Single-Shot HDR

Sometimes an image can be very badly exposed. There are several ways to recover but one I was reading about today was DxO Labs latest Optics Pro.

So, I downloaded it and played around with a couple of images.

One example below.


Image 1
This is the Raw file as it came from my Fujifilm S100fs

Image 2
The file after running it through DxO and applying HDR - Strong.

Well, it does what it says it will do. Lifts the shadows and preserves the highlights and without overly affecting the colour. Interestingly, and unlike some other HDR packages, it did not add noise nor try to make the colours look like something from a candy shop.

It looks a little 'washed out' here, but I will fix that in the next step.

Image 3
The same as above but with some levels and saturation adjustment in Photoshop. The amount of adjustment is purely to taste. I didn't want an 'over cooked' HDR look but wanted some vibrance and life in the image.

Cheers


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