Ok Photomatix Users

14 Aug 2011 admin In G+ Posts

What the Heck is going on here…. This is not the setting I was going to use for the image but it is a preset in photomatix… it looks like data overload? Or simply there is a micro blackhole in my new lens that is sucking reality into another dimension…

See the photo…..

Anyone? – I have never seen this issue – so I assume I did something horribly wrong..

Comments: 33

  1. Emmett Lollis 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    Is it like that when you change to different settings?

  2. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    Those appear to be areas where you have no shadow detail, and the source file format compressed the blackness in a blocky fashion.

  3. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    hmm… I could see that being true….. I sense a major issue when shooting into the sun….

  4. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    Oh, and, it almost goes without saying, delete that preset and never think of it again!

  5. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki Ask yourself, why on earth would you want the shadows of a scene to have the same tonality as the sun? It doesn't make sense. Take more brackets when facing the sun, and go easy on the tonemapping to leave some actual shadows in the scene and you'll be fine.

  6. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Jonathan Liles Oh heck no all my images will use it from this point forth… its amazing… actually all the presets are kind of terrible….

  7. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Emmett Lollis in some – not in others.. so as +Jonathan Liles said I assume it has to do with the data in that location of the shot…

  8. Emmett Lollis 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    Yeah that makes sense. How do the photos look individually outside of Photomatix?

  9. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki FYI, take a low-key exposed JPG, open it in an image editor, and crank up the brightness, you'll see all kinds of artifacts like these in the shadows.

  10. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    What is the name of that preset anyway? I think I've seen some other images that use it on flickr. "Clown vomit" or something, right?

  11. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Emmett Lollis Individually they are pretty terrible… a ton of shadows with no detail… maybe the camera just simply metered the scene totally wrong based on the focus point and the sun… I am not a pro shooting into the sun – just trying to figure it out and throw myself up here for suggestions…..it's one thing I want to learn how to do much better.. or else I am posting shots with this preset daily till someone helps me 🙂 That might be a un-circling offense….

    +Jonathan Liles Well this was 5 – PS: terrible sunset I was just trying to shoot something to mess around with some post processing tonight…. – This was just sent into photomatix – no changes I just flipped through the presets to see what they offered… found this one – knew you would like it.. now this was on the preview… maybe its a preview issue… I will try to re-run it and see if the pre-view was simply lying to me…

  12. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Jonathan Liles Yes I think it is called clown vomit.. or projectile color infusion…. I think the words Painterly and Grunge were used…

  13. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki No. I'm sure it will look like that in the final render. If you could look at the image info directly you'd see that the innermost square is all 0, the next one out is 1, etc. The tonemapping is what gives the artifact the appearance of having a gradient. Basically, photomatix is attempting to compress the dynamic range by far, far too much. Metering into the sun is tricky, and probably not a great idea (you could theoretically melt the meter sensor matrix if you're not using an ND filter and you leave the camera pointed at the sun with lens-cap off). You need brackets where the most underexposed shot shows just the ball of the sun in full, rich red, and the most over-exposed shot shows detailed shadows with everything else blown out to oblivion. It'll probably require more than 3 shots.

  14. Emmett Lollis 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki Sounds like the sun was so harsh it underexposed everything else but you already figured that out. When shooting the sun I try to meter on areas that don't have the sun in the frame. That helps the exposure on the main part of the scene. Previewing the shots after they are taken helps in these tough situations. You might even want to do extra bracketed shots also. -2, -4, -6 to help with the highlights.

  15. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Emmett Lollis I can go to 9… so thats a plus for me.. that said I plan on doing this till I get it right…

    +Jonathan Liles Well I am lucky I can go to 9 with my camera…. melting the sensor.. ok thats an issues but that would only be during the exposure correct? or am I just clueless here…. cannot really use a ND filter on this new lens… they just are not made to fit it… well I guess you can but the setup is like 800 bucks…

  16. Emmett Lollis 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki Whatever you do don't shoot into the sun in live view.. That will damage the sensor for sure. Short exposures are all that would be needed for bright light anyway. The more exposures you have to mess with the better, as long as it's on a tripod you should be able to blend them.

  17. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki There are several sensors. The image sensor is at risk during the exposure, but the meter sensor and the AF sensor (in some cameras they are the same) is attached to the viewfinder prism and is exposed to light whenever the mirror is down (that is, when you're not exposing the image sensor). I wouldn't leave the camera pointed at the sun for very long if I could help it, exposing or not.

  18. Mike Keller 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    Thanks to Photomatix, you've found the portal to the next dimension.

  19. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki Then again, I use several radioactive (gamma-ray emitting) lenses, so clearly I don't care that much about damaging my own sensor.

  20. Emmett Lollis 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    Good points +Jonathan Liles . I didn't think about other sensors being exposed to direct light with the mirror down.

  21. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Emmett Lollis I am trying to take the worst possible – horrible situations and learn how to get the best results I can from them…. or basically polish the turd… that way when I have perfect one I can really relax…..

  22. Emmett Lollis 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki That's the best way to become the best. Trial and error for sure.

  23. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Jonathan Liles very interesting points…. I think its time to break out the manual and look if Nikon warns about that.. because honestly I have never seen that or just threw the manual out before I found it….

    Ok this is scary…. Manual: Keep the sun out of the frame – Keep the sun out of the frame when shooting backlit subjects. Sunlight focused into the camera when the sun is in or close to the frame could cause a fire…

    Say wha….?

  24. Emmett Lollis 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki Fire? wow!

  25. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki Take your lens off the camera sometime put it between the sun and a piece of paper (held at the focal point). Count how many seconds it takes for the paper to start smoking–then think about your sensor. Now, the sensor is made of silicon–not cellulose. But still, that's a lot of heat.

  26. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Emmett Lollis thats what it says.. could you imagine.. hmm hmm – just taking some photos… Camera erupts in flames…

    +Gerry Gomez so your saying stick to taking good photos…. and make great photos 🙂

  27. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Jonathan Liles I will be doing that tomorrow…. I have been shooting for quite some time and I swear nobody has ever mentioned that to me…. ok – aside from me being smart enough to supposedly know I should not point anything at the sun – why I would think it would be ok is sort of beyond me…. hey you learn something new everyday… luckily my camera did not combust….

  28. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Gerry Gomez I guess film would just melt…. you peel it out and toss in a new roll….

  29. Emmett Lollis 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki A few weeks ago I was on an outdoor photo shoot in 110 degree weather.. My camera overheated and errored out. I felt like it was going to burst into flames then LOL

  30. Jonathan Liles 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki Hehe. Well, it's not all that bad. I mean the difference between f/2 and f/22 is quite a lot, and the meter sensor isn't exposed fully (unlike the image sensor, the meter sensor only receives a fraction of the light–a portion that would otherwise be lost and absorbed by black paint on that side of the prism). Manuals always warn of dire consequences. The key is to know the risks and take what precautions you can and still get the shot you want.

  31. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Jonathan Liles I will simply be bringing a fire extinguisher with me from now on….. problem solved….

  32. David Lyerla 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    +Brent Burzycki This is great I love that you put up a wild picture and got everyone involved in it. Haven't heard this much conversation about one picture ever, good job.

  33. Brent Burzycki 14 Aug 2011 Reply

    I like learning by not being afraid to put myself in the fire or simply call myself dumb to benefit others… there are no wrong questions… I will definitely prove that… this forum is great to get answers… with great answers to boot…

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