HDR from First Trip Out, Metra Passenger Train

[ch3360]

Hello all,

I first posted some HDR images in the General Gallery because I didn't see the specific HDR thread....... They were my first attempt using my Nikon D80 and Photomatix. In Photomatix I used the presets at the bottom (Painterly & Grunge) mostly. The feedback I received is that they look more like pastel drawings then photographs. I actually like them...... to me HDR is very interesting because of the wide amount of things one can do with a photo. Anyway.... here is another photo from this outing.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

I personally don't like painterly and grunge in most images. I think it flattens this image and doesn't look appealing. A lot of your images from the other post are painterly and grunge too.

What I've noticed when people first begin experimenting with HDR is they tend to push the processing to it's outer limits. People try different things and figure out eventually what they like. The best HDR, to me, is what the eye sees; It's also nice to take what the eye sees and enhance dynamic range which couldn't normally be captured by one image, colors, textures, and highlight/shadow details. When it gets too unrealistic, even an untrained eye is unlikely to find it appealing.

Also, it's always important to consider "why HDR"? for each scene. Was it necessary here? Was the dynamic range of the side of this rail car large enough to warrant multiple exposures? Probably, because you would have had blown highlights out of the windows of the rail car. Not every scene requires HDR however, so you can always use tone mapping for the "HDR look".

Lastly, HDR is secondary to the other elements of what makes a good photograph. HDR is a tool, it's not a substitute for good photography. Composition, light, framing, the elements of the image all need to be accounted for-- the HDR is the cherry on the top of the Sundae, it's not the Sundae itself.

 

[STM]

I believe this topic was addressed yesterday in one of your previous posts. From a straight graphical standpoint, it has some merit, though personally I don't care for the composition with the train door as you placed it slam in the middle of the frame.

But from a photographic standpoint, however, the HDR is WILDLY OVERDONE. One could even argue that this no longer even looks like a photograph but just the product of an overzealous graphical artist. HDR is like habañeros, a little goes a long way. The purpose of HDR is, as the name implies, is to boost dynamic range in an image where, due to limitations in lighing or digital cameras (which have a narrower dynamic range than most films) cannot handle all the range of zones in the scene. This image has been, for all practical purposes, posterized and has lost all of its photographic charm.

 

[ch3360]

I believe this topic was addressed yesterday in one of your previous posts. From a straight graphical standpoint, it has some merit, though personally I don't care for the composition with the train door as you placed it slam in the middle of the frame.

But from a photographic standpoint, however, the HDR is WILDLY OVERDONE. One could even argue that this no longer even looks like a photograph but just the product of an overzealous graphical artist. HDR is like habañeros, a little goes a long way. The purpose of HDR is, as the name implies, is to boost dynamic range in an image where, due to limitations in lighing or digital cameras (which have a narrower dynamic range than most films) cannot handle all the range of zones in the scene. This image has been, for all practical purposes, posterized and has lost all of its photographic charm.

Thanks, can you explain what "posterized" means? I'll keep taking pictures, trying, posting, and eventually get it right.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Thanks, can you explain what "posterized" means? I'll keep taking pictures, trying, posting, and eventually get it right.

What's "right" is surely elusive when it comes to any type of art. But most that are serious about a craft will generally agree upon what is good, what's great, and what is neither.

 

[STM]

"posterization" was a process popular in the '70's where a high contrast, high saturation "psychedelic" version was made of a continuous tone image usually for graphical effect. It consisted of a narrow range of highly contratsted tones rather than a continuous range. What you did in your HDR rendition was pretty much exactly that.