Advice needed on HDR.

[weishengg]

Hi all,

Just need some simple response to spark my understanding in HDR.

May I know in your opinions, what kind of subject/composition would best benefit from the use of HDR? I've been trying it out these days, but just can't seem to create an image of interest at all. The only object of interest is well, the high dynamic range and tonal saturation of the HDR effect, it seems to overwhelm the subject a bit in my opinion.

I suppose sunsets, clouds, horizon and landscape photography would benefit greatly from HDR processing, but any suggestion on other stuff/subjects to shoot and process in HDR?
My creativity is kinda stuck now (well, there never really was much in the 1st place), so need some advice here =)


Thanks a lot in advance!
weisheng

[zcf]

actually anything with higher dynamic range than what our camera can capture.
e.g. shoot in the bright day light, the sky may overexpose and the shadow are too dark. So inside a dark building but with some strong lighting around, mainly those need 2 extreme exposure to capture the detail of both end. HDR can bring out the colour and details in these case.

[Churchwolf]

I personally am not a big fan of "surreal" HDR processing. I think it takes away too much from the image and, as you pointed out, can even draw attention away from the subject. It is natrual that much landscape photography can benefit from HDR post processing, but you need to be careful to make sure things don't start to look strange. I generally take a normal exposure photo first and then look at the histogram and the "blinkies" (the dotted areas that are out of the histograms range) to see which parts of the photo are irretrievably under/over exposed. I then bracket in either direction to capture all shadow/highlight regions in the the shots that I will use for the HDR. After that I simply combine them in a way that makes both these vulnerable regions properly exposed. This stops your image from looking bizzare and distracting the viewer.

[senray]

Originally Posted by zcf actually anything with higher dynamic range than what our camera can capture. e.g. shoot in the bright day light, the sky may overexpose and the shadow are too dark. So inside a dark building but with some strong lighting around, mainly those need 2 extreme exposure to capture the detail of both end. HDR can bring out the colour and details in these case.

yup...actually that's the entire point of taking pics in HDR.. to bring out detail in a picture. HDR is not even needed for some landscape shots.. I suggest to take a look at one of our CSers flickr albums

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hazmee/...7600786647407/

you won't believe some are not taken using HDR

[zcf]

Originally Posted by senray yup...actually that's the entire point of taking pics in HDR.. to bring out detail in a picture. HDR is not even needed for some landscape shots.. I suggest to take a look at one of our CSers flickr albums http://www.flickr.com/photos/hazmee/...7600786647407/ you won't believe some are not taken using HDR

But heavily adjusted/PSed which almost similar to HDR

[Taurean]

HDR is not really necessary neither is heavily adjusted/ PPed required. Out of camera photos can be stunning too. Maybe you can take a look at this thread, none of the pics in there are HDRed.... in fact, most are straight out from the camera, without PP.

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=209099

[kezumix]

Originally Posted by Taurean HDR is not really necessary neither is heavily adjusted/ PPed required. Out of camera photos can be stunning too. Maybe you can take a look at this thread, none of the pics in there are HDRed.... in fact, most are straight out from the camera, without PP. http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=209099

hmmm.. if i not wrong, those pics are taken using a fuji s5pro which it's image processor is different from the TS's sonyA100, a100 also have tat the DRO function. If i'm not wrong, s5pro can set a few settings which can get a higher dynamic range then the rest of the cameras. Please correct me if i'm wrong

[Taurean]

S5 no doubt is in a different class, but under most circumstances its output is not totally unmatchable by other camera brands.

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by weishengg May I know in your opinions, what kind of subject/composition would best benefit from the use of HDR? I've been trying it out these days, but just can't seem to create an image of interest at all. The only object of interest is well, the high dynamic range and tonal saturation of the HDR effect, it seems to overwhelm the subject a bit in my opinion. I suppose sunsets, clouds, horizon and landscape photography would benefit greatly from HDR processing, but any suggestion on other stuff/subjects to shoot and process in HDR? My creativity is kinda stuck now (well, there never really was much in the 1st place), so need some advice here =)

1) any high contrast scene would do

2) you can try machinery, it can look good in hdr, but of course that might come under "landscape" photography

3) if you use manual hdr, rather than the stuff that photomatix, photoshop merge function gives, then you can do a lot more. needs a very firm grounding in photoshop though.

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by zcf But heavily adjusted/PSed which almost similar to HDR

i think some in hazmee's stream are really, really just out of cam pictures with slight contrast/tonal adjustments. when the light is good, well, the light is good.

[senray]

Originally Posted by night86mare i think some in hazmee's stream are really, really just out of cam pictures with slight contrast/tonal adjustments. when the light is good, well, the light is good.

not only that, IMO his composition is good too.. that shows that HDR is not really the only main thing u need to learn when taking a nice shot

[weishengg]

Originally Posted by night86mare 1) any high contrast scene would do 2) you can try machinery, it can look good in hdr, but of course that might come under "landscape" photography 3) if you use manual hdr, rather than the stuff that photomatix, photoshop merge function gives, then you can do a lot more. needs a very firm grounding in photoshop though.

hi there, what's "manual hdr"?

[night86mare]

Originally Posted by weishengg hi there, what's "manual hdr"?

literally using photoshop layers and many exposures to reveal the relevant details relatively well exposed based on what you want.

e.g. one photo exposing for highlights, one photo exposing for midtones, one photo exposing for shadows, slowly erase to get a "hdr" output where you have all the midtones, shadows, highlights nicely done.. have seen results before, very beautiful, but i think the time put in is crazy.

painful work. i have never done it before, nor do i plan to. using gnd is so much easier, and just sacrifice some details sometimes.. much faster.