New to HDR - Opinions/Suggestions Please!

[JCphoto]

Love the variety of compositions!

I don't think you've covered quite enough range of exposure, with the first and second photos the sky looks almost blown out, which is usually what HDR is used to prevent.(that could just be because the clouds had no detail to them that day, but i don't think so) When I shoot HDR my goal is to get everything as close to perfect exposure as possible, so with these shots i would be trying to get some more shadow detail in the clouds. With 3 frames at +/-0.3 ev, you're only covering one full stop of light. I usually take three shots with one full stop difference, that will usually allow you to expose the sky well along with the foreground and subject. As long as you don't over-do the effect when merging, it will look much more 'true to life' then a single frame image. which im assuming is what you're going for.

Hope that was helpful.

JC

 

[Shibby!]

Very nice work. Like people have been saying, not over done, but nicely edited.

Love the Audi and Supra. BMW's nice, but not my kind of car. The wheels and brakes on the Audi make me drool.

Ahhh. the car days... Those have been over for me for awhile now. Still miss it though.

 

[A4RingedONE8T]

Love the variety of compositions!

I don't think you've covered quite enough range of exposure, with the first and second photos the sky looks almost blown out, which is usually what HDR is used to prevent.(that could just be because the clouds had no detail to them that day, but i don't think so) When I shoot HDR my goal is to get everything as close to perfect exposure as possible, so with these shots i would be trying to get some more shadow detail in the clouds. With 3 frames at +/-0.3 ev, you're only covering one full stop of light. I usually take three shots with one full stop difference, that will usually allow you to expose the sky well along with the foreground and subject. As long as you don't over-do the effect when merging, it will look much more 'true to life' then a single frame image. which im assuming is what you're going for.

Hope that was helpful.

JC

So your saying take the picture as I did +/- .3, then adjust up and down 1 and take another set of 3, resulting in 9 pictures? Then merge the images? Is there a way to adjust the EV other than 0.3? I havent figured that out yet other than going to a set of 7 rather than 3.

Very nice work. Like people have been saying, not over done, but nicely edited.

Love the Audi and Supra. BMW's nice, but not my kind of car. The wheels and brakes on the Audi make me drool.

Ahhh. the car days... Those have been over for me for awhile now. Still miss it though.

The car days will never be over for me, good thing about owning a tuning shop

 

[A4RingedONE8T]

Here is the unedited version of one of the pictures you commented on the sky on, just for reference. It was pretty bland and featureless for sure!

 

[hanyo66]

My only suggestion is to take more shots. If you can get 8 and get those all together decently, you'll be more satisfied.

 

[A4RingedONE8T]

My only suggestion is to take more shots. If you can get 8 and get those all together decently, you'll be more satisfied.

You mean more images to merge into each HDR? I only had the camera on brackets of 3, +/- 0.3 EV. Guess I should go up to brackets of 7 I believe is the next option?

 

[JCphoto]

So your saying take the picture as I did +/- .3, then adjust up and down 1 and take another set of 3, resulting in 9 pictures? Then merge the images? Is there a way to adjust the EV other than 0.3?

No, you dont have to bracket your shot at all. Just take a shot say f3.5 1/250 sec, then bump it up one stop (1/500th i think?) and take that shot, then once more, for a total of three shots differing by one stop each, if you find a full stop too much do a half stop. I certainly dont think you need 8(maybe for a fine art landscape scene), three should do great for a scene like this, but the better you get at merging them the easier it is to do more. Make sense?

JC

 

[A4RingedONE8T]

No, you dont have to bracket your shot at all. Just take a shot say f3.5 1/250 sec, then bump it up one stop (1/500th i think?) and take that shot, then once more, for a total of three shots differing by one stop each, if you find a full stop too much do a half stop. I certainly dont think you need 8(maybe for a fine art landscape scene), three should do great for a scene like this, but the better you get at merging them the easier it is to do more. Make sense?

JC

Thats what I was doing originally before I learned of the bracket feature. However in the shots like above, anything that may be in motion was getting blurred when the pics were merged. For example the clouds and trees surrounding. Using the bracket there is much less time between exposures for that to happen

Heres an example. One shot at 0 EV, and then +1 and -1 each direction, and again +/- 2. Im aware the HDR is a bit more aggressive, I liked the more fake look with the natural background

 

[Atreus]

is this possible to do on a Nikon D60? or are there any tutorials that could help? I just acquired ps cs3....

 

[A4RingedONE8T]

You mean HDR? It can be done with any camera. Basically its the same picture taken multiple times with different exposure values for each. Then they are merged in either Photoshop or I find Photomatix much easier to use and yields much better, more adjustable results. If using Photoshop, click on File -> Automate -> Merge to HDR. You will then need to select your pictures (same with different EV's), after that it will guide you through your settings/choices

EDIT: I found this helpful a few weeks ago, found it with just a goggle search so there may be something better that I am unaware of, however, it should further clarify my explanation and get you started

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hdr.shtml

 

[Shibby!]

Exposure differences can easily be done with the continuous shooting application on your camera and the bracketing feature.

Set your EV points like stated by A4RINGED, then simply hold down the shutter. It'll take three consecutive pictures as fast as your camera can shoot at the EV points you want.

So for example, the Canon 40D will do it in less then half a second. At least it's supposed to with 6.5 fps. I have yet to try. haha.

 

[logan9967]

very nice hdr's, beautiful shots, and your processing is great not completely destroyed like a lot of hdrs

 

[JCphoto]

I dont think that last one looks too agressive really, maybe a bit in the top right corner, but other then that i think it looks much more 'natural' then a shot with a bright blown sky. I suppose if you are relying strictly on the program to merge them, the clouds moving would be an issue, but clouds are the easiest thing to tweak in photoshop in my opinion. I don't know how serious you are about your pictures, but I learned to blend the photos manually in ps, once you learn its not much harder then automatic and you get complete control of the outcome.

 

[A4RingedONE8T]

I dont think that last one looks too agressive really, maybe a bit in the top right corner, but other then that i think it looks much more 'natural' then a shot with a bright blown sky. I suppose if you are relying strictly on the program to merge them, the clouds moving would be an issue, but clouds are the easiest thing to tweak in photoshop in my opinion. I don't know how serious you are about your pictures, but I learned to blend the photos manually in ps, once you learn its not much harder then automatic and you get complete control of the outcome.

My abilities in PS are very limited, I wouldnt know where to start with fixing the clouds other than with the clone stamp tool. Regarding the blending, I used Photomatix for all pictures in this thread, not PS. I didnt see any settings to "manually" align the photos, gave me either the auto align choice or it just stacked them on top of each other which gave a complete blue most of the time. Ive been getting more serious about the outcome of my pictures, hence the reason I stopped being happy with the "Looks great" comments from my car forums, and came here for your guys help!

 

[The Don]

Dammmnnn bro Im Lovin that Audi... im a Honda guy but dammnn that Audi is Clean.. and good shots too. I always wanted an Audi there my fav Euro cars i can say