ZeroPSI

Simply amazing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuckincustoms/

Dan Martin

I shoot a lot of HDR photos these days, but I go for a natural look rather than the compressed photomatix look. It's a great technique landscape work. I'm inspired by Tim Farrar's HDR work: http://www.farrarfocus.com/photograp...Landscapes.htm
Almost every (if not all) of his shots are HDR, even if they don't look like it.

Billiam

There's a decent read over at Digital Outback Photo about the planning and work that was involved in creating one of their HDR images.

http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_a107/essay.html

guia x

Great shots. I wish I can reach the skill level to take shots like those. I see what you mean Dan. I like that Tim Farrar guy's work as well. I personally like both techniques equally. I am just simply amazed at their photos.

Here is my first attempt at HDR. I only used three exposures. Would more exposures create better results? Please feel free to critique as it is my very first attempt and I would like to know what I need to improve on.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pgayatin/380300042/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/156/380300042_323add0ec0.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="Christmas Tree 2006" /></a>

danny25

I gotta learn how to do that one of these days. HDR photography seems to produce some of the best pictures I've ever seen.

Dan Martin

Looks good. I'd probably make the tree a little darker, but otherwise, things look sharp.

There's really two ways of composing an HDR photo:
Option 1) Compress the image so the detail in the highlights and shadows are displayed, at the expense of "graying" the image. There's much more information than what can be displayed in a print or a monitor, so the image will look more gray and unnatural. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a creative choice. I've seen some very cool images created this way, but it's getting a little "trendy" and overdone, IMO.

Used correctly, it can create a cool "cartoonish" effect. Check out this gallery on Flickr: /

Option 2) Use the stacked exposures to cancel noise and extract detail from shadows and highlights that would not normally be possible. This is the technique I use. The images are amazingly noise free and they really pop off the page.

I even use exposure stacking to remove noise from images that really don't need extended dynamic range. The more frames you shoot, the less noise you'll have. I screwed up when taking this shot on the weekend and accidently left my ISO set to 800. After stacking 6 exposures, the noise would only be visible at prints larger than 16" square.




I typically shoot 5 or 6 frames. Generally, I'll shoot -2ev, -1ev, 0ev, +1ev, +2ev, +3ev. If there are a lot of dark areas in the frame, I might take a +4ev or even +5ev shots. You need to have a frame that contains no highlight clipping, then every frame over that will just work to reducing noise in the shadows.

I find that even dull, overcast days that don't have a lot of dynamic range to begin with can benefit from an HDR process. Here's one from a recent trip to Albion Falls before the snow started:




Cloudy skies and sunrises all look great in HDR:











I could extract a lot more detail out of the clouds in the last three photos, but I chose a more natural look rather than a "hey, there's one of thos HDR photos" look.

Billiam

To ask the obvious question, I assume you're doing this with just shutter speed changes?

Dan Martin

Yep, I just shoot in manual and use the exposure bracket to take three shots (-2,-1,0), then I scroll to the right 9 clicks and fire off the exposures for +1, +2, and +3.

The 1-series bodies have a PC custom function that will let you expand the AEB to 7 shots instead of the typical 3 shots. I wish someone would hack the 30D's firmware to allow that feature.

ZeroPSI

So to do these HDR Images, you are actually just taking one image and creating three different types of tones out of it, then merging them, or you are taking three individual photos, and merging those?

I am confused on the process of how to create these.

Dan Martin

I take several shots at different exposures and blend them. Because noise is randomly distributed, the more photos you take, the more noise will be cancelled out.

If you shoot RAW, you can adjust a single exposure a little in either direction to extend the dynamic range. A single JPG has 8-bits of data per color, a RAW file might have as much as 10-bits. 5 or 6 stacked RAW files will get you up to ~15-bits. In simplest terms, more data = more dynamic range.

cl_jay

If I wanted to do an HDR with a group of people, would I have to tell them not to move while I'm taking the different shots?

What program do you use to stack the images?

Billiam

This of course begs the obvious question: what is the camera using when you have it adjust based on EV numbers? After all it can only change the same three settings that you can manually, right? So if I tell the camera to expose +1 EV, is it adjusting shutter speed, aperture, ISO, or some combination of all three?

I would think this would be particularly important to know with HDR shots since you wouldn't want the DoF changing between the exposures.

Dan Martin

AEB will only adjust shutter speed in any of the exposure modes. Even in Av, it adjust shutter speed.

Dan Martin

HDR with people would be next to impossible, but yes, you'd have to get them to hold perfectly still while taking the images. Your best bet would be to put it on AEB and self timer mode. It will count down for 2 or 10 seconds, then take 3 exposures.

HDR is really only for static images, but it would be interesting to see how your experiment turns out.

