Bright or Not So Bright

[Seth]

I agree with you to ask for 'help'/opinions, but in the end the only thing that counts is what you think about it
Looking forward to see where you're going with this and to see the final result!

agree with that !

[Mr_Lamppost]

I agree with you to ask for 'help'/opinions, but in the end the only thing that counts is what you think about it
Looking forward to see where you're going with this and to see the final result!

I second or is that third that.   

By all means ask for help or suggestions but in the end its your image so you will need to decide what you do with it.  If we all did the same thing we would all end up with similar results and where would the fun be in that?

[rcallicotte]

Comments are welcome.  I rendered this three different times with different settings and then used PhotoMatix to blend these three together.

[Andrew]

Lo! For this is very nice. I like how you can kinda see the sun's disc, but not really.

[Oshyan]

You really should not need to render this 3 times. Photomatix works with the EXR images from Terragen 2 in my experience.

- Oshyan

[rcallicotte]

Oshyan, you mean I don't need three light samples (-1, 0, +1) to get the best use of the EXRs from TG2?  Really?  Geee.

[Oshyan]

The EXR should contain a pretty wide range of exposure data to play with. I've had good results just using them directly in Photomatix. You do need somewhat different settings from what you might use with a merged set of non-HDR images (BMPs), but it works well with the right settings. And saves lots of render time. Unless you were just outputting 3 differently exposed images from the same EXR and then using Photomatix to combine those, but that seems unnecessary too (at least it saves the render time though).

- Oshyan

[rcallicotte]

Thanks Oshyan.  I was making three different renders from TG2 to use in Photomatix by using different exposures with the camera.  This could be useful in certain situations, but what I am doing here isn't that broad of a range of exposure values.

[Matt]

Thanks Oshyan.  I was making three different renders from TG2 to use in Photomatix by using different exposures with the camera.  This could be useful in certain situations, but what I am doing here isn't that broad of a range of exposure values.

This would only be useful if your images are low dynamic range. EXRs have enough dynamic range and colour resolution that you should never need to render more than one image, even if you want to change the image enormously.

Matt

[rcallicotte]

I re-rendered this, after taking out the image map for my stones and rearranging the terrain by eliminating repeating patterns.  This is all TG2, but I readjusted the EXR in PhotoMatix and then adjusted levels and curves in Photoshop.

[Tangled-Universe]

I have to say the lighting on the left part of the image and especially on the fake stones looks really good!
I'm not fond of the texturing of the soil/ground, to be honest I think it should really need some work to get this image really working.
The atmo is nice also. In overall good work.

What did you do in Photomatix? I'm not familiar with it, can you do things you can't in Photoshop?

Martin

[rcallicotte]

Thanks for your comments, Martin.  PhotoMatix appears to me to work with images better than Photoshop.  The light range and manipulation capabilities seem to far extend PS, when I am playing around with PhotoMatix.  I'm still learning.  You can try the demo.  It's fully working, but has a watermark on the exported image.

What did you do in Photomatix? I'm not familiar with it, can you do things you can't in Photoshop?

Martin

[Mohawk20]

Thanks for your comments, Martin.  PhotoMatix appears to me to work with images better than Photoshop.  The light range and manipulation capabilities seem to far extend PS, when I am playing around with PhotoMatix.  I'm still learning.  You can try the demo.  It's fully working, but has a watermark on the exported image.

What did you do in Photomatix? I'm not familiar with it, can you do things you can't in Photoshop?

Martin

Well, the big difference between PhotoShop and Photomatix is that PS can only adjust the light range, the exposure, while PM can adjust colour and tone, as well as change the exposure of parts of the image like highlights and shadows only. Also saturation can be controlled better in PM.

So I would choose Photomatix to adjust my exr's over PS anytime...