1st try at HDR

[Christian Michael]

Hi Guys,

I seriously don’t have time to play like this, but I’ve recently become intrigued by HDR photography and felt the need to give it a try to get it out of my system. I’m aware you are supposed to use a tripod but I didn’t have it with me when the mood struck. So the image below was created with 6 shots all different exposures…..HAND HELD!

I’m pretty pleased with the effect although being my first attempt, I’m aware its going to take time to perfect.I cant work out if I’m fore or against the hallow…I’ll decide in time. I’m more curious to learn the single photo technique over the tripoded stills to get more action shots.

I used PS CS5 “merge to HDR” tool

Starting from top to bottom the settings were
158
3.63
.59
-1.10
300
54
-100

Curve was set to 68 and 89.

I then duplicated the image, sharpened, set the transparency to 50% and merged. I love the style although I know its not everyone else’s bag of chips!

Constructive criticism always welcome.

Thanks in advance.

Christian Michael.

PS, I had to shrink the image from RAW to JPeg and reduce the size by 65% to upload to this site. Hop to much detail wasn’t lost in the process.

[nickbedford]

This might have been bracketed and merged, but this isn't what high dynamic range photography is all about. The effect is completely unrealistic. Sorry if it seems harsh but I find that photo a little horrendous to look at.

I actually made a post about HDR in light of the recent iPhone software update. Keep in mind that the iPhone's camera has a much smaller dynamic range to that of DSLRs and the HDR done on the iPhone is high dynamic range but relative to it's own performance. HDR in a DSLR allows much greater dynamic range.

Here it is: HDR In A Snap - photo.nickbedford.com

To put it simply, HDR has nothing to do with blowing out the edges of objects in a photo. HDR is the method of getting the highlights and the shadows back into the image when shot on a camera with smaller dynamic range than the human eye. In other words, if you have 5 stops of range in one photo, that means your blacks and whites are at those limits. A 15 stop dynamic range means the distance between black and white is greater, allowing shadows and highlights to be preserved closer to what our eyes see.

There's a few different facets to HDR, but the one we're mostly concerned with is how we go about getting an 8-bit JPEG out of it.

HDR is the difference between this:



And this:

[PowerPix]

Originally Posted by nickbedford

This might have been bracketed and merged, but this isn't what high dynamic range photography is all about. The effect is completely unrealistic. Sorry if it seems harsh but I find that photo a little horrendous to look at.

Ditto. +1

[navcom]

Yeah, I'd have to agree with the other two. It's completely left the realm of photography and is now a graphic arts composition. If that is what you are going for, there is nothing wrong with it. It's just been processed to the point where it's not really a photograph anymore.

At this point, the photo is not a photograph but a completely computer generated image.

No harshness intended.

I agree with nickbedford. HDR was originally intended to overcome situations where the camera cannot record the full dynamic range of a scene and it works great in that capacity. But soon many figured out you could "overprocess" the image and the HDR fad was born. Nothing wrong with that. It's an art form in and of itself. But it departs from more traditional photography when it's overdone because it does look unrealistic. An overdone HDR image is not natural to the real world and the human eye expects to see some dark shadows. When everything in an image is completely bright, your brain just can't process it properly and tells you that something just ain't right.

[derekspacelewis]

Well I agree about not overdoing HDR but I'm thinking he meant to overdue it? I mean we all know this isn't what normal cars look like right guys? So I'm thinkin its purposely been done like this? (I hope I'm right or Im gonna feel bad lol). But I'm not gonna lie, I kinda like the effect you came out with. I know its not a" normal photograph" like Navcom mentioned, but if you were going for the crazy effect, you nailed it and it looks pretty cool. TFS.

[4ndrew]

Originally Posted by derekspacelewis

Well I agree about not overdoing HDR but I'm thinking he meant to overdue it? I mean we all know this isn't what normal cars look like right guys? So I'm thinkin its purposely been done like this? (I hope I'm right or Im gonna feel bad lol). But I'm not gonna lie, I kinda like the effect you came out with. I know its not a" normal photograph" like Navcom mentioned, but if you were going for the crazy effect, you nailed it and it looks pretty cool. TFS.

I would have to agree.

[JohnnyC]

I am not exactly positive as to what HDR is. I have a general idea though as in using multible photographs to make a single one when lighting conditions would not allow it ot be captured with a single photo. But I agree with Derek on the basis of intention of overdoing it.

[nickbedford]

Originally Posted by JohnnyC

I am not exactly positive as to what HDR is. I have a general idea though as in using multible photographs to make a single one when lighting conditions would not allow it ot be captured with a single photo. But I agree with Derek on the basis of intention of overdoing it.

See my post about HDR in regards to the difference between our eyes (and/or brain) and a camera's digital sensor.

[Christian Michael]

Guys your comments are totally appreciated and respected. I deliberately waited a day to see how the comments rolled in. I had done some searching into the technique and there are many different styles out there for an array of situations, different people prefer different styles. Me, I always tend to go towards boundary pushing at times and love the style and punch created in this image for the subject matter.

Is it over done? Absolutely overdone, absolutely unrealistic, could never print it out and I’m aware its not to everyone’s style. However who wants to live in a world where people set boundaries for themselves and look down on anyone doing something against the grain?

To Derek and 4ndrew I appreciate you guys getting it and yes…twas deliberately over done lol. Thanks for the comments. To Navcom and powerpix your constructive posts are totally appreciated and thank you for taking the time, although ditto is not a comment it’s a line from a movie :0)

As for the member who used “horrendous” instead of saying its not your bag. That’s not constructive, that’s down right rude but welcome to the site as a newbie anyway.

[PowerPix]

Originally Posted by Christian Michael

Powerpix your constructive posts are totally appreciated and thank you for taking the time, although ditto is not a comment it’s a line from a movie :0)

Ditto.
Fair enough. Btw, what movie is it from?

Construction: Hey.......I'm all for splurging every once in a while! If this style of photography or graphic arts -- whatever you want to call it -- suits your taste, then more power to you. Push the realms of reality and do what makes you happy (but keep that self happiness restricted most of the time ). Who gives a shit what anyone else thinks. The point is you created something, and shared how you created it with the rest of us. There is something to be said about different kinds of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Creative nonetheless.

With that said, it is not my style. But that does not matter.

Cheers!