HDR photography

[Pete Harcoff]

Anyone try out HDR (high dynamic range) photography? The idea is that you take multiple pictures of the same scene, but at different exposures. Then you can combine them into an HDR image that has a greater range of values.

Here's my first attempt. I did play with the colour balances in Photoshop to make it a little more funky.

And a slightly desaturated version:

 

[Pete Harcoff]

Another experiment with HDR:

 

[superduperblake]

Oh, really cool. Yeah one of my friends on deviantart did something with HDR, although I don't really see HOW it works. I have photoshop CS2, is there somethnig in there I use for the picture?


By the way, Awesome lens in the first picture. =X

 

[Pete Harcoff]

Oh, really cool. Yeah one of my friends on deviantart did something with HDR, although I don't really see HOW it works. I have photoshop CS2, is there somethnig in there I use for the picture?

It works by combining different level exposures to preserve details in both shadows and highlights. For example, in that second series I had posted, had I exposed for the detail in the window, then the room would have been pitch black. And had I exposed for the detail in the room, then the window would have been blown out. Instead, I used 6 different exposures at various levels to get detail in all parts of the image.

And while HDR can produce interesting pics, I find it does have its downsides. A lot of images can look very unnatural (particularly those at in bright sunlight) and it also has a tendancy to "flatten" an image. I've seen some really amazing indoor and landscape shots with HDR, however. When used right, it can produce amazing photos.

For Photoshop CS2, I think it has a "Merge to HDR" function somewhere in there. I used different software, though.

 

[superduperblake]

It works by combining different level exposures to preserve details in both shadows and highlights. For example, in that second series I had posted, had I exposed for the detail in the window, then the room would have been pitch black. And had I exposed for the detail in the room, then the window would have been blown out. Instead, I used 6 different exposures at various levels to get detail in all parts of the image.

And while HDR can produce interesting pics, I find it does have its downsides. A lot of images can look very unnatural (particularly those at in bright sunlight) and it also has a tendancy to "flatten" an image. I've seen some really amazing indoor and landscape shots with HDR, however. When used right, it can produce amazing photos.

For Photoshop CS2, I think it has a "Merge to HDR" function somewhere in there. I used different software, though.

And what software is that?

 

[Pete Harcoff]

And what software is that?

Photomatix.

 

[NiteClerk]

Neat!