[blue]

Soo...my first real try with HDR photography...I like it. Kinda weird.

Most pics from Memory Grove, a quirky/weird war memorial park to the north of downtown SLC at the mouth of City Creek Canyon.

Non-HDR:

City Creek has been sandbagged due to flooding concerns...

Anyway, fun stuff.

 

[narlus]

so what's HDR? super-saturated post-processing?

 

[Transcend]

High Dynamic Range

These don't really look like HDR stuff, as there isn't a ton of range, but they are getting there. You need darker darks and brighter highlights.

 

[narlus]

i assume it's software and not in-camera stuff?

 

[blue]

High dynamic range...mashing a bunch of exposures together in an attempt to get a more "natural" look. It can help light up an entire shot. IE, you take a picture of a room with a window...lots of bright light from the window, darkness inside the room. Taking 4 exposures (from 2 steps below 0, to 2 above) and merging them into HDR can help to normalize the light in the shot and make it look more like you would see through your eyes. I just think it's fun to play around with.

 

[Transcend]

i assume it's software and not in-camera stuff?

You take multiple exposures. Basically bracketing taken to the extreme. You then combine them selectively in photoshop, normally using masks and such.

 

[blue]

High Dynamic Range

These don't really look like HDR stuff, as there isn't a ton of range, but they are getting there. You need darker darks and brighter highlights.

I agree-I was having trouble with Photomatix with lots of images (10+), so I was cutting it down significantly. Not to mention I shot with spot metering on some of them-d'oh.

 

[blue]

You take multiple exposures. Basically bracketing taken to the extreme. You then combine them selectively in photoshop, normally using masks and such.

Photochop sucks for HDR. PHOTMATIX!

http://www.hdrsoft.com/

The basic version sucks, though. All you can do is merge and not tone map.

 

[Transcend]

Photoshop works fine as long as you know how to use it. Masks > you.

This isn't anything new, people have been doing it for dozens of years in analog by merging slides and adjusting print exposure times.

 

[blue]

But no wonderful tonemapping...without the plugin. I haven't gotten very good results merging in PS.

 

[Transcend]

But no wonderful tonemapping...without the plugin. I haven't gotten very good results merging in PS.

Learn to use photoshop. No fancy plugins needed, man.

 

[blue]

What do I have to do? And will it look better than tone mapping with Photomatix?

 

[arboc!]

sick snaps

 

[Transcend]

You can blend the exposures using masks and layers in photoshop fairly easily. I'm no photoshop instructor, but there are plenty of PS tutorials online and on dvd.

I suggest PS CS one on one if you like the paper format.

 

[skinny mike]

good pics but im not too much of a fan of shots like that because they dont look natural at all. i always think im looking at a really good cgi when i see pics like that.

 

[bjanga]

^ I agree. Surreal is cool though.