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06-09-2010, 03:25 AM   #1
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HDR first attempt?

After taking advice from all you wonderful gurus I have attempted an HDR image. This was just as dawn was breaking and the building was a little shadowy. So I took three shots with tripod and then used the photomatix to try for a better shot. Just wanted opinions from you people as to me the difference between 00exposure comp doesn't seem a lot different? Of course I am not to sure of the working of the programme, but I was hoping for the clouds in -3 and the colour of building in +3. Feed back please.

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06-09-2010, 04:32 AM   #2
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Well Trishy, this proves Photomatix works.
But there certainly is difference between your 0EV shot and the HDR result. Just look at the definition of the sky for starters - there is less washout and more definition.

Nevertheless what HDR innately does is reduce contrast and cause an unnatural plasticky look to landscapes in particular, and this one's an example of that - the flat looking building lacks clarity and contrast is certainly lacking.

Not all scenes need HDR, and those that do rarely need a heavy treatment of it so as to render that artificial look. It's all a matter of practice to see what suits when, so keep at it and show us what you get!
06-09-2010, 05:02 AM   #3
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Thanks Ash. Of course all the blurb on HDR is for photos with contrast. I mainly want to master it for taking real estate pics. Sometimes the white light from outside really ruins the pic, and if I expose for outside sometimes the flash is not enough to lighten the inside, so figured I had better master the HDR. Annoyingly the examples on photomax and similar always look soooo good. (hmm I wonder where the coypywrite thingy is; I haven't bought this yet)
06-09-2010, 07:06 AM   #4
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You'd be better off just double processing the file. Especially for real estate shots.

06-09-2010, 10:30 AM   #5
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Enfuse?

Honestly, I think your "0" exposure is pretty spot-on and the raw probably has enough latitude to get you where you want. That said, for real-estate interiors have you looked at something like EnfuseGUI? It is not actually HDR, just exposure blending (and it works well with multiple "exposures" from a single raw image as well).

EnfuseGUI

I use Enfuse all the time for interiors when I shoot panoramas like this:

http://www.mab3d.com/QTVR/MaRS_atrium.html

Hope you don't mind, but I pulled down your three images and Enfused them together (throwing out the first image, since it didn't contribute much saturation or detail) to get the attached image. To my eye, it has more realistic contrast and color, but still shows more detail than a single exposure. (One thing to note, though, is that both your Photomatix and my Enfuse result have blurry trees to the right of the building - due to multiple exposures. Less of a problem for interiors...)
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Last edited by panoguy; 06-09-2010 at 11:04 AM.
06-09-2010, 08:30 PM   #6
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second attempt at this

I have tried again with photomax (now have copywrite on pic) just using two pics. Like this one better as the colours seem more acurate. Plus it doesn't look so plasticky. Thoughts?
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06-09-2010, 10:59 PM   #7
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If all you're trying to do is increase the details in the darker parts, and if you're not too bothered about creating dramatic skies (for real estate shots?), then why not just use one of the usual PP programs to bring up the shadows and turn down the highlights?

This can be done in Picasa (Fill Light control) which is free

Also Aperture (definitely not free), Photoshop of course, Elements, Corel, and any number of others.

Just tweak the exposure to suit, then bring up the shadow detail, and if necessary, tone down the highlights.

That way, you won't get the problems of alignment such as you see in the trees in your pics, due to movement of stuff between exposures.

While I really enjoy playing around with HDR stuff, and use Photomatix Pro, I really think a lot of the results are very characteristic of HDR and can be picked a mile off. It is rare to see HDR done really well and SUBTLE. In your case, perhaps using Picasa, or one of the others is all you need to do?

06-10-2010, 10:52 PM   #8
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Thanks Pete. I guess with this one I was trying to get more of a picturesque shot as I want to try 'painting' it for a friend who loves this little spot. Of course for the real estate shots I just want to get a balance on lighing where the outside needs to be seen from the inside. For that I will do as you suggest. I do though for the shots of the house outside want to do some thing a little more arty.
cheers
06-11-2010, 04:42 AM   #9
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The final one is a good result - definitely the pick of the bunch.
There will always be a touch of the unnatural look of landscape HDRs, but this is far from abhorrent. Well done with it.
06-11-2010, 04:49 AM   #10
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Points taken Trish. And yes, I agree with Ash - the last effort is the best of the bunch.

If I don't want to be bothered with HDR, and I have a situation where I want to show the inside of a room plus what is outside the window or door, I use centre spot exposure metering and expose for what is outside the window. Then I use a Metz AF-58 flash with a diffuser on it and bounce it off the wall or the ceiling, to light up the inside of the room. The built-in pop-up flash is nowhere near powerful enough to do that.

Works in most cases....
06-11-2010, 09:57 PM   #11
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For help with HDR, and to see what is really possible, the best source I have found is Trey Ratcliff. He has a great tutorial on his page along with alot of other helpful information and amazing pictures.

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06-14-2010, 11:58 AM   #12
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For what it's worth, I find that I often blend my HDR results with one of the original exposures (using masking in Photoshop).

In this particular example, I probably would have used the sky/background buildings from the HDR image and blended it with the building/lake from the oriiginal middle exposure. Then I would have done overall curve/levels enhancements.

Stuck In Customs does provide an outstanding HDR tutorial, and will essentially teach anyone everything they could hope to know about it. I find his images are a little too unrealistic for my tastes though. I use HDR a lot, but I don't like it to scream.... A whisper is often enough.
06-14-2010, 12:10 PM   #13
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there is clear difference between the two, though I'm not sure which one is better.

I think it would be a better idea to use shorter intervals
06-17-2010, 08:51 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by Derridale Quote
Points taken Trish. And yes, I agree with Ash - the last effort is the best of the bunch.

If I don't want to be bothered with HDR, and I have a situation where I want to show the inside of a room plus what is outside the window or door, I use centre spot exposure metering and expose for what is outside the window. Then I use a Metz AF-58 flash with a diffuser on it and bounce it off the wall or the ceiling, to light up the inside of the room. The built-in pop-up flash is nowhere near powerful enough to do that.

Works in most cases....
I'm in agreement with this technique for indoor shots. Generally, i add a third + or -1ev, just in case
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