My first HDR shot

[macstrat]

going around the internet looking for new techniques i found HDR. so thats what im working n this week. here is my first HDR photo

[crazzy88ss]

I don't think i'ts a spectacular composure, but you did the HDR quite well, in my opinion.

[chakib]

Originally Posted by crazzy88ss

I don't think i'ts a spectacular composure, but you did the HDR quite well, in my opinion.

i think the same think.

[clockdoc]

Tell us about your process. Did you use Photoshop and three exposures of varying densities or Photomatix?

[macstrat]

I took three exposures. -2EV, 0EV, adn +2EV, merged and tonemapped in photomatix.

[porterd2nz]

One thing that could have improved the image is if you took only one image in RAW format and do the exposure compensation in post. This helps in images such as this where you have trees or other objects that don't remain still. Your image has some colour fringing surrounding the leaves that is especially noticeable in larger sizes.

I think Photomatix is able to use RAW images directly, or you can create the three images in Lightroom or Photoshop or in your cameras RAW import tool.

[Murtasma]

The shot isn't very intresting there is not much of a subject it's split between the trees and the sky however this is a good test image for HDR work. Personally the darkness in the sky really ruins the image. Try to dodge (brighten the sky up) removing the black from the sky and replacing it with a mix of blue , cyan and yelow will really help keep accurate colors in the image.

When working with tree's against sky's i'v found it's best to keep the strength of the tone mapping process to a minimal. Halo effects are very easy to get around trees which look nasty. Also shaows seem to clip much faster in trees when doing HDR. I suspect it's because if you dont shoot when there is 0mph wind leaves move between shots creating bluring in the leaves which can be distracting as well.

Keep up the good work Try shooting something that can't move such as buildings to fine tune the hdr process.

[WooD]

I've been looking for a really good tutorial on HDR with CS2. I've found a few, but their explanations go right over my head.

Showing my ignorance again.......what is tone mapping?

I was playing around today with HDR. I set the bracket feature in my camera to shoot -2 0 +2, and did the HDR thing in CS2, but wasn't sure what the next process should be.

[macstrat]

Tone Mapping is pulling colors that your traditional LCD and CRT monitors cant display into colors that it can. they have limited dynamic ranges.

The human eye can see something like a few billion colors spanning alot of the color spectrum. its what makes a sunset have such a wide range of yellows, reds adn oranges.

A typical monitor can only display a few million at a time and what tone mapping does is it takes the contrasts from the blackest blacks to the redest reds to the bluest blues (etc.) and turns that color information in to something that a standard monitor can display. the result is radiant color that makes you want to reach into the computer and touch it.

if you have a HDR monitor (they cost a few thousand at least) that can display those billions of colors that the eye can see. you wouldnt need to tonemap except before printing. high end video game companys (read "Bungie") use HDR monitors in game development.

When you edit your HDR image in photoshop you want to make sure that it is set to 16-bit or 32-bit color to display more of a dynamic range in the images

you next step IMO would be to adjust the Curves, Color balance and Saturation of the colors

Tone mapping Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_mapping
HDRsoft Tone Mapping Photoshop plugin - http://www.hdrsoft.com/download.html#plugin

thats how i understand it anyway, hope thathelps