HDR, who is doing it? How?

[Joe Gardner]

I'm an HDR newb, but I love the results I have pulled so far, I think I may go as far as paying for the software to remove the watermarks... :nod:

Both taken up BCC mid Dec:

http://joe-and-heather.smugmug.com/photos/229749334-L.jpg

http://joe-and-heather.smugmug.com/photos/229749297-L.jpg

Anyone have any HDR images they want to share? Any advice for a newbie?

[CarpeyBiggs]

Wow, both of your images look pretty good. I generally am not a big fan of HDR. I've used it in the past, but I am much more pleased when I use local masking and blending than I am with HDR. It should be noted that photomatix is more than HDR, it also employs tone mapping.

Here are a couple, done with photoshop, not photomatix. I'm definitely no master of the technique though. In my limited experience, I think it really only works well in limited situations... :ne_nau:

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

http://www.danransom.com/blog/images/20070421091833_hansflatsunset.jpg

[JP]

Nice pics to both of you :2thumbs:

[rooster32]

I think some of the HDR pics are pretty cool.

Here's two links to info on HDR if anyone is interested:

http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/

http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/

I'm setting up my new computer with all my photo stuff. Wife bought me a new 24" IMac for Xmas and the Adobe CS3 master suite.

Hope to mess with some HDR stuff shortly.

Good pics!!!!

[Joe Gardner]

I think some of the HDR pics are pretty cool.

Here's two links to info on HDR if anyone is interested:

http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/

http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/

I'm setting up my new computer with all my photo stuff. Wife bought me a new 24" IMac for Xmas and the Adobe CS3 master suite.

Hope to mess with some HDR stuff shortly.

Good pics!!!!

Great links Rooster! Thanks.

Your setup is identical to mine, max out your ram, I put 4gig in my 24" iMac and CS3 couldn't be happier. Makes for a great photoshop platform. :D

[Sombeech]

http://www.danransom.com/blog/images/20070421091833_hansflatsunset.jpg

That picture is so awesome, it's disgusting.

[rooster32]

Joe...yup it's loaded with 4gig ram and a 500 gig hd. I'm waiting on my Lexar firewire 800 cf card reader. Hope it shows up tomorrow....

I've been spending way too much time behind the keyboard and not out taking pics. Hope to change that soon!

Good stuff!

[jowchie]

shot with accadacca:


http://farm1.static.flickr.com/114/291796930_e37c5ee124_o.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jowchie/291796930/

[Sombeech]

shot with accadacca:

Nice avatar. Dethklok rulz

[asdf]

I have been turning out a few decent HDR images as of late. I typically take 3 (up to 8) RAW images and process them with Photomatix3. After that I do a bit of post processing in Adobe Lightroom.
Kinda learning as I go....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3267/2815897362_bf957260e5.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2821273523_dcf3c8f5b6.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3107/2873016746_e385a40714.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3211/2896669234_ea78b6effd.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3267/2860696780_0376e78fa5.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3221/2918932021_3104b7b6c6.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3220/2816012160_a86d724575.jpg :mrgreen:

[JP]

Those are pretty cool :2thumbs:

[shaggy125]

Wow, very cool stuff. Thanks for posting this, I'm gonna have to start playing around with it. I can think of situations this would have come in very handy!

[R]

I'm with Carpey on this one: once in a while, you can do nice things with HDR, but like fisheye lenses, it can get old fast. And I tend to use masking techniques and other tools more than HDR.

[trackrunner]

Welcome back Summit :clap: you always had good posts :2thumbs:

[Joe Gardner]

Great photos summit! I really dig this one, I think HDR shines in moody environments.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2821273523_dcf3c8f5b6.jpg

[asdf]

Great photos summit! I really dig this one, I think HDR shines in moody environments.

Thanks Joe.
We missed you by one day in Polebridge according to your blog, we even stayed at the same hostel, Crazy stuff man.
Pretty sure you saw my trip report.. we spent a week up there, such a great place.

[accadacca]

After that I do a bit of post processing in Adobe Lightroom.
Adobe Lightroom is a sweet little program. :nod:

[Joe Gardner]

Great photos summit! I really dig this one, I think HDR shines in moody environments.

Thanks Joe.
We missed you by one day in Polebridge according to your blog, we even stayed at the same hostel, Crazy stuff man.
Pretty sure you saw my trip report.. we spent a week up there, such a great place.

That would have been great to run into you at the mercantile or hostel!

Now that we have had a taste of Glacier, we must go back. I'd love to use polebridge as a home base while exploring the park for a week or two.

[DiscGo]

Summit's HDR pictures totally inspire me. I think they are awesome!

[asdf]

Thanks D


One from Avalanche Lake in GlacierNP.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3230/2806470014_e4a89ea151.jpg

[stefan]

nice photo :2thumbs:

[JP]

I agree :nod: :2thumbs:

[asdf]

Two from this weekend.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3209/2965525326_53f06813ff_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3142/2963958869_25a2ea40b0_b.jpg

[DiscGo]

Wow! Thost pictures are awesome Summit!

