HDR presets, I'll try again

Question

Level 1

8 points

HDR presets, I'll try again

Having just tried the competition I found some great HDR like presets for LR - does anyone know if there are any for Aperture as well please?

Thanks, James

iMac 27 in 2.8 GHZ i7, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on May 17, 2013 11:55 AM

Reply

Answer 1

May 17, 2013 12:10 PM in response to jetset95

Hi James. I don't, sorry. I adjust Images based on their own luminance distribution even when I am trying for a look similar to something else. It should be relatively short work to bring up the low-value tones and and add detail to the high-value tones (by lowering them) and add some "local" contrast using some combination of Curves, Levels, (the mis-named) Highlights and Shadows, and the Definition Bricks. Of course, you will need a good exposure, or a corrected exposure, to start.

Beyond that, the NIK tools are usually excellent. I'm pretty sure you can run NIKs HDR on single Images (can't check right now).

HTH,

--Kirby.

Reply

Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

194,733 points

May 17, 2013 12:31 PM in response to jetset95

onOne Software has some free HDR presets - the full pro version is quite expensive however.

Perfect Presets for Aperture - onOne Software

For example: HDR Enhancer 3 - left: original, right: enhanced

The free presets tend to enhance the contrast, but desaturate the colors.

Reply

Answer 3

jetset95 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 17, 2013 1:37 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Thanks Kirby, I guess I can play with some settings, find what I like and save it. I've just got the Nik tools and I haven't had much time to play with them yet. I appreciate the quick response.

James

Reply

Answer 4

May 17, 2013 1:41 PM in response to léonie

The OP owns Google/NIK's HDR (mentioned in a recent post).

The NIK HDR Pro 2 comes with 28 presets.

Here are samples of two, applied to images recorded Tuesday in New York City:

I don't see the purpose of trying to emulate these with Aperture's tools.

Message was edited by: Kirby Krieger - link added.

Reply

Answer 5

jetset95 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 17, 2013 1:52 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

Thanks for the update - the reason I want an Aperture tools HDR mimic is so that I get a different look from it than using the HDR tool. I'm copying (or trying to) a technique I've seen where the photograper takes bracketed images for his HDR process and somestimes gets a great image out of it, sometimes doesn't. When he's not happy with the full HDR process, then he takes one of the middle exposure images and runs one of his own HDR type presets (in Lightroom) on it to get an image he's happy with, then merges the best bit of the full HDR with the best bit of his faux HDR - for example the sky from one with the forground of the other. I hope that makes sense, and when I recently had the LR4 trial run for a month I tried it and really liked the output I could get with some of my still amateur HDR efforts. I just wondered if anyone had anything like that in Aperture without having to stump up the cost of the effects like you see on the Aperture Presets site for example.

Your help is very much appreciated.

James

Reply

Answer 6

léonie

Level 10

194,733 points

May 17, 2013 2:02 PM in response to Kirby Krieger

I don't see the purpose of trying to emulate these with Aperture's tools.

You don't like to reinvent the wheel? 😝 I know, you like to use plug-ins and external editors, if they are well designed and perfect to get a job done adequately and easily.

But I like to look at what can be done in Aperture as well - to explore Aperture's limits, and if possible, to avoid the creation of additional quasi masters. I don't like them in my libraries - they are unnecessary large and stumbling blocks in a lossless workflow.

Reply

Answer 7

jetset95 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 17, 2013 2:13 PM in response to léonie

Thank you both. Leonie these images I want to create are very specific ones of special events or locations / vacations, and as such the final images don't live in Aperture libraries.

I do process most of my images with just Aperture like you and it does a great job most of the time, but it can't give me the broad dynamic range or feel of an HDR image in my hands. That's not to say it's the software that is at fault, I can quite easily see it might be me, hence I wondered if anyone had created some hown-grown HDR-like presets which open the dynamic range, saturate the colours (especially sky - which is so easy to do in LR with the gradient filter) and basically give me a good start from which to tweak the sliders some more to find that perfect flat image.

This I'm sure is more about my incompetence / inexperience not a fault of Aperture. Your comments as always very much appreciated.

James

Reply

Answer 8

léonie

Level 10

194,733 points

May 17, 2013 2:24 PM in response to jetset95

🙂

Reply