New to Photoforum also. Using HDR to recover photos

psguy · Sep 11, 2011

Hey guys. I'm not a big fan of over used HDR but I use it to recover poorly exposed photos. These pics were taken recently in Greece with a small pocket canon in a low lit church that didn't allow flash. Almost threw the away but here's my fix. Little grainy but worth saving. Doesn't work every time but sure did bring out color and detail on these. Hope u like.

Hosios Loukas in Greece.jpg by tom.hollis, on Flickr

Athens Church 02.jpg by tom.hollis, on Flickr

mjhoward · Sep 11, 2011

Since you say you've used HDR to recover a poorly exposed photo, I suspect you are just tone-mapping a single exposure which is not the same as HDR, it is simply tone-mapping. HDR involves taking multiple exposures (under and overexposed) of the same scene. These multiple exposures will cover the entire dynamic range of the scene and the HDR photo basically combines these all into one exposure. Since your monitor is an LDR display device, your HDR image most be tone-mapped to an LDR image so it can be displayed.

psguy · Sep 11, 2011

What I done on these you are right. Not true HDR but instead of just tone mapping a single exposure actually made virtual copies of the shot with different exposure setting in Lightroom then export to HDR with polishing in ps5. The originals are a lot cleaner but when I brought them to forum from flickr lost resolution. I see so many overdone HDRs that wanted to point out it can be used to enhance color and poorly exposed photos without cartoon look that has been so invasive the last few years. Actually have liked quite a few posts on this group. Like the pic the new guy posted before me. Been in the graphic/computer business since 85 and seen so many fads come and go and most get over used. HDR can be extremely beautiful but overdone HDR is hideous. Thanks for your reply!

JasonLambert · Sep 11, 2011

Taste great... Less filling... Whatever. They look great.

psguy · Sep 11, 2011

Appreciate it much. These are pretty blurry from upload. What is the forums preferred upload resolution? Don't wanna tee someone off with an oversized pic next time.

480sparky · Sep 11, 2011

psguy said:
Appreciate it much. These are pretty blurry from upload. What is the forums preferred upload resolution? Don't wanna tee someone off with an oversized pic next time.

800 pixels max along either dimension.