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HDR any tips?


Likwid

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And no, I didn't burst into flames immediately after walking through the doors.

THAT is shocking! :lol:

I'll be watching this thread out of curiosity, I've never tried any HDR stuff...

What kind of camera are you using?

You may want to check out POTN as I'm sure it is discussed over there. If you don't have a Canon, act as though you do! :lol:

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Canon Rebel EOS, 18-55 IS lens... yes I know lol

I'll have the post more tomorrow, this shot was difficult because of the DoF, if I shifted focus to the stained glass the pews were too distracting... we'll see, was absolutely shockingly beautiful stained glass, some of the -2 pictures turned out amazing.

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It really comes down to picking the right things to shoot , for instance that church shot will be argued right and left on settings, lighting, angle and so on .

Now change your object to, I dunno Megan Fox in next to nothing on a work bench in any garage and well you cant go wrong .

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Bracketing only sometimes works for HDR you really want to shoot an image for proper exposure in each area.

I'm not sure what you mean, you have to shoot an exposure at over, under, normal.... is there a different way other than exposure bracketing? (AEB is just 3 pictures taken sequentially at the different exposures, in my case -2, 0, +2... instead of having to spin the dial to set each one I just hold the button down for 3 pictures)

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My recommendation: Learn how to make GOOD HDR's before you plaster the net with them. I think the technique is WAY overused. Some photographs look awesome when done with HDR but others look excessively cartoonish.

There are times when the cartoonish look is appropriate, but it really comes down to proper subject matter, IMO.

BAD:

1626054530_cb7b3cd227.jpg

08162009.jpg

AWESOME:

3421548315_afa03c290a.jpg

440698504_0c8e1a15aa_b.jpg

Edited by Zach
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I'm not sure what you mean, you have to shoot an exposure at over, under, normal.... is there a different way other than exposure bracketing? (AEB is just 3 pictures taken sequentially at the different exposures, in my case -2, 0, +2... instead of having to spin the dial to set each one I just hold the button down for 3 pictures)

To do it properly you DON'T bracket, but actually shoot for proper exposure in each area ("spin the dial"). So trying to keep this simple, if we're talking 3 shots as an example you want your typical "0" exposure, you want one that more properly exposes shadows and one that more properly exposes highlights. Bracketing doesn't guarantee proper exposure in any outlying area. With bracketing you may be shooting -2, 0, +2 when you really want -1, 0, +2.

I knew a guy who used HDR for real estate type photography. The guy was amazing, everything he shot looked real not over done. The cartoony stuff I'm not much of a fan of.

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To do it properly you DON'T bracket, but actually shoot for proper exposure in each area ("spin the dial"). So trying to keep this simple, if we're talking 3 shots as an example you want your typical "0" exposure, you want one that more properly exposes shadows and one that more properly exposes highlights. Bracketing doesn't guarantee proper exposure in any outlying area. With bracketing you may be shooting -2, 0, +2 when you really want -1, 0, +2.

I knew a guy who used HDR for real estate type photography. The guy was amazing, everything he shot looked real not over done. The cartoony stuff I'm not much of a fan of.

Excellent points....

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I haven't played it too much, but when I did, I would use around 10 frames of various exposures. You can get something decent from 3, but the more frames allow more detail. If shot RAW(maybe other files too), you can also change exposures on a good shot and and combine the multiples from that as well.

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I gotcha, I was noticing a lot of the +2 pictures were just WAY too overexposed... so I should have gone for a +1 possible....

Seems easy to get 50% really hard to get to 100% :)

I haven't done too much with HDR since it's not something I'm overly interested in but the most shots I've used for one is 7 and it came out rather nice.

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ok, so i did some playing with HDR this past weekend. i used the camera's bracketing feature just for a test. shot 3 pics. -.3 0 +.3

i wasn't going for a drastic photo as ones above, just something that shows me how much cleaner and more detail you can get from this process.

here is my first conclusion.

#1 - untouched metered photo. normal photo as if you knew nothing. ;)

DSC00326LR.jpg

#2 - HDR merged in Photoshop, then Tone Mapped with Photomatrix Plug-in. alot more detail in the shadow areas.

Untitled_HDR2_lores.jpg

these of course are lo-res versions.

I love this process. i think it came out great, not a picture i would do this too but something for example.

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