The New York Times has an interesting article on HDR - High Dynamic Range photography. HDR allows photographers to combine multiple exposures to bring out the full range of tonal values in a scene, retaining detail in dark shadows as well as bright highlight areas. The results, like these mouthwatering images by photog Kris Kros, are sometimes hyper-realistic, making a photograph look like a hybrid photo-cum-painting. There are several programs for rendering HDR images, including Photoshop CS2. If you're interested in trying out the HDR features in Photoshop CS2, here are the basics:

The trick is to take several shots of the same scene at slightly different exposures and merge the images into one 32-bit HDR file in Photoshop (CS2 only). Shoot in RAW format. Be sure to use a tripod so your camera doesn't move between shots. Bracket exposures by changing shutter speed one stop for each shot, without changing your aperture. In Photoshop, choose File>Automate>Merge to HDR, and browse to your bracketed shots. Choose 32 bits as the bit depth if you want to retain all of the tonal information. Photoshop will merge the multiple exposures into one 32-bit file.

The merged image may look washed out at first because an HDR image contains a larger dynamic range than your monitor can display. You can adjust Photoshop's preview of the merged image by choosing View>32-bit Preview Options and adjusting Exposure, Gamma, and Highlight Compression settings there. These settings do not affect the image -- only the way it appears on your monitor. To adjust the image itself, choose Image>Adjustments>Exposure. In the Exposure dialog box, use the Exposure slider to adjust the highlights, the Offset slider to adjust shadows and midtones, and the Gamma slider to adjust , well, the gamma. Save the 32-bit file in Radiance (.hdr) format. If you want to manipulate the image further in Photoshop, convert it to 16 bits so you have access to more tools and features. You can print the 16-bit file, or convert it to 8-bit for printing.

Now that you Windows users have heard that there's a beta of Adobe Lightroom for you (a free download from Adobe), you're probably hungry for some Windows specific training. As usual, NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) is right on it. They've updated their Lightroom training page with some new videos that show the Windows version of Lightroom, including Matt Kloskowski's Intro to the Develop Module, Secrets of the Tone Curve, and Magic of Split-Toning. Mac users will benefit from these videos too, because Lightroom's settings are similar across the platforms.

And if you want to see what other users are saying about the Windows beta or post your own impressions, join in on Adobe's Lightroom Beta Windows discussion board.

I came across another portfolio site that offers some before and after images exhibiting the power of Photoshop (mouse over the images to see the magic). What I like about this page is its author, Greg Apodaca, has presented a nice range of imagery, from model photography to product re-touching and image compositing. A few of his images include a clever re-creation of Photoshop's layers palette, and mousing over each layer will deconstruct the image to that particular element. Nice.

Jennifer Apple over at The Photoshop Blog posted a great tip for getting that perfect selection when you're having a tough time with other methods, possibly due to backgrounds or surrounding elements that are stumping Photoshop and its various selection tools.

Jennifer's idea is to give your selection tool of choice a helping hand by using a Levels or Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer) to increase the image's contrast. Using an adjustment layer (instead of applying the changes directly) will allow you to preserve the image the way you want it, make the selection you need and then throw out or turn off (for later use) the layer in order to go on about your business.

This method is both a great technique and a prime example of the power of adjustment layers that should be incorporated into nearly every Photoshop user's toolbelt as soon as possible.

This might seem like a basic tip to some, but I've been meeting more and more Photoshoppers from all walks of life who are so delighted to find out about this tip that I thought I'd post it.

Using the Measure Tool (oddly hidden under the Eyedropper Tool) in CS2 and CS, as well as 7 and I think 6 and earlier, you can draw a straight line and use it to orient your comp. For example: say you need to rotate an image ever so slightly so the side of a building is perfectly vertical or the edge of a table exactly horizontal. Simply draw a line with the Measure Tool along whatever object, edge or item you would like to straighten out with, then go up to Image > Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. The Angle field will already be filled in with the value needed to straighten out the line you drew, in which case your canvas will rotate by that amount.

See? No more 'rotating and guessing.'

Episode 21 of Photoshop TV has landed, and in addition to the usual roundup of handy tips and tricks is a special guest: Eddie Tap, who demonstrates some new greyscale conversion techniques. Further, if you'd like to play along with a restoration tutorial from Scott, you can grab a copy of the image he uses from their site. Neat.

No, the Redmond software giant didn't actually redesign the iPod's packaging, but someone used some pretty funny (and accurate) packaging parody work and put together a darn funny video of what it would look like if they did.

As long as you have Flash enabled, you should be able to click the play button on the image above and watch the video right here at TUPW. As a backup, you can also check out the video at YouTube.

[via TUAW]

I found a really slick tutorial at the Adobe Spot explaining how to create a text montage. I know there are simple methods of accomplishing a similar effect, but the tutorial goes a bit further in-depth, using a combination of specific channel selections and color tweaking to fill an image or selection with text of varying values. It's short, sweet and produces a nice effect. Check it out.

[via digg]

In the latest episode of Photoshop TV, they mention a book you can pre-order, written by their own Scott Kelby, Editor of Photoshop User magazine. The book's title is, unassumingly, The Photoshop CS2 Channels Book, and its Amazon description sounds like it brings a fresh, project-based perspective to the somewhat abstract concept of channels. Practices of using channels for selections, masking, color correcting and more are all covered. I'm not sure when the book is available, although it should be soon.