Machinery HDR effex

[jeffmoll]

Hello everyone! It's been sometime since I posted anything on here but thought that some of you might enjoy this. The author of this hdr program saw my hdr work on my flickr photostream and wanted me to give his program a try so I've been playing around with it a bit. I especially like some of the handling of individual images, it gives good control all the way from realistic to surrealistic. I usually use photomatix but I think this is a very good option too. Photomatix is best for subtle and realistic but is harder to get the more surreal look. HDR Effex Pro from Nik is great for the surreal look, but is hard to get the subtle and real look from my experience. This does a good job with both. Only down side... the author hasn't released it for mac so I have to run it in VM. Minor inconvenience but I'm still looking forward to using this more.
Here's the link to the site.
www.machineryhdr.com

Happy HDRing!

To see some of my HDR work see my flickr set HERE

Cheers!
~Jeff

[kdoc856]

Interesting, Jeff. I use Photomatix primarily because it does make a natural rendition so easy, but I confess a certain fascination with the surreal effects. The surreal look was so over done early on (like a top 40 music radio station) that I think a lot of people just got sick of it. It will be interesting to see the evolution of taste and ultimate place that the surreal look ultimately achieves

[jeffmoll]

Kevin, I'm pretty much at the same place. I definitely prefer a realistic look but sometimes if I want something that's more an art piece and less of photograph I like to do something a little more creative. My favorites though are the ones that you have to really look at closely and still can't totally decide if it's hdr or not. Here's one of my more recent pieces.

Tell me what you think.

[kdoc856]

Excellent! I might be inclined to nudge up the contrast in the sky and mountain a smidge, but I'm "contrastier" than most. There's just about no way you could have brought out that detail in the middle party of the shot beneath the mountain without cranking up the noise and possibly banding. Perfect use for HDR. Did you keep the original EV 0 shot just to lay it side-by-side? Nicely done. (Best viewed in Lytebox)

[dje]

Nice shot Jeff and well done with the HDR process. It looks very natural.

I like to use GND filters where I can to balance the exposure of bright sky and darker foreground but this is a case where that isn't practical because of the shape of the skyline.

Dave

[jeffmoll]

Dave,
thanks! Last summer I bought a set of lee filters and holder, including a big stopper. I love them but haven't had much chance to use them since the atmosphere was so smoke-filled. From the middle of June until the beginning of October conditions for landscape photography was terrible because of all the wildfires taking place here in the western US. Dying to get out and use them this summer. Overall I prefer not needing hdr, but I've ended up doing a lot of it because of not having GND filters until just 6 months ago. I actually find that I end up applying a gradient in Lightroom on most of my HDR's including this one. I think it makes it easier to get a more natural looking shot.

Kevin, I too was hoping for a little more contrast in the mountains, but was having trouble with this shot because of the aforementioned smoke. The smoke was also the primary reason for choosing hdr, I think I might have been able to make a single image turn out except that the mountains were shrouded in haze. When I have a chance I'll put a raw up, I'm curious to know your opinion. I'm hoping for a wetter summer and much more landscape shooting! Thanks for the input!
Jeff

[Cona78]

Is there a PDF version of the manual available?

[Colin Southern]

Tell me what you think.

To be honest, it doesn't look right to me - my brain says that the foreground (reflected light) shouldn't be as bright as the sky (the incident light that's providing the illumination for the reflected light).

[Cona78]

Version 2.9.48 is out. I've just bought this after playing around with the free version and have found it to be simple to use and very easy to create pleasing effects. Other programmes I have used are too demanding of my time and intellect!
For my purposes, with its presets(if you want to use them)I find I'm getting much better results than I have previously been able to achieve.can use raw and merge bracketed shots as well. Bonus for me is creating HDR from a single file (wait for sharp intake of breath!).

Cheap at the moment as well. Good stuff.

[HaseebM]

Your flickr page has some awesome photos Jeff.

[Downrigger]

Your flickr page has some awesome photos Jeff.

Concur.

[Cona78]

Update 2.9 now available.

There are many improvements:

* Improved effect “Microcontrast”.
* Added effect “Dynamic Contrast”.
* Added option “Dust & Scratches”.
* Enhanced support for color profiles.
* New configuration options.
* Updated RAW library.



(c) Urbex Diary
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127729...h/24719128840/

[rpcrowe]

Very interesting. I do like some of the effects. However, I must admit that I have not taken advantage of the three HDR avenues I already have: CS6 NIK and OnOne Perfect HDR. OTOH, I really like the realistic renditioning available in this program but, am not sure if or not I could achieve it with one of the programs already in my PP arsenal!

[DanK]

Very interesting. I do like some of the effects. However, I must admit that I have not taken advantage of the three HDR avenues I already have: CS6 NIK and OnOne Perfect HDR. OTOH, I really like the realistic renditioning available in this program but, am not sure if or not I could achieve it with one of the programs already in my PP arsenal!

Exposure fusion is an alternative to HDR that gives more natural colors. It simply selects well-exposed pixels from each shot, essentially automating the process of blending images by hand and giving it more detailed control. If you use Lightroom, the Lightroom Enfuse plugin is a simple way to do it.

[Cona78]

Update 2.9.9 now available.

* Improved image-alignment function.
* Improved HDR function.
* Improved effect “Dynamic Contrast”.
* Improved effect “Microcontrast”.
* Added PNG support.
* Updated RAW library.
* Minor bugs fixed.

[Pixl8tor]

Hi Jeff,
I had a look at your work on Flicker.
You have some beautiful work there. I particularly like Crow Creek Falls.
Bill

[JohnRostron]

I have just upgraded to Photomatix Pro because it offered Exposure Fusion. Now I find that Machinery HDR seems to do a better job of my photos of church stained-glass windows!

John

[Cona78]

Machinery HDR Effects 3

* Added effect ‘3D LUT' for color grading.

3D LUT is a table of colors which is used for transforming images. The name is well known to film makers who apply 3D LUT for giving specific style to their films. It often emulates analogue film reels. Machinery uses 3D LUT with the help of “.cube” file format. 3D LUT files aren’t included into the installer because of copyright but below is a list of sites where you can download it for free.

http://luts.iwltbap.com/

http://lutify.me/free-luts/

http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/29-free-luts-for-video/

[mknittle]

Interesting, Jeff. I use Photomatix primarily because it does make a natural rendition so easy, but I confess a certain fascination with the surreal effects. The surreal look was so over done early on (like a top 40 music radio station) that I think a lot of people just got sick of it. It will be interesting to see the evolution of taste and ultimate place that the surreal look ultimately achieves

I agree with the over done part. I am just now starting to like the surreal look on some things.

[DavidPavlich]

Interesting link. Being an HDR fan, I like Photomatix Pro 5 because it allows natural and "over the top" options that are easy to work with. I especially like the Real Estate option. I sell prints and some of my best sellers are over the top sorts. But, my customers aren't fine artists or pixel peepers or purists. They like the stuff because it's different or they're mechanically inclined. Here's two examples that are miles apart, but both done in Photomatix Pro 5 with some touch up in LR after. The second shot was awarded third place in a local art show, photographic division. :-)





David