Tone Mapping HDR Images

katielr · Dec 12, 2011

It's really interesting to see the different opinions on the different 'styles' of HDR images, I'd like to know your views on different TMOs.
I am currently looking into how people perceive HDR images especially with regard to various tone mapping techniques and operators, if you can spare a few minutes to flick through some images and choose your favourites in the survey paper it'd be really interesting to see the opinions of HDR enthusiasts!

Tone Mapping Survey

vipgraphx · Dec 12, 2011

I looked through those photos and to be honest I did see any that I like and I do enjoy HDR and tone mapped images.

Sorry!

Rephargotohp · Dec 12, 2011

vipgraphx said:
I looked through those photos and to be honest I did see any that I like and I do enjoy HDR and tone mapped images.

Sorry!

OK so it wasn't just me, They all looked like you either did max or min and nothing that looked good

katielr · Dec 12, 2011

No probs! To be quite honest I'm not entirely fond of them but they seemed some of the best examples to show the different effects of the operators and have proven to give quite interesting results from the survey page so far.

Rephargotohp · Dec 12, 2011

Yeah, You really want to use what expresses your artistic vision and how you belive HDR should be, not a propularity pole. I process mine not to be what is most popular because I don't like that style. But if othere want to be that....

Bynx · Dec 12, 2011

You dont need to take a survey to know what looks good. When you do it, you will know.

Majeed Badizadegan · Dec 12, 2011

Bynx said:
You dont need to take a survey to know what looks good. When you do it, you will know.

I respectfully disagree. A lot of people don't know what looks good in HDR processing and take it too far; just a personal opinion.

To elaborate, I mean severe technical defects with a photograph specific to HDR such as halo-ing, highlight grunginess, over-saturation, to name a few...

Although I believe there is an area of the HDR processing spectrum (mild to extreme) where there is artistic license-- I think there is also a large area of the spectrum reserved for just plain bad processing. Even when someone may think something looks "good" it is still truly dreadful to most .

nos33 · Dec 13, 2011

a friend of mine likes the extreme burnt out look. to be honest i dont see why. the over saturation of colors kills my eyes and makes me sad

MissCream · Dec 13, 2011

Isn't tone mapping completely different then HDR?

SlickSalmon · Dec 13, 2011

MissCream said:
Isn't tone mapping completely different then HDR?

Tone mapping is a step in the HDR process. However, it can be used outside of HDR to reveal shadows and highlights in a standard exposure.

Bynx · Dec 13, 2011

Rotanimod said:
Bynx said:

You dont need to take a survey to know what looks good. When you do it, you will know.

Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. A lot of people don't know what looks good in HDR processing and take it too far; just a personal opinion.

To elaborate, I mean severe technical defects with a photograph specific to HDR such as halo-ing, highlight grunginess, over-saturation, to name a few...

Although I believe there is an area of the HDR processing spectrum (mild to extreme) where there is artistic license-- I think there is also a large area of the spectrum reserved for just plain bad processing. Even when someone may think something looks "good" it is still truly dreadful to most .

I dont know what there is to disagree about. If I do something which pleases me, but not you, then is it not good then? While I dont like garrish oversaturated look to HDR, I do like a photo which has a painterly look created by tone mapping. Some dont even like that. Well to those who say they dont, I just say tough, I do. So whats to disagree with. We cant make pics to only please you. And I dont need a poll to know what I like.

Majeed Badizadegan · Dec 14, 2011

Bynx said:
I dont know what there is to disagree about. If I do something which pleases me, but not you, then is it not good then? While I dont like garrish oversaturated look to HDR, I do like a photo which has a painterly look created by tone mapping. Some dont even like that. Well to those who say they dont, I just say tough, I do. So whats to disagree with. We cant make pics to only please you. And I dont need a poll to know what I like.

Well the disagreement came in the generality of "You dont need to take a survey to know what looks good. When you do it, you will know." It just depends on your definition of "what looks good". If a general consensus among experienced HDR shooters consider ones processing poor but it "looks good" to them then they are the only persons pleased.

Thus it comes down to whether OP WANTS a critical consensus of approval (I.e. He is trying to please many) or he only cares to please himself.

Your advice precludes the former.

Bynx · Dec 14, 2011

Unless you are a paying customer that I have to please I do what I like and wouldnt consider for a moment whether you like it or not. If you do thats fine, if you dont, thats fine too. Ive seen some god awful tone mapped images, but if the OP likes them then who am I to say its bad stuff? Its just bad to me. I just dont like someone calling a single jpeg file that has been tone mapped an HDR image.

Majeed Badizadegan · Dec 14, 2011

Bynx said:
Unless you are a paying customer that I have to please I do what I like and wouldnt consider for a moment whether you like it or not. If you do thats fine, if you dont, thats fine too. Ive seen some god awful tone mapped images, but if the OP likes them then who am I to say its bad stuff? Its just bad to me. I just dont like someone calling a single jpeg file that has been tone mapped an HDR image.

I don't like that either.

OP is studying common perception and trying to see what appeals to a larger number of people. While it's fine to disregard the opinions of others in casual personal works, in this case here OP is specifically seeking patterns and tendencies of what appeals to many.

I also believe that just like any other art, HDR has a substantial number of those who do it poorly and a few who do it extremely well. There are varying degrees of professionalism, as in photography; as in HDR. Who's to judge whether a work shared to the world is done well or poorly? Well who better than the group of forum users on this board? Some who specialize in HDR, who can see and point out "oh this image would have been leagues better if you cranked the highlight smoothing" or "this image has potential but there are halos in the sky".

Problem is that what some consider a "good" image, to those of us who have done this a lot we find it dreadful (sometimes an easy fix and sometimes a lost cause) They may find the image good due to lack of experience.

But the underlying logic here is that with much of art, especially a specialized subset of photography such as HDR, there is almost always going to be a popular opinion on an image. This general opinion is derived from personal tastes, experiences, trial and error, and the evaluation of the technical aspects of the image. So when you say "if the OP likes them then who am I to say its bad stuff?" well, I implore you, who better and more qualified than you to tell OP one way or another? He should happily accept your opinion on the matter and try to improve from it.

Bynx · Dec 14, 2011

What youre saying is right, but its just that Ive never taken a poll on which to base what I am supposed to like myself. If one is going to approach HDR photography they should have a goal in mind. Unrealistic and garrish fluorescent colors, or a realistic finely detailed almost 3D look and everything in between are the choices to be made. The goal should be to achieve that choice.