This is HDR...True or False? :)
- Thread starter fotojack
- Start date
Don Kuykendall_RIP
RIP :(
Answer: true!It's a 3 exposure shot, but toned down, so as not to give it the characteristic "cartoon" look of some traditional HDR shots. Shots were -2, 0, +2 EV.
That is the way to do a HDR. IT really should be hard to spot. But you know that shooting RAW and proper processing you can almost get the same results with one shot instead of HDR. Whenever I am in a spot that has high contrast I will shoot The bracket -2, 0, +2 EV planning on processing it as a HDR. and about half the time I can get just as good a final product just processing it normally with 1 shot. RAW and PhotoShop/Nik and a good camera does a pretty good job.
Just-Clayton
Senior Member
When I started HDR I tried not to cook the picture. It looks OK on old rusted items. But, for nature shots I only try to blend the shots for a sharper image.
Answer: true!
The great thing about HDR is we can make it to be what we want it to be. Conservative as Jack has illustrated or over the top and everything in-between. Like any other post process, we have the freedom to choose .
About 1 in 50 (or so) people ask me at shows why I like to do HDR. My answer to the purists is that "I like to sell prints".
.About 1 in 50 (or so) people ask me at shows why I like to do HDR. My answer to the purists is that "I like to sell prints".
When I shot my D300s I would sometimes do HDR. Since I've been using the D800 I find I can recover so much highlight and shadow detail I don't need it as often. The dynamic range of the 800 is fantastic. It's not simply because it's 14 bit as suggested as the D300 had that. It's the DR of the sensor. Whilst I've not done much with it, the D7100 seems pretty good as well.
If I'm shooting landscape I expose to the right as far as I can. I set the picture control to a very flat low contrast unsharpened image. I then check for blown highlights on the LCD monitor. This seems to work well.
If I'm shooting landscape I expose to the right as far as I can. I set the picture control to a very flat low contrast unsharpened image. I then check for blown highlights on the LCD monitor. This seems to work well.
I see the greatest effect of HDR in clouds. When I shoot moving trains, I can't get the same shadow detail or cloud structure out of the single image as I could have with a bracketed series. I can get it close, but you can't reproduce data that was not recorded. Some folks believe you can recreate a bracketed series from a single image by changing the exposure values and merging, I just smile and shake my head .
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BackdoorArts
Senior Member
I'm with Geoff on the dynamic range performance of the D800. Here's a shot I took a couple mornings ago as it came out of the camera, 30 second exposure at f/4...
Here's the same photo with a +5EV adjustment in Lightroom...
The amount of light captured by the sensor is amazing. In the final product I can pull light from shadows here and keep dark areas as dark as I want them, giving almost an HDR appearance from a single photo...
If I have a high contrast image I can actually take the original exposure and make +/- 2EV copies and send them to HDR Efex Pro 2 if I want instead of trying to adjust the bright and dark spots. Here's an original image SOOC and +/-2EV adjusted copies...
And here they are merged using HDR Efex Pro 2 with just the Balance Preset applied and no other adjustments.
With a little basic tweaking that would make a nice image. And by the way, this one was taken with the D600, an almost equally brilliant sensor.
Who needs to shoot bracketed images any more? And there's no fear of ghosting due to movement.
Here's the same photo with a +5EV adjustment in Lightroom...
The amount of light captured by the sensor is amazing. In the final product I can pull light from shadows here and keep dark areas as dark as I want them, giving almost an HDR appearance from a single photo...
If I have a high contrast image I can actually take the original exposure and make +/- 2EV copies and send them to HDR Efex Pro 2 if I want instead of trying to adjust the bright and dark spots. Here's an original image SOOC and +/-2EV adjusted copies...
And here they are merged using HDR Efex Pro 2 with just the Balance Preset applied and no other adjustments.
With a little basic tweaking that would make a nice image. And by the way, this one was taken with the D600, an almost equally brilliant sensor.
Who needs to shoot bracketed images any more? And there's no fear of ghosting due to movement.
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I guess it all comes down to individual taste/results. I feel I get more out of a bracketed series and can recover blown out highlights better than a single exposure. I do get a sharper image with a single exposure tonemapped but not the same shadow detail and highlight control. Like anything else, we do what we feel gets us where we want to be.
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BackdoorArts
Senior Member
Truth is, Rick, I'd not really thought about it. If and when I feel inclined I may try to do identical edits on a set of bracketed images and the center image with +/-2EV copies and see how much of a difference there is. I'm not huge on single image tone mapping but love that there's a ton of light detail to pull from. I've sort of wandered away from HDR anyway since going full frame because I'm getting the details I want. I'll do it occasionally, and as you said, we've all got our likes and preferences.