Over Saturated HDR

Often times when I shoot for HDR I produce a minimum of one exposure that gets the sky and clouds in a perfect correctly and accurately. When I use Photomatix to generate the HDR image I am some times left with over an saturated sky and clouds. Sometimes this can cause a very pixelated and grainy look in the sky and clouds. Here is a solution to dealing with this irritating and awful looking problem.

Run the photographs through your HDR software like you normally would. (What you're going to end up doing is only leaving the lower half of the image in HDR and using photoshop to overlay the the sky and clouds onto the HDR image.) Next bring the HDR image in photoshop. You are going to open the photograph that best represents the sky and clouds you want to use. Create a new layer, new layer mask, and place the photograph with the sky and clouds you want to use over the HDR image. You are going to have to erase the lower half of the unedited for HDR image. (the one you think best shows the sky and clouds) What you should be left with is a half HDR image and half unprocessed HDR image. Adjust the brightness/contrast and saturation if you feel the image needs to be boosted up.

This quick process should take care of the nasty sky and clouds that can be caused by processing the photos through your HDR generator. This concept is best used for landscapes that have a horizon point or landscapes that have a good portion of the sky and clouds in them.

Leave us your feed back in the comments section. Maybe you have some tips and ideas you are willing to share.