Banff Springs HDR - CC welcome

[Demers18]

Here is my second attempt at HDR. I found this room to be quite creepy and would make a good HDR. I struggled with the yellow blowing out a little but I think it turned out okay over all. I used HDR Pro in PS CS5.

Let me know what you think and if you think I could have done anything differently.

Thanks for looking.

[/URL] Banff Springs HDR by lee.demers, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[Demers18]

Is there anybody out there?

 

[Demers18]

Is it that bad?

 

[theraven]

Nice angle, but it seems a little dark and warm?

 

[Demers18]

The room itself was quite dark with yellow lighting. I thought it would make an eerie type HDR. That room was eerie to begin with. That building has "other" things going on for sure.

 

[Mully]

I like it.... the color is great for the subject ...adds to the creepiness.

 

[Parker219]

To me HDR shows off the different range of lights, and the lighting in general. To me, this could have been a long exposure low light shot, that picked up the lights from the length of the lens being open.

A lack of detail is the biggest issue with this photo, IMO, I do like the lights on the ceiling though.

 

[pixmedic]

wheres our usual crowd of HDR experts lately? ive seen quite a few HDR-ish photos go by recently with none of them chiming in. I dont know enough on HDR to really comment much on the technical aspects of HDR, but it seems a little too dark and orange for my tastes.

 

[FanBoy]

Like Parker mentioned, this looks more like a single exposure. HDR would (or should) open up the darker areas, such as the furniture. You might have tried this, but the lights got blown out. You can try a masking technique for the lights, but I never tried that. Or, Photomatix has a selective exposure tool to lower or increase the EV.

Otherwise, it's a good shot, though a bit too warm. I think the focus of the room should be more on the arched ceilings rather than the floor.

 

[PlanetStarbucks]

I'd drop some of the brighter exposures to bring the overall light level down. Then play with contrast (black and white level) to accentuate it. I know that's anti-HDR, but I think it would give it more mood. I say that because the perspective makes it feel moody, so I think the process should compliment it. Also, less crop.

 

[Demers18]

To me HDR shows off the different range of lights, and the lighting in general. To me, this could have been a long exposure low light shot, that picked up the lights from the length of the lens being open.

A lack of detail is the biggest issue with this photo, IMO, I do like the lights on the ceiling though.

When you mention the lack of detail are you talking about the furniture?

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

wheres our usual crowd of HDR experts lately? ive seen quite a few HDR-ish photos go by recently with none of them chiming in. I dont know enough on HDR to really comment much on the technical aspects of HDR, but it seems a little too dark and orange for my tastes.

The darkness of the image was intentional as I wanted to keep the mood of how I felt when I was in that room. As for the orangeness, I wonder if that came through from the multiple exposures as some of the lighting was more of a red tinge in real life. I may have to work on that.

Thanks for the comment.

Like Parker mentioned, this looks more like a single exposure. HDR would (or should) open up the darker areas, such as the furniture. You might have tried this, but the lights got blown out. You can try a masking technique for the lights, but I never tried that. Or, Photomatix has a selective exposure tool to lower or increase the EV.

Otherwise, it's a good shot, though a bit too warm. I think the focus of the room should be more on the arched ceilings rather than the floor.

I may have to try the masking of the lights. I actually never even thought of shooting the ceiling. I liked the perspective from the floor and its hard to get all the shots you want with your wife getting impatient lol.

I'd drop some of the brighter exposures to bring the overall light level down. Then play with contrast (black and white level) to accentuate it. I know that's anti-HDR, but I think it would give it more mood. I say that because the perspective makes it feel moody, so I think the process should compliment it. Also, less crop.

I actually dropped out the two brightest exposures to try and bring the light level down. I guess it didn't work so well. I cropped it because I felt too much floor was shown and we could see the lamp plug in on the left. I'll play around with crop and see what I can come up with.

Thank you all for taking the time to comment. Much appreciated.

 

[Demers18]

I decided to go back and make some adjustments keeping in ind some of your suggestions and this is what I came up with. I know the crop could be better but this is the best I could do with this photo. I wish I would have left more room at the top to include the full light fixture, but it is what it is I guess.
So I guess I'm asking if you find this version more HDR like than the last?

Thanks for looking.

[/URL] Banff Springs HDR - Take 2 by lee.demers, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[SCraig]

I decided to go back and make some adjustments keeping in ind some of your suggestions and this is what I came up with. I know the crop could be better but this is the best I could do with this photo. I wish I would have left more room at the top to include the full light fixture, but it is what it is I guess.
So I guess I'm asking if you find this version more HDR like than the last?

Thanks for looking.

It still could easily be a single exposure. There's not much about it that stretches the dynamic range of a single image.

Look at the shadows on the end of the couch on the right side. There's no detail at all there. There is a little detail underneath the table on the left visible that wasn't in the first edit, but there isn't anything that makes me feel this is an HDR shot.

That's not altogether bad though. High Dynamic Range composites use multiple images that bracket the middle dynamic range of a photograph to increase it more than would be possible with a single shot. Most people go to extremes and make everything look like something from a comic book. This shot doesn't do that but at the same time it doesn't show me more dynamic range than could be achieved from a single shot. See if you can pull some detail from the shadows and add a alittle contrast. I think there's something there that will look good if you just play with it a bit and stretch the range a bit more.

 

[Demers18]

It still could easily be a single exposure. There's not much about it that stretches the dynamic range of a single image.

Look at the shadows on the end of the couch on the right side. There's no detail at all there. There is a little detail underneath the table on the left visible that wasn't in the first edit, but there isn't anything that makes me feel this is an HDR shot.

That's not altogether bad though. High Dynamic Range composites use multiple images that bracket the middle dynamic range of a photograph to increase it more than would be possible with a single shot. Most people go to extremes and make everything look like something from a comic book. This shot doesn't do that but at the same time it doesn't show me more dynamic range than could be achieved from a single shot. See if you can pull some detail from the shadows and add a alittle contrast. I think there's something there that will look good if you just play with it a bit and stretch the range a bit more.

Does this mean that I should take more photos in the middle dynamic range to help achieve a better HDR? This version uses a total of 8 exposures... I'm wondering if I'm simply doing it wrong. I'm using HDR Pro in CS5.
Thanks for the input SCraig and back to the drawinf board I go

 

[SCraig]

Does this mean that I should take more photos in the middle dynamic range to help achieve a better HDR? This version uses a total of 8 exposures... I'm wondering if I'm simply doing it wrong. I'm using HDR Pro in CS5.
Thanks for the input SCraig and back to the drawinf board I go

If you're using a series of 8 shots I wouldn't think you are doing it wrong. The block of shots should range from a good exposure of the shadow areas to a good exposure of the highlight areas. The software should then combine all the areas so that details are retained in both the shadow and highlight areas, as well as providing a good exposure of the mid-range.

I don't do much HDR, and seldom get the results I want when I do, so I'm not a good choice to provide advice. There are others around here FAR more qualified than me to help you out.