Comments on: An Introduction to High Dynamic Range Imaging (HDR) http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr Discover how to use your digital camera with our Digital Photography Tips. We are a community of photographers of all experience levels who come together to learn, share and grow in our understanding of photography. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:18:54 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Angus Leigh http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-69039 Angus Leigh Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:00:23 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-69039 HDR is the technique that exactly handles the following situation that trouble me at Extreme Lighting Photography http://www.phototipzone.com/photography/extreme-lighting-photography/ HDR is the technique that exactly handles the following situation that trouble me at Extreme Lighting Photography
http://www.phototipzone.com/photography/extreme-lighting-photography/

]]> By: Landscape Photography http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-57103 Landscape Photography Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:30:08 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-57103 3 exposure in camera raw files looks best. Unless one was actually capturing the multiple exposures in the camera and thus capturing a wide amount of detail wouldn't it be easiest just to use a layer mask to control exposure locally within one image. 3 exposure in camera raw files looks best. Unless one was actually capturing the multiple exposures in the camera and thus capturing a wide amount of detail wouldn’t it be easiest just to use a layer mask to control exposure locally within one image.

]]> By: Lee http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-32174 Lee Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:43:26 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-32174 I posted a semi-review of Dynamic-Photo HDR on my blog today. In my experimenting, I found that working with three bracketed RAW files produced the best results. But, for photos where I didn't take bracketed shots, producing TIFF files from the RAW original at different EV settings was a close second in results. With TIFF files you don't have to deal with compression issues like you do with JPG. Finally, where I only had a JPG image to work with, I still got decent results. You can see some of my trial results on my blog. I posted a semi-review of Dynamic-Photo HDR on my blog today. In my experimenting, I found that working with three bracketed RAW files produced the best results. But, for photos where I didn’t take bracketed shots, producing TIFF files from the RAW original at different EV settings was a close second in results. With TIFF files you don’t have to deal with compression issues like you do with JPG. Finally, where I only had a JPG image to work with, I still got decent results. You can see some of my trial results on my blog.

]]> By: Gus http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-31499 Gus Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:30:24 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-31499 I used to see thess HDR photos on flickr before and I remember I was absolutely stunned. I had no clue how they created them but now I've learned a bit and I find it very interesting and I believe you can create some great looking pieces of art with HDR. Take a look at my first HDR photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lazygus/sets/72157604633675046/ I used to see thess HDR photos on flickr before and I remember I was absolutely stunned. I had no clue how they created them but now I’ve learned a bit and I find it very interesting and I believe you can create some great looking pieces of art with HDR.

Take a look at my first HDR photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lazygus/sets/72157604633675046/

]]> By: Jason http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-31115 Jason Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:08:25 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-31115 Paul: pity indeed... I don't have a Mac but I am sure there are similar products? Jeremy: Excellent point, I haven't done many of those types of shots, be interested to see the results - but I have noticed an increase in grain on some of the darker shots when creating the overexposed JPGs from the RAW file. Thanks for the comments! Tammie: No problem, glad you found it useful! Paul: pity indeed… I don’t have a Mac but I am sure there are similar products?
Jeremy: Excellent point, I haven’t done many of those types of shots, be interested to see the results – but I have noticed an increase in grain on some of the darker shots when creating the overexposed JPGs from the RAW file. Thanks for the comments!
Tammie: No problem, glad you found it useful!

]]> By: Tammie http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-31067 Tammie Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:40:57 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-31067 Thanks for the in-depth writeup. Here are my first shots at HDR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tammiesprings/sets/72157604526141662/ Thanks for the in-depth writeup. Here are my first shots at HDR: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tammiesprings/sets/72157604526141662/

]]> By: Jeremy Green http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-31062 Jeremy Green Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:18:53 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-31062 This is a good comparison. However it should be noted that the "generate 7 jpgs from 1 RAW file and then merge to HDR" technique only works if your scene is relatively LDR to begin with (like this one is). If you are shooting a scene that truly has a high dynamic range then this technique will begin to break down. Imagine standing in a a dark room with one small window out into a sunny afternoon. If you only take a single shot you (or the camera) have to decide whether to try to capture details in the bright part (out the window) or in the dark part (in the room) or somewhere in between. If you go for in between, then you will have a lot of blown highlights and darkened shadows that you will not be able to recover by generating 7 different jpgs. If you take a bracketed set, then you'll have nice details outside the window in your darkest pics, and nice details inside the room in your brightest pics. Then when you merge them all together you have good details everywhere. The point of bracketing your shots is to allow the camera to capture more dynamic range info than it can capture in one shot. By generating 7 jpgs from one RAW file you are not actually adding any new information. You are just moving the information that did get captured up and down the dynamic range scale. A properly bracketed set (of a scene with true high dynamic range) will contain far more detail than you can possibly capture with a single shot. Anyway, that came out longer than I thought it would. Nice comparison and write up anyway. I've done a few of these experiments myself and it's interesting to see how other experiments come out. Keep up the good work. This is a good comparison. However it should be noted that the “generate 7 jpgs from 1 RAW file and then merge to HDR” technique only works if your scene is relatively LDR to begin with (like this one is). If you are shooting a scene that truly has a high dynamic range then this technique will begin to break down.

