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My first attempt at HDR

Z

zylander

Platinum Member
Camera used: Canon XTi w/ stock 18-55 lense.
Software: CS2 and Photomatix.
These were not made from three original pictures. For each I used one picture and edited the exposures in CS2. These are not subtle HDR, I went all out on them.

HDR Images:
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/89/svhdr2.jpg
http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/2527/svhdr3.jpg
http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/5305/svhdr4large.jpg
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3984/svhdr6large.jpg


Originals:
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7514/img1139wh.jpg
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1561/img1149e.jpg
http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/599/img1163c.jpg
 
The purpose of HDR is defeated if youhave no definition in your shadows. Those look like crap.


e: Also, don't photograph black vehicles mid-daybecause it will never look good.
 
zylander said:
Camera used: Canon XTi w/ stock 18-55 lense.
Software: CS2 and Photomatix.
These were not made from three original pictures. For each I used one picture and edited the exposures in CS2. These are not subtle HDR, I went all out on them.
Click to expand...

If you are "going all out," why would you only use one exposure? The whole point of HDR is to get more dynamic range, and you do that by taking 3, 5, 7, even 9 pictures at different exposures.

With just one picture, even if you use one RAW exposure, there is quality degradation when you adjust the exposure in post-processing. If you shot the original in JPEG and adjusted exposure by +1 and -1 stops, the final results will look like crap.

In your pictures, there is almost no shadow detail and a LOT of noise in the sky, which is clearly the effect of pushing/pulling the exposure from a single original file. There is also a lot of halation around the motorcycle, which you ideally want to avoid in your final image.
 
996GT2 said:
If you are "going all out," why would you only use one exposure? The whole point of HDR is to get more dynamic range, and you do that by taking 3, 5, 7, even 9 pictures at different exposures.

With just one picture, even if you use one RAW exposure, there is quality degradation when you adjust the exposure in post-processing. If you shot the original in JPEG and adjusted exposure by +1 and -1 stops, the final results will look like crap.

In your pictures, there is almost no shadow detail and a LOT of noise in the sky, which is clearly the effect of pushing/pulling the exposure from a single original file. There is also a lot of halation around the motorcycle, which you ideally want to avoid in your final image.
Click to expand...

The reason I only used one exposure was because I was not planing on making an HDR with the images. I took these photos last week and a few days later decided to plug them into Photomatix and play around. Had I planed to make an HDR I would have taken multiple shots.
 
Op, I don't want to be harsh, but I agree with angry hampster and 996GT2. Those images are pretty bad for HDR. Underexposed by multiple stops and hardly any details, things that HDR is supposed to compensate for. However, not all is lost. With a little bit of editing, I think these pictures would look good as grunge photos.
 
Use HDR to change the look as little as possible. This way you use the HDR to its full power and it makes your picture look great.
 
^ what everyone else has said about more exposures to show detail in shadows and highlights

I like the composition of hdr6. Try that one again will multi-shot HDR, and I think that it'd come out real nice.
 
I would have just used a flash to illuminate the bike instead. If you're going for a cartoony look I guess those could work, but those are not for my taste.
 
meh here's my 2 step take on hdr...
bikehdr.jpg


1. shadow/highlight
2. gradient tool from transparent to black, circular pattern, blending mode overlay, opacity 45%, go from the center of the bike to a bit off the canvas... apply radius to taste.
 
astroidea said:
meh here's my 2 step take on hdr...

1. shadow/highlight
2. gradient tool from transparent to black, circular pattern, blending mode overlay, opacity 45%, go from the center of the bike to a bit off the canvas... apply radius to taste.
Click to expand...

Nice. So to make an HDR, you dont always have to merge photos together in a program like Photomatix?
 
I took a shot at HDR today. A storm was coming in so I figured it was a good time to give it a whirl. This was done hand-held with a D5000, 55-200mm VR lens. 3 photos (-2, EV, +2) were taken with automatic bracketing.

Original at metered EV: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50615520@N03/4677529740/in/set-72157624220203804/
HDR compiled using Photomatix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50615520@N03/4676897295/in/set-72157624220203804/

I don't have Photoshop so I could only adjust the tone using the Photomatix functions.
 
actuarial said:
I took a shot at HDR today. A storm was coming in so I figured it was a good time to give it a whirl. This was done hand-held with a D5000, 55-200mm VR lens. 3 photos (-2, EV, +2) were taken with automatic bracketing.

Original at metered EV: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50615520@N03/4677529740/in/set-72157624220203804/
HDR compiled using Photomatix: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50615520@N03/4676897295/in/set-72157624220203804/

I don't have Photoshop so I could only adjust the tone using the Photomatix functions.
Click to expand...
Nice, but it looks like you lost shadow detail on the HDR, the point is to get all the range you can with the shadows and highlights.
Different strokes, different folks I guess.
 
zylander said:
Nice. So to make an HDR, you dont always have to merge photos together in a program like Photomatix?
Click to expand...

Merging photos together is only critical when the dynamic range of the scene is so high that details are lost out in shadows or highlights with only one exposure. Then a multiple exposure HDR can prevent any detail loss by merging together multiple exposures together. In your case.. it appears there is some detail loss in the shadows, but it was not so much that it could not be recovered without producing grain and noise.

In scenes where details aren't lost, you can just post process the image to taste. In my PP, I tried to focus the light on the bike with the gradient tool to bring more focus onto the bike. Generally a good picture brings the subject as the main focus of the image.
 
Last edited:
foghorn67 said:
Nice, but it looks like you lost shadow detail on the HDR, the point is to get all the range you can with the shadows and highlights.
Different strokes, different folks I guess.
Click to expand...

Exactly. It's not really a different HDR, it's just simply NOT HDR.
 
astroidea said:
Merging photos together is only critical when the dynamic range of the scene is so high that details are lost out in shadows or highlights with only one exposure. Then a multiple exposure HDR can prevent any detail loss by merging together multiple exposures together. In your case.. it appears there is some detail loss in the shadows, but it was not so much that it could not be recovered without producing grain and noise.

In scenes where details aren't lost, you can just post process the image to taste. In my PP, I tried to focus the light on the bike with the gradient tool to bring more focus onto the bike. Generally a good picture brings the subject as the main focus of the image.
Click to expand...

Got it, thanks.
 
alfa147x said:
Just posted two of my new HDR shots, check them out 😉

Link
Click to expand...

Was it windy when you took the pictures of the garden gate? The picture looks really nice but you do have some "motion" blur in the trees in the top left corner, probably because the leaves moved between exposures... 🙂
 
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