and at continuos low I fired of bursts of three.

Everything I have read about HDR has told me that it is essential to
mount the camera on a tripod but I have had success in the past with
hand held HDR using Paint Shop Pro so had deliberately decided to not
use a tripod on this occasion.

A tripod helps, but if you are confident with your hand holding technique you
should be OK.

The images were processed in Photoshop's 'Merge to HDR Pro' and saved
as PSDs. The PSDs were lightly edited using the ACR filter and
received sharpening from Smart Sharpening. I also removed perspective
distortion. Here is a typical result
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dif31zuit3zv3vp/HDR1.jpg?dl=0

Personally, when using either PS/ACR or LR to create HDR images, the only
ACR, or LR adjustment I make for the RAW files is lens profile correction. In
LR I sync this and only then do I select the Merge to HDR function. That
gives me a 32-bit DNG returned to LR for that adjustment. It becomes a tad
more complicated in PS, but you will still have a 32-bit file to adjust.

The old building in the corner was extremely harshly lit and it could
really have used a wider range of bracketing, but still it worked. I
was most impressed by the resolved detail in the branches and twigs of
the tree. Photoshop has done a very good job of aligning three
slightly different images.

I think you will get closer to what you want with a 5 shot bracket -2, -1, 0,
+1, +2 EV

I walked around the park taking a number of shots and as I got to the
end I had a bright idea. Could I construct a panorama from a number of
hand-held HDR shots? So I stood there at the end and, swivelling
around my hips, I took six sets of HDR shots. I processed them as
above and then put them through Photomerge. I ticked all the boxes and
the resulting entirely hand-held HDR panorama may be found at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjschkqxtl...rama1.jpg?dl=0
It's best to view it at full screen if you can.

That is pretty good. Nice work.

I have one problem and at the moment I am not quite sure how to deal
with it. You will see that the image of the park gives the impression
that it is slightly dish shaped. What is the best way to flatten it?

Consider your problem feature, the shadow of the structure behind you. You
probably should have positioned yourself 10-20 feet further forward to negate
that shadow.

The dishing may be due to the photographs being taken at 24mm.

Perhaps, 35-50mm for a 6 shot pano would be better.

The workflow I followed did not seem to enable me to make a correction for
lens distortion and this might be the root cause. I will continue to
experiment.

There are two ways to deal with HDR panos:
1: Stitch the lens corrected/profiled 32-bit HDR image files into the pano,
and only then apply adjustments to the result.

2: Create 3, or more individual panos to reflect the exposure bracket, and
then merge those to HDR to adjust when complete. Just remember to make the
lens profile correction to each component file as a starting point.


The profile correction is perhaps the most important step. Since Eric
has DXO, it should be easy to do.

--
PeterN

On Aug 29, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 8/30/2017 1:34 AM, Savageduck wrote:
On Aug 29, 2017, Eric Stevens wrote
(in ):

Here in Auckland we are just coming out of winter in the easrly days
of spring. In the last two months we have had as much rain as Houston
has had in two days but we are fortunate that it rains into the sea on
each side of us. We are starting to get bright clear days with harsh
light which seemed to me to be ideal to try out Photoshop CC's HDR
capability (never having used it before). So, taking the local bus
(free to me) I finished up at Victoria park on the outskirts of the
CBD. Harsh light, naked deciduous trees and almost no wind. It seemed
ideal.

I was experimenting to hell so I set the D750 to Auto ISO, f8,
exposure bracketing in groups of 3 at +1EV, 0EV and -1EV. I hadn't
realised it but the exposure was still on -0.7EV from a previous
shoot.

The -0.7EV shouldn’t be too much of an issue, you will still end up with a
3 shot bracket with a 2 EV range. However, when shooting deliberate HDR
brackets Auto ISO can screw things up adding in an additional factor besides
the EV bracket. There is the potential to neutralize the EV bracket. So it
is
best to settle on a set ISO. I have made the same goofs, and auto ISO is the
most problematic for HDR brackets. An EV correction to the entire bracket
group is not an issue.

The lens was the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The camera settled on an
ISO of about 1250 and a shutter speed of around 1/1000sec which suited
my shaky hands, and at continuos low I fired of bursts of three.

