Digital BW, The Print

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "john dean" <deanwork2003@...> 
wrote:
> I think this HDR stuff is the most under rated aspect of CS2 along
> with the new smarter noise reduction capability and spot healing
> brush. If you are shooting digital capture and are not working in CS2
> you are missing a lot in my opinion. Of course it's expensive and we
> can't share it any longer with our loved ones ;-( . 


Here is a link to a video tutorial on Merge to HDR.  It is a section of a tutorial CD that 
shipped with PSCS2.  There are also slightly different options for Merge to HDR depending 
on whether you enter through Bridge or PS.  I'm also very impressed with the potential for 
Merge to HDR.  One thing it can do is overcome very bad lighting and enable you to get a 
decent to excellent image out of a bad to mediocre situation.  I once did a test when first 
playing with HDR by shooting, in mid-day, through a north facing window placed in a 
white interior wall.  The window I was shooting into was the only source of light in the 
room.  I was able to get an image that showed the detail of a screen behind a pane of 
glass in the window, foilage outside the window and texture detail on the white interior 
wall framing that window.  The light on the interior wall could only have been light that 
came through the window I was shooting into and reflected around the room and back 
onto that wall:

http://studio.adobe.com/us/search/content.jsp?lang=en&item=phscs2ttL03

Coupling the HDR capability with inkjet capabilities for detail is pretty exciting.  I did 
similar excercises in a wet darkroom many years ago involving lots of multiple prints and 
lots of hand cutting of custom masks and dodging and burning tools.  It was very tedious 
and really only illuminating the first few times you did it, then it became drudgey.   HDRs 
ability to soft proof the image before going to the first sheet of paper, I think, opens up a 
whole new world.