HDR

[bazza]

This is probably a silly question but i've heard people talking about HDR on their photos..

Just wondering what they are talking about because all the shots have great detail..

Anybody tell me please.. Ta.

 

[Big Mike]

It means: High Dynamic Range.

The basic idea is creating an image that has a wider range of tones than can be captured in a single photograph. There are different ways to do it, but the popular method is taking several photos at different exposure levels and blending them together with software. Photoshop, the latest versions anyway, have an HDR function which blends photos together to create this effect.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

The search tool above is your friend:

http://thephotoforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80496&highlight=hdr

 

[bazza]

Thanks for that, Does cs2 have this option? or is it only cs3?

 

[Big Mike]

CS2 & CS3 both have it.

 

[bazza]

Cheers, I might experiment with that..

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Photomatix works better.

 

[zioneffect564]

check out http://www.hdrphotos.net theres a lot of usefull information there.

 

[avcabob]

Photomatix works better.

Agreed. Everytime I've tried to use the built in photoshop tool for HDR, it comes out all dark, or all white, or all weird. Basically just not good. I'm sure I was just doing something wrong, but after trying Photomatix, I gave up on trying to figure out what it was.

 

[bytch_mynickname]

Everytime I try to use photoshop's merge to HDR, I get a messgae saying that there is not enough useful dynamic range (or something to that effect) but if I take the same pictures into photomatix, it works ok. If only I wasn't stuck with using the demo version of photmatix right now.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

I think Noise is the biggest issue with HDR's, I get a ton of noise from my HDR's even when shooting at ISO 200. I've found anything above ISO 400 is usually unHDRable.

 

[bazza]

Thanks for all the info, I now have a better idea what HDR is and the resuls are fantastic..

How easy is it to merge the photos or is it automatically done in the software??

 

[doenoe]

you might wanna read this THIS

 

[bazza]

That is a great writeup, thanks.

I have cs2 and have just downloaded a trial of photomatix pro.

I tried them both and photomatix gave the superior final picture.

Once again, thanks for all the advise..