Everything I have read about HDR has told me that it is essential to
mount the camera on a tripod but I have had success in the past with
hand held HDR using Paint Shop Pro so had deliberately decided to not
use a tripod on this occasion.

A tripod helps, but if you are confident with your hand holding technique
you
should be OK.

The images were processed in Photoshop's 'Merge to HDR Pro' and saved
as PSDs. The PSDs were lightly edited using the ACR filter and
received sharpening from Smart Sharpening. I also removed perspective
distortion. Here is a typical result
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dif31zuit3zv3vp/HDR1.jpg?dl=0

Personally, when using either PS/ACR or LR to create HDR images, the only
ACR, or LR adjustment I make for the RAW files is lens profile correction.
In
LR I sync this and only then do I select the Merge to HDR function. That
gives me a 32-bit DNG returned to LR for that adjustment. It becomes a tad
more complicated in PS, but you will still have a 32-bit file to adjust.

The old building in the corner was extremely harshly lit and it could
really have used a wider range of bracketing, but still it worked. I
was most impressed by the resolved detail in the branches and twigs of
the tree. Photoshop has done a very good job of aligning three
slightly different images.

I think you will get closer to what you want with a 5 shot bracket -2, -1,
0,
+1, +2 EV

I walked around the park taking a number of shots and as I got to the
end I had a bright idea. Could I construct a panorama from a number of
hand-held HDR shots? So I stood there at the end and, swivelling
around my hips, I took six sets of HDR shots. I processed them as
above and then put them through Photomerge. I ticked all the boxes and
the resulting entirely hand-held HDR panorama may be found at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjschkqxtl...rama1.jpg?dl=0
It's best to view it at full screen if you can.

That is pretty good. Nice work.

I have one problem and at the moment I am not quite sure how to deal
with it. You will see that the image of the park gives the impression
that it is slightly dish shaped. What is the best way to flatten it?

Consider your problem feature, the shadow of the structure behind you. You
probably should have positioned yourself 10-20 feet further forward to
negate
that shadow.

The dishing may be due to the photographs being taken at 24mm.

Perhaps, 35-50mm for a 6 shot pano would be better.

The workflow I followed did not seem to enable me to make a correction for
lens distortion and this might be the root cause. I will continue to
experiment.

There are two ways to deal with HDR panos:
1: Stitch the lens corrected/profiled 32-bit HDR image files into the pano,
and only then apply adjustments to the result.

2: Create 3, or more individual panos to reflect the exposure bracket, and
then merge those to HDR to adjust when complete. Just remember to make the
lens profile correction to each component file as a starting point.

The profile correction is perhaps the most important step. Since Eric
has DXO, it should be easy to do.

Since he is doing his HDR, and Pano merge work in PS/ACR, or LR it might be
best to make this an all Adobe exercise, and just as easy as using DxO.

--

Regards,
Savageduck

On 30/08/2017 05:39, Eric Stevens asked for advice
[....]
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dif31zuit3zv3vp/HDR1.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjschkqxtl...rama1.jpg?dl=0

Not advice .... just a comment.

*Great pictures*, Eric! Thanks for sharing them! :-)

--
Regards,
David B.

On Tue, 29 Aug 2017 22:34:47 -0700, Savageduck
wrote:

On Aug 29, 2017, Eric Stevens wrote
(in ):

Here in Auckland we are just coming out of winter in the easrly days
of spring. In the last two months we have had as much rain as Houston
has had in two days but we are fortunate that it rains into the sea on
each side of us. We are starting to get bright clear days with harsh
light which seemed to me to be ideal to try out Photoshop CC's HDR
capability (never having used it before). So, taking the local bus
(free to me) I finished up at Victoria park on the outskirts of the
CBD. Harsh light, naked deciduous trees and almost no wind. It seemed
ideal.

I was experimenting to hell so I set the D750 to Auto ISO, f8,
exposure bracketing in groups of 3 at +1EV, 0EV and -1EV. I hadn't
realised it but the exposure was still on -0.7EV from a previous
shoot.

