My first HDR Attempt

[nathan_young2]

<p>Here is my first HDR image attempt. Please let me know your thoughts and critiques.<br>

<img src="http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/3651/img9506r.jpg" alt="" /> Before<br>

<img src="http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/7701/img9504hdrfinaledited1.jpg" alt="" />After</p>

[eric_brody]

<p>As a first attempt, ... It's a bit hard to tell that it's HDR and not just overly saturated in the tree bark and grass. Usually HDR is used to deal with contrast which exceeds the ability of the sensor. In the world of digital photography it is similar to using N minus development to deal with high contrast in 4x5 black and white film work. I do not see that there's anything about the original image that necessitated the use of HDR. Do some reading, spend some time looking at images in good books or better yet good galleries or museums.<br>

Good luck.<br>

Eric</p>

[nathan_young2]

<p>Ok thank you very much! I will definitely do that. I wasnt very satisfied with it myself but I will keep at it and see what I can do. Thanks for the advice tho! and i see what you mean in your comments.</p>

[dcstep]

<p>There seem to be two schools of thought about HDR. Some, me included, use it to expand dynamic range and bring out details in shadows that couldn't be seen with just one exposure. The other school seems to see it as a tool to create something unreal, often with cartoonish, but dramatic colors and maybe add a little dynamic range. You seem to be shooting for the second school.</p>

<p>If you were in the first school, that back main branch of the tree would have come out a little more and the saturation wouldn't have gone up dramatically. As it is, I think I see less detail in your HDR version than in the original.</p>

<p>Now, are you wrong and me right, or the other way around? I think it's either and we're using the same tool, but to different goals. Maybe it's kind of like bokeh, you have to play with a while before you can use it intelligently. I see a lot of people going gah-gah over bokeh when it's not necessarily appropriate or additive to a shot. I think that we all need to play with it to fully understand it and HDR is the same way. The Cartoon effect in PS is a similar thing.</p>

<p>So, given this is your first attempt, tell us, did you get the effect that you were looking for? Have you tried doing some HDR simply to increase dynamic range to see how that works? Have you thought about doing some more extreme things with your saturation and color balance on your different layers to see how that works? All that's stuff to be learned, just to see where it takes you. Just realize that simply doing a "cool" effect does not make it "art." That's much, much harder, but... you have to start somewhere.</p>

[akphotograph]

<p>Nathan, you didn't say what software you were using. In my opinion Photomatix is the best for HDR and tonemapping work. I put a short tutorial and Photomatix settings on my blog. Give it a shot and let me know how it went.<br /> <br /> http://www.akphotograph.com/Alaska%20Blog/?p=1998</p>

[ShowLowTJ]

<p>I'm going to be following this discussion, because I too have been struggling with HDR.</p>

<p>I have tried Photomatix and others, including the Merge to HDR feature in Photoshop, and I have yet to achieve the result I want. I have come close, but there is no consistency. The latest software I have tried is HDR Photostudio 2. http://www.unifiedcolor.com/ It gave a nice result in a test image, but then it was the same as the others—some hits, lots of misses.</p>

<p>I am School #1 as defined above. I want to see everything in a landscape that I can see as I stand there looking at it; every deep blue sky, fluffy cloud and every rock or grain of sand in the shadow of the saguaro. I also want the color and saturation to be as accurate as possible throughout, not just here and there.</p>

<p>The thing is that the sensor <em>is</em> able to capture a wide range of tones, just not all in one frame. Merging several frames sure seemed like the way to go, but so far I can't make a go of it. I have also tried doing it with Photoshop layers and while I can often get parts of the image to work well, there are other parts that just don't. If I have to spend hours and hours on it, I guess I just don't want it that badly...</p>

<p>The so-called "cartoonish" effect that so many have fallen in love with is not what I want from this technology, and while it may be appealing as the pop-fad-du jour, I think that it will pass away quietly in the future. (I hope the faux Lomo filter thing goes away even sooner.) Relying on garish effects to make your "art" stand out only works for a little while. But there will always be a need for that perfectly crafted 'real' photo that shows everything that was there, and that's what I want: Every tone, in every nook and cranny.</p>

[bob-c]

<p>I am not a big HDR shooter and really know little about it but I will say I think it is important to pay attention to your EV range when shooting. There is a big difference, I find, between 3 bracketed shots at +/-.3 and 5 shots at +/-1.7. </p>

[garydem]

