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An Experiment - - HDR Images


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I'm curious to know how HDR processing affected this image. Color images simply decolorized tend to be rather flat. Contrast filters, similar to those used with B&W film can be applied to the RGB image in Photoshop or Lightroom, to improve the results. I see evidence of this in your example, but nothing striking. Traditionally, a small portion of the image should be completely black, and another portion should be white. White, or even very light areas should not bleed to the edges. That said, rules can be broken if it's for a purpose.

 

Filters and HDR will not help a weak composition, but processing can enhance a good photo and make it better.

 

I took this photo on the Connemara peninsula in Ireland. Always on the lookout for green fields and hedgerows befitting the Emerald Isle. I first processed this in HDR color, then used Lightroom for B&W conversion. Frankly I prefer the color version, but it's good to experiment now and then.

 

_A9_9500_AuroraHDR2018-edit.thumb.jpg.04981dbffadc13d7b5760d5f7a9f9c7e.jpg

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I'm curious to know how HDR processing affected this image. Color images simply decolorized tend to be rather flat. Contrast filters, similar to those used with B&W film can be applied to the RGB image in Photoshop or Lightroom, to improve the results. I see evidence of this in your example, but nothing striking. Traditionally, a small portion of the image should be completely black, and another portion should be white. White, or even very light areas should not bleed to the edges. That said, rules can be broken if it's for a purpose.

 

Filters and HDR will not help a weak composition, but processing can enhance a good photo and make it better.

 

I took this photo on the Connemara peninsula in Ireland. Always on the lookout for green fields and hedgerows befitting the Emerald Isle. I first processed this in HDR color, then used Lightroom for B&W conversion. Frankly I prefer the color version, but it's good to experiment now and then.

 

[ATTACH=full]1260574[/ATTACH]

 

Ed, thanks so much for your detailed response. In retrospect, I really can't fathom why I chose a b&w image. I clearly see the difference between your example and mine. Hopefully I did better on the second image I posted.

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Michael, I think your kiosk shot cropped to eliminate some of the people on the left and right would focus the viewer's attention more. I'm not a fan of HDR. It mostly doesn't work because it reduces contrast and interest. It also provides too much information especially in the shadow areas where there is nothing interesting going on. Lighter shadows areas draw my eyes away from the subject. Darker shadow areas make pictures more contrasty and interesting. HDR flattens them out. Just because technology can bring out shadow details, doesn't mean using the technology will make the picture better.
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Alan, I don't get this. Aren't there areas of dark shadow, i.e., black, in my image?

The HDR treatment is just fine, as is. There are always ways to improve the composition. On rainy days, you can play with reflections. You could move closer to the kiosk, and wait for fewer passerby's facing the camera, to draw the eye better to the focus of you composition. The possibilities are endless, but the best options tend to have simpler elements that coordinate with each other. A few steps, a few moments, make all the difference.

 

Vose Galleries - Montmartre in the Rain by Bernard Lamotte

 

Paris Street; Rainy Day | The Art Institute of Chicago

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michaellinder,

 

 

I don't generally use HDR, so I'm not sure where it's most effective. In both of your shots, what is the primary point of interest? They both have great dof so my eye isn’t directed by focus/out-of-focus, the contrast is pretty even throughout both the B&W aerial shot and the wet street shot, and the colors are all about the same saturation in the street shot. I don’t know where to look in either. Help me?

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Michael, the point Alan is making, at least as I understand it, is not about a lack of blacks. It’s about darker areas such as reflections in puddles appearing to open, bright, and equal to other areas. The beauty of reflections is often their subtlety and the depth they give to a photo. By opening up the reflections so much, you in effect flatten the feel of the scene by giving everything equal weight. And, as Jpalmer notes, the composition also lacks focusso my eye just takes in a bunch of elements without the feel of a narrative, a subject, or a point.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen really bad use of HDR and this is not a case of it. You’ve been pretty adept at your use of it and haven’t overdone it to the extent it often is, but still I think it detracts from your image instead of adding or refining it.

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Jeff’s photo is my favorite of the thread so far. An appropriate use of HDR to be sure. And I’ve looked at enough fixer uppers to know how well it captures the feel of the place. The whole thing, even the lone wire on the floor, suggests Eggleston ;-)
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Michael, I was referring to HDR in general when I said darker shadow areas add contrast and focuses attention on the subject which is usually lighter. HDR flattens out the exposure which makes them boring to me. Contrast adds "pop" and "snap". Even a little "crackle". :) Of course, on your shot, there is a lot of contrast considering that the lighting was flat due to overcast skies acting like a huge light box. If you lightened the shadows to any extent, it might be interesting to see what it looks like with them a little darker.
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I linked the works of two French masters which show a rainy day in Paris as they remembered, what struck them as memorable, not simply what they saw. HDR, B&W or whatever, the basis for a good photo is the thought and composition behind it. It's a good exercise to examine something you have taken and ask yourself what you were thinking, why you took that photo, and how you might have better represented your remembrance of the scene?

 

The person on the left, walking head down, covered by a hood might have expressed that mood if close, dominating the foreground. Moments! Steps!

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Michael, I was referring to HDR in general when I said darker shadow areas add contrast and focuses attention on the subject which is usually lighter. HDR flattens out the exposure which makes them boring to me. Contrast adds "pop" and "snap". Even a little "crackle". :) Of course, on your shot, there is a lot of contrast considering that the lighting was flat due to overcast skies acting like a huge light box. If you lightened the shadows to any extent, it might be interesting to see what it looks like with them a little darker.

 

Alan, I am aware of the role of contrast, but - thanks to you - I now am aware that HDR processing ". . . flattens out the exposure . . . ." Did you find my second try better than the first in that regard?

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Im not sure what HDR is. I think someone once mentioned its layering images to increase sharpness?

 

Why not just use DOF?

Someone was wrong. Nothing to do with sharpness or DOF.

 

Google can be helpful. Digital Trends article on HDR:

 

Here's how you shoot high dynamic range images using (almost) any camera

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The whole purpose of HDR is to show the viewer exactly what the photographer saw when they tripped the shutter no matter how challenging the dynamic range. If not then what's the point of going to the trouble of rendering the scene in a Raw processor? Also overcast cloudy day is not an HDR scene.

 

With regard to contrast the farther away the subject is in a brightly lit sunny scene such as a landscape the less contrast and definition. The closer the subjects are the more contrast and definition. Not all elements of a scene needs to be tack sharp and full of definition and clarity. When they are it doesn't look natural. How do you create the illusion of distance and depth? Know what light does to subjects when photographed and remember it when processing in HDR.

 

Michael's "Trolly Tours" kiosk shot shows too much definition and clarity in the shadows of the subject's clothes for such an outdoor overcast cloudy day. Again, not an HDR scene.

 

These are the same contrast rendering principles for conveying realistic scene distance and depth employed by photorealistic painters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt.

 

With digital processing it's quite easy to make a subject that represents a huge area and a lot of distance for instance a cityscape and make it look like a miniature. And that is caused by overall uniform contrast and clarity throughout the entire image no matter how far away elements and subjects appear in the scene.

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