...do you always start with a preset that looks good from the start? I don't know if it's my eye, but I am regularly drawn to two presets over others (deep and graduated), but I wonder if I'm missing out by not seeing the potential in other presets which only are realized after MORE post-processing.
I don't use the HDR software, but I have a handful of presets in Nik Silver that I almost always start with. They are custom presets which I'm sure you can do in HDR Efex. I see no missed opportunities in starting with your preferred "neutral" starting point.
I only started using HDR Efex 2 a couple of weeks ago Jason but used the previous version quite a bit. I like this version better overall, but at least so far I haven't found any of the presets that come with it to work well for me. I pretty much just go with the default and start flavoring it on my own conservatively. Can't say I have it dialed in yet, but expect I will eventually make my own custom presets once I do. I really like the new feature to freeze motion to the frame you pick. It's less clunky than before and I don't think I will need to merge using Photoshop for some scenes in motion like I had to with the last version.
I have created a couple custom presets that work as foundations for a couple different types of images I am frequently creating. I have a lot of fun using Granny's Attic as a starting point too :-) But most of the time I start from scratch.
I found B&W Artistic to be pretty nice if you're doing a monochrome, but for color work I'm also drawn to using Deep1 and Deep2. So far I'm mainly using HDR EFX2 for tonemapping of single shots though I find the results are too strong and am always cutting back the effect with the opacity slider. I'd like to take a series of bracketed photos to use in HDREFX2 but I just haven't been carrying my tripod much lately. I still use Topaz Adjust a lot more than the NIK program.
I'd like to take a series of bracketed photos to use in HDREFX2 but I just haven't been carrying my tripod much lately. I still use Topaz Adjust a lot more than the NIK program.
Burst mode works fine for this, at least in full daylight. I do it all the time when I'm too lazy to be tripodded, which seems to be most of the time lately :-)
I'd like to take a series of bracketed photos to use in HDREFX2 but I just haven't been carrying my tripod much lately. I still use Topaz Adjust a lot more than the NIK program.
Burst mode works fine for this, at least in full daylight. I do it all the time when I'm too lazy to be tripodded, which seems to be most of the time lately :-)
I have tried burst mode but seem to get subpar results with lots of ghosting. Guess my old hands aren't as steady as they used to be. Tripod still works best for me.
