HDR Photography.....or sort of

Former Member

Only using one photo I followed a tutorial and came out with these results.

What do you think I need to improve on?
I don't really like the middle two.

Former Member

Their appearance nauseates me.

Former Member

Looks way to bright and somehow comic-y.

Former Member

I think without HDR they all good be decent photographs, and the only one that suits HDR a small amount is the waterfall, don't get me wrong you can get some decent HDR shots, I just think you need to chose the subject better instead of just doing it with everything (thats what it seems like)

Former Member

It is useful to experiment with doing it to everything, to get a feel for what works.

I just don't like it at all - but then I think most people have the colour dial on their TVs turned up way to high.

Former Member

I don't really like the unnatural look. Can you try changing the settings to reduce the local contrast when tone mapping? They are also too saturated and too bright. HDR probably suits the photos with the sky in best, as they have the widest range of tones.

Don't want to hijack your thread at all, but here's an example of how I'd use HDR (with a bracketed exposure of +-1):

Former Member

wooooooooah wrote: »

HDR probably suits the photos with the sky in best, as they have the widest range of tones.

Don't want to hijack your thread at all, but here's an example of how I'd use HDR (with a bracketed exposure of +-1):

I think you've got it perfect there, I think Mr Ferria is probably using a wider exposure range and could be improved alot with it made smaller

Former Member

wooooah
Tone Mapping? I've searched the internet and I still don't fully understand what it is. I only use Photoshop to process the photos into HDR (I follow a tutorial from the internet)

curly_boy
Actually I'm only using one photo and not a 3 or 4 photos of different exposures.

Original Photo - (I know the sky is a little washed out)


HDR




I like this bit in the waterfall

Former Member

Mr.Ferrari09 wrote: »

curly_boy
Actually I'm only using one photo and not a 3 or 4 photos of different exposures.

So, technically, not true HDR photography, which is probably why their not working quite as well as they could have
I've said this before and I'll say it again, invest in a tripod or if you have one use it if you want to do this type of photography, without it you can only use 1 photography and the results are usually terrible

Former Member

Mr.Ferrari09 wrote: »

wooooah
Tone Mapping? I've searched the internet and I still don't fully understand what it is. I only use Photoshop to process the photos into HDR (I follow a tutorial from the internet)

Based on reading that tutorial, what you're doing isn't anything to do with HDR. The tutorial tells you how to make an effect by changing the colours and brightness. It seems like it aims to emulate some of the undesirable effects from actual HDR images when they're over-done, so calling it 'HDR' is a bit misleading.

Read the Wikipedia page on HDR, and also the one on tone mapping. Tone mapping is a technique that allows high dynamic range image data to be represented on a low dynamic range format (print or screen). In a scene with a high dynamic range, for example where there are both areas of shadow and bright light, your final image would usually either have to be 'clipped' (lose information) at the blacks or whites. With tone mapping you can retain colour information in both shadows and highlights.