My first HDR - PP critique

[milosh]

Hello everyone,

This is my first attempt at HDR. It was put together out of three exposures, taken with D60, all at an aperture of f11, ISO 100, 42 mm and taken in RAW. I was using a tripod and shutter delay. Shutter speeds were 2 , 10 and 20 seconds. They were combined in Photomatix Pro using Details Enhancer, then processed a bit in PS.

I would like to hear your opinion on techinical aspects of the image, do you think that I used right settings while shooting it, and second, what about post-processing, what could have been done better? And general opinions are welcome of course.

Thanks



Bigger version here.

[larryb52]

this is pretty awesome for your first try. You did an evening shot which adds to the complexity somewhat. what I like about this image is the color tones are natural, the lights are not blurry, but very crisp, except for the one in the back, my only negative observation is the sign is a little washed out.

I would give you a B on this one.

[PowerPix]

Wow, most first timers go all out with HDR, I like how you kept it subtle. What were your EVs for this? The only reason I ask is because the photo still seems a bit dark (especially on the right side).

[milosh]

Originally Posted by larryb52

this is pretty awesome for your first try. You did an evening shot which adds to the complexity somewhat. what I like about this image is the color tones are natural, the lights are not blurry, but very crisp, except for the one in the back, my only negative observation is the sign is a little washed out.

I would give you a B on this one.

Thanks for the B! I tried very hard to keep the colour tones as real as possible, it took me more than half an hour to find the right position for all the sliders in Photomatix. I know the sign is a bit washed out, and so are the lights on the main building. I guess that's because I didn't zoom in enough to see the lights when I did a first test shot at 2 seconds. I should have kept the highlights warning/blinkies on.

Originally Posted by PowerPix

Wow, most first timers go all out with HDR, I like how you kept it subtle. What were your EVs for this? The only reason I ask is because the photo still seems a bit dark (especially on the right side).

I tried to use HDR just in order to recreate the scene as it was, I don't like those supernatural HDRs. I don't know the exact EVs. I was shooting in Manual, and just trying out different shutter speeds. I actually fired seven shots for this one, but only used three to create it. I tried doing it with all 7 but this one seemed better. I was thinking whether to light up the right corner or not, but when I did, it was kinda drawing attention away from the main building and the rest of the street, and I didn't like that.

[wanelad]

Beatiful shot well done, I do ask though out of curiosity as only recently did a HDR myself. The way I started to do it was as you did, different shutter speeds. However then thought to myself after almost finishing hang on! If I am only adjusting the shutter speed the camera would be compensating with the aperture.

Thought to myself hmmm I need to fiddle with that over and under expose setting, which I did. My HDR turned out quite good except a night light pole seemed to distort for some reason.

So back to my question was it only the shutter speed you adjusted or the under and over expose setting? Secondly if only the shutter speed do the origionals look very much the same as what you have produced? or am I totally off the track and have absolutely no idea what I am talking about lols. I would really like to know as have another great opportunity comming my way in 24hrs.

The trick with doing HDR from what I understand is different exposures rather than speeds and apperatures, but hey happy to be corrected as I am not convinced I understand this myself

[milosh]

Originally Posted by wanelad

If I am only adjusting the shutter speed the camera would be compensating with the aperture.

Your camera will behave this way if you're shooting in Shutter priority mode. In this mode you can change two things (besides ISO) and those are the shutter speed and the exposure compensation. With exposure compensation you set how much over exposed or under exposed you want it to be. When you change the shutter speed, your camera will try to compensate for that change, it will try to keep the exposure value you have set (with exp. compensation) and in order to do that, it will change the aperture.

I was shooting in manual mode, in which changing the shutter speed or aperture doesn't affect the other one. It only affects total exposure, which you can probably see as some graph representation and EV value change.

I chose to shoot in manual because I didn't want to change the apperture (because of lens performance and dof) and I didn't want to play with exposure compensation (which I would have to, if I was shooting in Aperure priority mode). I was just checking the exposure by eye on the LCD of the camera.

The first of the three images is very dark (shutter speed is 2 sec.) and only the lights are visible. The second is much brighter (sh. speed was 10 sec.) and the third one is twice as bright as the second one (sh. speed 20 sec.). Each of them reveals some portion of the scene. Hope this helps you a bit.

[PowerPix]

I shoot mine in AV with exposure bracketing for three shots at -2, 0, +2.

[milosh]

Originally Posted by PowerPix

I shoot mine in AV with exposure bracketing for three shots at -2, 0, +2.

And what metering do you use?

I put my camera on spot metering for this (my idea was to try to measure the difference between the brightest and the darkest parts) but it got confused, so I started shooting manual. What do you think, what metering should be used for a scene like this, considering very bright and at the same time almost black objects in it?

The last two shutter speeds I used here are 1 EV apart (10 & 20 seconds) but the first one (2 sec.) is way of.
And even those 2 sec. were too long for the sign. +2, 0 -2 obviously would not be enough here.

[PowerPix]

I'm using matrix (also know as evaluative). There are some HDRs on my flickr page, check it out to see what you think of the matrix metering. Granted they are not night shots, but it will give you some idea of the outcome. The camera measures the light intensity on several points in the scene, and then combines the results to find the best exposure suited for the overall frame. I haven't used spot so I really can't comment on that.

[wanelad]

thanks all for the input, I will try some of this whilst away on the Gold Coast next couple of days