HDR User Thread - Post any HDR pictures you have taken

[after_effects]

I dont believe there is a thread on here for HDR.

It stands for High Dynamic Range and it is a type of photo that must be taken on a tripod. It is made up of multiple exposures of the same picture, then tonemapped in programs such as Photomatix.

Here are a few of mine...

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1332/1399725261_a67c8dd4a4.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1220/1466664778_5633298664.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1118/1393456985_27dd37a0b3.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1350/1392790089_ffb8aea830.jpg


http://www.flickr.com/photos/13647884@N03/

[triplej96]

Good idea we need a HDR thread I love the first two.

[2 in the can]

The first two are are great. An HDR thread's a great idea.

[Mino]

Older ones, don't use HDR much anymore.

http://www.mindtapmedia.com/pics/sfu2.jpg


http://www.mindtapmedia.com/pics/stormy%20bridge.jpg


http://www.mindtapmedia.com/pics/Tracy%20Lee.jpg

[THoff]

You don't have to use a tripod, I think compensation for camera movement is a fairly standard feature today. Photomatix allows you to manually or automatically align, and it can also compensate for movement in the scene to some degree.

[after_effects]

Thoff do you have any hand held HDR photos you can post? I have tried it, but the align feature isnt the best.

[triplej96]

Here are a few of mine...



http://www.flickr.com/photos/13647884@N03/

Did you use 3 or 5 photos to make the hdr?

[Moojangles]

mmmm HDR. Here's my favs:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1092/1364820063_20bbe2135f_b.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1285/589731508_4920a0ba02.jpg


http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1389/892931142_870070aa16.jpg

[Jeremy Ordan]

You don't have to use a tripod.

Completely agree. With systems capable of shooting 5+FPS a tripod isn't needed, but highly suggested.

Photomatrix has an excellent allign feature.

[alwayslearning]

I did this handheld from just two photos using Photoshop CS3.

http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/1216/1199410339.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/1216/1199410179.jpg
http://www.dvxuser6.com/uploaded/1216/1213815323.jpg

Larry

[after_effects]

Here is a handheld 3 bracketed image.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2372/2047502171_16cbf166a9.jpg

I take back what I said about "needing" a tripod. You can hand hold a few shots, but for sharpness and for 7+ photos you need one. I tried with my d200 to handhold a 7 bracketed image and some of the images did align in photomatix, but it wasnt sharp at all and if you want to shoot anything with good contrast early in the morning or later in the day, then some of your images are going to have a longer shutter.

[after_effects]

triplej96 those are all 7 or 9 exposures.

[prohdrentals]

These are great!

[ryan brown]

mmmm HDR. Here's my favs:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1092/1364820063_20bbe2135f_b.jpg


How exactly was this one done?

[Adam J McKay]

if only we could somehow do this with video

[Jeremy Ordan]

if only we could somehow do this with video

Technically you can do something similar to HDR with video.

HDR is taking images taken at different exposures and combining them to create an image with an extended dynamic range.

An easy approach to HDR, if you don't have original seperate images, is to simply take your JPG and save that image with different exposures, for example, one at 1 stop higher and one at one step lower. This yields identical images at differenet stops. This is easy to do with Photoshop. That being said, how much additional dynamic range you are revealing, especially with a JPG is debatable and maybe not even noticable. You would then simply combine the images and take the final image and reimport into the time line.

For as comfortable as I am with actions, this would be a tedious process to say the least as I've never tried to actions with HDR...

The real impact of HDR though, and why this method could work, is because HDR doesn't have that breathtaking look because of the actual bracketted shots, but also because of the tone mapping people apply. HDR shots are nice, but being able to tone map them truly yields that awe inspiring feel. The above method would work for video in so far as allowing you to tone map and get that hyper realistic / animated look.

How practical is this method? I wouldn't do it, but it COULD be done for video... most likely less painful than rotoscoping, but then again, I couldn't do that either :)

[after_effects]

Nice theory Jeremy, could you post a 5 second clip to back that up? I would love to see an HDR video, even if it were a few seconds.

[Jeremy Ordan]

Nice theory Jeremy, could you post a 5 second clip to back that up? I would love to see an HDR video, even if it were a few seconds.

24 frames per second... 5 seconds... 120 frames....


No, not going to do it unless I have a point to do it.

I will take a simple JPG and show how it can be tone mapped thogh.

[Adam J McKay]

hmm interesting.

[HorseFilms]

These are awesome! I might have to play around with this when I get home from work.