<p>nathan young- i put your after shot on pse7 and checked the histogram. BOTH ends of the histo are blown out. the purpose of hdr is to allow the hdr system to contain the full dr of the scene in the final image. this was not done. the reason was that the brackets were not carried out far enough from center to get the full dr recorded. the first step in any hdr to be image is to determine how far out do you carry the brackets. how much dr are you really dealing with?<br>

below is a hdr howto i wrote awhile back. hopefully it has some tips for you. note-this is the same method i use, so i know it works.</p>

 

<p >HDR=High Dynamic Range photography</p>

<p >to do hdr- </p>

<p >if you put camera into full auto matrix metering, take first shot note fstop and shutter speed. put camera into full manual, see if camera still has the matrix fstop and shutter speed. if yes, then using shutter speed go up 2-4 shutter speeds 1 fstop worth of shutter speed at a time. then back to matrix shutter speed and go down same number of shutter speeds.</p>

<p >christian bloch in his hdri handbook did a test of 1 fstop bracketing vs 2fstop bracketing. there was an obvious image quality falloff using the 2fstop bracketing. if the image quality decline in 2stop bracketing is acceptable to you then use the 2 stop. 1 stop is recommended for max image quality, though of course it needed more shots. personally, if you can see the difference in 1 stop brackets then you might well have to use that. But if you cannot then 2stop brackets work fine.</p>

<p >this is on a tripod with cable release. </p>

<p >no, you should not use 1 raw shot and convert 1 stop up and down, because their is not enough dynamic range in the 1 raw shot. dynamic range is why we are doing this, hdr is trying to get all it can. If you use a single raw shot and triple convert it, you still end up with no more DR than the single raw shot.</p>

<p >the group of shots can be raw or jpeg. if jpeg they can be used as is. if raw remember that you HAVE to batch process all 3-9(?) shots. this is because the pp has to be all the same on every pic. you cannot, for example make any attempt to get the shadow details of the group of raw pics, because that would require different amounts of pp, and you cannot do that with hdr. the pp for all shots has to be identical.</p>

<p >for me i just shoot them in jpeg and use them from the camera, that way they are all identical because the camera jpeg settings are the same for every shot. i also put my hand stretched in front of the lens and take a check shot and when done take a ending shot with hand. this tells me where the hdr group is on my memory card when i transfer to the pc.</p>

<p >the only important item is to bracket using shutter speeds only. if fstops are used it changes dof between shots. and shoot enough shots, 3-9(?) is the optimum. the only other thought is to shoot a scene that deserves the the hdr technique, too many people are shooting hdr because it is new or different or whatever. many people are using hdr software on scenes that do not have enough dynamic range; they end up with images that have been enhanced by hdr software, they are not hdr images. the dynamic range was not in the scene to begin with. the scene for hdr should have a very wide dynamic range. this can be checked with a spotmeter on different areas. NOTE: use of auto bracketing on a camera may not work unless you know the bracketing is using the shutter speeds to bracket. in any event, you really need 3-9(?) shots for hdr; this is more than the auto bracket fcn on almost all cameras. and the bracketing has to be both sides of the middle shot. make you use enough brackets to cover the previously checked dynamic range. it does little good to bracket for a 10stop dynamic range when the scene has 14stops.</p>

<p >and the scene should have no movement, if so the item will blur in the hdr image.</p>

<p >do not adjust the focus. set the focus on infinity or use a hyperfocal setup for focus.</p>

<p >do not adjust the white balance for individual shots. go with awb or 1 setting and do not change it.</p>

<p >remember, hdr was created and meant for scene that have a dynamic range that exceeds the dynamic range of the camera sensor, about 5-6stops for jpeg or 7-9 for raw. hdr with the required software allows the user to capture a scene that has very high dynamic range. </p>

<p >I currently use Dynamic-Photo HDR and recommend it. Less than ½ the price of photomatrix and it has 6 different looks, (the photomatrix look is included), and each of the 6 looks can be fine tuned. Get Dynamic-Photo hdr here-http://www.mediachance.com/hdri/index.html; also included is a program that is part of DP hdr that can make a fake hdr look image from a jpeg.</p>

<p >pp. after the hdri is made and is in a folder, i open in pe6. there i use noise ninja(to reduce noise), auto levels(to give a normal overall brightness amount), and focus magic(to sharpen and give a better focus. also if focus magic is used do not sharpen at all, that is double sharpening and is guaranteed to make artifacts.). save as tiff. DO NOT USE AUTO CONTRAST OR ANY OTHER CONTRAST ADJUSTMENT. that is what you just did in the hdr software. also do not adjust any shadows or bright areas. the point of hdr is to let the shooting of multiple shots and the hdr software combining of those shots take care of the dark areas and bright areas. if any areas are dark or highlight blown, then the brackets were not extended out far enough from center.</p>

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