The -0.7EV shouldn’t be too much of an issue, you will still end up with a
3 shot bracket with a 2 EV range. However, when shooting deliberate HDR
brackets Auto ISO can screw things up adding in an additional factor besides
the EV bracket. There is the potential to neutralize the EV bracket. So it is
best to settle on a set ISO. I have made the same goofs, and auto ISO is the
most problematic for HDR brackets. An EV correction to the entire bracket
group is not an issue.

I was aware of all that.

The lens was the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The camera settled on an
ISO of about 1250 and a shutter speed of around 1/1000sec which suited
my shaky hands, and at continuos low I fired of bursts of three.

Everything I have read about HDR has told me that it is essential to
mount the camera on a tripod but I have had success in the past with
hand held HDR using Paint Shop Pro so had deliberately decided to not
use a tripod on this occasion.

A tripod helps, but if you are confident with your hand holding technique you
should be OK.

My hands are far from good but 1/1000 sec helps :-)

The images were processed in Photoshop's 'Merge to HDR Pro' and saved
as PSDs. The PSDs were lightly edited using the ACR filter and
received sharpening from Smart Sharpening. I also removed perspective
distortion. Here is a typical result
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dif31zuit3zv3vp/HDR1.jpg?dl=0

Personally, when using either PS/ACR or LR to create HDR images, the only
ACR, or LR adjustment I make for the RAW files is lens profile correction. In
LR I sync this and only then do I select the Merge to HDR function. That
gives me a 32-bit DNG returned to LR for that adjustment. It becomes a tad
more complicated in PS, but you will still have a 32-bit file to adjust.

OK, but I wasn't using LR.

The old building in the corner was extremely harshly lit and it could
really have used a wider range of bracketing, but still it worked. I
was most impressed by the resolved detail in the branches and twigs of
the tree. Photoshop has done a very good job of aligning three
slightly different images.

I think you will get closer to what you want with a 5 shot bracket -2, -1, 0,
+1, +2 EV

That's what I would ordinarily do but, this time, I was exploring the
abilities of PS.

I walked around the park taking a number of shots and as I got to the
end I had a bright idea. Could I construct a panorama from a number of
hand-held HDR shots? So I stood there at the end and, swivelling
around my hips, I took six sets of HDR shots. I processed them as
above and then put them through Photomerge. I ticked all the boxes and
the resulting entirely hand-held HDR panorama may be found at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjschkqxtl...rama1.jpg?dl=0
It's best to view it at full screen if you can.

That is pretty good. Nice work.

I have one problem and at the moment I am not quite sure how to deal
with it. You will see that the image of the park gives the impression
that it is slightly dish shaped. What is the best way to flatten it?

Consider your problem feature, the shadow of the structure behind you. You
probably should have positioned yourself 10-20 feet further forward to negate
that shadow.

The dishing may be due to the photographs being taken at 24mm.

Perhaps, 35-50mm for a 6 shot pano would be better.

The workflow I followed did not seem to enable me to make a correction for
lens distortion and this might be the root cause. I will continue to
experiment.

There are two ways to deal with HDR panos:
1: Stitch the lens corrected/profiled 32-bit HDR image files into the pano,
and only then apply adjustments to the result.

2: Create 3, or more individual panos to reflect the exposure bracket, and
then merge those to HDR to adjust when complete. Just remember to make the
lens profile correction to each component file as a starting point.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens

On 30/08/2017 2:39 @wiz, Eric Stevens wrote:
Here in Auckland we are just coming out of winter in the easrly days
of spring. In the last two months we have had as much rain as Houston

Auckland? Man, that is on my to-do list. I went around South Island
on a cruise earlier this year and the place is mind-blowing! Truly the
8th wonder of the world!

Some of the photos I took of Milford and Doubtful Sounds left my Swedish
cousins speechless, and they are used to Norway's fjords!
Dunedin, Wellington and Picton were AMAZING. Weta Cave Studios in
Wellingtom provided me with some incredible LotR-like shots!

And Akaroa? OMG, a harbour inside an extinct volcano caldera that
dwarfs a 360metre long ship into runabout size?

I don't think I closed my mouth until we left back to Sydney!
What an incredibly beautiful part of the world. You guys are truly
blessed to live in such a stunning country!




The dishing may be due to the photographs being taken at 24mm. The
workflow I followed did not seem to enable me to make a correction for
lens distortion and this might be the root cause. I will continue to
experiment.

