How to cope with HDR?

[Thirun Sammy]

How to expose for HDR? anyway to besides GNDs or post editing (HDIS? i think i got that acroymn right)?

ok im having difficulty taking photos of building against really bright skies....mayb ard 3 or 4, without clipping the sky or loosing detail too much detail on ur building. mayb tips on how u meter? or frame the shot wud be great. or any other tips on how to control the exposure... or its juz not possible? any info wud help constructive or not.

 

[An drew]

How to expose for HDR? anyway to besides GNDs or post editing (HDIS? i think i got that acroymn right)?

ok im having difficulty taking photos of building against really bright skies....mayb ard 3 or 4, without clipping the sky or loosing detail too much detail on ur building. mayb tips on how u meter? or frame the shot wud be great. or any other tips on how to control the exposure... or its juz not possible? any info wud help constructive or not.

The old approach is to use Neutral Density filters (split or gradual). But we are in the digital age ........

 

[night86mare]

GND is not HDR.

HDR is combining a few exposures (underexpose, overexpose and normal exposure) to produce an image with supposedly higher dynamic range, since the dynamic range of your camera is limited.

It works for the situation you have described, because if your building is backlit, you aren't going to get even exposure for the 2 drastically different things in such a situation (building and sky, that is).

To do HDR, you need a tripod, or if you're really good at keeping the framing handheld is possible but highly improbable. Have seen it done before. Keep all settings the same, and please use a set WB, no Auto WB. Then take at least 3 exposures 1 stop apart, -1, 0, +1. You can go up to as much as 7 or 9, depending on your tastes.

Blending can be done automatically in Photomatix Pro or Photoshop CS2, but Photomatix is a lot better. The trouble is trying to keep your image realistic. I'm sure you've seen unrealistic HDR images, plenty of them around. =D They do have their little quaint appeal soemtimes though.

 

[Thirun Sammy]

GND is not HDR.

To do HDR, you need a tripod, or if you're really good at keeping the framing handheld is possible but highly improbable. Have seen it done before. Keep all settings the same, and please use a set WB, no Auto WB. Then take at least 3 exposures 1 stop apart, -1, 0, +1. You can go up to as much as 7 or 9, depending on your tastes.

ya i know, haha i thought HDR simpily meant the dynamic range rather than the process of combining the pictures. so u use set ur meter to matrix mode? u go +/- 9 stops? wun u get a totally clipped image and a totally black image? umm... i was thinkin more or 0.3 to 0.5 EV per image..

and i guess what i meant was how to expose for these kinda shots without using GNDs or relying heavily on post processing... will it be possible or really quite difficult, if the sun is too strong?

 

[An drew]

Use software lah

 

[Thirun Sammy]

thats the thing i dun wan to reply on pp too much... cuz i feel thats nt the way its meant to be :dunno: hahaa... higher calling ar...:bsmilie:

 

[Thirun Sammy]

ar then somemore cannot bring tripod all the time then very shitty if i keep losing details. esp. if u walkin along the street and something catches ur eye, then u wana take but then u have to choose which to loose hahaa.... i wan both! but i dun wanna reply on PP too much... i know can fill flash for closer range.

 

[RtOaNn]

with HDR, definitely need to pp quite a bit.
U need to merge then do some fine-tuning in PS.
unavoidable...

 

[Thirun Sammy]

with HDR, definitely need to pp quite a bit.
U need to merge then do some fine-tuning in PS.
unavoidable...

man... how did they do it old skl?

 

[RtOaNn]

u mean with film?
or digital?

 

[yanyewkay]

negatives are very much more tolerant to over-exposures and you can recover highlights back from negatives. In the digital sensors, it's not as true.

 

[Thirun Sammy]

negatives are very much more tolerant to over-exposures and you can recover highlights back from negatives. In the digital sensors, it's not as true.

ok... so the answer is really there is no way except to use GNDs or HDR and post process?

 

[yanyewkay]

i remember seeing ND filter papers like window tinting sheets being sold and ppl will cut out the shape of the picture they want to block and hold it infront of their cams with some holder like this

don't see anyone using this technique anymore.

I also remember the gel paper don't come cheap also.. :bsmilie:

 

[Thirun Sammy]

i remember seeing ND filter papers like window tinting sheets being sold and ppl will cut out the shape of the picture they want to block and hold it infront of their cams with some holder like this

don't see anyone using this technique anymore.

I also remember the gel paper don't come cheap also.. :bsmilie:

err... so ok haaha all of a sudden im glad im in the digital age hahaha...