My first go at HDR

[Cap]

Well, I had (luckily) 3 images that I could play with using the app Photomatix (unregistered hence why you see the watermark).

Now I can understand the benefits of HDR... the question is to apply it in sufficient amounts that it fools the minds eye. What do you think (remember, its my first go!)



I have cropped the sky out as the downside to HDR with moving clouds etc is that it fails... look at the next image to see:

[WhiteD3]

Looks good to me! I've been having a try at HDR myself using photonaut (freeware) but so far the results have been lousy. Not sure what is going wrong. Could be insufficient exposure differences or maybe I need to read the instructions again!

[Cap]

The limited reading I have done so far indicated 2 stops either side of correct exposure. Also, windy conditions that move trees etc will turn crap, just like too much movement in clouds (as my example above). Photomatix seems really easy to use, you move the settings and the image reflects on the fly.

Give it a try, only a few megs download

Edit: found that maybe the file was in 8bit mode, hence why clouds appear like that... on 16 bit no problems +

[KarlB]

First rate, especially for a first attempt.

Cheers
Karlb

[Slunnie]

I love HDR, just wish I could do it.

[Chucaro]

Very good work, the details on the ground popped up very well.

[WhiteD3]

Carlos,

I downloaded Photomatix as a demo as you did and had a play. Better result than with Photonaut but still disappointed.

I used this "How to" HDR Tutorial Part 2 – High Dynamic Range Photography

What I don't like is the grain coming through, which is very noticeable in the gap between the rocks in the foreground. Having said that, I didn't follow the tutorial to the letter (ie doing the masking) as I'm only working with PSE, not PS.



Maybe my bracketing isn't done right. The shots were taken at ISO100, 10mm @ f11 to maximise the dof. To bracket I took 3 exposures, one each at 10, 4 and 1.6 seconds.

Below is the original 10 second "blown out" image.



Anyway, its all an education

[Cap]

From what I read (many articles) the norm is 3 shots at -2, 0 and +2 exposures. Need to have white balance the same for all exposures, same with aperture so basically ss (like you mention) is the only change (ISO at 100).

Additionally, you really have to play with the settings, I too got weird halos and 'spot lighting' in my shots... but playing with the settings got a more natural look.

From my 5 min worth of experience I recon you havent given it enough strength so that the overexposed photo comes through more. I think what I would expect is the foreground to resemble (almost) the over exposed photo as you posted, but more of the sky of the underexposed photo... more or less.

Thats what I read about it, but I could be wrong. I noted too that many people say the same thing that its hard to get it right... and in some shots, it doesnt work at all - I tried in another series of photos I had and it turned out SHOCKING!!!

And yes, I agree, it is an education and a bit of fun too

Heres another example of mine...



Note the highlights on the left and right bottom rocks, also mid left rocks are lighter too - and I was being very conservative on this one too! One more thing, I read that tutorial as well, and must say it suffers from that oversaturated, fake sky look which is something I dont want to replicate (unless for an effect - but then it should be obvious).

[300+]

I've been trying a few HDR recently as I took my camera on a trip to Sydney and took some sunsets of the opera house. But cloud movement really seemed to screw it up - there was a decent wind at altitude.

I found that photomatix just didn't work well. I found that I couldn't get results that were worth having. This is most likely a user problem based around a failure to RTFM. CS5 seemed much easier to use and I was able to tweak them to look the way I wanted.

Cheers, Steve

[Chucaro]

I agree with your comments Steve, among thousands of posts in few good photography forums I only saw couple of images that I like.
I think that the GND filters are the way to go for out door photography.