I'm amaze on how beautiful HDR pictures are. Any tips/suggestions you have for me?
I'm still new to HDR, well, I'm new to a lot of things since I only have a month experience with DSLR camera.
@calumpit Jon - HDR Efex is amazing, and works much better than the built-in HDR in Photoshop. There are still times when I use PS and HDR Efex. If you're looking for low cost/free, there are a few open source and crippleware versions out there. The only one I found that worked the way I wanted it to was "qtpfsgui" - horrible name, great software. It took some playing around, but this is what I created with it:
I might process it through HDR Efext to compare, but I'm pretty happy with the first one.
@meshinka Thanks for sharing. Do you know how much times you can use the code they give you if you buy it? I have a laptop and 1 desktop. I'd love to have them in both. Do I need to buy it seperately?
@willprentice Wow, impressive edit and picture. Thanks for sharing. I will try it out. I tried the photomatix trial version. I liked it but the only negative side is that it says photomatix on the picture. Ill look for qtpfsgui. Do you know if its trusted?
Does PS elements 9 have HDR or is it only CS?
I'm still very new to HDR photography, but I foresee it becoming my new addiction already!!!
Allan Warren @brizmako helped me out by giving a few pointers how to manually take the photos to then put together as a HDR image see http://365project.org/wadey/365/2011-03-23 for his "how to" for that... Allan does some amazing HDR shots, as does @pixelchix & @ericmabalot... they are the ones (off top of my head) that inspire me with their HDRs.
I just have a compact camera for the time being so each shot had to be done individually & then I combined them all in Photomatix. I basically did very quick automatic render options in Photomatix, but I believe you'd be able to make the adjustments in the program rather than using Lightroom or Photoshop to 'tweak' them like I'm (uneducatedly) likely to do...
I went out on the weekend & had my first photowalk with the aim of focusing on HDR photography...
This was my first attempt... (5 shot HDR)
(there's a few things i'd change or fix, but was told it was pretty good for my first)
& then this one was created later that same day when I had more time to think about it & work on it a little more (note: this also had minor, increase of contrast & vignetting in Lightroom to boost it a little) but it's my 2nd & I'm very proud of it!!! (5 Shot HDR)
Hope that leads you in a helpful direction - but only just learning myself I can only really tell you who might be helpful & who's helped me! Good luck!!!! ;-)
@calumpit I don't believe Elements has any HDR capabilities.
The biggest danger of HDR is overdoing it. I find that many people use it as an effect, just like using a filter. Wadey's second example is great use of HDR - it looks natural and has good detail in the shadows and highlights.
I downloaded Photomatix Pro 4 to have a go today.
Here is my submarine photo. Took 3 photos, each 1.5 stops different and loaded it into Photomatix, clicked on tone mappping, fiddled with settings and this is what I got.
Very happy with results.
Photomatix 4 is the way to go. But you allways have to take 3 shots with auto bracketing. Editing a single shot with a hdr effect will never make it real hdr
@scrapnyak@spaceman@wadey Do you shoot in jpeg or RAW?
I was trying out the light version of photomatix and my pictures seems to be noisy/grainy. What am I doing wrong?
Might I suggest http://www.ohanaware.com/hdrtistpro/. About a third of the price of others. 15 day trial. Really decent alignment. In response to Chris about film- I really wish film had the EV that a 15 f stop ranged HDR photo has. Some made a comment about the grainyness/gritiness of the end results. The HDR process will really bring out any noise in the original. Couple of options. Run the photos through a de-noise program. Also, run your end result through the same. The most important thing/common thread I see here is the true excitement people are seeing in their work. Don't ever let anyone tell you that your photo is wrong. If you like it, it's good. Another good source http://www.facebook.com/hdrphotosafaris. Daily photos and tips.
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There is also HDR Efex pro (photoshop plugin) that got good reviews in last months Shutterbug magazine
I might process it through HDR Efext to compare, but I'm pretty happy with the first one.
Does PS elements 9 have HDR or is it only CS?
Here's my first edit. Still need to practice.
Allan Warren @brizmako helped me out by giving a few pointers how to manually take the photos to then put together as a HDR image see http://365project.org/wadey/365/2011-03-23 for his "how to" for that... Allan does some amazing HDR shots, as does @pixelchix & @ericmabalot... they are the ones (off top of my head) that inspire me with their HDRs.
I just have a compact camera for the time being so each shot had to be done individually & then I combined them all in Photomatix. I basically did very quick automatic render options in Photomatix, but I believe you'd be able to make the adjustments in the program rather than using Lightroom or Photoshop to 'tweak' them like I'm (uneducatedly) likely to do...
I went out on the weekend & had my first photowalk with the aim of focusing on HDR photography...
This was my first attempt... (5 shot HDR)
(there's a few things i'd change or fix, but was told it was pretty good for my first)
& then this one was created later that same day when I had more time to think about it & work on it a little more (note: this also had minor, increase of contrast & vignetting in Lightroom to boost it a little) but it's my 2nd & I'm very proud of it!!! (5 Shot HDR)
Hope that leads you in a helpful direction - but only just learning myself I can only really tell you who might be helpful & who's helped me! Good luck!!!! ;-)
The biggest danger of HDR is overdoing it. I find that many people use it as an effect, just like using a filter. Wadey's second example is great use of HDR - it looks natural and has good detail in the shadows and highlights.
http://www.photoxels.com/photomerge-exposure-hdr-on-photoshop-elements-8/ @willprentice @calumpit
For fake HDR, I use Photomatix.
Here is my submarine photo. Took 3 photos, each 1.5 stops different and loaded it into Photomatix, clicked on tone mappping, fiddled with settings and this is what I got.
Very happy with results.
I was trying out the light version of photomatix and my pictures seems to be noisy/grainy. What am I doing wrong?
I like this because it's not overdone but it brings out the texture in the wood nicely.