First HDR

scooter2525 · Mar 19, 2009

I set a +-1 stop in bracketing and hand held it....

nickisonfire · Mar 19, 2009

from what i can tell with the small picture it doesn't look too much like an HDR

scooter2525 · Mar 19, 2009

nickisonfire said:
from what i can tell with the small picture it doesn't look too much like an HDR

I'm not sure if thats the idea behind it or not? The cactus in front were really dark and the sky was blown out, so I figured this is the best of both worlds...

LaFoto · Mar 19, 2009

If what you say in reply is as it is, then yes, you seem to have got the best of two worlds, but I'd still call this a "merged pic" but not HDR. For HDR you would need at least three, if not five or seven, different exposures that you blend, and what you get is that very dynamic, very contrasty, very colourful (and not necessarily cartoonish!) photo that one exposure alone would not have brought about.

And to me, despite the blue in the sky and the non-silhouetted cactus, this photo still is quite pale, hazy, milky, whatever word you want to use for it - lacking in contrasts and colours. It should be stronger, what with the bright sunshine you had and the blue sky.

With a bit of masking and selectively adjusting the levels (or curves for those who prefer to work with those), you can bring out a lot more here.

scooter2525 · Mar 19, 2009

LaFoto said:
If what you say in reply is as it is, then yes, you seem to have got the best of two worlds, but I'd still call this a "merged pic" but not HDR. For HDR you would need at least three, if not five or seven, different exposures that you blend, and what you get is that very dynamic, very contrasty, very colourful (and not necessarily cartoonish!) photo that one exposure alone would not have brought about.

And to me, despite the blue in the sky and the non-silhouetted cactus, this photo still is quite pale, hazy, milky, whatever word you want to use for it - lacking in contrasts and colours. It should be stronger, what with the bright sunshine you had and the blue sky.

With a bit of masking and selectively adjusting the levels (or curves for those who prefer to work with those), you can bring out a lot more here.

Thanks for the info. That will give me a good base to work off of.