[after_effects]

120 frames? Man, I rottoscoped more frames then that in a day. What you speak of isnt even half that work, just adjusting the exposures. I personally dont think it will work, unless I see some actual prof. The reason I am not convinced is because my friends tried to do this same method with taking footage and trying to turn it into HDR footage. The reason this doesnt work is that there was no latitude and everything looked worse. It was grainy and crappy looking. What I do think might work is trying this method with film because you get that extra latitude to play with.

But anyways back the title of this thread, anyone have any HDR pictures to share?

[alveraz]

Hey guys, I'm dying to learn how to do HDR. Can someone post a link or maybe a sticky of the detailed steps? The easier to understand the better, I've tried before and failed :(

Thanks!


www.zampanophoto.com

[after_effects]

Hey alveraz,

Here is the link to photomatix, it is very easy to pick up. http://www.hdrsoft.com/

Just take 7-9 of the exact same photo at different exposures, then photomatix in two steps: (1) HDR creation from menu "HDR/Generate", (2) Tone Mapping to reveal HDR from menu "HDR/Tone Mapping"

Thats it. Make the HDR image then tonemap it. When tonemapping you want to play around with the settings until u like what you see, each image has different settings for tonemapping.

[alwayslearning]

Alverez, do you have photoshop cs3?

Larry

[alveraz]

Awesome, thanks aftereffects.

Larry, no, I'm in the stone age. I have PS 7.0 and I've never even used that :)

[THoff]

Nice theory Jeremy, could you post a 5 second clip to back that up? I would love to see an HDR video, even if it were a few seconds.Photomatix supports batch processing, so you could output your video as a series of still images and run them through Photomatix that way.

The problem is that simply adjusting the brightness in your NLE to create the bracketed exposure is not the same as taking a true exposure bracket, so I wouldn't expect the results to match what you can get with still images.

[THoff]

Hey alveraz,

Here is the link to photomatix, it is very easy to pick up. http://www.hdrsoft.com/

Just take 7-9 of the exact same photo at different exposures, then photomatix in two steps: (1) HDR creation from menu "HDR/Generate", (2) Tone Mapping to reveal HDR from menu "HDR/Tone Mapping"

Thats it. Make the HDR image then tonemap it. When tonemapping you want to play around with the settings until u like what you see, each image has different settings for tonemapping.Photomatix can also use a single RAW image as a source and create a pseudo-HDR image from that. RAW images typically contain 12 or 14 bits per channel instead of the 8 bits found in JPEGs, and thus have more headroom for adjusting the exposure. The nice thing about this is that it avoids all motion artifacts between exposures.

[Moojangles]

How exactly was this one done?

Sorry for the slow reply.

This one was i believe 4 shots on a tripod. All raw. I then export the RAWs as -2 0 +2 exposure and tonemap in Photomatix.

Once thats done i used PTGUI to stitch them all together :D

[TimurCivan]

i love how they look like paintings... No over exposure anywhere....

[rslv]

Handheld, 3 exposures, MLU

http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/3469/view01tn7.jpg

[Adam Gonzalez]

My contribution to keep this thread alive:

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/FilmGizmo/Sculpture.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/FilmGizmo/Bridge.jpg

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/FilmGizmo/newcopy.jpg

[Jeremy Ordan]

Nice work with the water.

[The Photographer]

Awesome work guys. You HDR folks sure have some great talent, keep up the good work. Great idea to start a HDR thread imo.

[Mino]

A B/W one

http://www.redzonefilms.com/pics/king%20and%20queen.jpg

[Adam Gonzalez]

Nice mino! Have you seen some of the ones on flickr. Amazing!

[Adam Gonzalez]

HDR image of Payne's Prairie in Gainesville, Florida.

Nikon D200
Nikon 18-70mm F3.5-5.6
5 Frames bracketed!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t203/FilmGizmo/PaynesSharpened.jpg

[Adam Gonzalez]

No Comments?

[after_effects]

I like the composition and the super saturation. Nice work again.

[Larry Rutledge]

Just saw it ... all I can say is ... "WOW!!!!!" :thumbsup:

[Adam Gonzalez]

So...Now that I look at it...Is it a bit over saturated and sharpened?

[Larry Rutledge]

I don't think so ... I love that particular look. Been trying to figure out how to get my images that sharp and colorful

[Adam Gonzalez]

Most of it was done with Photomatix Pro 3.0 (all images were JPEG Fine out of the D200, no need to shoot raw) and then I added a sharpen more layer to the image in PS and then put a border around it and dumped it out and added to PhotoBucket.

[Adam J McKay]

This first image was taken by a friend of mine while on vacation in Europe. It's a picture of the Louvre. I couldn't help myself, it was exposed just right to have an HDR conversion done to it. Yes she knows.

The second was a picture I took at a wedding. It was also originally a single Jpeg. Photomatix is amazxing.