Property/Architecture HDR - How do they do that?

[jasonimani]

Hi...first off, thank you to anyone who can help me out...I've been trying to figure out how people take these types of photos in HDR:



I've tried several times to create similar types of photos, but with terrible results. In photomatrix the photos always turn out very unrealistic...dreamy...velvety. I've had slightly better results in photoshop, but nothing like the photo above. I find my attempts to be soft and in general realistic.

I've read a bunch of HDR tutorials, but I find the results to be unrealistic as well.

In the photo above, it's bright, vivid, sharp, windows are exposed well, and a good balance of light and dark areas. What are they using to do this?

[RoyL]

Doubt that this is an HDR shot as it is not really an Interior tool.

Interiors like this are shot using Fill Flash, there are heaps of tutorials on the net and also DPS.

In a shot like this you would reduce flash by 1/3 stop and bounce the flash from the ceiling (or possibly diffused light might also work as there is a lot of light pouring in). What you want to do is balance the light.

[Kieran2009]

I can't answer you specifically and in general am not a fan of HDR anyways. Having said that if its done well I have come to appreciate it. One photographer that seems to have a lot of sucess with this is Trey Ratcliff(stuckincustoms.com). He has multiple resources. Having said this it seems you've tried tutorials and are still unsatified so maybe this won't be of any use to you.

[yolanda_b]

My camera has an HDR option right in the camera menu if I shoot RAW, so that might play in, but don't forget that there can still be studio lighting and post processing added to that as well. There's a reason why professional photographers get paid and it's not just because they have a good eye or a nice camera! they have the learning and experience to make a room look good enough to sell from the image alone.

[EmmGee]

Originally Posted by yolanda_b

My camera has an HDR option right in the camera menu if I shoot RAW, so that might play in, but don't forget that there can still be studio lighting and post processing added to that as well. There's a reason why professional photographers get paid and it's not just because they have a good eye or a nice camera! they have the learning and experience to make a room look good enough to sell from the image alone.

Rather than HDR, this may be a fused image - there was a piece on DPS not long ago about this.

LINK - http://digital-photography-school.co...how-do-i-do-it

Interior HDR can work but it's easy to overcook the processing and wind up with an unrealistic image.

[Japaslavian]

I used to work for a professional commercial photographer, and when we did interior stuff, we would shoot the room in different sections. Light on part of the room with all the stands and lights in part of the scene we weren't keeping. Then move the lights and get another part of the room, etc etc until we were done getting everything nice. Then just mask in the the good parts to make 1 perfect shot.

[jasonimani]

Yeah I'm pretty sure it's HDR. It comes from a service that hires photographer to take photos of homes, and then you upload all the raws, which are then processed by their people...I assume some people in India, China or the such. You just take 5-7 exposures.

Typically I hate HDR, but these one are good enough that for the interior photography I take.

I'm going to give enfuse a try, see how it turns out. Any other suggestions, of what how they make HDR photos that are more realistic that would be great.

Thanks!

[wattsbw2004]

I can tell in the shadows it's HDR, what you want to do is take 9-10 exposures, correct the color balance first, upload to photomatix and set the strength from anywhere between 80-100%. Light smoothing will be either the 2nd to last or the very last button on the right which will help to make the image more realistic.
Thats it in photomatix

Next bring it into Photoshop to tweak the image more with curves, straighten the image, reduce noise, abberations which will likely occur since this is an HDR image. If certain aspects don't look right then you can take your best exposure and blend the parts you need into the tonemapped image in photoshop.

Hope this helps!