HDR for ya!

Canon John · Jul 5, 2008

I am quite new to the whole HDR thing. These are my first two images.

Any thoughts/comments are welcome.

Thanks!

rjackjames · Jul 6, 2008

Wow...great HDR processing. What equipment did you use?

garboui · Jul 6, 2008

wow the second pic definitely came out awesome, great work on the composition and the tonality of the whole scene. looks like storm clouds are wanting to rain on the mills parade from being in the sun.

Canon John · Jul 6, 2008

rjackjames said:
Wow...great HDR processing. What equipment did you use?

The shots are both handheld, the first using my 70-200mm f/4L, and the second using my Sigma 17-35mm 2.8-4 EX on my 30D.

I processed the RAW images in ACR. Then I ported them over to a program called Photomatix to combine them and render the tone mapping. Then back to PSCS3 for the finishing touches.

Thanks!

Canon John · Jul 6, 2008

garboui said:
wow the second pic definitely came out awesome, great work on the composition and the tonality of the whole scene. looks like storm clouds are wanting to rain on the mills parade from being in the sun.

Thanks!

And it did rain, big time. I only just got home before it let loose.

Bifurcator · Jul 7, 2008

I like the top one better.

It's kinda story-book.

I fully expect Tom Bombadil to come skipping along. The shot comes very close to putting me in it as well. Always a good sign!

Canon John · Jul 7, 2008

Bifurcator said:
I like the top one better.

It's kinda story-book.

I fully expect Tom Bombadil to come skipping along. The shot comes very close to putting me in it as well. Always a good sign!

Thanks!

Hey dol! Merry dol! Ring a dong dillo! Ring a dong! Hop along! Fal lal the willow! Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo!

skier66 · Jul 7, 2008

really like #2.
i need to give HDR a try at some point.
does it take a lot of time?

Miaow · Jul 7, 2008

Very nice - Like #2 the best of the 2

vbrandon91 · Jul 7, 2008

#2 looks awesome

Suzumushi · Jul 7, 2008

Canon John said:
The shots are both handheld...

I processed the RAW images in ACR. Then I ported them over to a program called Photomatix to combine them and render the tone mapping. Then back to PSCS3 for the finishing touches.

I thought for true HDR with multiple exposures you pretty much need to use a tripod to ensure the shots line up. Did you just use autobracketing, continuous shooting and try to hold the camera still? How many exposures did you use for each?

Canon John · Jul 7, 2008

Suzumushi said:
I thought for true HDR with multiple exposures you pretty much need to use a tripod to ensure the shots line up. Did you just use autobracketing, continuous shooting and try to hold the camera still? How many exposures did you use for each?

You are SUPPOSED to use a tripod, a remote, mirror lock, and anything else that can help still the camera. And I suppose for real, large HDR prints that makes a lot of sense. However, these are little more than experiments in a kind of photography that is new to me.

I did hand hold these with auto bracket set to 1,0,1, on my Canon 30D. For true HDR you are supposed to use at least 5 images, from 2,1,0,1,2, and they say 1/3 stops are even better, so seven to eight images is the ideal. My images are not perfectly in line, the photomatix software I have been using is just really good at what it does.

As I have been getting more serious about this form of photography I have been thinking about stabilization. I have a tripod, but it is abysmal. I bought it 5 years ago when I first traded in my 35mm SLRs for my first digital, a Minolta DiMage 7i. It was a good tripod for that, but toss my manfrotto head on it along with the 30D, battery grip, and an L lens and it isn't stabilizing anything. I have a monopod, and I think I will try and use that next time.

This is one I did today, and you can see from the fuzziness that is was not well aligned.

Suzumushi · Jul 8, 2008

Thanks for the explanation. This is actually pretty encouraging as your images look good and I'd been thinking I needed to get a tripod before I could really have any success with HDR. I did download the photomatix trial and briefly tried the single RAW processing but didn't really get anything good out of it. Seemed to add noise more than anything else, but I really don't know how to set the sliders either. I've been meaning to play with it more, but so far I'm still trying to go through all my shots from this weekend.