Playing around with HDR

JCL · #1 03-13-2010, 09:10 PM

The title says it all. Seeing some recent posts here on the subject, and knowing very little about it, I thought of giving it a try.

This is with the trial version of Photomatix, hence the watermarks. I will buy it now, and get clean finished shots.

This was shot with a Nikon D70, shooting regular jpg files. Lens was a Nikkor AF 80-200 F2.8 ED, hand held, at 80 mm; 1/200 sec. Autobracketing of three shots; regular exposure, and +/- 2 stops, in multi-shot mode. The D70 doesn't have much of a buffer, so it probably shoots at around 1 frame per second.

The first shot is with no processing, straight out of the camera. Following are three HDR shots, all processed in Photomatix. I did a regular shot, a more extensively processed shot, and a smoothed out shot. All were saved as jpgs, and later downsized significantly for posting here.

Comments and suggestions welcome. MD, your turn now!

motordavid · #2 03-13-2010, 09:43 PM

JCL,
I like the straight shot and the last processed shot the best.
Pretty good scene and I esp like how the processing "enriches"
the houses, street scene, etc., beyond the marina in mid ground.

I will wait to buy the program, and then give it a whirl, when we
get back to the mtn...there are few opportunities for "scenes"
here in SW FLA, unless one has an air boat or chest waders, lol!
And, I think "scenes" are more adaptable to this processing, for
effect. Well done, my friend, esp for first images out of the cam!
BR, mD

ravenheart · #3 03-15-2010, 08:36 AM

Yep - nicely done

I like the 3rd HDR pic for sure.

Can't wait till HDR starts showing up in cameras - though for now I guess bracketing will have to do.

E61Silver · #4 03-15-2010, 10:36 AM

I like the first shot as well, great photo and my one of my favorite subject matters (boating).

vegasX5 · #5 03-15-2010, 03:36 PM

I actually like the first shot the best - it's a great photo. The last HDR is the best of the enhanced, but it looks almost blurry or something I can't put my finger on it. It almost seems like the whites in the background are a little overexposed. Also I think because you can see the long shadows being cast by the houses, poles, trees, people, etc on the land make it appear as though it should be much later in the day and hence much darker than the objects in the foreground appear. It's a nice shot though!

Yii · #6 03-15-2010, 03:55 PM

the last shot makes me feel like i am looking out and the sun is slightly hurting my eyes lol i never had that happen b4 looking at a picture.

X-cellent · #7 03-15-2010, 04:52 PM

I agree with md..the first looks the best, but it is nice to get some brightening of the background. One odd thing, there must be a building reflecting some light back at the subject (catamaran shows an odd lighting on the bow inconsistant with the angles of sunlight on the rest of the picture) that may also be throwing things off a bit as well when it gets into being processed

JCL · #8 03-15-2010, 07:12 PM

Thanks for the comments guys.

The shot was taken at 5:20 pm.

I am not sure about light reflection onto the boats, as I was across the inlet shooting; it could be general reflection off the water I suppose.

The original shot was a 1.5 mB jpeg. The processes shots are 4.5 mB jpegs. The shots posted here are all 300 kB resized views, so there is a lot of detail lost in the process. That would contribute to the blurriness I suspect. Fresh out of processing, they look pretty sharp.

Thanks again.

noncom23 · #9 03-16-2010, 08:48 PM

I like the third shot. Bright colors, deeper tones...

PersonaNonGrata · #10 03-17-2010, 03:30 AM

I actually like the original (first) shot. Posterizing the look just takes away from the original. Most of the processed photos wind up looking hazy or foggy. At least that's my opinion. There are some great samples in the Photomatix gallery. I like the simple enhancements rather then the full cartoon look.