To HDR or not to HDR that is the question.

[Drewster]

I love them. But I always here on how people dont like them. Why is that?

Is the problem that people dont like cause they are composed into a HDR and its not what was seen when the image was taken?


I think they bring out a lot from the photo. So I like them.


What are your thoughts?

[skunkdSiR]

I like them a lot.. it just depends on what your shooting. HDR shots are somewhat easy to do but very easy to mess up. If you wanna get them down, keep practicing and you'll get there

[-OneFastREX-]

Would tell you if i knew how to use it lol.... i have photomatrix pro 3.... not a damn clue how to use it lol

[95Ride]

ive been thinking about doing an HDR shoot with my bike to experiment...does it matter if you shoot in RAW or not?

[Drewster]

I have used this post. It is useful.
http://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ph...ml#post4612883

[95Ride]

I have used this post. It is useful.
http://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ph...ml#post4612883

thanks....but just to make sure ive got this understood. You take your normal photo and then some at different brighter levels and some at different darker levels. then go through the merge proccess shown?

my only question on top of that is for the pictures you see where only the car is changed would you stamp the HDR pic over the normal pic and then remove the surrounding of the HDR pic to expose the normal pics back ground or is there an easier way?

[Drewster]

thanks....but just to make sure ive got this understood. You take your normal photo and then some at different brighter levels and some at different darker levels. then go through the merge proccess shown?

my only question on top of that is for the pictures you see where only the car is changed would you stamp the HDR pic over the normal pic and then remove the surrounding of the HDR pic to expose the normal pics back ground or is there an easier way?

Just follow those steps and it does everything for you.

[btuner]

DO a correct HDR that doesnt look like a cartoon

DO NOT do a crappy tone-mapped image though photomatix

[Chris G.]

I think HDR is a fad right now.

It's definitely overplayed in my opinion. Granted, some of my favorite photos are HDR but I don't really tinker with it myself.

[btuner]

I think HDR is a fad right now.

Correction, tone mapping is a fad right now. People have been doing HDR's for a long time, but the cartoonish look has just recently caught on like the black plague in desperate need of an antidote. HDR's can be done with out even being noticeable

[Drewster]

Correction, tone mapping is a fad right now. People have been doing HDR's for a long time, but the cartoonish look has just recently caught on like the black plague in desperate need of an antidote. HDR's can be done with out even being noticeable

Can you post up a good one and a bad one?

[.:Chris:.]

Just take a look around, bad ones are easy to find. It's the good ones that are hard to come by.

I'll post some later today.

[Drewster]

cool

[SDSG]

IMO here's a good comparision of good HDR versus bad (and I'm using MY picture as the bad one! lol)

SkunkdSiR:



Mine:





I was really just messing around but you can see where I just took a quick pic in front of the house and threw it in photomatix and got this HDR pic in like 10 seconds lol. But when I get a new camera (Nikon D40) I plan on doing much better pics then this lol.
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[.:Chris:.]

Good HDR retains highlights, shadows and mod-tones, and it keeps a natural transition between the three. It keeps whites white and blacks black (often times white clouds go grey or black with bad HDR pics?!). It should also keep a normal level of contrast, rather than completely removing contrast or increasing it to the max.

To be completely honest - none of them look right. I will pick out some of the better ones, but I'm not sure I'd consider them good. The "good" ones just have other redeeming values and qualities that allow me to overlook the HDR.

Some half-way decent HDR pictures:








Some bad HDR images: