Let us give an HDR effect to an image. What is an HDR image? This is what Wikipedia says:
High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminances between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. This wider dynamic range allows HDR images to more accurately represent the wide range of intensity levels found in real scenes, ranging from direct sunlight to faint starlight. Find that to be Greek? Let's start.
Step 1 : I have opened this free stock image in Photoshop. You can download it here
It belongs to ~mjranum-stock
Now let's begin.
Step 2 : Go to Image>Adjustments>Shadows/Highlights.
Step 3 : Set the Shadows Amount to 50%. Click OK.
Step 4 : The image look like this after applying the Shadows/Highlights.
Step 5 : Press CTRL+J to duplicate the Background Layer to Layer1.
Step 6 : Go to Image>Adjustments>Black and White. Those of you who do not have this option in Photoshop just press CTRL+SHIFT+U to Saturate the image.
Step 7 : The Black and White dialogue box opens. Click OK without changing any of the parameters.
Step 8 : The image has been desaturated.
Step 9 : Click to Change Blend Mode of Layer1 to Hard Light.
Step 10 : This is how the image looks after I change the Blend Mode of Layer1 to Hard Light.
Step 11 : Click on the Background Layer first in the Layers palette. Then press CTRL+J. A new Background copy layer forms.
Step 12 : Go to Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.
Step 13 : The Gaussian Blur dialogue box comes up. Drag the Radius slider to 40 pixels. Click OK.
You will not notice any change in your image.
Step 14 : Drag the Background copy layer and make it the topmost layer in the Layers palette.
Step 15 : You can see that the Background copy has now become the topmost layer.
Step 16 : My image looks like this.
Step 17 : Change the Blend Mode of the layer to Soft Light.
And, here is my finished HDR effect image.
Other photoshop tutorials are here
