I have made claims in the past about how much I dislike Photoshop’s HDR toning. That is still true, I am not a fan of the HDR toning, but I do love the 32 bit workflow in combination with Adobe Camera Raw. The results can make for some impeccable HDR images that are both very realistic looking and free of the typical HDR Noise. While the effect is not as grungy as many might care for with HDR it is definitely something to consider in your HDR workflow!
I find it particularly useful with sunset and sunrise scenes as they can be tricky in many tone mapping programs. Check out the quick workflow, Before-and-after, and the Video Tutorial if you are interested!
My 32 bit workflow is a 6 part process.
- Make the 32 bit file in Photoshop
- Save that 32 bit file as a TIFF
- Modify the 32 bit TIFF in Adobe Camera Raw (feel free to use Lightroom as well)
- Save it as a 16 Bit TIFF
- Modify the 16 Bit TIFF in ACR again.
- Make typical post processing adjustment
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HenryH
October 26, 2012 at 20:48 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’ve become a huge fan of Photomatix’s 32-bit plug-in for Lightroom. I can create 32-bit TIF files with the PM rendering engine, then do all of my processing in Lightroom. Only then do I take it into Photoshop. I’ve never been happier with my HDR images.
Blake Rudis
October 26, 2012 at 20:53 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yep, I am on that one next! You can do the same workflow in ACR. That is next on my list. I’ll probably show that one next week!
brad
November 5, 2012 at 20:33 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hey Blake,
I’m having problems opening the 16bit tiff after I’ve saved it. It just opens in photoshop and if I click on the layer after its opened it will just open back in camer raw with the adjustments I made on the 32bit file. It’s driving me mad. Photoshop cs6, mac 10.7.5… please help
Thanks,
Brad
Blake Rudis
November 5, 2012 at 20:51 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hmm, did you go to the Camera Raw preferences and make sure that you had the TIFF support checked? Also, after you save the 32 bit file to a 16 bit, make sure you click the close button on the open picture. It may just be a Mac thing
J/K
brad
November 5, 2012 at 21:08 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I did the TIFF support and closed the open photo. It probably is a mac thing lol! The thing thats driving me up a wall is when I save it as a 16bit TIFF it wont open in camera raw but in photoshop, and the 32bit opens up no problem. Now when the 16bit file is open in photoshop if I click on the layer it will open in camera raw but with the adjustments I’ve already made. I guess I’ll just play around with it for a while and see what happens. If I figure it out I’ll let you know, thanks.
brad
November 5, 2012 at 21:44 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ok I figured it out. My settings in camera raw where to open the photos as smart objects. Fixed that all is good! thanks and great site here dude!
Blake Rudis
November 6, 2012 at 04:35 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks Brad! I am glad you got it all figured out. Sounded like a preferences thing.
russ
February 1, 2013 at 19:41 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Blake,
Very nice tutorial btw. I’ve seen that process described before, but not as clearly as you have.
My question:
I can’t seem to load any 32-bit tiff images into ACR! Followed your steps to the letter. When done from minibridge, there is no error, just doesn’t work. When open-as, raw…etc…..I get this error:
“Could not complete your request because the file-format module cannot parse the file.”
I even tried creating a 32-bit test image (paint scribbles) from within ps just to see if it had something to do with my original images. nope, would’n't even load my “32-bit handrawn happy face”….ha ha
I’m running cs5, acr 6.7.0.339, windows 7 64 bit
is this a cs5 thing?
any help would be great
-Russ
Blake Rudis
February 1, 2013 at 20:28 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Thanks, Russ, unfortunately this function is only available in Camera Raw 7.1 and higher! It is a bummer I know, I just recently discovered that myself.
lloveras
March 2, 2013 at 07:40 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hi Blake, Quick question, while you are doing your magic in ADC on the 32 bits Tiff file, ADC displays at the bottom a bit depth on your image of 8 bits and not 32 bits. Is this a bug?
On my picture it actually displays 16 bits depth and not 32 bits depth.
So you were not editing in 32 bits mode but in 8 bit mode. As a proof, at 5min 21 your image shows a 8bit depth when you come out of ADC and change it to 16 bits.
Blake Rudis
March 3, 2013 at 14:33 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think it may be a bug, because it clearly saves them as 16 bit and 32 bit when I check the file size.
Moshe
April 24, 2013 at 05:14 (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Hello Blake,
Regarding lloveras’ question, I don’t think it’s a bug. It’s up to you to set the bit depth of the file created by ACR, in ‘ACR’s Workflow Options’. In your case, it was set to 8 bits, so the file transfered to Photoshop was 8 bits (it appears so on the image window title bar). Converting it to 16 bits with Mode doesn’t bring back the lost 8 bits, so the 16 bit TIF you created has only 8 bits of information.
Actually, I don’t see why you had to go through Photoshop to create that 16 bit TIF, why not use ‘Save Image…’ in ACR and set the saved file type in ‘Save Options’. The TIF created will be 8 or 16 bit, depending on the setting in Workflow Options.
On a different subject, I think the slider in Merge to HDR Pro dialog, when set to 32 bit mode, only affecs the white point of the preview in the dialog, and has no efect on the content of the 32 bit (Float) TIF file created.
It is also worth mentioning that as of ACR 7.1, the range of the ‘Exposure’ slider in the Basic module is +/- 10 EV for 32 bit TIFs, whereas it’s only 5 EV for other file types.
I enjoyed reading your book and watching the tutorial videos!
Thanks,
Moshe