HDR with 3100?

So I have been trying to understand this whole HDR concept. I also have been reading up about HDR photos with the D3100 and what I have been reading is not promising.

I have been getting alot of this

I read that auto-bracketing is not a feature that D3100 offers.

Does it make the HDR Photography impossible with this camera?

Click to expand...

then this is the answer

yea, that will make HDR photography very difficult.

especially handheld, you cant just fire off a quick 3 bracket. and on tripod even difficult as you will have to keep track of your exposure and lock it then add and subtract your -1 to 2 ev

and besides hdr, in tricky lighting, bracketing an exposure is nice, especially for jpeg shooters.

this is a purposefully crippling by nikon, i don't support this decision at all. the no focus motor is annoying, but understandable. this is just silly.

Click to expand...

so does anyone have any tips on settin my camera up for HDR or any tips on HDR in general?

It might be easier to get the three shots if you use manual mode. Set the f/stop for the shot you want. On the D3100 you push the ev button and turn the command dial to set the f/stop. Then using the analog meter in the view finder set the speed by turning the command dial until the exposure is set to normal, take a shot, then turn the command dial until you are over exposed one stop, take the shot. Do the same thing for the one stop under exposure. It's more complicated than if Nikon had just put the programing in to do this to begin with, however with some practice you should be able to use manual mode to get the three shots needed for an HDR. Note: For HDR, do not change the f/stop for the under or over exposure shots. Changing the f/stop will change the depth of field and some parts of the HDR can be out of focus. Hope this helps.

PS; If you don't fully understand Manual Mode then read the sticky on using Manual Mode for Dummies under the D90 forum. The only difference is that on the D3100 you push the ev button while turning the command dial to change the f/stop rather than turning a sub-command dial.

Don't forget to post some of those HDR shots, BTW what software do you intend to use for combining your shots?

i have know clue.
I just got Photoshop CS5 and I know that in that you can do this. but where as in CS4 you couldnt


tips are greatly needed

I can't give you any help in using CS5. I use Aperture 3 for all my post processing. My best recommendation is to go on the internet and find the videos, books, and DVD's to learn to use the CS5 HDR. If you have experience using CS4 then it should not be difficult to pick up using the HDR feature. The users manual will have the procedures on it's use as well. There are a number of Nikonites that use CS5 so they can help with any of the procedures you have questions about.

There is a free program called Picturenaut you can download, I found it pretty easy to use. I know it doesn't have the power of Photomatix so many use but free is good and may be a good place to start. Lots of info on HDR on the net.

Here is a link to the download and some good reading material.

Picturenaut Overview

Sweet thanks guys,
my buddy was sayin i could just just a raw file and upload it into CS5 and it would turn out very simular to a HDR. is this true??

Yes you can tone-map a single image in the CS5 HDR or in Photomatix or probably in Picturenaut. But it's still a single shot and the quality of the exposure will make a big difference as to how it turns out. Some times a three shot bracket just does not work very well as an HDR. In that case try one of the shots as a single or even doing an HDR with a combination of two.

I find the HDR part of CS5 to work pretty well.
Go to File > Automate > Merge to HDR Pro
Browse to the files you want to combine, check the 'Attempt to Automatically Align' box, and go to town

Here is some HDR from my D3100.

Nice job there Pilot, I have been playing with HDR a lot lately and it's a lot of fun.

Is it as cold as it looks in these pics?

Mini chinook today. +11C but dropping back down tonight. Thanks. I'm using FDR Tools for HDR. This is my first successful output.

I shot this with a D3100 raw then used photoshop to adjust the EV manually (-3, -1.5, 0, +1.5, +3) and save the image. Then I combine pictures using cs4 hdr, tonemapped in cs4 with photmatix. I also took some of the noise out with noiseware professional plugin. I'm no pro just learning. I think it's a solid shot. In PNG it lost quality but the dng or tiff look amazing.

giraffe_tonemapped | Flickr - Photo Sharing!







http://www.flickr.com/photos/briancross/5412512510/

So you did a single exposure HDR by making copies of the original image with different exposures set in Photoshop?

I would recommend doing multiple exposures with the camera set to different exposures, that is how the image gets the detail that is not captured in the 'correct' exposure.

My two shots above are multiple exposure at -3,-2,-1,0,1,2,3

PavementPilot said:

Here is some HDR from my D3100.

Click to expand...

These no look like HDR look like snapshot