[millsclimber]

:2thumbs: :2thumbs:

Awesome.

[R]

I actually made a bracket of 7 or more frames at the Green River overlook at sunset earlier this week with the idea I might try to HDR them. I'll be home tomorrow and I can start to look at some of the stuff I shot - as usual, it's a lot.

-R

[bryan]

I really like that second shot, summit. I think I prefer HDR shots that seem light on the HDR. They just look like awesome photos, as opposed to some HDR's which seem to look almost like illustrations.

[asdf]

I think I prefer HDR shots that seem light on the HDR.

I think you are referring to tonemapping and I agree. I am not really into those overblown HDR photos that look like illustrations.

[Brewhaha]

I finished my honey-dos and decided that I had enough good light to go out and make some images. At our little airport, I found one lone yellow airplane to capture. There wasn't much exciting happening lightwise but I decided to setup for some HDR shots. I used Photomatix 3 to create the HDR image and also perform an Exposure Blend. For those that are wondering about HDR, I'm including one regular shot (with a little post-processing), all three bracketed exposure shots, the HDR image, and the Exposure Blended image for comparison. All in that order.

[asdf]

Three RAW images ...
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/144/356125298_93f3e74c91_o.jpg

Processed and tone mapped and in PhotoMatix3. Then touched up Lightroom 2.2.
The end result of my HDR self portrait.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3499/3276053842_e987fc61f6_b.jpg

[oldno7]

Summit
Excuse my ignorance, but...........

Does your camera have an auto setting that gives you the 3 exposures without having to adjust the camera?

Do you use a remote?

[DiscGo]

Summit and I have the same camera and although he is better with it, I'm am fairly certain the answer is no. Summit uses a tripod with his shooting, and that allows him to take 3 pictures which are the same on different settings for HDR editing later.

[asdf]

Does your camera have an auto setting that gives you the 3 exposures without having to adjust the camera?

Do you use a remote?

I use the Auto-Bracketing (AEB) feature on my camera, The camera takes 3 shots back to back to back. You pretty much must use a tripod when using this feature to make sure all the images line up perfectly. If I recall correctly the images on my previous post were shot with the AEB set to -3, -1, +1

But as disco said sometimes I will take some extra single shots if I think an exposure was over done... but most everything that I process is AEB at this point.

I have a wired remote that I use for long exposures but typically I leave my camera on two second timer mode so I don't shake the camera when I trigger the shutter.

[oldno7]

Thanks alot guys, just what I wanted to know.

[asdf]

I have been messing around a bit with pseudo HDR images. This is a single RAW file tone mapped in photomatix with the details enhancer. I took this last week in my friends back yard... Yes, he has a full sized skate pool in his backyard. SICK


http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3400/3431735863_27e41c6080_b.jpg

[coinslab]

http://createhdr.com works well and only one image is needed and FREE :D!

[asdf]

From this weekends hike.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3047/3627102461_f5b460038d_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2435/3631906569_3918881a10_b.jpg

[oldno7]

I played with some this weekend also.....

[oldno7]

I don't have this dialed in like Bill, but I'm really enjoying the learning process. Heres some from this weekend(7-11-09) in Bryce.

[asdf]

Clouds look great on that last one.


One of many shots I took in the Uintas this weekend.
Sunset on Lily Lake
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2598/3716594249_5cdfa8ceed_b.jpg

[oldno7]

Beautiful, I need to get up to the Uintahs this summer.

[goofball]

how do you guys get your file size down for posting to teh web ? cs3 gives me no .jpg option and my 600x400 image is still nearly 3 meg. what am i missing ?

[stefan]

how do you guys get your file size down for posting to teh web ? cs3 gives me no .jpg option and my 600x400 image is still nearly 3 meg. what am i missing ?

are you using "save for web & devices"?

[R]

how do you guys get your file size down for posting to teh web ? cs3 gives me no .jpg option and my 600x400 image is still nearly 3 meg. what am i missing ?

An uncompressed 600x400 pixel Photoshop TIFF document is only 700k, not anywhere close to 3MB. Are you sure you are counting pixels and not inches, mm, picas, etc?

[asdf]

I export everything from lightroom

[goofball]

I export everything from lightroom

i looked at that and my only option is to export to adobe illustrator, which i do not have, even if that would be a step in the right direction.


