Living room of my house in HDR

[lmurillo]

I'm new to DPS and also to HDR photography. I've done some reading and created this shot:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2021/2239808982_50693827c1.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lmurillo/2239808982/)

It took me a while to get it to this by playing with the levels in gimp.
To take my shot I used my Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ3 with a tripod. Exposures used are -2EV, 0EV and +2EV. ISO setting was 100.
FStop was 2.8 and exposure time was 1/8 sec and no flash was fired.

I used The Gimp with the exposure-blend plug-in to create the HDR Image.

I'm not a professional photographer just an enthusiast wanting to learn more. I welcome any comments on this shot and how to make it better. :)

[clockdoc]

Hi and welcome to the group. For some reason your flickr link did not open an image on the critique page. I was able to find it on your flickr account. You have presented a nicely exposed scene with no burned out highlights and most shadow detail. Personally I would use HDR for a different type of scene. Do you have a single "normal" comparison shot that has been adjusted for shadow and highlight detail? When I think of HDR I think of more extreme contrast/lighting ranges such as a mix of indoor and outdoor lighting (through a window for example). When you adhust your three exposures are you shooting in Aperture mode so that it is the shutter speed that is adjusted? If not, changng the aperture between exposures may affect registration of the images.

[lmurillo]

Clockdoc,
Thanks for your comment, it's much appreciated.
I have uploaded the 0EV shot to flickr and it can be found in the link http://www.flickr.com/photos/lmurillo/2240250962/

I also did take one that was looking to the outside of the window but didn't make it into HDR, will try that and will see how it comes out.

[clockdoc]

Thanks for posting the comparison. To my eye the wood looks alittle richer in tone but shadow detail is about the same.

[lmurillo]

Thanks for posting the comparison. To my eye the wood looks alittle richer in tone but shadow detail is about the same.

Yes, I must agree with you on that. One of the reasons I posted it here was because I hardly noticed much difference but wanted another opinion.

So I guess that it's just like the rest of the things...you need to keep trying to get better and better at this. I will follow your advice on using this technique with shots that are looking outside of a window or a door where it will be more noticeable.

Thanks for your comments on this :)

[clockdoc]

Keep at it! Also consider using more than three exposures. Initially you use -2EV, 0, and +2EV. If the detail in the scene warrants it, go beyond those limits. I don't know if GIMP will allow the combination of more than three images. If not, then use -2EV or +2EV, depending on the scene as your starting point. I look forward to seeing your future results.

[lmurillo]

Well, unfortunately the exposure-blend plug-in only takes three images although I could add more exposures by doing them manually. A friend has Photoshop CS2 and I already mentioned the HDR technique to him and he was interested so I'm going to try it on his machine then might look into getting a copy of Photoshop CS2 or newer though this time seemed to work quite nice...

[clockdoc]

Check out the demo version of Photomatix at www.hdrsoft.com . I believe you can blend more than three exposures with it. It imprints their logo on all demo version images but it is a good tool on which to experiment with another method of achieveing the HDR effect. Even though you can only use three initial exposures with your software, adjust the exposure starting point and see how that affects the image or use a wider latitude between normal and the + and - exposure values. Good luck and I hope your friend enjoy working with HDR.

[inkista]

Try qtpfsgui (http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/). Open source, and free as in free beer. No watermarking.

And, as Clockdoc said, it's best to use HDR on scenes that really have a high dynamic range. ;)