The Future of HDR - 32bit HDR images

The Future of HDR - 32bit HDR images, a photo by Fragga on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
These aren't edited, just the results from combining exposures.

This method solves all the annoying bits of the old method, like halos, unnatural dark clouds, noise, fuzzy pixels, dirty blues, that weird grey dirty look on EVERYTHING, which you had to correct by bringing in the original RAWs - you don't need to do this now, unless there's moving things, but Photomatix ghost correction does OK sometimes.

Take your 3 different exposures, drag all three (or however many you took) into Photomatix Pro (I use version 4.2.4) combine as usual (I uncheck everything but chromatic aberrations) then when the 32bit preview image comes up save that as a floating TIFF - this is your 32bit HDR. This will open in Lightroom 4, edit as you would any normal TIFF.

The most important sliders are the Temp - Tint - Highlights - Shadows - Contrast - Whites. I don't ever use Saturation, but I will use Vibrance and Clarity a little. Don't add noise reduction at this stage, it goes weird - leave this and sharpening till last.

As far as I'm concerned I'll never use my grad filters again unless I'm trying to slow the shutter down for water or whatever.

Remember, you don't want your Histogram to be bunched in the middle, make sure you add plenty of shadows back and pull the whites up, it's OK to have some clipped blacks and even some blown whites - better that than a dull image.