Imagine standing in a a dark room with one small window out into a sunny afternoon. If you only take a single shot you (or the camera) have to decide whether to try to capture details in the bright part (out the window) or in the dark part (in the room) or somewhere in between. If you go for in between, then you will have a lot of blown highlights and darkened shadows that you will not be able to recover by generating 7 different jpgs. If you take a bracketed set, then you’ll have nice details outside the window in your darkest pics, and nice details inside the room in your brightest pics. Then when you merge them all together you have good details everywhere.

The point of bracketing your shots is to allow the camera to capture more dynamic range info than it can capture in one shot. By generating 7 jpgs from one RAW file you are not actually adding any new information. You are just moving the information that did get captured up and down the dynamic range scale. A properly bracketed set (of a scene with true high dynamic range) will contain far more detail than you can possibly capture with a single shot.

Anyway, that came out longer than I thought it would. Nice comparison and write up anyway. I’ve done a few of these experiments myself and it’s interesting to see how other experiments come out.

Keep up the good work.

]]> By: Paul Valach http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-30892 Paul Valach Sat, 21 Jun 2008 19:16:38 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-30892 Pity they don't want my money, or millions of others. I like the results but since they don't make a MAC version where PHOTOSHOP started, I can't use it. Pity they don’t want my money, or millions of others. I like the results but since they don’t make a MAC version where PHOTOSHOP started, I can’t use it.

]]> By: Jason http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-30842 Jason Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:10:00 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-30842 UPDATE: I've had a few people ask if I'd compared generating an HDR/tone-mapped image from a single RAW using Photomatix compared to the 7 exposure method generated from a single RAW I described above... you can <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/haeretik/2596268355/" rel="nofollow">see the results here</a>. UPDATE: I’ve had a few people ask if I’d compared generating an HDR/tone-mapped image from a single RAW using Photomatix compared to the 7 exposure method generated from a single RAW I described above… you can see the results here.

]]> By: Jason http://digital-photography-school.com/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/comment-page-1#comment-30823 Jason Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:03:42 +0000 http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/an-introduction-to-high-dynamic-range-imaging-hdr/#comment-30823 FrankenPengie: If you really want to get technical, all HDR that you see on the web is faked - personal computers are incapable of displaying true HDR/HDRi... hence in the article I explained that for the purposes of simplification we would be calling the final image HDR as is popular, and not tone-mapped which is what it really is. When I originally wrote this, I had titled it HDR Battle Royale ;) - glad you found the info good though! Harry Phillips: Yes, this was a bit of a tough one to do considering the sun was behind those buildings... I haven't heard of enfuse, but I've heard of enblend - isn't it used to blend panoramas? elf_man: I find ReDynaMix good for some things, Photomatix for others... I actually find the ReDynaMix looks more cartoony in my opinion. Perhaps I could have used a different image for the test, the HDR/tone-mapping did bring out more of the dirt on the hood as well. I used this one because it was the only one that would align properly from my outing that day. Teewinot, choet, anamika, Bill: Glad you found it informative and (hopefully) useful! Barney: Excellent additional points, if I could I'd prefer the triple RAW merge every time but unfortunately I'm not steady enough and well over half my HDR attempts this way result in ghosting... and yes, Photomatix has a bazillion settings, but once you get the hang of it! ziad: yeah could be the card definately. I don't have an extreme or high speed on my XT at all and I can do 4 or 5 shots before it lags... which isn't a big deal because it can only do 3AEB shots at once anyways. FrankenPengie: If you really want to get technical, all HDR that you see on the web is faked – personal computers are incapable of displaying true HDR/HDRi… hence in the article I explained that for the purposes of simplification we would be calling the final image HDR as is popular, and not tone-mapped which is what it really is. When I originally wrote this, I had titled it HDR Battle Royale ;) – glad you found the info good though!
Harry Phillips: Yes, this was a bit of a tough one to do considering the sun was behind those buildings… I haven’t heard of enfuse, but I’ve heard of enblend – isn’t it used to blend panoramas?
elf_man: I find ReDynaMix good for some things, Photomatix for others… I actually find the ReDynaMix looks more cartoony in my opinion. Perhaps I could have used a different image for the test, the HDR/tone-mapping did bring out more of the dirt on the hood as well. I used this one because it was the only one that would align properly from my outing that day.
Teewinot, choet, anamika, Bill: Glad you found it informative and (hopefully) useful!
Barney: Excellent additional points, if I could I’d prefer the triple RAW merge every time but unfortunately I’m not steady enough and well over half my HDR attempts this way result in ghosting… and yes, Photomatix has a bazillion settings, but once you get the hang of it!
ziad: yeah could be the card definately. I don’t have an extreme or high speed on my XT at all and I can do 4 or 5 shots before it lags… which isn’t a big deal because it can only do 3AEB shots at once anyways.

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