HDR pics turning out soft all the time

Ive been wondering this for quite some time now, I dont understand why my HDR pics turn out so soft compared to the originals. Tripod or not, still soft.

I use photomatix pro v4.1 for HDR and CS5 for some touch ups like aligning and whatnot.

heres an example. I used a tripod for this. I use a manfrotto 055xprob


Is it the software?

I don't need hdr to make my snaps soft! LOL

What lens were you using? I don't mean to offend you but I doubt it is the software but more likely something you are doing.

The picture above doesn't appear all that soft to me.

Post processing is going to change the original image and processes like HDR change them radically. And then there is the whole jpeg deal.

The image doesn't look that soft to me. Are you selecting the ghost removal in Photomatix? There is no need for it if you are using a tripod, and that will harm the IQ a little.
What type of brackets are you using? There is always the option of sharpening post Photomatix. I usually do.

I don't see a sharpness problem with the posted pic. Looks fine to me. Beware of the tendency to oversharpen, sometimes it can make a print look fake.

If you do find your shots not sharp enough, use unsharp mask after photomatix.

There is a tradeoff with everything, I too find HDR images overall to be less sharp than 1 single shot, thats normal. It can be minimized as mentioned, but three layered images are rarely as sharp as one.

I did some recently in photo matrix essentials. I took Raw on the camera. Sharpened on the PC and saved as tiff ( 5 pics). Ran through phtomatix and they came out sharp. Mine were hand held as well.

Yours don't look that soft. Post an original. Or even better post 3 or 4 originals and we could try them. They would need to be high quality originals.

It was shot using a 17-55 f/2.8G and a Nikon D7000

I think its soft compared to the originals
heres a small quality pic of the original. i'll put the original up later
(dont mind the unstraightened-ness haha)

i tried posting pics but it tells me that a moderator will have to approve it or something but it never gets posted..

Lsean said:

i tried posting pics but it tells me that a moderator will have to approve it or something but it never gets posted..

Click to expand...

Try posting again. There's a glitch in the system. It should be OK now.....hopefully.

Sometimes soft is very very good...haha