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Author Topic: HDR  (Read 2832 times)

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« on: July 30, 2012, 17:46 »
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Well its a joy to find forums like this so i have joined just now.  I have been interested in photography for many many years. I remember with my first wage i bought my self a Zenith 10 i think it was and i loved it. I didnt take it much further than that. I have been interested on and off for many years and just over the last 18 months have been taking it seriously and started up a web site with my partner. We have done mostly events up to now and have generated a lot of interest in our images and have sold a few pictures and have a few leads on people wanting pictures taken for their business. What advice can you give for people just starting out trying to make a go in the world of photography. 


« Reply #1 on: July 30, 2012, 17:55 »
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I was meant to ask about HDR photography and hit post a little early LOL. I have been experimenting with HDR and i get some very good results but seem to have problems with things that move ie trees. I was taking some shots over the weekend for a relative and when i prosesed them the foliage was blurred. I guess if you have moving objects in the foreground its going to be difficult. Would i have been better to use an ND grad filter to expose for the sky correctly. I was trying to get a picture of my friends house and garden to show the size of the available space so i either had to use HDR or an ND filter. I wish now i had gone for the filter option.   

« Reply #2 on: July 30, 2012, 18:27 »
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Not sure which software you're using, but within limits, Photomatix is pretty decent at removing ghosting as a result of grass/leaves/etc. moving in a multi-exposure HDR. You indicate the areas that have ghosting as part of the process - it's not perfect (I just finished cleaning up some areas in trees that it didn't manage to handle, but it wasn't bad)

HDR will do something slightly different from a ND filter, but that's certainly an option to consider for a very windy/mobile situation. This forum is focused on selling images as stock, and with HDR the main issue there is not going crazy with the surreal look or you'll find most of the agencies won't take the image.

Welcome to the forum - do you have a portfolio at any of the stock sites yet?

« Reply #3 on: July 30, 2012, 19:12 »
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You are naive.
Sorry to say.
First. the most important thing in photography and earning money in photography is style.
You need to have a style.

And out of all techniques and fancy equipment, HDR is only one.
Blurred trees? yes there is.
Use them to your advantage.

steheap

  • Author of best selling "Get Started in Stock"

« Reply #4 on: July 30, 2012, 21:11 »
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Well, it didn't take long for our new member to be insulted...

If all you are trying to do is to properly expose the sky and the darker ground, you can use two of your HDR exposures and simply mask the best view of the sky onto the best view of the ground. For real HDR shots which try to compress all sorts of dynamic range into a single shot, the movement of trees can be a real issue. One thing I have had some success with recently is to align and get rid of ghosting in a merge to HDR in Photoshop and then save as the HDR file. Then open that HDR file in your favorite HDR program (I use HDR Efex from Nik) and process from there. Alternatively, you can get the best HDR result that you can and blend one of the images of the leaves back into that shot with a mask in Photoshop. Hope this is clearer than I think it is!

Welcome to the forum

Steve

« Reply #5 on: July 30, 2012, 21:33 »
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You are naive.
Sorry to say.
First. the most important thing in photography and earning money in photography is style.
You need to have a style.

And out of all techniques and fancy equipment, HDR is only one.
Blurred trees? yes there is.
Use them to your advantage.

It's kinda hard to talk about everything at once, no?


« Reply #7 on: July 31, 2012, 00:59 »
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I was rude, sorry, I apollogize.

Its just that.... HDR doesnt solve any problems. Well, it does solve exposure problems and introduces blur problems.

HDR is a tool you have in your photographic toolbox. with advantages and disadvantages. HDR can help you make a photo under certain conditions, usually when the light is  out of reach of the sensors dynamic range.
HDR can also be too time consuming.
With HDR you have the oppertunity, to develop a style via your tonemapping .

Moving things blur, when the frames are put together, various techniques can repair that, but best is to do HDR in calm weather and with models who can stand still.
OR you can use the blur as in your advantage, blur might sometimes add to a picture.
HDR makes water look realistic, and is excellent for waves and clouds in landscapes.

RacePhoto

« Reply #8 on: July 31, 2012, 10:59 »
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You can create a nice HDR image with one raw photo.  Underexpose it in Lightroom and export, Overexpose it and export and expose it just right and export.  Combine the three in photoshop the way you like it and you won't have the ghosting you mentioned. 

That being said, I used the HDR mode in my camera before a big concert festival was about to start.  It got picked up by the Lumineers  and shared on their FB page before I realized there was guy in the pic that had been walking when I shot.  As a result he was chopped in half!  Oops!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150992993875073&set=a.423972735072.182978.46835910072&type=1&theater


In which case it's not really HDR it's tone mapping?  ???

Chopped people and half objects, yes I know them well from stitched panoramas. LOL I still love doing the big images and composites.

What others have said applies. HDR is just one useful technique, and some cameras have multiple exposure bracketing, one click, which makes it even easier. 1Gx has a HDR setting built in!

Personally HDR is over used and over adulterated and becomes nothing but a "trick" shot. (like some over used filters) Done properly it's subtle, extends dynamic range and is a potentially useful tool.

« Reply #9 on: July 31, 2012, 11:10 »
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Blurred trees can be quite beautiful.

HDR - and the combining of multiple images in general - can be a very interesting way of removing people from urban shots, for example pedestrians crossing in front of landmarks. 


 

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