HDR Photography Anyone ?

"Bernard Rother" <bprotherREMOVETHISFIRST RemoveThis @intekom.co.za> wrote in message
news:7I-dnfnho8gZ9MranZ2dnUVZ8hmdnZ2d@saix.net...
> Just finished reading a Popular Science mag which a client forgot here (
> Nice mag ) There was a very brief article on HDR photography where you
> take a series of shots, from under exposed, all the way up to over exposed
> and pull them into a program like Photomatix or CS3 for processing. It's
> not a case of sandwiching them and out pops the perfect pic.
> Has anyone here tried this and is it more suited to certain types of
> scenes.
> The couple of photos in the mag looked fantastic.

HDR is only for static objects. Even the high speed DSLR cameras can't take
4 or 5 identical shots of a moving target. Trying to do it with a person
requires them to remain perfectly still while you take several (identically
composed) shots. Just blinking will ruin it.

So the technology looks promising but the application of it is quite
limited.

Douglas
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

On Dec 5, 9:16 pm, Bernard Rother
<bprotherREMOVETHISFI....TakeThisOut@intekom.co.za> wrote:
> Just finished reading a Popular Science mag which a client forgot here (
> Nice mag ) There was a very brief article on HDR photography where you
> take a series of shots, from under exposed, all the way up to over
> exposed and pull them into a program like Photomatix or CS3 for
> processing. It's not a case of sandwiching them and out pops the perfect
> pic.
> Has anyone here tried this and is it more suited to certain types of scenes.
> The couple of photos in the mag looked fantastic.

Tried it after a club presentation on how-to of HDR. It works, but it
indeed requires special subjects/scenes, and have not had a chance to
try it on a good scene yet. I just shot a series off of back porch
that did not have enough scene dynamic range to make a good result.

One popular use is inside of big cathedrals and churches, where you
can make the interior shadow detail visible without blowing out
windows.

The technique GREATLY reduces contrast- that is the idea- so it does
create a weird surrealistic look- sort of more like a painting than a
normal photo.

It is for static scenes that have inherently a high dynamic range.
Another example is a backlit subject (not a person- they would have to
sit too still. Say a sunrise over a lake, where the lit sky and the
beach/landscape which is very faint can both be visible in the final
print.
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

Bernard Rother wrote:
> Just finished reading a Popular Science mag which a client forgot here (
> Nice mag ) There was a very brief article on HDR photography where you
> take a series of shots, from under exposed, all the way up to over
> exposed and pull them into a program like Photomatix or CS3 for
> processing. It's not a case of sandwiching them and out pops the perfect
> pic.
> Has anyone here tried this and is it more suited to certain types of
> scenes.
> The couple of photos in the mag looked fantastic.

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1969407711&size=l

Taken with a dirt cheap (and now obselete) Canon a540.

BugBear
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

Bernard Rother wrote:

> Just finished reading a Popular Science mag which a client forgot
> here ( Nice mag ) There was a very brief article on HDR photography
> where you take a series of shots, from under exposed, all the way up
> to over exposed and pull them into a program like Photomatix or CS3
> for processing. It's not a case of sandwiching them and out pops the
> perfect pic. Has anyone here tried this and is it more suited to
> certain types of scenes. The couple of photos in the mag looked
> fantastic.

Here are a couple of HDR shots I did of the moon:

http://www.pbase.com/craigbob/image/84712903

http://www.pbase.com/craigbob/image/84712907

--
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

"Bernard Rother" <bprotherREMOVETHISFIRST.RemoveThis@intekom.co.za> schrieb im
Newsbeitrag news:7I-dnfnho8gZ9MranZ2dnUVZ8hmdnZ2d@saix.net...
> Just finished reading a Popular Science mag which a client forgot here (
> Nice mag ) There was a very brief article on HDR photography where you
> take a series of shots, from under exposed, all the way up to over exposed
> and pull them into a program like Photomatix or CS3 for processing. It's
> not a case of sandwiching them and out pops the perfect pic.
> Has anyone here tried this and is it more suited to certain types of
> scenes.
> The couple of photos in the mag looked fantastic.

As others have said, you have to work with static scenes, since the
information should not vary from frame to frame. I was recently up on an
abandoned part of the Great Wall of China, and was shooting from inside one
of the guard houses. Using HDR to blend five exposures one f stop apart
(handheld! but it worked with 5 fps) I was able to get a quite natural
looking result where the bricks on the inside of the (basically completely
dark) guardhouse were visible and just a couple of stops darker than the
outside in broad daylight.

If you are interested have a look here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1384632

Toby
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

Toby wrote:
[]
> If you are interested have a look here:
>
> http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1384632
>
> Toby

Login required.

David
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

Toby wrote:
> "Bernard Rother" <bprotherREMOVETHISFIRST DeleteThis @intekom.co.za> schrieb im
> Newsbeitrag news:7I-dnfnho8gZ9MranZ2dnUVZ8hmdnZ2d@saix.net...
>> Just finished reading a Popular Science mag which a client forgot here (
>> Nice mag ) There was a very brief article on HDR photography where you
>> take a series of shots, from under exposed, all the way up to over exposed
>> and pull them into a program like Photomatix or CS3 for processing. It's
>> not a case of sandwiching them and out pops the perfect pic.
>> Has anyone here tried this and is it more suited to certain types of
>> scenes.
>> The couple of photos in the mag looked fantastic.
>
> As others have said, you have to work with static scenes, since the
> information should not vary from frame to frame.

