HDR Pro in Adobe Photoshop CS5 a short Preview.

April 30th, 2010
by Krishna Mohan

Today (30th April) Adobe released Photoshop CS5 Trial. I grabbed copy early and wanted to try the new features. here is a quick take on HDR Pro feature of Photoshop CS5.

Among all the new features CS5 boasts HDR Pro is one of the most hyped. Till now we needed to go to 3rd party soft wares like Photomatix Pro to get that HDR look we want. This feature is revamped-from-the-ground-up and called HDR Pro. Like the Merge to HDR feature in Photoshop CS4 and earlier, HDR Pro lets you combine two or more exposures of a single scene into an impossibly rendered composite, complete with wide-open shadows and richly detailed highlights. The big difference: Unlike Merge to HDR, which is about as easy to control. HDR Pro offers superb controls and delivers quite a reliable result.

I quickly compared my Photomatix pro rendered HDR which features in my last blog Nir-Laksha Dweepa-Day2-Kalpeni. I used the same set of files and here is the result with HDR Pro. I think there is definite improvement from the CS4 version. But if you want superior control over your HDR then photomatix is still the king. Let us see the results. First is rendered with Photomatix pro and the second using HDR pro. Judge yourself which one you prefer. As you can manipulate any HDR to your hearts content, there is definitely scope for improvement in both the shots. This is what I liked.

Photomatix Pro Rendered HDR

Photomatix Pro Rendered HDR

HDRPro Rendered HDR

HDRPro Rendered HDR

Remove Ghosts option is new in HDR Pro. This will eliminate movements when you are shooting multiple images in a busy environment. I had a photograph of Tilakkam island from that trip which I had taken as HDR but was unable to publish as there was ghosting artifact I thought that would be perfect candidate for checking ghosting option and predictably it came out picture perfect with HDR Pro. Here are the results. First one is with Photomatix Pro which produced nice output but with lot of ghosting artifact which is minute but visible on large photo.

Photomatix unable to resolve Ghosting

Photomatix unable to resolve Ghosting

Here the same set of photos by HDR Pro which ghost elimination has made it crisper. Even though I like the output Photomatix produces HDR pro is winner here.

HDR pro which removed Ghosting artifact efficiently

HDR pro which removed Ghosting artifact efficiently

Remember that this is not a definitive review or a shootout between this two HDR softwares. It is just a short comparison I did within the short time I had to express my views. I welcome your view on that.

EXIF info…
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: n.a.
Exposure Mode: n.a.
Exposure Time: 1/2000 sec.
Exposure Bias: n.a.
Aperture (F Stop): f/6.3
ISO Used: 200
Flash Used: n.a.
White Balance: Custom
Focal Length: 16.0 mm
Metering Mode: n.a.
Date Time: 2010:04:18 06:44:17
GPS Location in Google Map:
10° 4' 27.2" N, 73° 39' 12.3" E, 3 m.a.s.l.
Copyright © Krishna Mohan
All rights Reserved. This Image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or trasmitted in any forms or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying & recording without my written permission. If you’d like to make usage request, just ask: drkrishi@drkrishi.com
EXIF info…
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM
Exposure Mode: Auto bracket
Exposure Time: 1/500 sec.
Exposure Bias: 0.0
Aperture (F Stop): f/6.3
ISO Used: 200
Flash Used: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode.
White Balance: Custom
Focal Length: 16.0 mm
Metering Mode: Pattern
Date Time: 2010:04:18 06:44:17
GPS Location in Google Map:
unknown (no GPS data)
Copyright © Krishna Mohan
All rights Reserved. This Image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or trasmitted in any forms or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying & recording without my written permission. If you’d like to make usage request, just ask: drkrishi@drkrishi.com
EXIF info…
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: n.a.
Exposure Mode: n.a.
Exposure Time: 1/800 sec.
Exposure Bias: n.a.
Aperture (F Stop): f/8.0
ISO Used: 200
Flash Used: n.a.
White Balance: Custom
Focal Length: 35.0 mm
Metering Mode: n.a.
Date Time: 2010:04:18 08:57:12
GPS Location in Google Map:
10° 4' 17.5" N, 73° 38' 7.3" E, 2 m.a.s.l.
Copyright © Krishna Mohan
All rights Reserved. This Image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or trasmitted in any forms or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying & recording without my written permission. If you’d like to make usage request, just ask: drkrishi@drkrishi.com
EXIF info…
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Lens: EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM
Exposure Mode: Auto bracket
Exposure Time: 1/50 sec.
Exposure Bias: +2.0
Aperture (F Stop): f/8.0
ISO Used: 200
Flash Used: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode.
White Balance: Custom
Focal Length: 35.0 mm
Metering Mode: Pattern
Date Time: 2010:04:18 08:57:12
GPS Location in Google Map:
10° 4' 17.5" N, 73° 38' 7.3" E, 2 m.a.s.l.
Copyright © Krishna Mohan
All rights Reserved. This Image may not be copied, reproduced, distributed, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted or trasmitted in any forms or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photocopying & recording without my written permission. If you’d like to make usage request, just ask: drkrishi@drkrishi.com

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Posted in Photoshop, Technology | Comments (3)

3 Responses to “HDR Pro in Adobe Photoshop CS5 a short Preview.”

  1. Anagha Says:
    May 16th, 2010 at 6:57 PM

    As usual very good pics… article took me back to my sociology class. Good that the tour conducts explain about their culture. There are some tribal dancers in one of your photo. Which tribe do they belong to? In fact their marriage culture is similar to the Nairs. Although the Nairs have changed to mainstream culture.

  2. drkrishi Says:
    May 17th, 2010 at 11:40 AM

    Dear Anagha,
    Even though they are doing tribal dance they are not tribals!! They are all employees of SPORTS. Morning they helped us in snorkeling and kayaking, then they fed us nice lunch afternoon they donned tribal dress and danced so called folk(fake) dance to entertain us. There are no tribals (in true sense ) in Lakshadweep islands. Minicoyans have a matriarchal muslim lifestyle which is unique. Nairs and Shetty’s used to have that in a slightly different way which is now totally lost as you rightly pointed out.
    regards
    Krishna Mohan

  3. venkatx5 Says:
    October 1st, 2010 at 5:10 PM

    Hi Krish,
    I like Photoshop very much and am using it about 5 Years. Now I checked and learnt how to create HDR with Photoshop CS5. This is pretty amazing.

    http://tv.adobe.com/watch/learn-photoshop-cs5/create-enhanced-hdr-images-with-hdr-pro/

    Btw am yet to Buy Nikon D5000. LOL..

    Regards,
    Venkatesh R
    Bangalore

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