My first HDR photo C&C

Ernicus · May 22, 2012

After seeing others' pictures, reading threads, and reading what HDR is; I decided I would like to do this one day. So I practiced here in the house.

Before you get started, I am aware this is not a great photo, not great composition, overall ugly. However, what I would like c&c on is the technical side. My goal was to learn how to set up, take shots, and edit them, and familiarize myself with the tools and what they do. Ideally...so that when out in the real world and come across opportunity to shoot one...I'd not be going into it blind.

I chose a dark corner in the living room lit up only by a lamp you see in the shot, framed up a shot, took 5 pics. (I had to crop out the edges 'cause they were all noisy looking and icky) Starting at over exposed, stepping down to under exposed. Tripod and timed shutter.

To my untrained eye, I dont see any ghosting, and made sure to check the box dealing with ghosting in the process in case I didn't get the shots exact.

I edited a bit in the way of shadows/detail/highlights, honestly I kinda moved all the sliders up and down seeing what effects they had and choosing what I liked best. I noticed I had to take out some saturation as it all became a bit orange near the end. I was attempting to make the picture look realistic. I think it's kinda neat to have a shot where it is all illuminated, yet there is a lamp nearby showing its illumination effects as well.

Anyway...this was my first shot and I tried to put what I was attempting to accomplish in the details for accurate comments and suggestions. So those of you HDR shooters, based on this, can you advise me on what I might be missing or what I can do and things to look out for when trying this out in the real world?

Thanks in advance.

Ernicus · May 22, 2012

Also. I'm not really sure what happened at the lower left corner of the chair cushion. My editing skills are decent, but not enough for a quick fix on that discoloration that went on there. Curious as to why it did that though.

Bynx · May 22, 2012

First off you wont get ghosting in an image where nothing is moving between the individual shots that make up that image. Your exposures can be as long or as short as you want. I think the problem with the colors in the cushion are from very overexposed image which brought out some kind of artifacts in the shadow area. You also havent shot enough underexposed shots to give a warmth and detail to the lamp shade and the wall that is being hit by lit by the bulb. If done with enough exposures there should be a real warmth to the room. I think if you tossed out your 2 most overexposed shots and then created 2 more underexposed shots you might get closer to what I am talking about.

Find the fastest shutter speed so that the shade and wall look good with lots of detail. Then decrease your shutter speed by the equivalent of 1 fstop for each photo until you have a nice shadow area -- like that cushion area. You might have to take more than 5 shots because of the dynamic range of the scene.

Ernicus · May 22, 2012

Cool. Good info, thanks, i'll keep practicing. ;-)

Ernicus · May 22, 2012

In looking back through the originals...my two "underexposed" shots...weren't really that underexposed at all. Great eye(s). Definitely going to retry tonight.

Ernicus · May 23, 2012

Here is my 2nd attempt using your advice. Let me know if I applied what you were saying correctly. Thanks.

Bynx · May 23, 2012

Your highlights are looking a lot better. Nice detail on the wall and the lamp. You could take 1 more underexposed shot to get even more detail. Ther same for the overexposed shot. You could take at least 1 more overexposed shot to get a bit more detail in the shadows under the chair. It just depends how much you want to see. Im really more concerned with that really white spot on the white strip of wall directly under the shade. But the overall image is really good. This is a great way to learn HDR. A room setting like this with a strong light source which causes deep shadows. You can try it out and then its easily repeated to make corrections. Oh, you tossed out or didnt go far enough with your overexposed shots so you didnt get that greenish colors in the shadow part of the seat cushion. What were your original shots as compared to your latest as far as shutter speeds go? Can I ask what that brass thing is on the wall just above the shade?

Ernicus · May 23, 2012

I was using fstops to step down not shutter speeds...was that backwards? I started at 1 sec speed f/4 and stepped down to 1 sec f/22

I was thinking afterward I should have used one or two more over exposed, seems I focused more on under....surprised to read you suggest one more under...easily enough to add in though and see.

The white spot on the wall bugged me too, I was trying to reduce that as much as possible without darkening the lamp too much...maybe the darker lamp would have turned out ok..*shrugs*

as far as that thing on the wall...I have no idea. it has the name of a local bank on it...its solid round metal with a perfectly bored hole going through it about the size a pencil can fit in. I am currently staying with a buddy and this is his mothers house...built in the 1800's.

Here are the two extreme pics, where I started and where I ended.

Ernicus · May 23, 2012

oh, I think I miss read, did you mean speeds compared to my original attempt and my second attempt...lol. I just woke up...I'm a bit slow.

The shots I used in the first attempt, was 1.3 sec f/6.3 down to 1.3sec f/10 Not a very wide range at all.

slackercruster · May 23, 2012

Like it...send in more!

Bynx · May 23, 2012

First off NEVER CHANGE YOUR APERTURE. You only change your shutter speed. On most if not all cameras if you move the main dial that changes your shutter speed each click represents the equivalent to 1/3 fstop. So 3 clicks equal 1 fstop.

I tried doing an HDR from your two exposures.

Ernicus · May 23, 2012

ah, well...good to know I was doing it backwards, lol. I'll redo some more tonight of same image using speed changes vs aperture, curious as to the difference in procedure it will make. The clouds are not cooperating today as I was going to attempt some down at the river nearing sunset...we'll see if they clear up.

Thanks for guiding me along, this is quite interesting and a great learning experience.

Ernicus · May 23, 2012

oh, and an update on that thing on the wall, it is a pen holder someone lifted from the bank. guessing they used to sit there and do crosswords or something like that and since no room for a table, they stuck that thing on there to hold their pen.

Bynx · May 23, 2012

Thank for the info on the pen holder. I can sleep now. Changing your aperture will affect the depth of field in each image you shot. Going to f22 makes your image so dark you wouldnt notice it, but at wide open aperture only a short depth of what you have focused on will be in focus, the rest will become less so. Thats why we change only the shutter speed.

Compaq · May 23, 2012

I tried merging these, but photomatix 4.2 does something weird with me, sometimes. Look at these grey parts. That's the very overexposed part - and it's been turned down to grey - but with some detail. And then there's the blown out part just above it. Why isn't that grey? Anyway, here's another edit. Just try to imaging it without those grey parts!