HDR Photography - How to?

[Pvapour]

Above shots are just incredible especialy the last scenic one.

Just got a book on HDR which is quite enlightening, not got far in it yet though, did this one last night which is pretty poor compared to the above images, but I will persist

I have been trying to achieve it with CS3, which seems to be hard as has been mentioned here & also in the book I'm reading, will have a go with the trial photomatrix.

[Whitefly Swatter]

Pvapour said:

Just got a book on HDR which is quite enlightening, not got far in it yet though, did this one last night which is pretty poor compared to the above images, but I will persist

Spill the beans on the book title and author please

[Woza]

Whitefly Swatter said:

Pvapour said:

Just got a book on HDR which is quite enlightening, not got far in it yet though, did this one last night which is pretty poor compared to the above images, but I will persist

Spill the beans on the book title and author please

would it be the book written by the author of the vanilladays website?

Woza.

[Viper_Larry]

Woza said:

I too am blown away by these - agreed they wont be to everyones tastes but i think they look fantastic!

Found this after a web search: http://www.cameralabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19...
nice simple guide, all i need to do is change the shutter speed....didn't realise it was so easy!

I guess the question now is are there any good programs that i can get for free rather than paying the hefty sum for photoshop or photopix??

Woza.

Careful there Woza, you adjust the exposure and NOT the shutter speed.

Basically you take 3 photos as Simpo Two said, one exposed correctly, one over exposed (so typically the sky will be all washed out but the shadows will be detailed) and one underexposed (so the sky will be colourful with detailed clouds but the shadow areas will be too dark)

A good example of this is on the Photomatix web site:

Over Exposed:



Normal exposure:



Under exposed:



HDR Rendered from the above 3



Depending on the settings you choose, you can make the final picture look almost normal to cartoon like. I prefer normal but adding drama to the picture - here's my latest

[Woza]

this thread just keeps getting better and better.

I wish i could go out now and take some shots....

Living here in Edinburgh and having an office which overlooks the castle i am quite confident i might be able to achieve something quite good!

Watch this space.

Thanks viper - will make sure i do it correctly :-)

Woza.

[GetCarter]

One from the Isle of Harris (that I did just now in Photomatix, having totally forgotten I'd taken!)

[paul911]

I take 3 bracketed shots (+2 / -2 stops). Then simply let Corel Paint Shop Pro do all the work. One click to align the images and another click to process. Job done! I usually have to tweak the colour saturation to correct it though, but that’s about it.

This pic “had” to be HDR’d as I was shooting into the sun, the lighthouse would have been a silhouette otherwise.

[GetCarter]

Great pic Paul. And indeed... just as this was...

Edited by GetCarter on Wednesday 12th August 12:35

[Woza]

these photos are absolutely fantastic guys, i hope i can get somewhere close when i give it a go!

[...Mole...]

You can also use Photomatix to process single RAW files, not true HDR but can give interesting results.
I used it for these ones,

[Yellabelly]

Or do it with one shot, shoot in RAW or jpeg/RAW and process the one photo in a programme such as Capture one 4 (freeby on line) and process it as either 3, 5 or 7 steps from as shot, -1,0, +1 so that you have a photo file from each step of the process that shows the individual exposure step for the exposure stop! then process them in Photomatix and Bobs your Sister's Auntie's.....whatever.

et voila, Notre Dame and the Apostle detail on the spires







plus some flowers in a vase.


YB

[paul911]

Nice pics guys

Again shooting into the sun, so to avoid the silhouetted rock, HDR’d. I suppose I could have used the flash?


You do need to make sure the subject is static though. This one the leaves in the tree are moving very slightly in the breeze, so only just got away with it!

[D4VE 3LL]

Wow I was under the impression HDR was hated by people on here. I use photomatix pro, as I tried photoshop but found it crap!

Eurofighter Typhoon at RIAT 2009

Wanted to make the sky more moody.



Anglesey





PH'ers Lamborghini



Woolacombe



Birmingham



Wales







Midlands







Sorry to post so many but I wanted to show that it doesn't just have to be done to landscapes, the effect you get from a HDR is different every time and can enhance the mood of the image. Problems with HDRs are though is they can become highly addicitive, people either love them or hate them, watch out for chromatic abberations, noise can be a problem especially at night and always align the sources by matching features and attempt to reduce ghosting artifacts. Reducing noise I find takes a long time (i dont have the fastest PC in the world) so unless it's a massive problem i'll leave it unticked. Some absolutey brlliant photos taken by PH members on here keep 'em comin'!

[...Mole...]

Try Imagenomic Noiseware for noise reduction, i have been very impressed with it
http://www.imagenomic.com/
cost about £40 for the standard version.

[Torquemada]

One of my first efforts with Photomatix:

Edited by Torquemada on Wednesday 12th August 16:52

[Scraggles]

excellent set of photos, more real life than what was in front of the lense no doubt

http://photographyforrealestate.net/2009/06/02/the...

for a camera with built in HDR

great stuff google

[M-J-B]

I love HDR

Most of these were with my old 400D, taken hand held and not processed to the extreme levels some would go to.

[baz7175]

I suppose I had better throw some of mine into the mix too...

[D4VE 3LL]

M-J-B said:

Looks like a computer-generated image! brilliant processing. Swear I've seen it somewhere before :/

[Quick silver]

GetCarter said:

Steve, that particular image is outstanding & a fine example of HDR.

On a seperate note & for the uninitiated, it may well be worth mentioning monitor calibration & gamma adjustment at this juncture.

There's little point in fine tuning an image if your monitor has not been calibrated correctly, or indeed viewing images such as above - I do of course realise that this will appear as if I'm teaching my Grandmother to suck eggs to a good few PHer's, so this is not directed at them.

Gamma Adjustment: http://www.photoscientia.co.uk/Gamma.htm