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Photo Credits: Heather Forsythe Photography

Mastering HDR in Photoshop CS5 - Our review...

I swear that if you looked up "HDR" (high dynamic range) in the dictionary you would see a picture of Matt Kloskowski.

The DVD, "Mastering HDR in Adobe Photoshop CS5" is from Kelby Training and is 2 hours and 15 minutes of everything Matt knows about HDR, which I think is everything there is to know about HDR.

Matt walks us through what HDR is and why you would consider using it, the different styles available to us, from getting a more balanced and natural image, shooting a night image, and ends with an image with that fantasy, surreal look. He shows us the series of images we would want to capture (and why) and what finished image would be.


Following his explanation of what HDR is Matt provides important tips to consider when shooting (like using a tripod and cable release), what your camera setting should be, and how many frames you need to capture. He even even explains why (if you are shooting Nikon) you would shoot 5 images but only use three of them.

That's just the warm-up.


The real meat of this instructional DVD is how to process HDR images.

It starts with opening images in the HDR Pro dialog box and shows us (in detail) how an image will respond to each and every slider, button, and check box. He then shows us the best settings to use for the type of HDR image we are trying to create.

From the HDR Pro dialog box the image is then brought into Photoshop, camera RAW, and Photoshop (again) for its final processing.

But wait, there's more.

Matt also walks us through a complete HDR workflow for Lightroom and another (complete HDR workflow) for Bridge.

Still not done (I feel like an infomercial, "wait, if your order in the next 10 minutes...").

Ever wonder what an image would like like with an HDR look but only have a single shot? Matt takes us through that process as well, along with teaching us how to create an action for future use (if you don't want to create your own action you'll find Matt's on the DVD for us to use).

Some of the things I like about the DVD is that it's presented in small manageable bites, no segment is more than 13 minutes in length so it doesn't seem overwhelming and it's also easy to keep track of where you've been.

Matt's teaching style is thorough and easy to follow, even if you have never heard of HDR before you would be able to follow along AND master everything that is presented on the DVD.

All of the RAW files that Matt works on through out the DVD are included so you can easily follow along, step by step.

There are iPod/iPad files included for truly mobile learning.

Now for the things I don't like... well... ahhh... insert sound of chirping crickets here... because there is nothing I don't like about "Mastering HDR in Adobe Photoshop CS5".

If you have an interest in HDR photography want to learn everything there is to know about it you'll want (and need to) pick up "Mastering HDR in Adobe Photoshop CS5", anythng else would be incomplete and a waste of your time.

Serioulsy.