HDR Image from 1 JPEG File - the Easiest Way!

(To read the tutorial, just skip the first two introductory paragraphs)

Photomatix (from http://www.hdrsoft.com/) is a program used for creating HDR images and tonemapping. HDR means "high dynamic range. High dynamic range in a photograph will mean there is less clipping in the highlgihts and shadows, and more detail instead. It has a free version to download but the saved images will have a watermark logo on it. You can still play around with it though.

Photomatix requires you to use multiple exposed images or a RAW files. This means that you must take 3 or more photos at different exposures. One for showing detail in the highlight, one for showing detail in the midtones, and one to show detail in the shadows. Then you combine these 3 images in photomatix to make a final image that contains detail in the highlights, midtones, and shadows. There are other ways to make an HDR from a single JPEG file, one is with photoshop. At first I used to to use photoshop to make multiple exposures from a single image, but that ened up taking several minutes. This is the easiest way that I have thought of to bypass all of that in just SECONDS!

For my video tutorial:ca.youtube.com/watch

Text tutorial:

For my video click here:

1. Find the image you want to make HDR.

2. Right click on it, copy. For mac users: Highlight the image and push apple key + C

3. Right click besides it, paste. Mac users: Push Apple key + V

We now have two of the same image! One is the original, the other is a duplicate of it, likely named: copy of "the original image name" This will fool photomatix into thinking you have mutliple images.

4. Open photomatix, go to HDR, Generate.

5. Click browse, locate the folder with the two images. Highlight both images and click Open. Then click OK. Another windowwill pop up, just click OK to it.

We now have a HDR image from a single JPEG. You can tonemap it by going to HDR, Tonemapping.

Making an HDR from a single JPEG doesn always look at as good as with several exposures due to there being less dnamic range, but you can still pull out some detail in the shadows and highlights and tonemap with this method.