HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography - post your HDR

[klymr]

Just start messing with all the controls to see what they do. Eventually you'll figure out what each does and you can go from there.

As far as having too many images, I don't think that should matter. My brother was telling me yesterday that he saw an HDR made of 17 exposures. It all really comes down to how well you can control each adjustment. Practice and you'll get it eventually.

 

[LoneWolf121188]

Just start messing with all the controls to see what they do. Eventually you'll figure out what each does and you can go from there.

That's what everyone keeps saying...I kinda get what each one does and what effect it'll have on the overall image, but I think my problem is really that I don't know how the combination of various controls contribute to getting the rendered look.

 

[valdore]

Attached is a screenshot of a rough approximation of settings in Photomatix that generally work well. I'll note though that I usually dial things down somewhat from these settings, such as White Point and Black Point. I will also generally have Microcontrast maximized.

 

[mcarnes]

I don't do a lot of HDR pics, but here's one I did today.

The only things that sticks out to me in this pic is BOOBS.

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

mcarne-Vision

 

[PCMacUser]

Attached is a screenshot of a rough approximation of settings in Photomatix that generally work well. I'll note though that I usually dial things down somewhat from these settings, such as White Point and Black Point. I will also generally have Microcontrast maximized.

Heh, those aren't really settings. That's just everything cranked up to maximum!

I use HDR for landscape, and it works well because it duplicates the sort of lighting that you'd only get from carrying a lot of reflectors and lights around.

 

[mcarnes]

mcarne-Vision

LOL. Dead center, my friend.

 

[valdore]

Heh, those aren't really settings. That's just everything cranked up to maximum!

Here's something I said in that post... those are just general starting points:

I'll note though that I usually dial things down somewhat from these settings, such as White Point and Black Point.

 

[PCMacUser]

Here's something I said in that post... those are just general starting points:

Yep I saw that - I was just being cheeky.

 

[LoneWolf121188]

I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it...opinions? This is the view from out of my dorm window.

High res: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ab7KgYKfMVC7VDV3ZDRGyA

 

[klymr]

There ya go LoneWolf121188!

 

[valdore]

I dig it. The conditions in this photo were ideal for HDR, both from the technical aspect of constrast between the sky and the city/town below, but also from the artistic aspect of the clouds and setting sun making the "painterly" effect worthwhile. Although there are many who aren't into the bit of artistic embellishment that HDR allows, I believe it is totally called for on occasion and works well here. Other than that maybe if it were me I'd ease up on the saturation slightly, but I dig it otherwise...

 

[LoneWolf121188]

I dig it. The conditions in this photo were ideal for HDR, both from the technical aspect of constrast between the sky and the city/town below, but also from the artistic aspect of the clouds and setting sun making the "painterly" effect worthwhile. Although there are many who aren't into the bit of artistic embellishment that HDR allows, I believe it is totally called for on occasion and works well here. Other than that maybe if it were me I'd ease up on the saturation slightly, but I dig it otherwise...

Thanks! I think my previous attempts at HDR didn't come out very well simply because the subject matter wasn't appropriate for HDR. I've been thinking about that over the past view days and while I was sitting here in my room earlier today, I realized that the sunset might provide the necessary lighting conditions needed to get a decent HDR image. Lo and behold, by sunset, the clouds had cleared out enough for the sun to illuminate everything, but not so much that they made the sky completely empty and uninteresting. 8 frames later (1/800 all the way down to 1/15), I finally had some decent source material to make a good HDR image out of.

 

[Xander562]

Some shots of St. Ignatius Church at USF.

Suggestions?

 

[valdore]

Some shots of St. Ignatius Church at USF

Suggestions?

overall looks pretty good to me. my only tip might be to employ an ultra wide lens or even a fisheye on those interior church architecture kind of shots - which really dramatizes things. the tone mapping and other post processing you've done looks superb from what I can tell...

 

[Xander562]

overall looks pretty good to me. my only tip might be to employ an ultra wide lens or even a fisheye on those interior church architecture kind of shots - which really dramatizes things. the tone mapping and other post processing you've done looks superb from what I can tell...

Thank you.

I'm using a Canon Powershot and tripod to do these shots so it's a bit difficult to do anything wide-angle. But I'm hoping to upgrade to some type of DSLR soon!

 

[chaosbunny]

Awesome photo LoneWolf121188!

A little less saturation and this could be straight from the game Fallout 3. I mean that as a compliment because I like it's style very much.

 

[nidserz]

I'm new to HDR as well. This is about my 3rd attempt and I think I finally got somewhere. C&C appreciated.

This is from 1 hand-held raw. I am not too happy with the furthest back building, but I guess it is part of the learning process

 

[wheelhot]

Some shots of St. Ignatius Church at USF.

Wow, those are some real nice HDRs. Good job

 

[Fuchal]

Just starting out with HDR. Photomatix sure has a lot of options

3 RAW exposures on tripod

 

[Mr Ski 73]

The first is 1 RAW and the 2nd 3 RAW's and is Noprthampton lift tower.

 

[LoneWolf121188]

Awesome photo LoneWolf121188!

A little less saturation and this could be straight from the game Fallout 3. I mean that as a compliment because I like it's style very much.

Thank you! Yeah, it does look a little post-apocalyptic, huh?

 

[Fuchal]

took some indoor shots on thanksgiving

 

[alembic]

Available Light Portraits

How about some available light portraits treated with HDR? Anyone?

 

[dornoforpyros]

Hmm although I have seen some amazing HDR shots and I still play with HDR from time to time, it seems a lot of people's HDRs end up looking awfully flat. All the colours/levels are so saturated that there's just not enough contrast across the whole image.

I mean a lot of images end up looking so saturated, crisp and clear that nothing stands out.

A good analogy would be that everything in the photo is screaming "hey, look at me! hey, look at me" and as a result everything ends up being lost in the shuffle.

This is just my two-cents, yes I still do see HDR photos that are mind blowing, but even some of Trey Ratcliff's shots suffer from the "hey look here" problem.