How to create HDR photos using Photoshop

Create an HDR photo using Adobe Photoshop and multiplex files:

1. In Adobe Photoshop, choose File > Automate > Merge to HDR Pro.
2. Select your photos to merge. Click OK.
3. Merge the photos to desired level and edit photo like normal. But take care:
   • Do not change the dimension of the final picture. 
   • The 4 quadrants should stay exactly where they are. Do not crop or pixel shift the quadrants in any way.
4. Export photo AS COPY.
5. See “Copying Metadata” below.

Copying Metadata:

Pictures taken by bublcam contains proprietary calibration data that is used to stitch the bubl when uploaded to bubl.io. Using non-destructive editing tools (such as Photoshop, Aperture, etc) will overwrite the metadata and delete the calibration. To copy over calibration from the original file to and edited file, follow these steps:

1. In a single folder, copy the edited file, the original file and the provided “exiftools” executable. Both files must be either JPEG or MP4.
2. On Windows, on a blank part of the folder press SHIFT and RIGHT-CLICK. Select ‘Open command window here’.
   On Mac, Open ‘/Applications/Utilities’ and double click on Terminal. Navigate to the folder containing the files.
3. Type in “exiftools -tagsFromFile source.jpeg destination.jpeg” (change name to corresponding file name).
4. Now you can use the destination.jpeg file for upload in www.bubl.io. A new “destination.jpeg_original” is created in case you need to go back a step.

Create an HDR photo using Adobe Photoshop and equirectangular files:

Using equirectangular photos in Adobe Photoshop gives you better control over colour and exposure, compared to multiplex photos. Due to the automated process, Photoshop tries to work on the black borders of the multiplex, which is not needed. Using equirectangular, Photoshop uses exactly what is going to end up in the final picture, and so have better estimation.

1. Upload desired files to the Bubl Cloud (www.bubl.io). Wait for conversion to be completed and then download the equirectangular files from the My Media section.
2. In Adobe Photoshop, choose File > Automate > Merge to HDR Pro.
3. Select your photos to merge. Click OK.
4. Merge the photos and edit like normal. But make sure the ratio of the photo is always 2:1.
5. Export photo.