HDR Images: Learn and share your work...

[flyboy86]

a penny for your thoughts.....

 

[hollywoodstang]

 

[flyboy86]

A few I played around with. Yeah, I know, a little "overdone" but they're kinda cool (IMO)

 

[flyboy86]

Any thoughts/suggestions??

 

[DarkFireGT]

Other than being a little desaturated, I really like that one. The composition is great, and it's not overcooked.

 

[08RetroV8]

I have never heard of this method but it looks amazing. What program do you guys use to "merge" the pictures. How exactly do you do this? Take different pictures at different exposures and use a program to "merge" them? Do you focus on certain aspects of the picture for each photo... (example, focus on the sky in one pic, focus lets say on a car for another and on the background for another?) thanks, i really appreciate your help!

 

[DarkFireGT]

I have never heard of this method but it looks amazing. What program do you guys use to "merge" the pictures. How exactly do you do this? Take different pictures at different exposures and use a program to "merge" them? Do you focus on certain aspects of the picture for each photo... (example, focus on the sky in one pic, focus lets say on a car for another and on the background for another?) thanks, i really appreciate your help!

Read through the thread from the beginning. It's been covered in depth.

 

[Steel Horse]

Hey Dark, do you need a pretty robust computer to run the HDR program or will most computers run it fine? The reason I ask is I would like to try doing some of this stuff but I don't want to go out and spend a bunch of money just to find out it isn't my cup of tea. Also how do you like the Nikon compared to the Cannon? My old camera died on me and I'm going SLR this time.

 

[DarkFireGT]

Processing time will obviously be faster on a better computer, but as long as you have at least a gig of ram, you shouldn't have much trouble. Again, these programs have free trials so give it a shot and if it doesn't work fast enough for you, you haven't wasted your money.

Canon and Nikon is a complete preference thing. I recommend getting them both in your hands and seeing which one feels better and has controls that seem natural to you. Image quality-wise, they're very similar. I personally use Canon. No reason really. That's just what I started with, mostly because I've had great luck with their printers.

 

[stangzilla100]

do you need to use a SLR camera or can you use say a nikon cool pix camera?

 

[DarkFireGT]

Technically, you can do it with any camera. But you need a very solid tripod if your camera doesn't have AEB (auto exposure bracketing), otherwise you will have to change the exposure manually and you can't have camera movement or the HDR won't come out right.

 

[stangzilla100]

heres my second attempt. took some pics while washing my GT and this is what i came up with. using my nikon cool pix camera.
View attachment 281284

 

[evil281]

just downloaded that program u recommended and figured id post mine up, never done a hdr photo before

 

[DarkFireGT]

Very nice first attempt.

 

[evil281]

Very nice first attempt.

thanks i really want to get one of these programs, i think so far i like artizen the best, my photoshop is starting to bore me anyway, need something more fun like hdr

 

[debo89]

First attempt. Just a quick edit with photoshop but I kinda like it. I'll try it again when the weather clears up and find somewhere more open with less trees if any at all haha

 

[kooldawg6]

Nice pic! I like tree reflections if it was the focal point. I like making the reflections the main focal point. Sometimes that's quite fun to do

:OT: but here are a couple of reflection shots I've taken. HDR will make them stand out even more.

 

[Steel Horse]

Not a very good picture but this is a psuedo HDR. Thought it was cool how much came out in the hood.

 

[Tupperware]

Nice pic! I like tree reflections if it was the focal point. I like making the reflections the main focal point. Sometimes that's quite fun to do

:OT: but here are a couple of reflection shots I've taken. HDR will make them stand out even more.

Bodie Island Lighthouse, right Kool?

 

[Tupperware]

Here's one of Siletz Bay in Lincoln City, OR I took in Dec. (never mind the typo in my watermark...lol)

And here's another from the same trip.

Great thing about Photomatix is...in a pinch, you can open a straight RAW file and do some tone-mapping. For truly great HDR, it's still better to get as many exposures as you need to capture the dynamic range (usually 3 or sometimes 5 for me) and blend them. But the RAW "pseudo-HDR" works if you don't have time!