Trees Comparison

[DGMPhotography]

Okay, so I took a picture of some trees (in greyscale) and decided to make my first attempt at Photomatix, to which I now have a trial. Can anyone give me tips on using Photomatix? This is just some tonemapping on a single exposure, but I wanted to compare Photomatix to HDRtist (which is much more automated). Also, where did the haloing around some of the trees come from? In this picture the halos don't look too bad, but how come only part of the tree is haloed when almost the same contrast exists throughout?



Also, what's your opinion on the shot itself?

 

[fjrabon]

in my experience you get way more haloing when you try to tonemap a single exposure than a 5 bracket.

 

[DGMPhotography]

in my experience you get way more haloing when you try to tonemap a single exposure than a 5 bracket.

The auto bracketing on my Nikon D5100 is only 3 exposures, how do you get 5? Manually? And if so, how much would you separate each one?

 

[zombiemann]

5 is better than 3 is better than 1. It is possible to take more than 3 by taking a set, stepping down your exposure take another set, step the expose up take another set

 

[DGMPhotography]

5 is better than 3 is better than 1. It is possible to take more than 3 by taking a set, stepping down your exposure take another set, step the expose up take another set

Ohhhh... so then it would be taking multiple of 3's right? Good idea!! thanks!

 

[zombiemann]

Also keep in mind that some pics look better with fewer frames in the stack. But on the other hand you can always opt to leave frames out, going to get more frames if you don't have enough is a little different

On that note though, I should point out that the HDRs that I have shared here on this forum have all been stacks of 3. This is mainly due to laziness on my part not wanting to stand there fiddling with the camera. I installed Magic Lantern on my camera earlier (I'm pretty sure it's canon only but their might be a nikon alternative) and it allows me to take 9 frames at one press of the shutter button. At that point once you get your composition down.... it's cruise control lol

 

[zombiemann]

Can you post the original unmodified please? I don't care for either processed image, but I think it *might* have some potential

 

[DGMPhotography]

Can you post the original unmodified please? I don't care for either processed image, but I think it *might* have some potential

Whattt!??!?! How do you install software to your camera???? And alas, unfortunately, I don't have an unmodified image... I took the image in monochrome :/

 

[rexbobcat]

Whattt!??!?! How do you install software to your camera???? And alas, unfortunately, I don't have an unmodified image... I took the image in monochrome :/

Your camera processes every image it takes if it's a JPEG.

And since it was in b&w it was assumed that you did it in PP

 

[ann]

another tip, take in color, pp in color then convert to black and white.

 

[fjrabon]

even with cameras that have auto bracketing I usually do it manually unless the scene is changing rapidly and I need the speed.

It's as simple as figuring out how dark you want your darkest exposure and then just taking pictures every half stop up until you are at what you think the lightest exposure should be. Then later you can figure out which 5 (or 3) you want to use. I have much more success with this than the completely 'dumb' approach the camera takes with auto bracketing.

Auto bracketing is more useful for getting exposure right when you're not quite sure what the best exposure for the scene would be than it is for HDR, which I think is what everybody uses it for.

 

[DGMPhotography]

Whattt!??!?! How do you install software to your camera???? And alas, unfortunately, I don't have an unmodified image... I took the image in monochrome :/

Your camera processes every image it takes if it's a JPEG.

And since it was in b&w it was assumed that you did it in PP

I know that But no, you shouldn't make assumptions! Ha, but in all honesty, I SHOULD have taken it in color, I was just experimenting with my camera's different functions.

 

[DGMPhotography]

another tip, take in color, pp in color then convert to black and white.

Yeah, I was just experimenting with my camera's functions, otherwise, that's what I would normally do.

 

[DGMPhotography]

even with cameras that have auto bracketing I usually do it manually unless the scene is changing rapidly and I need the speed.

It's as simple as figuring out how dark you want your darkest exposure and then just taking pictures every half stop up until you are at what you think the lightest exposure should be. Then later you can figure out which 5 (or 3) you want to use. I have much more success with this than the completely 'dumb' approach the camera takes with auto bracketing.

Auto bracketing is more useful for getting exposure right when you're not quite sure what the best exposure for the scene would be than it is for HDR, which I think is what everybody uses it for.

Thanks for the tip! How much is a half stop though? I'm still a little confused about all the fstop stuff.

 

[fjrabon]

a stop is twice (or half if you're going down) the light. I use shutter speed for HDR brackets so that you have the same DOF, not f/stop (which controls aperture and would thus change the DOF, which would look all kinds of screwy).

also, I kind of lied, as I don't use exactly half stops, but the method I use tends to be easier to do the calculations in my head and is close enough. and really going this small in changes is sort of overkill anyway.

So, if I check the sky and figure that I want it to be exposed at 1/1000 of a sec, and I check the darkest part of my photo and figure that it will be well exposed at 1/30, then my bracket will look something like: 1/1000, 1/750, 1/500, 1/375, 1/250, 1/200, 1/125, 1/60, 1/45, 1/30