Photoshop Workbench 183: Stylized HDR Effect in Adobe Camera Raw
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High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography is remarkably popular these days. You can find incredible work on Tony Sweet’s blog and in Ben Willmore’s Best of Ben Route 66 gallery.
There are two types of HDR––photo realistic and photo surrealistic. Today, I’m going to focus on a technique for creating the surrealistic look. Characteristics of this look include intense detail in the shadows and highlights and strong global and micro (edge) contrast. Saturation can vary from intense to almost non-existent.
True HDR requires multiple bracketed exposures that you creatively blend in a program like Photomatix Pro (www.hdrsoft.com). In this Workbench, however, I’ll show you a technique for achieving a similar look using just one well-exposed image and a handful of sliders in the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) dialog. For the best results, begin with a Camera Raw image (not a JPEG) and edit in 16-bit mode.
Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 7:36 am
This is exactly what I was looking for. Simple and to the point. Thanks for your effort! Much appreciated. My outcome is really good.