to create a HDR photo

[peter_roberts4]

<p>Hi,<br>

I am new to HDR technique and would like to seek for your advice.<br>

I understand the needs to shoot at least 3 or better 6 photos with different exposures to make a HDR photos. But, sometimes it is not possible to do it, or I get a chance to take one exposure only. Can I use the following way to create a HDR photo?<br>

1. to shoot an exposure in raw<br>

2. to develop 6 or 7 photos in Camera Raw by varying the exposures.<br>

3. to use Photoshop to produce a HDR photo by those 6 or 7 photos made in step 2.</p>

[Mattman944]

<p>See: <a href="../beginner-photography-questions-forum/00Y7hi">http://www.photo.net/beginner-photography-questions-forum/00Y7hi</a></p>

 

[JosvanEekelen]

My experience with HDR is very limited but changing exposure in Camera Raw does not add any information to the

picture. With that in mind I don't think your approach offers any benefit over using the single raw image. Some software

may be fooled though and make a proper HDR picture but the same must be possible with only the single raw file and the

proper software/Photoshop.

[stp]

<p>If the range of light in a scene exceeds that which your camera is able to record, then you can't do an HDR photo with only a single exposure, even if it is a raw photo. You can vary the exposure when you convert that raw exposure, and some may be light and some may be dark, but none contain the information that went missing in your original exposure. An HDR from a single raw exposure may look better than the original, but you could have used blending techniques other than HDR to produce the same photograph. True HDR addresses a range of light that is beyond your camera's ability to record in a single exposure, and by definition that means that more than one exposure is needed.</p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Also something to consider is it needs to be establish how many stops an actual scene has to determine if its dynamic range falls in the category of HDR and thus beyond the sensor's capability of capturing it in one shot. Not always an easy task to determine with one's eyes shooting out in the field.</p>

<p>Most of the HDR type scenes that benefit from this technique are interiors where both detail in the darkest shadows indoors and highlights in outdoor window scenes want to be preserved. These are the widest HDR scenes that are desired by photographers over say scenes of sunsets with clouds and dark foregrounds. The issue is always about determining the acceptable level of noise in the shadows by underexposing to preserve highlights as in sunlit clouds.</p>

<p>Which one is important or desired to be looked at? When we consider the final print of the scene we decide to shoot, are we going to notice noise in the shadows or are our eyes going to zero in on the blown out white patches of cloud detail? In interior shots are we going to notice noise in the shadows of furniture?</p>

<p>Considering these points I'ld suggest you first pick out a scene you think is beyond the capabilities of your camera's sensor and just shoot it exposing to preserve the highlights outside of spectrals such as bright lights and reflections of the sun on polished surfaces. Use your camera's histogram to check for blown highlights.</p>

<p>Viewing the image on the computer zoom in on the shadow detail and brighten the scene in order to see how much detail can be seen that isn't wiped out by noise. Ask yourself if it is important to see this detail in creating an interesting image. From my experience 9 times out of 10 you can pull off most high contrast scenes with one shot and fix the Raw file in post.</p>

<p>The reason for this is that sensors do well with lots of light whether high or normal contrast so underexposing to preserve highlights will not produce as much noise as expected in the shadows. Shadow noise is more amplified underexposing for highlights in poorly lit interior shots or night scenes, but then why would you shoot an interior with the lights off and a night scene is suppose to look dark anyway. See what I'm getting at? What HDR image do you want to shoot that doesn't have any light? </p>

<p>Also when you process this high contrast capture just keep in mind when you start to add fill light to bring out detail in the shadows that it has to make sense with the overall brightness of the scene or else your image will end up looking like a miniature because there's no way to have a fill flash that big and far reaching to bring out that amount of detail especially in landscapes.</p>

<p>If you can't determine where the light source is coming from that's opening up those shadows, you've gone too far.</p>

[steve_t.1]

<p>Nik Software HDR Efex Pro will allow you to manipulate a single image to get very good HDR-like results, And this program will operate as a stand-alone program, it is the only Nik Software program that does not need a host program (Photoshop CS_/Elements/Lightroom, or Aperture) to use it, although you will only be able to import tiff or jpeg files into it as a stand-alone, not RAW files. See this thread- http://www.photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00ZpuX When using is with a host program, then you can open your RAW files from the host into HDR Efex Pro.</p>

