HDR Processing

[Lost Canadian]

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for shooting and processing HDR images for a natural look. I took a few test shots yesturday while walking the dog, just to have something to play with and I'm not over the top happy with the output. Seems like HDR processing creates a lot of noise, and actually getting a nice balanced natural look is a lot harder then you'd think. Anyway, if you have any tips please share. These are the shots, do you think they look natural?

 

[ywen]

Well I don't think either photo were the best inputs for a successful HDR. Looks like they were taken in overcast situations, where a properly exposed RAW file with some clever RAW processing would have fetched you plenty of latitude.

Any high contrast scene would be much better candidate for HDR. Just shoot a few exposures and adjust the balance to your liking..

 

[smslavin]

I haven't done a lot of it as I still haven't quite decided whether I'm a fan of it or not. If it's done correctly, I think it's great but most of the examples I've seen are so over the top. Scott Kelby sometimes has a decent tip or two on HDR. Here's one he posted a couple of months back. Here's another decent write-up.

What software are you using? I've heard good things about Photomatix as well as the new Nik Lightroom plug-in.

 

[taco2go]

What are you using Trevor?
A while back I tried Photomatix, and used it to blend 3-4 exposures. Never quite liked the end result. The best, and most natural results I have seen (eg. The Timecatcher folks etc.) is by those that use some variation of manual exposure blending in Photoshop, via layers and masks.

 

[Tucson T4R]

They look pretty good to me but I agree with Ywen about the overcast day not being the best candidate.

I am interested in the subject as you are though. Even though I have the latest Photomatix release I have not been happy with some of my attempts. Too much noise and artifacts to deal with and by working the original RAW file I ended up with a cleaner image that I was happier with.

That being said I think the ones I was not happy with were also overcast and the artifact problem surfaced more in the cloudy overcast skies and smooth water in the foreground.

I need to find some high dynamic range opportunities and play with it a bit more. I'm interested in any tips others may have on Trevor's questions since my goal is also to have natural looking HDR with the benefits of the increased range but without the overdone obvious HDR look that is frequently the result.

Here's one of my attempts with Photmatix.

 

[ywen]

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/blended_exposures.shtml

 

[Lost Canadian]

Thanks guys. I'm using Nik's new plug-in for lightroom. Joash, that's what I'm actually afraid of. I don't really want to spend the big bucks on PS just to do blends but it may be time for me to get in line and just do it...

As for my examples, I agree the second shot could have been handled with a single shot but the first shot actually wasn't overcast at that time. If you look behind the trees you'll see blues and yellows in the sky. Here, in the first shot below you can see how the scene was rendered with just a single exposure. As you can tell the sky behind the trees is blown out. To bring that in line an exposure of -2 stops was required, seen in the second shot.

Keep the info coming.

End result again.

 

[ywen]

Any scene with high contrast shadow lines will most benefit from the HDR process.

In your 1st example, okay so the background and foreground represented a large range of exposures, however, since there is no strong shadow evident in the shot, the merged result is an exposure that looks like it was taken in an overcast day.

 

[ywen]

Here's a shot where I didn't use HDR (multiple exposures) but I did apply a healthy application of multiple exposure adjustments for the lighter background and darker foreground. Frankly for this scene, I don't think HDR with multiple exposures would have given me anymore latitude than what I needed. My 5D's RAW file had plenty of data to work with.

 

[taco2go]

I don't really want to spend the big bucks on PS just to do blends but it may be time for me to get in line and just do it...

I'm intimidated by taking that step as well- but there seems to be a lot of digital developing that can be done beyond blending bracketed exposures. There's a book I recently bought [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Landscape-Photography-Footsteps-Masters/dp/0240812433"]Digital Landscape Photography: In the Footsteps of Ansel Adams and the Masters[/ame], mainly for the quality of photographs it features, and the references to adams, weston etc. .
This dude features some shots where he manually blends exposures with different DOFs, - think solution to low light scene featuring foreground with wind blown wildflowers.

 

[Honu]

for blending exposures look up

enfuse gui

did not read the links so not sure if it was mentioned in those ? but its very good with lots of control

the shots have to be exposed not just brighter and darker but actual exposure though

 

[JohnLemieuxPhotos]

shooting and processing HDR images for a natural look

Use luminosity masks in Photoshop

 

[Lost Canadian]

Any scene with high contrast shadow lines will most benefit from the HDR process.

In your 1st example, okay so the background and foreground represented a large range of exposures, however, since there is no strong shadow evident in the shot, the merged result is an exposure that looks like it was taken in an overcast day.

Thanks ywen, nice shot by the way. I'm aware of latitude adjustment with single exposures and when I'll most likely use HDR (not often), the shots above are not intended to be representative of anything other than an experiment. I'm principally looking at how to best apply HDR should I run into a scenario where filters are of no real value and the exposure is well beyond what my camera is capable of.

So question, is it best to minimize the number of shots used to create an HDR image say, 2-3 with larger EV spacing or is it better to take more shots, say 4+ bracketed at smaller increments?

 

[Lost Canadian]

the shots have to be exposed not just brighter and darker but actual exposure though

Explain. So expose just for just to the edge of the very brightest and very darkest portions of a scene ensuring you encompuse all the mids as well? Sorry if that's a dumb question, if its a single exposure I can typically do those well but this HDR stuff is foreign territory for me.

 

[ywen]

Here's a detailed breakdown of a shot I made from a single RAW exposure. Regrettably I didn't take multiple exposures here. However, I pushed the exposure in LR and then combined them back in photoshop utilizing manual masking of the various layers. Had I taken multiple exposure and exposed for not just the sky, I would have ended up with much cleaner terrain. I noticed the OP is not using photoshop. Such a result is only possible with Photoshop or some other photo editing program with layers capability.

original shot:

hand painted layer mask for the original exposure

original shot with exposure pushed

hand painted layer mask:

Stacking it up in Photoshop.

final composite:

(if you look carefully, you can see a climber's light to the right of bridalveil falls.)