Would love to learn HDR - will this camera do it?

[DarkHeraldMage]

Good afternoon all!

I've been an avid follower of the HDR threads on this forum, as well as those on other websites. I just didn't want to hijack a picture thread with my own question about the technology behind it.

I'm looking to buy this beautiful camera sometime soon for a trip to Florida (going to Disney World!), but I'd love to do some HDR, especially while on vacation. However, it's my understanding that cameras like this aren't capable of doing HDR. I admit to having no idea as to how the whole process works, but can someone familiar with it please let me know if there's any way at all to utilize the beauty of HDR on a camera as slim and portable as this one?

Thanks!

 

[ChrisA]

The only feature that a camera would have to have is "exposure compensation". I can't imagine a camera thst would not have that but you'd better check. The specs on the Anazon page you linked don't say.

Full manual control would be ideal but if you have the abilty to dial in +2 and -2 EV then that is enough

 

[kkat69]

Good afternoon all!

I've been an avid follower of the HDR threads on this forum, as well as those on other websites. I just didn't want to hijack a picture thread with my own question about the technology behind it.

I'm looking to buy this beautiful camera sometime soon for a trip to Florida (going to Disney World!), but I'd love to do some HDR, especially while on vacation. However, it's my understanding that cameras like this aren't capable of doing HDR. I admit to having no idea as to how the whole process works, but can someone familiar with it please let me know if there's any way at all to utilize the beauty of HDR on a camera as slim and portable as this one?

Thanks!

HDR's can be done many ways, all of which through a software not necessarily the camera (to the best of my knowledge).

A software like PhotoMatrix Pro can take one JPG and make it a psuedo HDR image if your camera can't do AEB Raw images.

If the picture is good and all you have is JPG, look at doing a psuedo HDR with PhotoMatrix all it needs is one image and will behind the scenes create a +2/-2 exposure image and blend them.

There are downsides to using 1 image and I'm sure you've visited the link Here. Even so, it is possible with just 'one' image.

Believe it or not I accidentally made an HDR image of a picture I scanned from my scanner. I goofed up and opened the image in photomatrix and thought, 'oh boy, this is gonna be ugly' I didn't want it HDR (was my daughters school picture) but I was able to play with the tonal mapping.

 

[ipodtoucher]

HDR's can be done many ways, all of which through a software not necessarily the camera (to the best of my knowledge).

A software like PhotoMatrix Pro can take one JPG and make it a psuedo HDR image if your camera can't do AEB Raw images.

If the picture is good and all you have is JPG, look at doing a psuedo HDR with PhotoMatrix all it needs is one image and will behind the scenes create a +2/-2 exposure image and blend them.

There are downsides to using 1 image and I'm sure you've visited the link Here. Even so, it is possible with just 'one' image.

Believe it or not I accidentally made an HDR image of a picture I scanned from my scanner. I goofed up and opened the image in photomatrix and thought, 'oh boy, this is gonna be ugly' I didn't want it HDR (was my daughters school picture) but I was able to play with the tonal mapping.

i've only had luck with one RAW...not JPEG...three JPEGs, Three RAWs, or one RAW

 

[kkat69]

i've only had luck with one RAW...not JPEG...three JPEGs, Three RAWs, or one RAW

yah it isn't pretty, but it does work. Not as good as actual AEB images. Pure RAW is nice if the camera is possible and that would be best.

 

[onomatopoeia]

Yea, a single JPEG would result in a pretty bad looking image.

 

[Everythingisnt]

Any camera that can take JPEG's can do HDR.

I've been using a Panasomic Lumix for the last month (its a 7mp point and shoot) and it produces hdr-quality images fine.

Really it depends on the image you want to make into an hdr, more then the camera.

Just for the record, I've produced some nice HDR's from one JPEG, so it isn't always 'terrible' if you really want to hdr one jpeg.

 

[ChrisA]

Just for the record, I've produced some nice HDR's from one JPEG, so it isn't always 'terrible' if you really want to hdr one jpeg.

By definition a single jpg is NOT High Dynamic Range. Yes, there might exist some software that will perform a tone adjustment on the image and warp the contrast but that is not High Dynamic Range. It is what photoshop users call "curves".

 

[ipodtoucher]

Yea, a single JPEG would result in a pretty bad looking image.

lol well sometimes is hard to get a good HDR from a single RAW...