<p>Also, Tues-Sat each week, Nik Software hosts free live webinars during the afternoons and evenings (in the USA, viewable from just about anywhere on the globe), and they have two different HDR webinars each week, "The World of HDR Photography" (intro seminar), and "HDR- Beyond the Fundamentals". Each webinar lasts about an hour and they run through several examples in each show, including working on a single image. Click on this link to see their live training schedule, choose your time zone at the top right of the schedule block- http://www.niksoftware.com/learnmore/usa/index.php "The World..." is the last webinar on this upcoming Friday. "HDR, Beyond..." is held Tuesday and Thursday. Schedules change each week. At the "Learn" link at the very top of the page you can choose the webinar schedule and the archive of on-demand, pre-recorded demonstrations. For the on-demand, you can then scroll down the screen and choose which of the Nik programs you want to learn more about. Probably a hundred different videos covering the half dozen or so programs they have. I've watched several of these multiple times in the past 2 weeks to judge of purchase of a couple of their programs. So far, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro, and Silver Efex Pro 2 (BW conversion program) are strong contenders for my dollar.</p>

[robert lee]

<blockquote>

<p>Can I use the following way to create a HDR photo?<br /> 1. to shoot an exposure in raw<br /> 2. to develop 6 or 7 photos in Camera Raw by varying the exposures.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>No. There's nothing stopping you from doing so, but it misses the point of HDR entirely. The idea is to blend multiple exposures into one file so as to overcome dynamic range limits of whatever sensor you're using. </p>

<p>What you're proposing is to apply only the tone mapping, back half of the typical HDR process. You can get some interesting results this way. In the end, that's what really matters (but it's not HDR.)</p>

 

[brian_ellis19]

<p>You certainly can do that but it isn't the same as making multiple exposures in camera. When you make multiples in camera you're getting a correct exposure for different parts of the scene, then blending the various correct exposures in Photomatix or Photoshop or whatever you use. When you do it the way you're talking about you're still working with an incorrect exposure for parts of the scene and trying to fix or improve them in CR. That may produce a better result than the one original alone would have produced without any blending but probably not as good as if you had multiple exposures that each was correct for different parts of the scene.</p>

[hector_hine]

<p>As a camera is an averaging device - it takes an intelligent guess as to how bright or how dark the overall image is - and then shoots an image almost totally unlike the eye can see. HDR can balance out the light, make an image more like an eye can see. But remember, each eye sees totally differently - person to person that is. So as many photographers there are, is equal to the number of "best" HDR photos and techniques.<br>

HDR can manage the shadows and the highlights in its simplest form - it might be called shadowmapping. Get a black & white image, deeply contrasty, to manage the detail, and get a bright colour image to take care of the luminosity. Combine these in Photoshop using a hard light blend (choose the opacity yourself) and you have the basics of an HDR image. You may want to use a "default" flat image to balance out if too contrasty or bright.<br>

I have used 7 HDR images in Photomatix - 1 e/v stop apart. There is a perhaps unquantifiable quality to natural photos blended together, than if I took one RAW file and simply changed its stop value to make the other six photos. Perhaps brighter and crisper for using the natural shots.<br>

Double-processing is available as well - do not be afraid the re-process an HDR image thru Photomatix (or HDR Efex Pro) the second time. Brightness and highlights can be helped by displacing the brightness/luminosity sliders on a default shot, and combining this luminosity shot with the dark/bright shadowmaps.<br>

Any concerted adjusting of both the highlights, and the shadows - by whatever means - constitutes a rudimentary HDR, the more sophisticated it gets when using multiple RAW at varying exposures, pushing the luminosity sliders, and blending dark/bright exposures as shadowmaps, finally using curves etc to complete.<br>

Try these sites for greater detail on HDR technique - hdrspotting, hdrit, everydayhdr, rob hanson at youtube, captain kimo, topazlabs and nik software - and for the flipside - where shadow is king - look at the UrbEx photos over at flickr.</p>