HDR Woes: Hi everyone - I've been using Aurora HDR for some years and generally I get acceptable results. However on a bright date yesterday all of my "window" shots had really...

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

Hi everyone - I've been using Aurora HDR for some years and generally I get acceptable results. However on a bright date yesterday all of my "window" shots had really terrible "muddy" ceilings like the one attached. Is this just HDR enhancing the ceiling shadows or is there something I can do to correct this? Keep safe

(Download)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

twosummers wrote:

Hi everyone - I've been using Aurora HDR for some years and generally I get acceptable results. However on a bright date yesterday all of my "window" shots had really terrible "muddy" ceilings like the one attached. Is this just HDR enhancing the ceiling shadows or is there something I can do to correct this? Keep safe

I have seen things like that which turned out to be very slight distortion caused by beams etc. so the surface wasn't perfectly flat. But I also see some light and faint shadows caused by the sunlight reflecting up at the ceiling.

kymarto Loc: Portland OR and Milan Italy

I would suggest trying to make a second HDR with different settings to reduce the microcontrast—whatever Aurora calls it, I don't renember—then put the shots on separate layers abs use layer masking to use the smoother ceiling in the image.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Except for the shadows in the ceiling it looks to me like a fine HDR.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

kymarto wrote:

....use layer masking to use the smoother ceiling in the image.

One way or another you'd need to select the ceiling and smoothen out the lighting. I had some success lifting the shadows and lowering the highlights plus dropping the contrast and clarity for that selection. I also sampled the wall colour and added some of that to the ceiling. Some of the other shadows look very messy so I selected them and applied negative clarity and negative contrast plus denoise to soften, followed by tweaks to brightness to normalise all the selections.

With those dealt with it was OK to turn up the global contrast, clarity and saturation for a bit more vividness. I also found that desaturating blue helped with the light coming through the window. I can post my edit if you like.

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

Thank you R.G. and yes please post your edited version.

R.G. wrote:

One way or another you'd need to select the ceilin... (show quote)

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

Thanks kymarto - I use batch processing so you get the same options applied. I did try as you suggest one just one example bracketed set and certainly reducing the micro contrast helped - I appreciate that shadows occur and they are no bad thing, it's just that the HDR process enhances them!

kymarto wrote:

I would suggest trying to make a second HDR with different settings to reduce the microcontrast—whatever Aurora calls it, I don't renember—then put the shots on separate layers abs use layer masking to use the smoother ceiling in the image.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

twosummers wrote:

Thank you R.G. and yes please post your edited version.

Apart from some minor tweaks the edit is as described previously.
.

(Download)

twosummers Loc: Melbourne Australia or Lincolnshire England

Thanks again - most impressive. I'll give flash another go next time. Or maybe flash + HDR???

R.G. wrote:

Apart from some minor tweaks the edit is as described previously.
.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

twosummers wrote:

....I'll give flash another go next time. Or maybe flash + HDR???

I can't speak for that one way or the other. If your camera can accommodate it then give it a try. Flash can create its own problems but something like bounce flash should be a safe option. I suspect one of the reasons for the shadows being so problematic is that the lighting was extreme. The view outside has been mostly saved and that wouldn't have happened if the exposures had been concentrated on saving the dark areas (most of the interior), so anything that brightens the interior should help. Were you using a wide range of exposures for the bracketing? That should help as well.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

twosummers wrote:

.../...

I really do not pay attention to your HDR woes.

What I am looking at is the composition...

The mirror with the reflections? I am not sure if it is intentional or not but... Wow!

Just say you planned it that way

Jim-Pops Loc: Granbury, Texas

I took your picture opened in Photoshop used the lasso tool, selected most of the ceiling minis the fixture and wood trim. Then went Select>Modify>Feather 5 pixels. Hit C click to copy, add a new, layer Hit V Click and paste.
Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur>around 94 pixels. This smoothed the ceiling and cleaned up a whole bunch of the shadows.

JBRIII

I think you are seeing the ceiling as it may really be. Dust and such can accumulate in patterns do to vibration patterns. So you have found a way to detect ceiling beams. I personally think this is interesting if correct, might also be shadows do to sagging ceiling as suggested by others. Either way interesting effect and method to find ceiling beams without a ladder. Try dusting the ceiling and repeat.

It is interesting how the world really appears as compared to what are human senses detect.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

HDR is not intended to be the last thing you do in post processing. In fact, it is what you do after using it that makes the picture work or not.