Color range of HDR photography without HDR?

[dstaley]

What are the techniques I can use to get the color range of an HDR photo without actually doing an HDR shot? I'm not into the freaky over-the-top coloring commonly found in HDRIs, but I just want the colors to look the same digitally as they did when I took the shot.

Here is my first HDR where I tried to achieve that goal:

What I like about this photo is that I was able to get the proper coloring of the clouds without losing the color of the houses.

 

[Derek Zoolander]

what program did you use to create the HDR?

You know who is amazing at HDR colored photos without making them HDR is "Sw1tchFX". Hopefully he comes across this thread and sheds some light. I believe he actually commented on it in another thread... here you go: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photography-beginners-forum-photo-gallery/150245-how-do-hdr.html

 

[Garbz]

Sorry what is the question? You were asking how to get it saturated, or how to get it natural looking which you achieved with your photo anyway ?

 

[a1157814a]

i'm interested in this also.
and dstaley, very good on your HDR, better than what i can do.
can you tell me what programs you used?

 

[The_Traveler]

for a truly excellent tutorial on HDR in book form, get Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography by Ferrell McCollough

 

[andrew99]

HDR's are always so over-saturated. What I do is load the processed file into Photoshop, then make a saturation adjustment layer. Move the saturation slider all the way to 0 (B&W) and slowly start bringing it back until it looks right.

Also I find that you pretty much have to always work on the sky separately from the rest of your photo.

 

[Johnboy2978]

What are the techniques I can use to get the color range of an HDR photo without actually doing an HDR shot? I'm not into the freaky over-the-top coloring commonly found in HDRIs, but I just want the colors to look the same digitally as they did when I took the shot.

Basically, you start off with a properly exposed image for the scene, then you can carefully adjust it with the curves option in PS. You may have to selectively do this if there is a big discrepancy between highlights and shadows.

 

[Derek Zoolander]

Anyone have a good tutorial or link that explains curves and how to read them and make adjustments?

 

[Dubious Drewski]

HDR's are always so over-saturated.

Not all of them. The HDRs that I enjoy the most are the ones you can't tell are HDR at all. Like this one. The photograph is nothing spectacular, but the HDR is subtle and natural looking.