HDR & movement - How ?

bubblegum · Jun 18, 2010

Hi all iam new here

and have one, probably interesting, question:

How are they doing this, HDR picture with movement (i.e. waves). As far i know it is a problem to capture movement on pictures with HDR. Seems not on these pictures.

DSLR-Forum

DSLR-Forum

DSLR-Forum

KKJUN · Jun 18, 2010

The links don't work, you need to be signed up to that forum to view the pictures.

I assume that you meant something like this?

As I see it, there are two ways of archieving that look:

1.) Apply a HDR-Filter, that produces a quasi-HDR image out of a single exposure.

2.) Do a few exposures of the background, than do one exposure with the object moving, then one with the object standing still. HDR the background and the parts of the object not showing motion (in this example the body of the car), photoshop in the parts that are moving (the wheels). Throw some photoshop blur at the background, done.

bubblegum · Jun 18, 2010

Well hard to explain if you cant see it...

wait I did find the webpage of the photographer, these are HDR´s with multiple exposures

click me

Like you see some of the pictures have a lot of water movement...you can get such a high quality just out of a single exposure ?

D-B-J · Jun 18, 2010

Simple; tonemap it. Ill take one Raw image, in the middle of the exposure range, then bring it into lightroom, make my five exposures, then use photomatix pro to edit it. That way, all the images are the same, and there is no discrepancy. Then i take it back into lightroom to do some final editing.

D-B-J · Jun 18, 2010

I'd like to add that that photographer takes some BEAUTIFUL images.. WOW

bubblegum · Jun 18, 2010

D-B-J said:
Simple; tonemap it. Ill take one Raw image, in the middle of the exposure range, then bring it into lightroom, make my five exposures, then use photomatix pro to edit it. That way, all the images are the same, and there is no discrepancy. Then i take it back into lightroom to do some final editing.

Why people take multiple exposures if you can get such high quality just with a single one like in this gallery ? If you look close enough the quality is superb. And honestly i tried already HDR with just a single exposure and added exposures with lightroom to create the HDR, but the quality wasnt that good.

The photographer claims it is not a pseudo hdr btw...well i have to try it again, but like i said i could not get the quality just from a single exposure.

D-B-J · Jun 18, 2010

try it. But make sure you shoot a RAW file! RAW files have a TON of light information, which makes tonemapping look much cleaner. Jpeg is.. not really suited for the tonemapping.

bubblegum · Jun 18, 2010

Alright thx a lot, yeah I shoot only in raw and its the best :headbang:

D-B-J · Jun 18, 2010

it definately is. i used to question it, but now i question why there was even a jpeg setting on my camera! The only downside is that a jpeg was about 1.5mb's, and a RAW is about 7.1 mb's. hahaha

bubblegum · Jun 18, 2010

I think jpg is quiete usefull for beginners, - Iam a beginner aswell and didnt use jpg that much - for those who dont want to do any Photoshop work and know how to do the exposure and last but not least it is maybe usefull in certain situations of photojournalism. But since iam not always perfect with the right exposure, raw is just more forgiveable in combination with lightroom. Unfortunately you have to invest a lot of time sometimes. hehe

KmH · Jun 18, 2010

There are 2 ways to convert an HDR into an LDR, which is what gets posted online:

Tone mapping
Exposure blending

I don't believe the images you have linked to weren't made using the HDR technique.

Some look to have been made from the merging of 2 exposures but for the most part it looks like just good image editing and liberal use of dodge and burn.

HDR's that have movement in the various exposures have to be edited in Photoshop to remove ghosting and can be very labor intensive to make.

Arch · Jun 18, 2010

The images with moving water don't even have a very extensive dynamic range, so one exposure would be enough anyway, if you just wanted the tone mapped look. I also agree with KmH, many just look like exposure blending.

True HDR images with several exposures (say 5 or more) and movement are not possible.

The only way you could get this effect is by creating a composite image from different subjects.