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davidmilligan edited this page Aug 22, 2013 · 2 revisions

Copy the script to the '[photoshop folder]/presets/scripts' folder and restart photoshop if it is already running. The script should appear as a menu item under File>Automate>Batch HDR...

Input Section

  • Click browse and select the source folder that contains the images to be merged/toned
  • Specify "Number of Brackets" this is how many separate images to group into a single HDR output image (the script will group the images in the source folder in order based on this parameter). You can use a value of 1, which means each image in the source folder is separate and will be toned and output. (I find that many times when shooting RAW, 14 bits is ample to capture the full dynamic of the scene, so I do not waste storage space and shutter acutations using more than one exposure, just make sure to ETTR, also post-processing with this script will be faster)
  • If there are other files in your source folder (for example .xmp files) that you need to exclude you can specify a filter. For example: *.cr2
  • Typically for timelapse you are using a tripod and do not need to have photoshop align the images, but the capability is provided by the script. Note that enabling this will make the process MUCH slower.

Toning Section

  • These settings are all the same as the photoshop HDR toning dialog for "Local Adaptation"
  • To preview what your toning settings will look like you can select any file(s) in your sequence by clicking "Select File(s)..." under "Preview". The file(s) you select will open and merge (if more than one file). When that's finished you can click the "Update Preview" button to apply the current toning settings and see what they will look like. NOTE: The preview ability of this script is nowhere near as fast as the builtin dialog. You may find it easier to use the builtin dialog to create a preset and then simply load the preset from this script.
  • You can see what the settings will look like at another point in your sequence by clicking the "Select File(s).." button again. (I recommend previewing a shot near the beginning, middle, and end of your sequence) The dialog prevents you from using anything in photoshop while its open so I provided a zoom to allow you to zoom in on the preview
  • The tone curve you must enter as a comma separated list of points. The points are grouped into x,y pairs so for example: x1,y1,x2,y2,etc. Typically you will start with 0,0 and end with 255,255 (note that 255 is the max, full white). Like the curves tool, x represents the input and y represents the output

Output Section

  • Click browse and select a folder for the script to save the output files to
  • The rest of this section should be self explanitory. NOTE: If you select to output 32bit files, the toning will not be applied, the files will simply be merged into a 32bit HDR image and saved. Once you have specified the input and output folders the OK button should be enabled, when you are ready, click OK to start the process
  • Go watch a movie or take a nap, this is going to take a while. The script will display a progress window showing you how far along the process and estimated time remaining.
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