ABOUT

Creating a Panoramic HDR is easy with the use of chdk and no scrips are used (Tested working on canon

sx130). All you need is:

- a tripod

- a chdk enabled camera with has a manual or program mode

-hugin (Download here)

-hdr processing program (for this tutorial will use Photomatix but HDRartizan is a good alternative)

Preparing the Camera

1. After you have chosen a subject you need to enable auto exposure bracketing (AEB) in continuous mode as highlighted in this article HDR with CHDK.

2. Once enabled set your camera to manual and turn on continuous mode by pressing Func/set and going to continuous (I'm using a canon sx130 may be different for other cameras)

3. Next choose a combination of shutter speed, aperature, and iso that expose the picture properly as indicated by the light meter on the bottom right hand corner and a constant white balance. This maintains a constain exposure between shots.

4. Now turn on a custom timer that takes 5 pictures with a 1 second delay (3 pictures is probably enough but I always use 5, and the ! second delay prevent bluring from pressing the shutter down)

Now you are ready to take the picture

Taking the Picture

Press the shutter down and let the camera take the 5 pictures. then rotate the camera so that 30% of the original picture is in the frame of the next. Repeat this until you are satisfied with the area covered.

This solution allows for quick panoramic pictures to be taken and is very useful. Next step is to process the photos on a computer

Post-Processing

To produce an HDR panoramic from the bracketed photos, we are going to start with Photomatix. The easiest way to process the photos is to batch bracketed photos.

PhotoMatix

1. So open photomatix and press "Batch Bracketed Photos"

2. Press settings for Generate HDR image, check Force Exposure Values and set it to 2 Ev and select all cases. Press ok and then select the type of HDR Setting you want.

3. I like the painterly preset so check "Tonemap with Details Enhancer" and press settings. Under presets select Painterly and then ok. Select the number of images you chose to bracket, in this case 5.

4. Now select the folder where the bracketed images are stored and press "Run". Photomatix will

make a new folder within the current one that has the output HDR images.

Hugin

Its now time for Hugin.

1. Open Hugin and choose the HDR pictures you just processed with PhotoMatix (Hugin will correctly connect the images only if they are selected in the correct order, It will NOT work is the photos are selected are random)

2. PhotoMatix removes the lens information from the picture. Hugin will ask you to fill it out manually. For my camera, and probably others, the focal length multiplier is 5.58. Enter this number and Hugin will add the rest. However, you need to enter this information for each Picture. Now press "Align"

3. If everything goes well, Hugin will do the rest of the work. The Fast Panoramic preview will open, you can mess with some settings here but if everything looks alright close this windoew and Press "Create Panorama"

4. And your done! Your HDR is all ready and doesn't it look just great?

Here are some more examples made with this method:

For more FANTASTIC photos check out my Flickr at my Flicker page

I hope you found this tutorial easy to follow and useful