For software, Photomatix is probably the most popular: http://www.hdrsoft.com/

I use the Farrar Focus Digital Darkroom suite for Photoshop. Photoshop CS2 also has it's own HDR tool, but I really haven't had much luck with it though.

Dan Martin

I just googled and it appears that it does change aperature value if you AEB in Av mode. I could have sworn it just did shutter speed in all the modes... I'll have to confirm tonight.

Anyhow, always use Manual mode for AEB. I can confrim it just changes speeds in that mode, not aperture or ISO.

Crazy88

So if you take pictures with the different EV settings, I take it theres software to merge all of them together? Is there more to it than just merging them?

Dan Martin

As I posted a couple posts above you, you need software to blend them together:
Photomatix is probably the easiest solution of the bunch, especially if you just want to experiment with HDR images.

The FFDD script that I use for Photoshop is nice because it creates a layered composite so I can correct for movement between frames. This is great when you're shooting something like a beach or a river where motion is going to be an issue.

Billiam

I have to admit that it's kind of funny to me how these techniques are all the "new hotness" in digital photography. In the world of amateur astronomical imaging, people have been doing these same things for about seven or eight years.

Dan Martin

It's the new hotness because people are doing it on Flickr now.

moeronn

:fixed:

Some of the shots are really cool, but there is a fine line between the adding some dynamic range and turning it into a fantasy picture.

Stapler

Ah!. I was gonna ask about that. The 3 or four times I've tried with photoshop the pine tree in my yard gets quite funky.

Indeed, many of the pictures that I happen upon end up looking like something out of half life 2. Some people make nice art this way I suppose, but it isn't quite what I like.

wndrlst

Agreed! I really don't care for the in-your-face HDR images. I do like the more subtle ones like Dan described that just allow more detail to come out in the highlights and shadows, while keeping a natural look.

danny25

these are some of my favorite HDR images but they really don't look like HDR

Dan Martin

Ok, I just tested this on my 30D and here are my results:

ADEP: AEB changes shutter speed
Manual: AEB changes shutter speed
Av: AEB changes shutter speed (note, this is different than what my google search said, but confirms my previous thought).
Tv: AEB changes aperture
Program: AEB changes shutter speed

So there you have it.

Billiam

Thanks for the research Mr. Dan. I think I might do a bit of messing around myself tomarrow night. I want to find out if you can turn on mirror lockup with AEB or if the camera ends up droping the mirror between each exposure.

Dan Martin

Unfortunately AEB and MLU don't play too nicely together. If I were designing cameras, I'd make the mirror stay up throughout the bracket, but unfortunately it flips up and down from shot to shot. Depending on your drive mode, it can be extra annoying because you have to press the shutter once to flip up the mirror, once to take the shot, and a final time to flip it back down. Then repeat those three steps for each shot in the bracket.

Billiam

I am so there if Reichmann ever organizes the Mirror Lockup March on Canon.

Dan Martin

I'll bring the timbits.

guia x

Thanks Dan. I thought it might be too bright and over exposed, but I wasn't sure. I used Photoshop. That's what I thought everybody used. I didn't know about the other software. Are they better than Photoshop? I had alittle hard time using Photoshop so maybe giving the other software a shot is worth a try. Photomatrix has a free trial. How about the Farrar Focus Digital Darkroom suite? I guess since you use FFDDS that it is better but what are it's advantages over Photomatrix?

Anyway, I love the second picture in the woods. It's my favorite of the bunch. I just love the color and details. It has that Resident Evil feel to it. They are all very good though.

Black Tire

+1

ChodTheWacko

That makes sense, in retrospect.
The whole point of Tv is to shoot at a particular shutter speed.

ChodTheWacko

If you use AEB, timer, and shoot in raw, that should be a pretty good data set,
since you can also tweak the exposure via a good raw utility.

soopa

One of his latest shots is pretty much the most popular photo in the world today

srika

looks more like a painting

Mizouse

crazy, so my camera has a setting where it could take the exposure -2 stops and 0 and +2 stops is that what i could use for like HDR photos?

h2o-pr00f

Ive been trying to mess with HDR for a little while now, decided to try a quicky of the bouquet I made my gf tonight:





Question though, how does one create the "black and white" type of HDR like you took Dan? I have photoshop cs2 and photomatix if there are any specifics

danny25

AEB in the #2 menu

Billiam

Digital Outback recently put up a nice gallery of the HDR images they created from a trip to Alcatraz. FWIW, the gallery was created with Lightroom 1.0.

http://www.outbackphoto.com/galleries/LightInTheDark/

BadBadNeil

In one article they warned about the processor speed for rendering time needed and hard drive space. How serious is the processing for merging a single set of 3 raw images at say 8MP and how much hard drive space would be used?

I have a ton of shots that I wish I used HDR when I went to Puerto Rico, especially in the rainforest. Now I know for the next trip.

Mizouse

dang some of those pictures look crazy, and kinda fake/odd looking