I get that a bit with the 12-40/2.8 Pro Zuiko on the EM5M2, raw files.
The auto correction in Corel's Aftershot Pro 3 gets rid of most of it,
but for the really bad ones I need to touch it up with one of their
extra included plugins, zPerspector.

On 30/08/2017 12:20, Noons wrote:

You guys are truly blessed to live in such a stunning country!

I liked your comments!

My family and I lived in Australia (Nowra, NSW) for two years when I was
'borrowed' by the RAN, but sadly were never able to get to New Zealand.

Which country do YOU live in, 'Noons'?

--
David B.

On 8/30/2017 1:56 AM, Savageduck wrote:
On Aug 29, 2017, PeterN wrote
(in article ):

On 8/30/2017 1:34 AM, Savageduck wrote:
On Aug 29, 2017, Eric Stevens wrote
(in ):

Here in Auckland we are just coming out of winter in the easrly days
of spring. In the last two months we have had as much rain as Houston
has had in two days but we are fortunate that it rains into the sea on
each side of us. We are starting to get bright clear days with harsh
light which seemed to me to be ideal to try out Photoshop CC's HDR
capability (never having used it before). So, taking the local bus
(free to me) I finished up at Victoria park on the outskirts of the
CBD. Harsh light, naked deciduous trees and almost no wind. It seemed
ideal.

I was experimenting to hell so I set the D750 to Auto ISO, f8,
exposure bracketing in groups of 3 at +1EV, 0EV and -1EV. I hadn't
realised it but the exposure was still on -0.7EV from a previous
shoot.

The -0.7EV shouldn’t be too much of an issue, you will still end up with a
3 shot bracket with a 2 EV range. However, when shooting deliberate HDR
brackets Auto ISO can screw things up adding in an additional factor besides
the EV bracket. There is the potential to neutralize the EV bracket. So it
is
best to settle on a set ISO. I have made the same goofs, and auto ISO is the
most problematic for HDR brackets. An EV correction to the entire bracket
group is not an issue.

The lens was the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The camera settled on an
ISO of about 1250 and a shutter speed of around 1/1000sec which suited
my shaky hands, and at continuos low I fired of bursts of three.

Everything I have read about HDR has told me that it is essential to
mount the camera on a tripod but I have had success in the past with
hand held HDR using Paint Shop Pro so had deliberately decided to not
use a tripod on this occasion.

A tripod helps, but if you are confident with your hand holding technique
you
should be OK.

The images were processed in Photoshop's 'Merge to HDR Pro' and saved
as PSDs. The PSDs were lightly edited using the ACR filter and
received sharpening from Smart Sharpening. I also removed perspective
distortion. Here is a typical result
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dif31zuit3zv3vp/HDR1.jpg?dl=0

Personally, when using either PS/ACR or LR to create HDR images, the only
ACR, or LR adjustment I make for the RAW files is lens profile correction.
In
LR I sync this and only then do I select the Merge to HDR function. That
gives me a 32-bit DNG returned to LR for that adjustment. It becomes a tad
more complicated in PS, but you will still have a 32-bit file to adjust.

The old building in the corner was extremely harshly lit and it could
really have used a wider range of bracketing, but still it worked. I
was most impressed by the resolved detail in the branches and twigs of
the tree. Photoshop has done a very good job of aligning three
slightly different images.

I think you will get closer to what you want with a 5 shot bracket -2, -1,
0,
+1, +2 EV

I walked around the park taking a number of shots and as I got to the
end I had a bright idea. Could I construct a panorama from a number of
hand-held HDR shots? So I stood there at the end and, swivelling
around my hips, I took six sets of HDR shots. I processed them as
above and then put them through Photomerge. I ticked all the boxes and
the resulting entirely hand-held HDR panorama may be found at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjschkqxtl...rama1.jpg?dl=0
It's best to view it at full screen if you can.

That is pretty good. Nice work.

I have one problem and at the moment I am not quite sure how to deal
with it. You will see that the image of the park gives the impression
that it is slightly dish shaped. What is the best way to flatten it?

