HDR Photography Anyone???

[jowchie]

HDR - High Dynamic Range Photography... usually at least 3 shots with different exposures combined to get a very wide tonal range. But nowadays can be achieved using 1 RAW file converted to HDR using a software called photomatix pro. There are a lot of techniques on the web as well.

Post your HDR photos here as well. :D

Pier @ Bear Lake
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/79/264324956_9eec70ffd3.jpg

accaddacca's view(taken from his office window)
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/210/466238401_9d2bd1b5e0.jpg

more here:
http://flickr.com/photos/jowchie/sets/72157600180828848/

[CarpeyBiggs]

I like the top one fairly well, but the bottom one is a little to crazy for my taste.

Personally, (and I am simply expressing my opinion, not trying to start a war) I like to use graduated blends and locally controlled techniques to get the dynamic range I'm after. I just find HDR to look to cartoony.

Sorry, a bit off topic. But here is an HDR from me.

http://danransom.com/blog/images/20070131214701_delicatehdr.jpg

It hasn't been tone-mapped in the sense of Photomatix though. Helps keep the colors more realistic, in my opinion. Notice the halos as well. Takes some serious work to get those under control using most software solutions. If I did it locally, wouldn't be too hard to make a clean mask. This is 3 exposures, spread 2 stops apart. YMMV.

[gonzo]

I just find HDR to look to cartoony.

Agreed. HDR was the technique du jour on Flickr a few months ago, and it didn't take too many pictures before I burned out on it.

That being said, I just figured out how to do automatic bracketing with my camera, and I was thinking about trying to generate some HDR images. Photomatix is more than I want to spend though. (If I had $100 for software I'd buy Topo!)

[Alex]

What camera do you have?

[CarpeyBiggs]

That being said, I just figured out how to do automatic bracketing with my camera, and I was thinking about trying to generate some HDR images. Photomatix is more than I want to spend though. (If I had $100 for software I'd buy Topo!)

Do you have photoshop? There are other options and techniques that provide just as nice of results. Usually easier too.

[gonzo]

What camera do you have?

I'm shooting a Canon S3 IS. I wouldn't recommend it though - it's really noisy on ISOs above 200, and nearly unusable over 400. The 12x optical zoom is nice though.

I saw that there is an S5 out now, it's possible they fixed the noisiness, but I haven't checked it out.


Do you have photoshop? There are other options and techniques that provide just as nice of results. Usually easier too.

Yes, and no. I have Photoshop, but it's pretty old. I believe it's PS6, but I don't recall off the top of my head. I know it's pre-CS.

I have The Gimp, but a graphic designer friend of mine described Gimp as "emitting a large sucketh noise", and I find it hard to disagree.

[CarpeyBiggs]

I saw that there is an S5 out now, it's possible they fixed the noisiness, but I haven't checked it out.

Check out this review. They seem to like it. Noise is better, but still pretty bad at 800.
https://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/cameras/Powershot%20S5.shtml

[sparker1]

I tried HDR using Photomatix (free trial version), but was never happy with results. Using layers will allow much the same kind of flexibility. For example, one layer exposed for the sky, another for the foreground, processed independently then blended (either using a layer mask or simply erasing part of one layer).