What do you think of HDR Photography?

Do you like HDR photography?

  • Total voters
    14
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
I've been experimenting with HDR photography for the past few hours (downloaded a trial of Photomatix Pro). What do you guys think of HDR photography? I think it's good for some things such as landscapes but I've found it's very easy to overdo and can result in weird looking images. Just been on Google and found some great examples of overdone HDR images, lol. :p

What do you lot think and do you ever use HDR?

Edit: I should state that 'yes' in the poll means 'it's good for everything' and 'no' in the poll means 'it's good for nothing'.
 
Last edited:
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
It definitely has it's place, it works great for increasing the dynamic range of a photograph. I think it's best used for situations such where there is a bright light such as when you are taking landscape photos and don't want the sky blown out.
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah those were my first attempts, I'm trying to keep them a bit more natural now. ;)
 
Geoff

Geoff

VIP Member
I love this kind of HDR:

hdr-sunset-4.jpg


Just kidding :D
 
tremmor

tremmor

Well-Known Member
Like the pictures but my question is what is HDR?
I have a Cannon S3IS. does this have the feature?
 
mr.doom

mr.doom

Member
tremmor said:
Like the pictures but my question is what is HDR?
I have a Cannon S3IS. does this have the feature?
Click to expand...

HDR means High Dynamic Range. That means that you need to take several photos of the same subject, without moving the camera - all in different exposures. From underexposed, through normal to overexposed. When you merge them, the software will take the details in highlights (like the sky) from the underexposed photo, details in shadows (like ground, or the room) from the overexposed one. The rest is taken from normal exposures and so on.

Some cameras do have that option, to spare you merging on a computer, but sadly your camera does not. Not all is lost though. Basically, put the camera on the tripod (or something flat and hard), put it in Aperture Priority Mode (AV), set the Aperture to 8 or 11. Shoot normal photo. Use exposure compensation, change the value to -1. Shoot. Make sure the camera doesn't move when you change values. Do another shot for +1. Merge in Photoshop or Photomatix (there are other options too).

To answer the original question, I like HDR. It gives you creative possibilities beyond normal photography. It was never meant to look extremely photoelectrically. Still, with some practice, you can make it as close as possible. Or be artistic and experiment. I think either one is good. Just do not overdo it.

Here is the link to an artistic version I've done: http://500px.com/photo/10865099

Here is the link to natural looking landscape: http://500px.com/photo/10865019

I guess it's about what do you want to achieve.
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
HDR has it's place. Some are good, some are bad.

Okay:
550793_10151277777316349_1207993588_n.jpg


Ick
417290_10151277777106349_1694413600_n.jpg


Good
388907_10151277777596349_1647769439_n.jpg


Not bad
246478_10151277779701349_1710351119_n.jpg
 
vroom_skies

vroom_skies

VIP Member
As with everything it has it's place. I personally like very few photos that are blatantly over the top, but there are some that do look pretty nice.

I personally use it to fill a need; such as when you have no other option to get the result you desire.
These are two that hdr fit need:


ls-75.jpg


ls-11.jpg
 
Punk

Punk

Moderator
Staff member
vroom_skies said:
As with everything it has it's place. I personally like very few photos that are blatantly over the top, but there are some that do look pretty nice.

I personally use it to fill a need; such as when you have no other option to get the result you desire.
These are two that hdr fit need:


ls-75.jpg


ls-11.jpg
Click to expand...

These are perfect example of what I feel is good HDR :)
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
voyagerfan99 said:
The railroad one is good Jason :good:
Click to expand...

Cheers. It was getting a lot of comments on Flickr I noticed. People seem to like it... :D

Here are more of my experimental HDRs (the photos below and the railway photo above are just HDR remakes of photos I took in January, the one of the church above was intended to be HDR when I took it the other day).


Chapel by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr


Wast Water by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr


Snowy Dreams in High Dynamic Range by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr

So they look a bit more natural.

By the way, feel free to showcase your HDRs too! :p
 
speedyink

speedyink

VIP Member
HDR's have their place. Not a huge fan of the overdone ones, but in the right application they can look cool. I mostly like HDR for keeping everything exposed. It's nice to be able to bring out details that would otherwise be lost. The whole "Glow" effect thing is an entirely different style of HDR.

Here's an HDR of mine where the mission was just to get more details in

stephen_by_speedyink-d4vm3d2.jpg
 
spirit

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Punk said:
This one works perfectly. I'm not a fan of the others, but that's just me :)
Click to expand...

Yeah in the original photo the sky was really blown out, but by using HDR, I was able to get some details back into the sky. :)

By the way that one wasn't taken with my D-SLR. It was taken last August with my Fuji S4000... which I haven't used since I got my D-SLR. :D
 
Punk

Punk

Moderator
Staff member
spirit said:
Yeah in the original photo the sky was really blown out, but by using HDR, I was able to get some details back into the sky. :)

By the way that one wasn't taken with my D-SLR. It was taken last August with my Fuji S4000... which I haven't used since I got my D-SLR. :D
Click to expand...

I'd like to try HDR, especially for astrophotography, do you know any good tutorial? What software do you use also?
 
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