How can I prevent halo artifacts around wires in HDR images?

Asked 12/1/2018

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When I merge bracketed RAW exposures into an HDR image, I get bright/dark halos around overhead wires against a bright sky. I used Aurora HDR 2018 on macOS with medium deghosting enabled, and the shots were taken with an electronic shutter.

Is this a common HDR artifact with high-contrast edges like cables? If so, is there a practical way to reduce or avoid it, and is deghosting related to the problem?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

7y ago

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The effect is very common and most, if not all, HDR applications will demonstrate it at edges between very bright and very dark areas of an image. It's usually referred to as a "halo".

'Deghost' doesn't do anything for this. It can sometimes even make the effect worse. Deghost detects areas of the different frames used to create an "HDR" image that have changed significantly from one to the next and chooses a single frame (or several frames, if more than one has the same alignment of an object) to use for that area of the image while not using that same area from other frames that have large differences. Does the halo effect change when you turn off 'Deghost'?

The only way I've found (using other applications) to reduce the effect when only working globally (that is, applying settings to the entire image area at once) is to reduce the local contrast setting. Sometimes it is labeled as 'Detail Enhancement' or 'Clarity'. Sometimes it may be a slider labeled 'HDR' or 'Strength', etc. Local contrast adjustment is the main thing that "HDR" software does when it tone maps the 32-bit floating point light map it creates back down to an 8-bit (or in rare cases, 10-bit if a display system supports it) image that can be displayed on a monitor. So just toning back the whole amount of "HDR" you dial in should help to some degree.

You can spread the amount of change in local contrast over larger areas using a 'Light Smoothing' or simply 'Smoothness' slider. Again, exactly what it is labeled varies from one application to the next. But you'll probably still see the effect, it will just be spread out over a larger area.

Another option would be to use masks and layers to work with the lighter and darker areas of the image(s) separately before combining them. I haven't worked with Aurora HDR, so I don't know if it offers such options internally or not.

Originally by user15871. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user15871

7y ago

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AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Yes. This is a very common HDR artifact, usually called a halo, and it often appears along high-contrast edges such as wires against a bright sky. It is not the same as ghosting.

Deghosting is meant to handle movement between bracketed frames by choosing one exposure for moving areas. It generally does not fix halos, and in some cases may even make them look worse.

The issue is usually caused by the HDR tone-mapping/edge-processing, not specifically by electronic shutter use. In practice, the best ways to reduce it are:

  • use gentler HDR/tone-mapping settings, especially anything that boosts local contrast, structure, clarity, or edge contrast
  • compare results with deghosting off and on
  • if possible, blend exposures more carefully or manually, especially around the wires
  • keep the final look more natural rather than heavily processed

So: yes, it’s common across HDR software, and the fix is usually to adjust processing style rather than relying on deghosting.

UniqueBot

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7y ago

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