An uncompressed 600x400 pixel Photoshop TIFF document is only 700k, not anywhere close to 3MB. Are you sure you are counting pixels and not inches, mm, picas, etc?

no, file size is 2.7 meg.


are you using "save for web & devices"?

that was my first choice, but after editing my image and goign to save, "save for w&d" is grayed out and not an option. and "save as" (my only available option for saving the file) gives me the option's of -

photoshop - .psd, .pdd
large document format - .psb
openexr - .exr
portable bit map - .pbm, .pgm, .ppm, .pnm, .pfm, .pam
radiance - .hdr, .rgbe, .xyze
and tiff



something is wrong, my other tiff files i can open with the windows photo gallery viewer, but not this one. also, and sometimes this happens but i can still open and view the image, but the thumbnail file is not the image itself, but the generic "palette" image. just recently our camcorder has not worked when plugging into the pc either to import video to edit. maybe i have a larger problem ? piece of shit ****ing technology. why can't we stil just use smoke signals or pigeons or something for communication ? that was so much more reliable.

thanks fo rthe feedback guys. i really am a dummy when it comes to technology.


just answered my own q i think. when doing my initial merge to hdr it was defaulted to 32 bit. i change that to 8 or 16 bit and my world once more makes sense. it edits different though, i get an auto pop up "hdr conversion" screen for initial edits w/ tabbed options. then i can go to my normal cs3 console options. i love technology, i was just kidding w/ all that pos stuff. :knary:

[R]

Oh, 32 bit! Of course!

[jeffsullivan]

HDR software such as Photomatix can be a useful tool to address the issue of digital cameras not having enough dynamic range to capture details in highlight and shadow areas at the same time. The tone mapping function in Photomatix can further help bring out the detail, contrast and vibrance that you experienced when capturing the scene:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2587/3771629463_68c696ed70.jpg
I've posted some tips on using Photomatix (www.HDRsoft.com) on my blog: http://activesole.blogspot.com/search?q=hdr

HDR can be a controversial technique because it can be difficult to handle proficiently and produce realistic results. Some users intentionally produce wild results and call that "art" but since it's difficult to determine where their influence begins or ends, it seems a stretch to grant those users much credit for the outcome.

A collection of my attempts, with varying degrees of success, can be found on my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=HDR&m=tags&w=23183960%40N00&s=int&z=t

After 2 years of using HDR/Photomatix as sparingly as possible, I have to conclude that it can be difficult to use but can be critical to producing the best possible results, or even to salvaging a useful result at all under the most extreme and difficult lighting conditions.

The best compromise may be to produce the best possible HDR and non-HDR results, then overlay the two in Photoshop layers and use layer masking to select or blend the best parts of each.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1402/1453858438_bce8572278_m.jpg

[mattandersao]

Still a rookie with this HDR process!

[asdf]

Still a rookie with this HDR process!

What program did you use to process?

[mattandersao]

photomatix 3 pro I think...

[asdf]

photomatix 3 pro I think...

Can I virtually tone map this for you?
I would really need to see the RAW files but here is how I would tone map what I can see here.


Details enhancer...

Strength - 75-85ish
Color Saturation - 56
Micro Contrast - 10
Smoothing Mode - High (around 5 if you are using 3.2 in non-light mode)


Tone settings -
Black level - .033%(ish)
Gamma around 1.22

Color settings -
Temp - 0
Saturation highlights - +2
Saturation shadows - +1

Smoothing or Miscellaneous settings
Micro Smoothing around 4 or 8
all the reset set at 0

[mattandersao]

Cathedral Valley and Capitol Reef (I decided that I must begin using a tripod to do HDR, which on the bridge picture I didnt do!!!) Any suggestions. I noticed on the last picture the edges of the monoliths are very um I dont know the word but its a harsh transition from the tan monolith to the background behind them.

[asdf]

I noticed on the last picture the edges of the monoliths are very um I dont know the word but its a harsh transition from the tan monolith to the background behind them.

Can I see the RAW files?

[mattandersao]

Ya, about the raw files, I dont have them! Typically I shoot with the setting selected that saves a raw and jpeg, apparently I didnt select that setting. I hope to do some hiking/photography tomorrow so I will send you the raw...

[mattandersao]

Here are the latest...I have the RAW's so if you have any suggestions...I also did a little photoshop action...

[Wild One]

I haven't posted anything for a while, but just got back a trip home. Thought I'd share a few of the many HDR images I created while there. I'm sure most of you will recognize these places but they are (respectively) Timpanogos-back side from Aspen Grove, Deer Creek Res looking down canyon towards Timp and Timpanogos-front side. Had some great lighting for these.

http://inlinethumb02.webshots.com/38017/2818087790101442662S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2818087790101442662PuTByo)

http://inlinethumb42.webshots.com/44201/2045074100101442662S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2045074100101442662EWNhNq)

http://inlinethumb41.webshots.com/21032/2010959550101442662S600x600Q85.jpg (http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2010959550101442662PtrSZY)


oh, yeah. These were all processed through Photomatix and then touched up in CS3. Each consists of 3 images (1 over exposed, 1 under exposes, 1 exposed correctly. Don't remember the tone mapping details.