It's even possible (but hard) to push that limitation, via
alignment software:

http://www.luxal.eu/resources/hdr/hdrprep/tutorial.shtml

BugBear
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

Bernard Rother wrote:
> Just finished reading a Popular Science mag which a client forgot here (
> Nice mag ) There was a very brief article on HDR photography where you
> take a series of shots, from under exposed, all the way up to over
> exposed and pull them into a program like Photomatix or CS3 for
> processing. It's not a case of sandwiching them and out pops the perfect
> pic.
> Has anyone here tried this and is it more suited to certain types of
> scenes.
> The couple of photos in the mag looked fantastic.

I agree with others that HDR needs to be toned down a bit or else it can
look cartoonish. Landscape, static scenes can look quite good though,
if the settings are right:

http://www.pbase.com/newbert/image/88088960/large

If you want to try Photomatix, you can download a free trial nad make an
unlimited number of images. However, the trial version will put
watermarks all over them.
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

On Dec 7, 7:43 pm, BRH <BRH> wrote:
>
> I agree with others that HDR needs to be toned down a bit or else it can
> look cartoonish. Landscape, static scenes can look quite good though,
> if the settings are right:
>
> http://www.pbase.com/newbert/image/88088960/large

Yikes!

I made a couple of Smoky Mountains HDRs recently myself:

HDR:
http://www.pbase.com/bret/image/84984091

Infrared HDR:
http://www.pbase.com/bret/image/84953877
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

Toby wrote:
> "Bernard Rother" <bprotherREMOVETHISFIRST RemoveThis @intekom.co.za> schrieb im
> Newsbeitrag news:7I-dnfnho8gZ9MranZ2dnUVZ8hmdnZ2d@saix.net...
>> Just finished reading a Popular Science mag which a client forgot here (
>> Nice mag ) There was a very brief article on HDR photography where you
>> take a series of shots, from under exposed, all the way up to over exposed
>> and pull them into a program like Photomatix or CS3 for processing. It's
>> not a case of sandwiching them and out pops the perfect pic.
>> Has anyone here tried this and is it more suited to certain types of
>> scenes.
>> The couple of photos in the mag looked fantastic.
>
> As others have said, you have to work with static scenes, since the
> information should not vary from frame to frame. I was recently up on an
> abandoned part of the Great Wall of China, and was shooting from inside one
> of the guard houses. Using HDR to blend five exposures one f stop apart
> (handheld! but it worked with 5 fps) I was able to get a quite natural
> looking result where the bricks on the inside of the (basically completely
> dark) guardhouse were visible and just a couple of stops darker than the
> outside in broad daylight.
>
> If you are interested have a look here:
>
> http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1384632
>
> Toby
>
>
Thanks guys, the pictures are awesome and certainly an inspiration for
me. Been overcast here the last couple of days but I find myself looking
out for suitable subjects. I enjoy B&W, duotones etc and am looking
forward to taking a HDR file with all that detail and working with it in
mono.
Will let you know if I manage anything worthwhile to put up. Thanks
again for all the advice.

Bernard.
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

"Bernard Rother"
<bprotherREMOVETHISFIRST RemoveThis @intekom.co.za> wrote
in message
news:45adnVoGx7AP3sfanZ2dnUVZ8rCdnZ2d@saix.net...
> Toby wrote:
>> "Bernard Rother"
>> <bprotherREMOVETHISFIRST RemoveThis @intekom.co.za>
>> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
>> news:7I-dnfnho8gZ9MranZ2dnUVZ8hmdnZ2d@saix.net...
>>> Just finished reading a Popular Science
>>> mag which a client forgot here ( Nice
>>> mag ) There was a very brief article on
>>> HDR photography where you take a series
>>> of shots, from under exposed, all the way
>>> up to over exposed and pull them into a
>>> program like Photomatix or CS3 for
>>> processing. It's not a case of
>>> sandwiching them and out pops the perfect
>>> pic.
>>> Has anyone here tried this and is it more
>>> suited to certain types of scenes.
>>> The couple of photos in the mag looked
>>> fantastic.
>>
>> As others have said, you have to work with
>> static scenes, since the information
>> should not vary from frame to frame. I was
>> recently up on an abandoned part of the
>> Great Wall of China, and was shooting from
>> inside one of the guard houses. Using HDR
>> to blend five exposures one f stop apart
>> (handheld! but it worked with 5 fps) I was
>> able to get a quite natural looking result
>> where the bricks on the inside of the
>> (basically completely dark) guardhouse
>> were visible and just a couple of stops
>> darker than the outside in broad daylight.
>>
>> If you are interested have a look here:
>>
>> http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1384632
>>
>> Toby
> Thanks guys, the pictures are awesome and
> certainly an inspiration for me. Been
> overcast here the last couple of days but I
> find myself looking out for suitable
> subjects. I enjoy B&W, duotones etc and am
> looking forward to taking a HDR file with
> all that detail and working with it in
> mono.
> Will let you know if I manage anything
> worthwhile to put up. Thanks again for all
> the advice.
>
> Bernard.

I have found the wind to be a problem when it
rustles the leaves, and power lines etc can
move, and so can the tripod under certain
circumstances.

Very few cameras gave an automatic suitable
5-shot continuous burst with a range of
plus/minus 3.0EV, or even plus/minus 2.0EV.
This would be most desirable for rapid
accurate work. Manual adjustment of the F
stops tend to be tedious and can let errors
(movement) creep in. Holding the mirror up
while the burst is in progress could only be
an advantage.

It's outrageous that camera manufacturers
will not supply software upgrades to give
this simple enhancement.

PJ
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ? 

the gallery of my HDR images at: http://www.gorgolewski.com/hdr/

best wishes
Marcin
www.gorgolewski.com
 >> Stay informed about: HDR Photography Anyone ?