[Scottbad]

What's your workflow regarding HDR?

What kind of software do you use, how do you use it?
Is there any good tutorial out there?

Is there any reason why I shouldn’t use "Shadows/Highlights" in PS over shooting 3-7 images and using them in photomatix/hdr efex/etc

I don't want that grunge bloated pukey effects on my pictures.

Thanks!

[NT73]

Sadly I don't have a workflow.
Each image is tweaked to my taste, which sometimes takes no time at all, other times much longer.

I use CS mainly. Tutorials are boundless on the internet and most are free. Just type 'Photoshop Tutorials' and trawl through them.

[Pavel]

I do HDR sparingly - I go for the natural look. I have and used Photomatix, but NIK has a good plug-in and it gives a very good control and a chance to choose from a gallery of presets. If you like one of the presets seen as a smallish image in a column of different images on the left - you click on it. You than see a large version of your selection. If you like what you picked you have a wide selection of tools to tweak the image. When done, you leve the plug-in back to photoshop and the image is a layer.

[Toad]

When I do use HDR, I fade it back to where it isn't at all obvious at all that is what I have done. I pretty much do that with all PhotoShop effects though, so that workflow isn't specific to HDR.

[lcburns]

I'd say go with PS. The effect you get from combining many exposures usually end up looking unnatural. Use shadow/highlight in moderation, though. It gets grim fast. My rule of thumb is max 10% on each.

[admiralsfan]

fill light and recovery work better than shadows/highlights.

[pinmollusc]

Personally I am not a fan of HDR imaging however I've personally tried few, just out of curiosity, Here is my work flow.
I use Photomatrix for this automated process.
1.I go with the generate HDR option, found in the start-up.I get the chance to select the images for merging.( RAW,jpeg and tiff formats are supported normally)

2. After I click Generate HDR I usually tone map the image to achieve the look in my mind.I can change the strength, saturation, Luminosity, Shadow and Highlight smoothing,Gamma etc.

Tone mapping is a advanced process and usually pro-users achieve that perfect HDR look and feel with the correct adjustments and few adjustments later on in Photoshop.

Photoshop too includes the automated process of generating a HDR, and the photomatrix tone mapping is available as a separate photoshop plugin.While the photoshop generated HDRs are good enough, if you need more control over the process go for the plug in.

The above process is simple and automated, however expert users follow somewhat advanced techniques, which are time consuming to further strengthen the HDR look and feel. One such advanced technique I found on the internet is cited here.HDR Workflow

[Pavel]

I am probably a few generations behind with Photomatrix, but personally I do not like it. It is slow and not very good at previewing in real time the tone-mapping options you have picked and some of the commands are obscure and their effect not easily predicted. In contrast, NIK software gives a full screen real time preview and the controls are very intuitive for a photographer. There are other excellent options (I tried this one and loved the concepts behind it and the implementation http://www.unifiedcolor.com/hdr-expose-2), but I went with NIK, as I do have the other plug-ins. The new sensors tend to offer wider dynamic range and a technigue of exposing for highlights and bringing up shadows in software (this uses the full dynamic range captured in a single frame by a sensor) is quite sufficient without the use of HDR. I am not fond of the HDR look and find it distinctly unappealing.