I have fallen in love with HDR, I know some hate it with a passion but when I look at HDR images it lights that fire. Please share your HDR images and any hints & tips.
This is actually HDR, manually done in each and every way - I have to set the camera manually for the different exposures and then I'm merging them on GIMP - Luminance doesn't work on Linux GIMP, or didn't the last time I checked. I love the way you can get the foreground and sky the way you can see them, but I tend to try for subtle when I'm doing it
I love HDR ~ this is just a tonemapped single jpeg in PS so not technically full HDR ~ but the effect can be just as effective [I think] ... would love to hear what others think
@alisonp - I am curious as to what the original looks like. Why did you have to tone map this one? I keep thinking I'm seeing a bit of haloing around the balloon. Might just be my monitor. I might have tried using a circular polarizer filter for this shot. Might have acheived similar results in camera having used the polarizer.
I do like the bit of 3D effect in the image. The balloon really seems to pop out from the clouds.
@mikehamm the original is very flat ... I think tonemapping is my 'thing' to do at the moment [LOL] ... I am very much still learning everything ~ I have a polarizing filter, somewhere, but have yet to venture into using it ... I don't think it is your monitor ~ I can see a slight halo around the balloon ~ guess again this is my inexperience :-) ...
In landscape photography HDR is often the only way to have sky and foreground within the dynamic range. However, I find it very difficult to preserve a natural look in HDR.
subtle HDR tends to keep the overall photo within normal dynamic range, or close to it, so I do prefer HDR to capitalize on the range. I agree that halos and grunge and unnatural colors can be off putting at times, but sometimes, HDR is the only way to capture something that resembles what your eyes see when grab for the camera, as done here:
I took regular shots of the scene. I even tried various settings to try to get the drama I was watching unfold in the sky to show up... the only way I could do it was to point directly at the sky and have nothing in the foreground, but that took away the context, so I went with HDR, and to be honest, the clouds still don't match up perfectly to what my naked eye witnessed, but it comes super close. I think storm clouds just need HDR to do them justice most of the time.
I have to confess to overuse of HDR sometimes but I do love the effects you can get with just a tad to completely over the top and it gives such detail and drama to a photo.
@jonesp That is amazing! I have Photomatix and tried to use the painterly option to get this effect but all I got was tons of noise. I used 3 actual photos taken at different shutterspeeds, I'm not sure what I did wrong :(
I love HDRs that is used sparingly, and have always been amazed by people who get great results without overusing it . Here's an attempt to capture my old campus' library. :)
One of my recent ones (it could do with a bit more work):
I'm not altogether sure how I feel about HDR. Jens makes the most pertinent observation to my mind about keeping all components of an image within the range, but it's generally at the expense of a natural look in the case of landscapes. Some of the algorithms seem to work well for things like still life, and act as exposure enhancers without adding that painterly effect, which comes in handy:
@shannew I have Luminance 2.2.1 running under Ubuntu 11.04 without problems, but had to search high and low for the package (and the Hugin image stack alignment widget). What OS are you using? If all else fails, you should be able to build from source, but far better to track down an appropriate package with all the dependencies if at all possible.. I usually just use Luminance to generate the HDR, tonemap and save it, then move on to Gimp for fine tuning.
@automaticslim Linux 10.4 - and yes, 11.04 is the most recent but it's on a laptop with not enough spec to go up. And I did try over Easter - when my tame geek (engineer daughter) was around - and neither of us could get it to work
Deck of Cruise Ship at Sunrise really did look like that. The deck was glistening and the colors were glowing. The HDR recorded better than a regular shot:
Tucson from the Air was HDR from an iPhone app. It didn't look realistic, but some purple & blue colors that emerged seemed intriguing and I decided to make them even stronger. Then the whole image became sort of ominous:
I have another, much easier option for you though, basically a way to automate what you're already doing. It's an exposure blending script for Gimp 2.3 and upwards: http://registry.gimp.org/node/6708
Download the .scm file, and put it in the ~/.gimp2.x/scripts folder. The directory is hidden by default, so you'll need to check the "show hidden files" box in the file manager (unless you care to move it in a terminal). Restart Gimp and it should appear as an item in one of the menus, probably "filters". It's worth trying this script - it's good, and you can tweak the result to taste by varying layer opacities.
@shannew Hahaha! Probably best to download the script and play with that for now I reckon - less potential for hair-pulling frustration. I just uploaded an image made with exposure blend:
It's rather good at hiding the joins ;-)
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For something different, I tried a b&w conversion of a 3 image HDR. HDR Express.
A more recent one from our Rocky Mountain National Park vacation. 3 image HDR of Dream Lake. Also processed with HDR Express.
And many, many more in my project.
I do like the bit of 3D effect in the image. The balloon really seems to pop out from the clouds.
I took regular shots of the scene. I even tried various settings to try to get the drama I was watching unfold in the sky to show up... the only way I could do it was to point directly at the sky and have nothing in the foreground, but that took away the context, so I went with HDR, and to be honest, the clouds still don't match up perfectly to what my naked eye witnessed, but it comes super close. I think storm clouds just need HDR to do them justice most of the time.
I have to confess to overuse of HDR sometimes but I do love the effects you can get with just a tad to completely over the top and it gives such detail and drama to a photo.
Some HDR images are WAY over done. The images I scrolled through to get here are just right, so beautiful.
(The cat is HDR, the rest isn't.)
I'm not altogether sure how I feel about HDR. Jens makes the most pertinent observation to my mind about keeping all components of an image within the range, but it's generally at the expense of a natural look in the case of landscapes. Some of the algorithms seem to work well for things like still life, and act as exposure enhancers without adding that painterly effect, which comes in handy:
@shannew I have Luminance 2.2.1 running under Ubuntu 11.04 without problems, but had to search high and low for the package (and the Hugin image stack alignment widget). What OS are you using? If all else fails, you should be able to build from source, but far better to track down an appropriate package with all the dependencies if at all possible.. I usually just use Luminance to generate the HDR, tonemap and save it, then move on to Gimp for fine tuning.
Tucson from the Air was HDR from an iPhone app. It didn't look realistic, but some purple & blue colors that emerged seemed intriguing and I decided to make them even stronger. Then the whole image became sort of ominous:
I have another, much easier option for you though, basically a way to automate what you're already doing. It's an exposure blending script for Gimp 2.3 and upwards: http://registry.gimp.org/node/6708
Download the .scm file, and put it in the ~/.gimp2.x/scripts folder. The directory is hidden by default, so you'll need to check the "show hidden files" box in the file manager (unless you care to move it in a terminal). Restart Gimp and it should appear as an item in one of the menus, probably "filters". It's worth trying this script - it's good, and you can tweak the result to taste by varying layer opacities.
Hope this is of some help :-)
It's rather good at hiding the joins ;-)