HDR Please explain...

Manic78 · 21-06-2007, 8:42 PM

OK, I give up.

How do you do it?

I've looked at some from Gizmo76 from these here parts and they are bob on!

But how is it done?

Tell me how this witchcraft works!

Gordon @ Convergent AV · 21-06-2007, 10:04 PM

Go and do a google search for Photomatix software and I'm sure they'll have an explanation about how theirs works. I'm a bit too tired to write it all out just now. Well worth downloading their demo software to play with

Gordon

RobDickinson · 21-06-2007, 10:30 PM

If you ave photoshop CS2 you can use that, luminous landscapes has a tutorial on how.

Strobe · 22-06-2007, 7:53 AM

wiki is your friend ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging
Some good links at the bottom of the page. Should tell you all you need to know.

Steve N · 22-06-2007, 8:04 AM

So does HDR rely on you having several images of the same scene taken at different exposures ?

Also:
I was reading up about using Layers last night. Something that I haven't done yet.
It sounds to me that manipulating layers can be used to create the same effect as HDR.
Is this correct or am I missing something.

Gizmo 76 · 22-06-2007, 9:09 AM

Cheers Manic

- Check your PMs in a little bit

HDR is great fun, and is a love/hate thing, but it's an effect I enjoy and one that I actually think about quite a bit when out taking pictures, maybe too much

I use Elements 5 as my tweak tool of choice, so I always do my HDRs via Photomatix. You can either get seperate exposues from a Single RAW file, which i've actually found to be as good a way as any for getting the painting type heavy HDR'd effect, or you can take backeted seperate exposues with your camera (then maybe split them, keep reading

).

Some more heavy HDR'd examples:-

All Clickable

Things that can contribute to a good HDR imo, are decent Skies, light and dark area, but you still have to think about your composition etc.. You can make a bad shot interesting, but I think the best HDR's are the ones that also work as a picture, rather than just the WOW that look's cool factor.

I actually was out last night for the first time in a while at Aylesford (The Bridge in the HDRs), and after having a joke with Steve Green about splitting the 3 backeted exposues to more in another thread, I thought i'd try it.

So I grabbed a couple of shots with the camera set to backet the exposues at -4, -2, and 0. Main reason I went for the darker end of the scale was due to how bright it was, I didn't have a tripod otherwise I could of set it up to do the whole of the scale, next time

I picked quite an extreme situation with the sun coming right at me, with shadowed and very bright areas.

Once I got back I took the 3 exposues into Capture LE, and created a total of 8 exposues, and then combined these in 'Photomatix'. What I found was that you can get a more controlled effect on your HDR'in with this amount of exposues, even if you ramped up the 'Strength' level it would be nowhere near are OTT as what you can get from 3 varied exposues.

So I tried out a couple to see if I could obtain a real world look. You could combined a couple of exposues in Elements for the sky and foreground, but this way it seem's to sit better thoughout the whole scene imo.

1.

2.

Clicky for larger ones

No. 1 has more contrast to give it some extra punch, and a darker tone overall, but does this push the shot into fake territory?? Or do you think that both look fake anyways??

More of an experiment than anything, just trying out new stuff

lmaolmao · 22-06-2007, 11:03 AM

really nice pics. gonna have to go try this next time i take my camera.

i find number 2 much more pleasing.

number 1 is cool, but i think the contrast levels do push it into the 'unreal'.

number 2 gives what i think is a nice balance. it still has that 'ooh thats not a normal photo' but not "oh, they just played in photoshop for a bit".

Tobers · 22-06-2007, 1:03 PM

Also, you can achieve a similar HDR effect very very easily in Lightroom with a single exposure by using the "Fill Light" slider. Best to start off with a pic with the sky correctly exposed, the foreground underexposed, but not fully black i.e. plenty of detail in it. Fill light will brighten up the foreground without affecting the sky.

You can download a trial version of Lightroom and give it a go. Fill Light adjustment is also available in CS3 (not sure about CS2).

denno75uk · 22-06-2007, 1:34 PM

I'm warming to the idea of HDR and to be honest Giz, these two shots are a very strong demonstration of the advantages. Whilst you can see that the shot looks a bit 'wrong' (the church should be alot darker considering the direction and brightness of the light) it certainly looks alot more natural than some of your other more extreme pieces.
Is Photomatix a plug-in for Photoshop then? or could I use it as a standalone? It's the reliance on Photoshop that has always put me off as I couldn't justify the expense of Lightroom at the moment, let alone a full version of PS. I use DPP and have just downloaded Capture LE.

Gizmo 76 · 22-06-2007, 1:53 PM

There is a plug-in version, but most use the standalone version. Download the demo, and give it a shot

I know alot of my stuff is quite heavy, just trying out some more realistic methods due to my upcoming holiday to turkey. Hopefully some of my beach shots will benefit from this method as I don't want them all looking like paintings