Cat in a window

[wfooshee]

This image is a three-frame HDR, the frames 2 stops apart, matrix metered. I was really surprised how well it turned out, and it showed me what HDR can really do to recover an "impossible" image.

In the three frames, the metered image has both blown out sky and silhouetted cat, with the items in the window shelves fairly well exposed. The 2-stops-over is white sky and reasonable cat, with the white blown out so much you can't even see the blinds, and the 2-stop-under has good sky, not much else useful. The final image could use a bit more contrast, I think, but playing with that always darkened the cat and the dark bunny piece too much.

Now that I look at it here, I ought to crop out the section of wall on the right; it contributes nothing, I simply left the frame full as shot.

I've used HDR on some sunsets and landscapes, I think this is my only interior shot that I've used it on. It's also my best HDR result, without question.

Only three shots because the camera I used at the time would only bracket three shots at a time, and I was hand holding, so I couldn't change settings manually to get more shots.

As an aside, I've been on TPF for years, never really perused the HDR section until lately. I have to say that I'm happy to see people commenting about images not being overdone, because I personally do not like the cartoony effect of severe HDR, nor the ghosting you see so often in the light-dark transitions. I think that's why I've left this section alone, because that kind of stuff is what I expected to find!

 

[The Barbarian]

It's a remarkably nice result. Very natural-looking; at first glance, one would not identify it as an HDR. Which is what a good HDR should be.