Hdr??

[fletch]

Love that link. I nearly didn't click it either as I know what HDR is!

I'm sure we will have plenty of use for this as well!

[jprime84]

"Was that so hard?" makes me laugh every time

[spookie5150]

I love that. I think it will get a lot of use on this board.

As for my own idea on HDR..simple...just don't!

[Digidave]

As for my own idea on HDR..simple...just don't!

Would you care to expound on that statement. There is nothing wrong with HDR photos, as long as they're done correctly. Sometimes people will even go to far on purpose & create really good images. Not to my liking necessarily, but some people enjoy them. What is it exactly that you don't like about HDR images?

[Drax]

Folks, don't hijack the thread.

castman is new to HDR and came to DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY SCHOOL... to know about it. So, put yourself in his shoes.

Castman, Please, check this link to learn more and conveniently about HDR (High Dynamic Range)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_dynamic_range_imaging


http://popsci.typepad.com/how20blog/2007/05/your_guide_to_c.html

http://www.nill.cz/index.php?set=tu1

Hope that helps.

[jagoble25]

Originally Posted by jprime84

This link will be helpful

http://tinyurl.com/cy3kax

That is the freaking NUTS!!!!!

[inkista]

Since we've gotten this far down the thread with nobody answering the question directly...

HDR stands for "high dynamic range".

The human eye can actually perceive a far larger range of dark-to-light than a camera can record or a computer monitor can represent. It's roughly twice as much--the human eye can see about 10EV, while the camera/monitor can do about 5EV (EV [exposure value] = stop).

It's always possible that a scene may contain more dark-to-light than can be captured in a single exposure. Think of a shot from inside a house through a bright window. If you expose for the scene through the window, the inside of the house will simply be a dark silhouette. If you expose for the room, the scene out the window will be completely blown to white. This is also why you can get white skies in shots.

HDR is one method for combining multiple bracketed exposures to cover the full dynamic range in a scene. The dynamic range is represented by larger numbers than are standard in most graphic formats, so the combining of shots with HDR also requires a different file format. This format cannot be viewed without special HDR displays. So if you want to make it viewable on a computer, you then need to "tonemap" the HDR file to a standard graphic file format, like JPEG or TIFF. Tonemapping maps one of the HDR color tones to a color in the visible range--you're basically squeezing everything back down to a smaller dynamic range. It's similar to the "fill light" adjustment in Lightroom.

Because you have so much extra information, you can also push things like saturation and that's how you get the heavily-processed HDR look. But you can also map out to make a scene look natural and just represent the full tonal range. It depends on how you choose to tonemap.

There are other methods to handle a high-dynamic range. In camera, you can use a graduated ND filter to darken skies. Or you can use multiple exposures, masks and layers to combine the sky of one shot with the landscape of another. Or you can use something like enfuse, which automatically combines the exposures to a finished image without requiring going to an HDR file format or tonemapping back out.

But if you want the "exploding sky" effect, your best bet is probably Photomatix. My personal druthers are the more natural-looking methods of using HDR, but different squids for different kids.

[fletch]

Originally Posted by inkista

The human eye can actually perceive a far larger range of dark-to-light than a camera can record or a computer monitor can represent. It's roughly twice as much--the human eye can see about 10EV, while the camera/monitor can do about 5EV (EV [exposure value] = stop).

The key to this is the image processor attached to the human eye - the brain. When you look at a scene with a very high dynamic range they eye continually adjusts to look at the bright and dark sections with 'different settings'! You brain then combines the separate views whole scene and you perception is that you can see the whole scene at once.

The brain is the best HDR processor available, unfortunately there is no CF slot or USB port so you can't print!

[wattsbw2004]

Originally Posted by spookie5150

I love that. I think it will get a lot of use on this board.

As for my own idea on HDR..simple...just don't!

Is there a reason why you don' like it or is it that you can't match the results of other great HDR artist? I seem to notice that alot of people who bash HDR have tried it and can't properly use programs such as photoshop or photomatix to produce quality results...

Anyways here is a blog that features 99% oh HDR on a daily basis...
http://www.stuckincustoms.com/ Check out some his works, they are truly some of the best. He also has a tutorial on how to create them which is on the right site of his site.

[Japaslavian]

Originally Posted by Digidave

Would you care to expound on that statement. There is nothing wrong with HDR photos, as long as they're done correctly.

That's just the problem, it is rarely done correctly.
It has more-or-less become a cheap trick to make a uninteresting shot interesting. HDR is like the new B&W conversion.
The main problem though isn't really HDR, its tone-mapping. People go way overboard and get praised for it.