General image processing, before or after SNS-HDR?

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General image processing, before or after SNS-HDR?

Postby capricorn » Sun May 18, 2014 3:31 pm

I have been using the home version to create HDRs (mostly from a single RAW) for some of my images, at times.

While I am quite happy about the quality that SNS-HDR produces and also like its ease of use, I still haven't figured out how exactly HDR processing interacts or interferes with general image processing and what are the dos and don'ts.

My setup:
I am using SNS-HDR from Lightroom, with Michael Koetter's plug-in. Which means SNS-HDR does not work on RAW files but TIFF which includes basic conversion and development plus everything I put on top by changing settings in LR development mode.

In particular I have the following questions:
What level of image processing should be done BEFORE SNS-HDR? Exposure, sharpening, color, CA removal?
Are there any changes that should be avoided BEFORE creating HDR? Highlights, shadows, contrast?
Which changes should or could be done AFTER the result is received by SNS-HDR? Luminance?

Any advise or suggestions is very much appreciated!

- Karsten
capricorn
 
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Re: General image processing, before or after SNS-HDR?

Postby Mustang Joe » Mon May 19, 2014 7:13 pm

Hi Karsten,

I'm certainly not an expert but here's my SNS workflow for what it's worth. Like you, I use Lightroomm, SNS Home and the Lightroom plugin. I select my raw images and take them into the Develop module. I turn off sharpening for all images then add noise reduction for the underexposed and the 0 EV image if necessary. I then go into the Lens Correction section and enable profile corrections and remove chromatic aberration. I'll do any straightening or cropping then export them into SNS. I make my adjustments in SNS then take the processed image into Photoshop CS6 for finishing touches like localized contrast and saturation changes or removing a colour cast.

My main reason for turning of sharpening before processing is that I find that I end up with less "gritty" images since the micro contrast is reduced. I turn off sharpening in SNS as well and end up sharpening in CS6 as late in the process as possible. I rarely make exposure/highlights/shadows adjustments before SNS.

Here are some of my SNS processed images if you're interested. https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=mustangjoe&tags=sns&sort=date-posted-desc

Joe
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Re: General image processing, before or after SNS-HDR?

Postby capricorn » Wed May 21, 2014 10:22 am

Hi Joe,

thanks a lot for sharing insight into the secrets of your workflow!

The way how you work makes sense to me; I will try to experiment a bit with my images, applying your suggestions.
I do have PSE, but I hardly ever use it. Actually, I am happy with what LR offers and it's convenient to me to stay within LR.
For which kind of postprocessing do you prefer CS6 over Lightroom?

As to your SNS images, these are absolutely stunning!!!
And I was even more surprised to see that you took all these with a compact camera!? Respect!!!
How do you usually take shots for HDR processing? 1,3,5 images with 1EV difference in exposure?

Pavel may be interested to publish the link as promotion material ;)

Thanks for sharing the link. I will take some time to enjoy this collection in leisure.
And it will be surely a huge motivation for me to use SNS more often in future.

- Karsten
capricorn
 
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Re: General image processing, before or after SNS-HDR?

Postby russellsnr2 » Wed May 21, 2014 4:22 pm

Hi, Depends what kind of photography you wish to go into. Remember not ALL scenes require HDR!
Look at your scene and decide does it need HDR?
HDR is not a one stop fixer as in most images if it is bad no amount of post processing is going to make it good.
Unfortunately although an upgrade to the program has been promised on many occasions Sebastian who is the originator of the software has let it slip away while others have been quite active over the last couple of months, although In my opinion SNS-HDR gives you the most realistic output from images without a lot more work needed it is compares to the other softwares available very slow.
There is overall not a lot of up to date information on SNS-HDR or Tutorials as you can find for software like Google NIK or Photomatix.
I was not a great lover of Photomatix but they have now put up an HDR software that is hard to beat along with the free plug-in for Lightroom if you buy the full version and the alignment is really,really good.
If Sebastian comes back in the next week or two then I would be very happy with a faster version of SNS but I don't hold out much hope as he has not even been active on any forums for a couple weeks or more.
Have a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeG9Wm0-yXw
It is over an hour long but well worth watching.
Russ
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Re: General image processing, before or after SNS-HDR?

Postby Mustang Joe » Fri May 23, 2014 7:17 pm

Thank you Karsten for your very kind comments. I appreciate the feedback.

capricorn wrote:For which kind of postprocessing do you prefer CS6 over Lightroom?

- Karsten


I'm much more familiar with Photoshop as I started with CS4 and didn't get LIghtroom until recently. I have the Nik plugins and use them quite a bit because they're really convenient. After SNS saves its file as a TIFF, I open it in CS6 as a Smart Object so that I have the ability to go back and revise plugin filter settings; something you can't do in Lightroom. At times I'll edit the processed image to remove some distracting element and I prefer to do that in CS6.

Joe
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Re: General image processing, before or after SNS-HDR?

Postby hubba » Thu May 29, 2014 4:04 am

capricorn wrote:General image processing, before or after SNS-HDR?

- Karsten



BOTH! ;-)
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