HDR with one raw file (Psuedo-HDR)

High Dynamic Range is one of famous photography that been used to enhance the detail in the shadow and showing a correction at the over exposed environment like sky. Today I going to share with you how to make a Psuedo-HDR that is high dynamic range of photographic just using one raw file. First thing we need to do this of course prepare these softwares :

• Photomatix
• Photoshop
• Noise Professional
• Sharpener Pro

1. Take pictures. This is only one simple images I took for this tutorial.

2. Drag the raw file to Photomatix. When you done it, a pop up window will appear like below asking to reduce noise, chromatic aberration white balance and color space. I just leave it to default and just click okay. Photomatix will remind you that this is not a true HDR.

3. In Photomatix version 4 and above, there is a preset ready for the users. You can choose what type of preset you want to try but this time I will try the B&W preset.

4. After you choose the preset that you want, you can see the left side of the window there is a slider that easily slide from left to right. This is when the magic start as what you adjust is what you will get. It is simple, you can try every slider and see what the slider will effect to your image.

5. You can click on the image to zoom it to see detail of your image. You can see from this shot, how noise are famous for HDR even in one shot and: )

6. This is what I get for: ). save it as tiff or jpeg if you prefer.

7. Drag the transformed image to you Photoshop for next editing. HDR is well know for noise that it has produced, the solution is to get rid of it using noiseware professional plug in or you can use traditional methods of noise reduction what Photoshop provided.

As you can see screen shot below, how well this plugin working.

8. Next I use Sharpener Pro for make it little sharpening, or you can use unsharp mask.

9. And for the last step, I add a new layer and made it a vignette. You can do what you want :) and voila you're done!!

I am prefer to shot HDR in multiple image but one raw image sometimes help me to get an HDR fast, for example the image I choose. I shot it in the middle of a road and when traffic light is green for pedestrian or maybe when you want to shoot HDR in unexpected environment  that you haven't ready your tripod :) Enjoy and happy practicing~