First Attempt at HDR. Criticisms please

ChrisF79 · Feb 17, 2008

Hey Everyone:

Thanks for all of your help along the way. Last night around midnight I took my first set of images to assemble to HDR. It was really dark but the pool was lit up nice and there were some great reflections.

The picture is at http://www.chrisfarrugia.com/hdr/marcopool.jpg

kidchill · Feb 17, 2008

Not bad. I've just begun to play with HDR too. Are you using photomatix or PS? In photomatix, if you're trying to go the more surreal/blownout style then decrease the light smoothing/luminosity. The only thing I would change is to maybe adjust the color hue/WB to cooler colors. It has that orange/outside light cast. Also, this may be a post for the "Graphics programs and digital galleries" section. I just posted a couple of HDR's in there. They're not all that great due to my ghetto tripod shaking, but it's always nice to look around and get ideas. I tend to lean towards the surreal blown-out look.

chris_arnet · Feb 17, 2008

it was pretty grainy, and honestly, if you didnt tell me it was HDR, i wouldn't have known.

ChrisF79 · Feb 17, 2008

What could I do to keep it from being grainy? That might be the post-processing in Photomatix too but I really have no idea.

MACollum · Feb 17, 2008

ChrisF79 said:
What could I do to keep it from being grainy? That might be the post-processing in Photomatix too but I really have no idea.

Lower the ISO. You'll have to shoot longer exposures if you use lower ISO though. Also try avoid doing anything to make the picture lighter (levels, curves, etc) as this will make the grain show more.

MARSHALL1225 · Feb 17, 2008

Sorry I wouldn't have guessed it was an HDR image.

TamiyaGuy · Feb 18, 2008

It's pretty nice IMO. I would've changed the white balance settings to be a bit cooler, though. Also, the photo seems to be really grainy, what was your ISO?

Still, way better than I could've done, so I don't see why I'm even criticising =]

Aw45 · Feb 19, 2008

The image has a little to much noise. I would lower the ISO so that you can get a smoother image. For an image like this you want smooth lines. Everything in the image is clean so noise takes away from that feeling.

I also do not like how we loose the trees in the background in the dark sky. A longer shutter speed w/ the camera on a tripod could help w/ this. What were your settings?

Color temp: Its a little to yellow, bring them down a little bit in a hue/saturation adjustment layer.

Framing: This might just be me but I do not like the railing in left corner of the image. Its distracting my eye keeps getting pulled over there.

domromer · Feb 19, 2008

I can't tell that it's hdr, is that the effect you were going for? It just looks like a long night exposure.

Alex_B · Feb 19, 2008

Well, this is not an HDR. I can see no tonal / dynamic range beyond what a single exposure would do.

To be honest it looks like a handheld shot (blurry), which was taken at way too high ISO (a lot of noise) and white balance seems to be off as the shadows have a strong green cast.

But it appears to have been tampered with by some software, which gives you strange artefacts like these:

How many different exposures did you combine to create an HDR? it certainly cannot be many, and their exposure must be almost identical.

ChrisF79 · Feb 19, 2008

I combined -5EV, -4EV, -2EV, normal, +2, +4, +5 with Photomatix. The thing is, this shot is right on the gulf of mexico beach so the wind probably created some problems for me.

I'm not sure how to do HDR images when something is moving... any tips?

RKW3 · Feb 19, 2008

ChrisF79 said:
I combined -5EV, -4EV, -2EV, normal, +2, +4, +5 with Photomatix. The thing is, this shot is right on the gulf of mexico beach so the wind probably created some problems for me.

I'm not sure how to do HDR images when something is moving... any tips?

I find that only 3 exposures are usually necessary, when you take 7 exposures like that your prone to slight movement between shots, resulting in the pic being unsharp.

You need to practice tonemapping too, by the looks of it. Just keep practicing.

lifeafter2am · Feb 19, 2008

ChrisF79 said:
I combined -5EV, -4EV, -2EV, normal, +2, +4, +5 with Photomatix. The thing is, this shot is right on the gulf of mexico beach so the wind probably created some problems for me.

I'm not sure how to do HDR images when something is moving... any tips?

I don't think your increments were large enough to show greater tonal range. This might be one of those situations where you would need to shoot in manual mode and just wing it by pushing way off the meter.

Alex_B · Feb 20, 2008

ChrisF79 said:
I combined -5EV, -4EV, -2EV, normal, +2, +4, +5 with Photomatix. The thing is, this shot is right on the gulf of mexico beach so the wind probably created some problems for me.

OK, here we got the problem. Your scene is lit by artificial light, some parts are more or less evenly illuminated (maybe even within +/-2EV). In those parts you can try HDR as much as you want, it will not do much.
And then there are the parts, which are dark, and those are very poorly illuminated (limited range of the artificial light sources), so here you would need something way beyond your +5EV to see any effect.

You did not chose an easy scene to start trying with I am afraid