Hdr

[skunkdSiR]

so i've been tryin to teach myself this HDR stuff.. pretty cool but wierd to mess with..lol

anywho, which do yall like better?

1.


2.



also, comments are welcome.. jus keep the harsh ones not so harsh

[P-rick]

I like the second one better, what exactly is that supposed to do. It looks like a drawing

[CanTheWhales]

looks good, I'm trying to figure it out too....

[.:Chris:.]

I think I prefer the second one, mainly because the halo around the tree in the upper right on the first one stands out too much. How many shots did you bracket for this?

I don't like the way the car looks, it's too blue. You may find that it will look better if you do a saturation adjustment layer with the car masked and the blue saturation down to zero. (Does that make sense? It's ahrd to explain.)

I've never been able to make an HDR image that I'm happy with, I guess I'm more of a naturalist and t's difficult to get a real looking HDR image. Are you using photoshop, photomatix or something else?

[Kirk]

Either you are going too crazy with the tone mapping or your pictures have too much dynamic data loss (look at the specs on the sky). And you are over-sharpening the final shot as well.

HDR image should come out looking like this:




Here are a couple of others...




I shoot in RAW mode to lose as little dynamic data as possible, I found it better to manually find the ideal exposures rather than just bracketing.

[CanTheWhales]

Kirk, the first time I saw those pictures they were absolutely amazing and every time I see them it still doesn't change, but I wish more and more I could do that and have a car that nice to take pictures of...rep again, my hero

[skunkdSiR]

im using photomatix and then finish it up in photoshop..

i dont have a camera and i worked off of 3 pics my buddy sent me.

kirk, your pics are the shit!

[DD.]

Im not sure why, but the pics are way to sharp. Im not sure if your sharpening it or not, but if you are...Dont.

[Ronald Mcdonald]

Can someone explain, in non-photo-geek terms, how to do an HDR photo?

[Ronald Mcdonald]

If it helps, I'm using a Nikon D40, and have Photoshop.

[DD.]

Well, you need photoshop CS2 or higher to do it, so i hope thats what you are currently running.


Alright...

First, it's important to turn off some automatic exposure features so that you have full control because you don't want the variation introduced when the camera automatically adjusts exposures between each shot. First, determine the correct exposure for the overall scene and set it manually. If you're camera is normally on Program (automatic) mode, point the camera at the scene and note the aperature and shutter speed, then turn the dial to Manual and select those exposure values. Next, turn off Automatic White Balance by setting it to a specific temperature or icon such as Sun or Cloud.

Generating an image series for HDR works better if you have a tripod because you'll want avoid the slightest shake or variation between shots. It also works better if you have more than 3 shots to combine, perhaps as many as 7 or 8 even.

I dont know about your Nikon, but most SLRs have menu options to do auto exposure bracketing (AEB) of 3 images, so try using that feature as the foundation for creating and HDR image rather than trying to manually fumble with shutter speed in between.

To take a series of photos with the camera's AEB feature, I could set AEB so that each expsoure is about 1 stop apart, such as -1, 0, +1.

...set the camera for multishot so that when you depressed the shutter button the camera automatically snaps 3 images in quick series.

If you have a tripod, then you should try 6 to 8 exposures per series, each with about 2/3 or 1 stop apart, like... -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3.


Ok, so now, just click, hold down, and try to stay perfectly still until all the shots are done. Doing this yourself, you should hear a rapid 'click-click-click'. BUT, if the lighting is darker, then the second and third shots will be noticibly longer, so you get a 'click', 'cliiiiiiick', and 'cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick' in a row. Without a tripod or camera rest, for the third exposure to come out well its very important to control the camera and keep it very still.

Open Photoshop CS2 or higher to get started.

choose File > Automation > Merge to HDR.

On the pop-up window click Browse to choose the files you wish to merge.

Click the checkbox to align source images. (helpful if there is a shake)

Click OK and wait a minute or two, and you will be shown a preview.

Adjust the slider under the histogram for Set Whitepoint Preview until you're happy with the result.

You might be happy with the image here so you could save it as a JPG with the quality Level of 12 (highest), or you can work on it more.


There are also TONS of tutorials that may be easier to understand if this isn't explained well enough for ya.

[Ronald Mcdonald]

Well, you need photoshop CS2 or higher to do it, so i hope thats what you are currently running.


Alright...

First, it's important to turn off some automatic exposure features so that you have full control because you don't want the variation introduced when the camera automatically adjusts exposures between each shot. First, determine the correct exposure for the overall scene and set it manually. If you're camera is normally on Program (automatic) mode, point the camera at the scene and note the aperature and shutter speed, then turn the dial to Manual and select those exposure values. Next, turn off Automatic White Balance by setting it to a specific temperature or icon such as Sun or Cloud.

Generating an image series for HDR works better if you have a tripod because you'll want avoid the slightest shake or variation between shots. It also works better if you have more than 3 shots to combine, perhaps as many as 7 or 8 even.

I dont know about your Nikon, but most SLRs have menu options to do auto exposure bracketing (AEB) of 3 images, so try using that feature as the foundation for creating and HDR image rather than trying to manually fumble with shutter speed in between.

To take a series of photos with the camera's AEB feature, I could set AEB so that each expsoure is about 1 stop apart, such as -1, 0, +1.

...set the camera for multishot so that when you depressed the shutter button the camera automatically snaps 3 images in quick series.

If you have a tripod, then you should try 6 to 8 exposures per series, each with about 2/3 or 1 stop apart, like... -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3.


Ok, so now, just click, hold down, and try to stay perfectly still until all the shots are done. Doing this yourself, you should hear a rapid 'click-click-click'. BUT, if the lighting is darker, then the second and third shots will be noticibly longer, so you get a 'click', 'cliiiiiiick', and 'cliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick' in a row. Without a tripod or camera rest, for the third exposure to come out well its very important to control the camera and keep it very still.

Open Photoshop CS2 or a RAW program to get started.

choose File > Automation > Merge to HDR.

On the pop-up window click Browse to choose the files you wish to merge.

Click the checkbox to align source images. (helpful if there is a shake)

Click OK and wait a minute or two, and you will be shown a preview.

Adjust the slider under the histogram for Set Whitepoint Preview until you're happy with the result.

You might be happy with the image here so you could save it as a JPG with the quality Level of 12 (highest), or you can work on it more.



If this doesn't help you...There are also TONES of tutorials that may be easier to understand if this isn't explained well enough.

Repped, and I'm going to try it Sunday probably. I'll post up my results.

[DD.]

Sounds good


This is why we need to get that Photography meet going, so we can learn from each other.

[Ronald Mcdonald]

Sounds good


This is why we need to get that Photography meet going, so we can learn from each other.

I would be down for a Photog meet.

I am not a hardcore photographer like some of you guys, but I am interested in it as a side hobby kind of thing.

[Kirk]

DareDevil - Do you have any HDR pictures you have done? 6-8 shots is overkill IMO. I have not had any luck using AEB, I set manually, snap 3-4 shots and I'm done.