Misc Poll - Do you like HDR photos?

**Rondec** · 01-22-2023, 04:38 AM

I used to use HDR a lot more back when I was shooting with a K-10D/K-20. The sensors didn't have a huge amount of dynamic range, even at base iso and to add detail in the shadows you had to shoot multiple images with different exposures and blend them. Even there, you had to be really careful not to introduce a bunch of artifacts and halos. The issue isn't really combining the images, the issue is the tonemapping that can produce pretty garish results.

It is probably important to mention that you can do the same sort of thing without the image being HDR, simply by pushing the sliders to far in Lightroom (or whatever your post processing software of choice is).

I couldn't really vote because I don't mind HDR as long as the tone mapping isn't too aggressive. Once you get odd colors and artifacts, I'm out.

**acoufap** · 01-23-2023, 11:01 AM - **1 Like**

HDR helps in extreme DR scenarios where there are up to 21 EV, scenarios often with sun or moon, bright light looking into the forest, … even our sensors of today don‘t manage this.

I also don‘t like creating unnatural looking extreme looking tonemapped images.

But the results I get from the Capture One Pro 22 / HDR module, I really like. Since I have it, I do more HDR shots (from tripod) than before - of course shot raw, 3 captures in Pentax camera HDR mode, split the DNG file using PDCU and make the HDR image using the Capture One HDR module. It‘s a very easy process with really natural looking results.

Ian Stuart Forsyth · 01-25-2023, 09:08 PM

One of the problems is that some come accustom to thinking HDR is tone mapping, good HDR does not look like tone mapping.

One of the problems with high dynamic scenes is how we place that 10 to 16 stops into how we are going to place that range into the range we can display it. One of the secrets of placing that range as to not overlap any of the range in our final image.

View Poll Results: Poll - Do you like HDR photos?
Yes	11	61.11%
No	7	38.89%
Voters: 18. You may not vote on this poll

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01-22-2023, 04:38 AM	#16
Rondec Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Gladys, Virginia Photos: Gallery Posts: 27,662	I used to use HDR a lot more back when I was shooting with a K-10D/K-20. The sensors didn't have a huge amount of dynamic range, even at base iso and to add detail in the shadows you had to shoot multiple images with different exposures and blend them. Even there, you had to be really careful not to introduce a bunch of artifacts and halos. The issue isn't really combining the images, the issue is the tonemapping that can produce pretty garish results. It is probably important to mention that you can do the same sort of thing without the image being HDR, simply by pushing the sliders to far in Lightroom (or whatever your post processing software of choice is). I couldn't really vote because I don't mind HDR as long as the tone mapping isn't too aggressive. Once you get odd colors and artifacts, I'm out.

01-23-2023, 11:01 AM - 1 Like	#17
acoufap Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Munich, Germany Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 4,190	HDR helps in extreme DR scenarios where there are up to 21 EV, scenarios often with sun or moon, bright light looking into the forest, … even our sensors of today don‘t manage this. I also don‘t like creating unnatural looking extreme looking tonemapped images. But the results I get from the Capture One Pro 22 / HDR module, I really like. Since I have it, I do more HDR shots (from tripod) than before - of course shot raw, 3 captures in Pentax camera HDR mode, split the DNG file using PDCU and make the HDR image using the Capture One HDR module. It‘s a very easy process with really natural looking results.

01-25-2023, 09:08 PM	#18
Ian Stuart Forsyth Pentaxian Join Date: May 2009 Location: Somewhere over the rainbow Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,531	One of the problems is that some come accustom to thinking HDR is tone mapping, good HDR does not look like tone mapping. One of the problems with high dynamic scenes is how we place that 10 to 16 stops into how we are going to place that range into the range we can display it. One of the secrets of placing that range as to not overlap any of the range in our final image.