Is it possible to save my IRAy renders as .HDR or another high definition range format? I only see the usual .bmp, .jpg, .tiff. as save options.

I have not seen the option in Daz. If I want to mess with HDR I cut a high quality render in bmp or png then in Photoshop upscale the dpi to borderline silly and finish it of in FRANZIS a professional HDR photography program from german developers. You end up with your master pic come in at about 75 to 150mb obviously looking pretty cool. Just reduce them for web etc as copies I bought the Gold and Silver(B&W) versions That is if you want to go down the serious route. . ideal if you are looking to make HDRI clouds etc It does have presets but all Pro adjustable with the 3 maps etc a fairly steep learning curve I guess it kind of expects users to have a fair knowledge to get the best out of it. I did a 1940's restored Dodge out on a country road with the clouds it is mind boggling and a rusty pickup in front of a haystack with all the clouds. I do like the HDR clouds. Can't remember how much as had it couple of years now can't recall it being the cheapest option defo but the best

YouTube

Thank you for your answer, but .HDR refers to_ colour depth_, that is dynamic range being high. It has no bearing with the number of pixels. I have seen Studio accepts .hdr files for light effects but oddly enough not to produce this type of files as output. I use them extensively for renders from PoserPro and so have much more options in Paintshop Pro to do postwork. A bit of a disappointment because iRay must have the hdr info in order to work.

explanation of HDR

I am fully aware of what hdr means. When I made reference to increasing the dpi that is because if you look at any reasonable photograph say one through a Nikon D610 or the humble smartphone the pixel ratio is way over anything Daz studio puts out. Professional HDR programs would prefer to be working in Raw (Raw file size is typically 2–6 times larger than JPEG file size). This is not just Daz studio issue but many apps of this category. I do not have to use my scroll zoom far to see an image start to fall apart. When I tried to use renders I found the digital artifacts undesirable. HDR/I refers to High Dynamic Range and it is basically tone mapping PIXELS and altering their state. Because we are talking about computer based conversion and not thru the lens you are starting with low dynamic image and layering 3 together each changing the luminance via the differing algorithms and in turn gives the depth and color you seek. It does have quite a bearing on the pixels if you would like something worthwhile at the end result.

Your comment about the Iray render engine using HDR or lack of option to output HDR might be on purpose. Iray is now appearing in other platforms. When a licensing agreement is struck up between two companies they may not always get the fully functioning software that would be very rare these days. You get a stripped back version which does the job intended but nothing more. Iray turned up recent update Substance Designer now gives you the ability to preview in Iray nothing more. This is all that was required and I could see it being very handy for a Daz content developer to preview the materials they are working on in the same engine the material is to target. Indigo are doing similar Render engine in affiliate software but go to their store and buy the standalone version if you want fully featured. All would be fools to give us their full spec render engine inside another program they would be shooting themselves in the foot. Iray more than likely will have no issue rendering in HDR just not from Daz that I can see.

One option would be to do 3 renders and adjust the render settings to emulate different exposures or bracketing. Then use an application like photoshop to merge to HDR. Basically emulating the actual photography technique.

Razor you got plenty of time on your hands LOL. That is exactly how it works but I have a feeling Photoshop might even have an action to take care of that with one render. I know it handles HDR fine just have not tried it as have the other software.

Time is rather an intangible concept, a second can be an eternity, years can fly by in the blink of an eye ;)

Of course with some trial and error you can fake it by just adjusting the exposure settings in photoshop, saving out three images and then merging to HDR. But this won't work for everything and is a little sloppy.

I'm just setting up a render for proof of concept using the three render techniques. Give me a minute ;)

ooooo I do like a challenge. You are correct and once you have 3 layers lined up change opacity and the use the regular adjustments panel to change exposure settings. Even the vibrant and contrast options as from memory the 3 layers looked from Dark-Mid-Light as singles

Alright, here we go keep in mind that these only baked for 3 mins each with under 1% convergence, so a little grainy.

But it works quite well, I used the exposure settings in the Render settings - Tone mapping with -2/0/+2

Of course this is just a jpg example but it can be saved as a Radiance 32 bit HDR for use in other apps

LPR001 posted at 6:34PM Mon, 02 November 2015 - #4236434

ooooo I do like a challenge. You are correct and once you have 3 layers lined up change opacity and the use the regular adjustments panel to change exposure settings. Even the vibrant and contrast options as from memory the 3 layers looked from Dark-Mid-Light as singles !

Nice job, cool HDR effect!

Here is the same HDR with some Tonal tweaks.

And another with a quick filter if you like that heavier style.

This looks great Razor This last one the simulates HDR to the letter doesn't it?. The greens it high contrast and the flesh tone has HDR written all over it. Eyes are better too than the original Deeper. Great work

With a bit of tweaking on settings I'm sure it is a workable solution for creating 32 Bit HDR's in DS so hopefully the experiment is of benefit to the OP. I actually kind of like the effect and will probably look a little further into the process myself when I get some "time". :)

This looks great Razor This last one the simulates HDR to the letter doesn't it?. The greens it high contrast and the flesh tone has HDR written all over it. Eyes are better too than the original Deeper. Great work

Thanks, LPR!

Then you can go for the heavy HDR look which works in some cases like a rat rod on a wharf with a nice bunch of clouds behind it. Perfect ! However a general car with too much going on like this not so good on the eye if no people maybe the one car be fine. There is a fine line between BS and clever as they say. Worthy of it's own running sticky thread this one Razor the "HDR debacle" I had to reduce the file from hdr to jpg and resize the bottom one back down as they don't allow files this big here just wont even consider the upload

Very nice!

Are you using Iray or 3Delight? In Iray, set up a Beauty Pass in the Canvasses section of the Advanced tab of render Settings and when you save the render you will get a folder with the render's name that holds an .exr files for each Canvas, which has greater bit-depth.

Thanks for that Richard!

Here's a visual of the settings for those that find such things useful.

Running a test render now.

The .exr file generated is a HDR RGB 32 bit depth file.

On .exr file types

The EXR file type is primarily associated with 'OpenEXR' by Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC.. OpenEXR is a high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic for use in computer imaging applications.

More info: http://www.openexr.com/

My first render was pretty much a polar bear in a snowstorm.

Okay works awesome!

I used the Beauty Canvas render as an overlay to the Base Layer in PS to good effect. The .exr HDR Beauty Canvas Pass seems to be a perfect solution for a 32 bit HDR image!

Thanks Richard!!!