HDR Help.

AnotherNewGuy · Dec 7, 2009

I have just been introduced to this type of photography, and I love the look and feel of the pictures. I have a few questions though.

I have seen some tutorials on faking HDRs with a single JPEG. Will the results be worth the time, or should it just be done using three RAW photos?

I have seen Images with light trails from slow SS that are HDR. How is that possible? They have people in them, wouldn't they be very blurry?

Is Photoshop's HDR conversions as good as the other third party programs?

Those of you who do portraits. When you do HDR, do you offer every shot to your client in HDR, or just a few? I ask because it seems like the HDR photos will stand out, and may not really fit within a set of other portraits.

Thanks for your time.

robertwsimpson · Dec 7, 2009

let me start by saying that I'm not a big fan of HDR, but (while I think it's really overused) it does have its applications.

to answer your questions:
single JPG HDR: if you're going for a small sized shot for a web page or something, you might be able to get away with this. you're better off going from a single RAW shot, or better yet 3 or more different exposures.
slow SS: you can do this with a single exposure if you convert it to three different exposures in post processing. if you take multiple exposures at slower shutter speeds of moving subjects, your HDR isn't going to be very impressive, as you'll have ghosting.
Photoshop HDR: I can't comment on this first hand, as I've never used photoshop to make an HDR image, but I am guessing that other software pieces are better, since they specialize in HDR and don't really do anything else. it's like zooms vs primes. zooms are more versatile but will never be able to be as sharp as a prime.

my personal preference is never to do HDR images with moving subjects or shallow DOF. The whole point of HDR is to show more detail in a photo than can be shown in a single exposure. Why would you cheapen it with blurred subjects or shallow DOF? That's just my 2 cents though. Hope it helps!