Consider your problem feature, the shadow of the structure behind you. You
probably should have positioned yourself 10-20 feet further forward to
negate
that shadow.

The dishing may be due to the photographs being taken at 24mm.

Perhaps, 35-50mm for a 6 shot pano would be better.

The workflow I followed did not seem to enable me to make a correction for
lens distortion and this might be the root cause. I will continue to
experiment.

There are two ways to deal with HDR panos:
1: Stitch the lens corrected/profiled 32-bit HDR image files into the pano,
and only then apply adjustments to the result.

2: Create 3, or more individual panos to reflect the exposure bracket, and
then merge those to HDR to adjust when complete. Just remember to make the
lens profile correction to each component file as a starting point.

The profile correction is perhaps the most important step. Since Eric
has DXO, it should be easy to do.

Since he is doing his HDR, and Pano merge work in PS/ACR, or LR it might be
best to make this an all Adobe exercise, and just as easy as using DxO.


Whatever works.

--
PeterN

On 08/30/2017 12:39 AM, Eric Stevens wrote:
Here in Auckland we are just coming out of winter in the easrly days
of spring. In the last two months we have had as much rain as Houston
has had in two days but we are fortunate that it rains into the sea on
each side of us. We are starting to get bright clear days with harsh
light which seemed to me to be ideal to try out Photoshop CC's HDR
capability (never having used it before). So, taking the local bus
(free to me) I finished up at Victoria park on the outskirts of the
CBD. Harsh light, naked deciduous trees and almost no wind. It seemed
ideal.

I was experimenting to hell so I set the D750 to Auto ISO, f8,
exposure bracketing in groups of 3 at +1EV, 0EV and -1EV. I hadn't
realised it but the exposure was still on -0.7EV from a previous
shoot. The lens was the Tamron 24-70 f2.8. The camera settled on an
ISO of about 1250 and a shutter speed of around 1/1000sec which suited
my shaky hands, and at continuos low I fired of bursts of three.

Everything I have read about HDR has told me that it is essential to
mount the camera on a tripod but I have had success in the past with
hand held HDR using Paint Shop Pro so had deliberately decided to not
use a tripod on this occasion.

The images were processed in Photoshop's 'Merge to HDR Pro' and saved
as PSDs. The PSDs were lightly edited using the ACR filter and
received sharpening from Smart Sharpening. I also removed perspective
distortion. Here is a typical result
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dif31zuit3zv3vp/HDR1.jpg?dl=0

The old building in the corner was extremely harshly lit and it could
really have used a wider range of bracketing, but still it worked. I
was most impressed by the resolved detail in the branches and twigs of
the tree. Photoshop has done a very good job of aligning three
slightly different images.

I walked around the park taking a number of shots and as I got to the
end I had a bright idea. Could I construct a panorama from a number of
hand-held HDR shots? So I stood there at the end and, swivelling
around my hips, I took six sets of HDR shots. I processed them as
above and then put them through Photomerge. I ticked all the boxes and
the resulting entirely hand-held HDR panorama may be found at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gjschkqxtl...rama1.jpg?dl=0
It's best to view it at full screen if you can.

I have one problem and at the moment I am not quite sure how to deal
with it. You will see that the image of the park gives the impression
that it is slightly dish shaped. What is the best way to flatten it?

The dishing may be due to the photographs being taken at 24mm. The
workflow I followed did not seem to enable me to make a correction for
lens distortion and this might be the root cause. I will continue to
experiment.



Very nice.

I think your "dish-shaped" issue is a matter of perception.

As SD pointed out in another post, the shadow in the foreground
(bleachers?) emphasizes any "dish-shape".

Also, the second group of trees from the left appear to be leaning. But
at second look, I think that's the way they are growing: a short trunk
with large branches coming out at an angle. The building behind those
trees is plumb and square. Likewise the goal (?) at the far left, and
the building at the far right- both are straight vertical.

I enlarged the image until the foreground shadow was nearly gone, and
the image looked fine.

In short, as far as the "dish-shape" you complain of, I think you're
nuts! Crop off the bottom at a point about halfway up to the goal, and
it will be a fine panorama.

BTW, the cranes in the background to the right of the spire need to go
back to NYC. PeterN can help you with that!--

--
Ken Hart