HDR Photography

After readinbg this thread I wanted to try.

My first one... Sorry for the low quality and blurry parts. It appears difficult to do in serious windy conditions.

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i140/Cozmic_Kid/Convent.jpg

 

Wow, what a diff.......

 

I kind of like the effect of handholding the camera while it does the 3 bracketed shots. Here is one of my wife watering the garden.
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Thanks

 

Do you need 3 shots or can you have more? I don't have my memory stick adaptor here at home with me (doh!) but was thinking of setting up the D70 on a tripod and taking say...8 bracketed shots. Wouldn't that just make the range even larger?

 

There's no rule, so you can take as many as you want (but you may just be wasting your memory space). But you shouldn't need more than 2 if you are certain about what exposure and effect you want in most circumstances.

 

Practicality comes into play.

If each bracket is 2 stops wide, say, your darkest pictures are going to be too underexposed to use, and your brightest will be too overexposed.

If your brackets are a third of a stop, the differences between two adjacent exposures may be too slight, and you'll only end up using every third frame.

Or so it would seem.

 

I have been using three shots 2 EV Apart so that one shot is 2 EV under and one is 2 EV over. I tried five shots at 1 EV which gives the same overall spread but it didn't seem to make enough difference to tell.

 

I can't seem to get this. I take 3 bracketed shots (-2, 0, 2) and then combine them and the resulting image is either way too dark or way to light. Am i missing something?

 

I just found a new (to me) function in Adobe Camera RAW 4.0 called fill light.

Seems to me like if can be used to create a photo with high dynamic range from a single exposure. Maybe not as good as a true merged/bracketed HDR image, but pretty cool nonetheless.

First photo is off the camera with no touching up, second is tweaked only in the Camera RAW toolkit.
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Pretty good

 

It looks a little cheesy... not anything as great as those beach shots Gemm posted. But for 30 seconds playing with the tool I think it has some potential.

 

Wow. That looks great! I wish Aperture had that.

 

A few I did today
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I'm loving those clouds, Mike.

One of these days I'll get off my butt and pull out ye olde tripod.

I always bracket my still shots anyway.

 

Thanks!
I haven't had much feed back so I'm not sure what other people think. I don't know if I'm under doing it or over doing it. I've seen some HDR images that look really cool but really fake. I'm trying to create as realistic looking HDR images as possible. I want it to look like a photograph, not a drawing or painting.

 

Please can someone tell me what a bracketed picture is and how do i take them?

 

A few before and afters
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Basically you take multiple shots of the same scene with various exposures. I tend to bracket with shutter speed (since aperture affects depth of focus), but sometimes I'll do it the other way (like if I'm trying to soften moving water).

It's best to do it with a tripod (especially if you are going to merge the pictures) so that you have the same exact framing for each shot.

Say you take a shot at f/16 (aperture) 1/125 (shutter speed). If you take the same shot two more times with your shutter speed set to 1/60 and then 1/250, you've just bracketed by 1 stop each way. The 1/60 will be twice as exposed (brighter) at the 1/125, and four times as exposed as the 1/250.

As to how I do it, I have an option in my camera menus where I tell it to take multiple shots over a stop range I define (usually 1). If you don't have that, you'll have to manually change your exposure settings.

 

In those it's hard to even tell. It's really only be useful when there is a high contrast between lights and darks in the same picture (e.g. those white clouds).

 

It really helps the Testarossa interior photo, don't you think?

 

Yah, it definitely helps in the shadows.

 

I was reading up on this last night as I finally got a dSLR! I'm loving every minute of this stuff, photography is addictive!

 

Here are a few places to start:

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hp_digital_photography/article/0,2033,DIY_13956_4158071,00.html

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/high-dynamic-range.htm

 

Just looking at the leather on the seat... yes, the difference is worth it!