David Naylor: Blog

Playing with Photomatix

During the weekend I got my hands on Photomatix and have started experimenting with it.

For those who didn't know, Photomatix is software for combining over- and underexposed shots into artistic-looking HDR images.

In the Flickr community, there seem to be basically two camps. Those who love Photomatix and those who hate it. I've always been somewhere in between.

The program allows you to create really eye-catching images, but they will look nothing like real life. If you just accept this fact and see these overcooked HDR images as an artform slightly beyond photography, then you can have loads of fun making them, as I've now discovered.

Also in defense of Photomatix (not that it needs it) is the fact that far from all photos treated in Photoshop look real either.

Yesterday I went into town just before sundown with my tripod to see if there was anything worth pointing the camera at. The photos above and below are a couple I came away with.

I'm slowly beginning to learn what all the sliders in Photomatix do. There are a few more than I had reckoned and they don't all do what you expect them to. The key ones seem to be strength (obviously), luminosity and light smoothing as well as the tone settings (gamma, white point and black point).

Seeing how much fun it is to make these images, you'll no doubt see more here in the future...

Labels: Eskilstuna, hdr, photography, photomatix

Posted by David Naylor at 22:34