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First Shot at HDR & Questions

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InfiniteGSX

InfiniteGSX

20+ Year Contributor
3,183
15
Dec 10, 2002
Tijeras, New Mexico
I'm not exactly sure what to do here. I took a few shots without moving the camera, but changing some brightness's n stuff like that. Then I merge them with Photoshops HDR thing and I play with the saturation and this is what I come up with:
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Can someone enlighten me on how to acomplish the HDR Effect? I have some HP 4.1mp camera right now and I'm just eagar to learn and take some "WoW" shots of my car near grassy fields and on the twisties in the mountains. Can someone please help me...
 
Well, from what I've read, Photoshop's HDR feature is not the greatest.

I tried to use it once and it came out like yours - very "fake". I've played with Photomatix once and it seems much better and gives you more control. But I'm sure there are some tutorials out there for the PS feature. I prefer my HDR images to look real with a bit of pop and not really overdone.

When you take pictures with a camera that doesn't have bracketing, you want to do one image exposed correctly, and then one or two in either direction (over and underexposed). Then you'll have to merge the images and balance them so that you get the highlight pops from the overexposed and the shadow pop from the underexposed. Then play with all the typical Photoshop elements to tweak it.
 
Well I kinda like it when it comes to cars, and makes the paint look like chrome with red candy LOL... But From others I've seen, Of like clouds and pavement.... I'm still not getting it. Ok. What exactly do you mean overexposed and underexposed? What would I look for inside my camera? My camera is just a M407 HP Photosmart. If I have a tripod, is the only time I can get good photos out of it, and I usually only use it to take update photos of my car for myspace or ABQ-DSM. This shot here I only changed the EV Compensation a little and I merged the HDR stuff and messed with color fixes and messed with the Saturation. Cars look good, a little out there, but I want the trees, and the gravel and pavement and clouds to pop also.
 
Oh. So I am doing it right... The rest is prob just the quality of my camera.

I'm gonna play a little more and see what I can come up with. I just thought that image rocked so I wanted to show it off. LOL I wish my paint job was that nice. I'd be happier than... well I don't know, but I'd be happy.
 
Alright. I just went to WalMart with my mom's car since its clean over there, and took a shot of her Tiburon with the clouds behind. I held down the camera, and didn't move it at all and took 9 shots

4mp Highest Quality
ISO 100
EV: -2.00, -1.50, -1.00, -0.50, 0, +0.50, +1.00, +1.50, +2.00

I downloaded photo matrix and used it. Even tho I held down the camera and know it didn't move at all... the image's weren't the same. The image moved, like the camera moved. It wasn't on a tripod either, I had it planted to a large pavement sidewalk. So it came out all nutty. So I used Photomatrix's align photo thing. it helped out a little, but didn't get the job done exactly. And started messing with the toning map thing.

Before:
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After:
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I havent tried these images with Photoshop yet. Not exactly what I was aiming for. Should I use a higher ISO for a faster shutter? I just used the slower shutter speed for higher quality image. I want to get this perfected cause me and two of my friends with nice red cars wanna hit up a parking structure at night and take some HDR Photos. I kinda like the fake look of how my first one came out... but that was using 3 photos and I wasn't doing things right. I had to chop up the images and adjust color with certain area's manually.

***EDIT***
Just tried with Photoshop without the PhotoMatrix plugin:
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Photoshop aligned the photos MUCH better than PhotoMatrix.
With PhotoMatrix Plugin:
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I don't know wtf happened with saving, but it didn't look anything like that before I saved it.
 
I just pulled this out of my back yard.... I dunno? Same settings as before, except I used a 400iso. I dunno if I like clouds anymore, see where the clouds shifted over? Eww. I was tryin to get a good photo to send in to the local news station that displays user images all the time. but quality looks iffy. Maybe a 100iso is best.
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The few times Ive tried hdr, i can never get it to look good with different exposures taken in camera. So i cheat and change the exposure in photoshop to 5 different stops. Then i use photomatix to merge them. That gives me results like this, witch i think looks pretty cool.
 

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I have never been able to extract a good HDR from a sing raw file, it always looks flat/grainy to me, but some people can do it quite well.

What I hate about hdr is looking like an idiot mid day using a tripod and cable release, or just MLU lately. :p
 

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HAHAHA, thats how I was with the tiburon photos... Except I have a cheap camera and no tripod anymore. So I put the camera on the sidewalk and held it down hard and just pushed the buttons to change the EV Compensation for all photos.

xioca, Thats the exact effect I'm trying to get. How are you pulling that off? Camera? MP? Resolution? How many photos and what exposure for each photo? I want clouds to come out like that!

T Money, I tried that also, couldn't come up with anything worthy.
 
Dimensions 2088x2052
Cropped 3088 x 2052
Exposure 1/30 sec at f / 3.5
ISO Speed Rating ISO 100
Focal Length 18mm
Date Time Original 10/17/2008 12:39:54 PM
Date Time 10/17/2008 6:42:03 PM
Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL
Software Adobe Photoshop CS3 WIndows

That's the EXIF date from the .TIFF file. Sadly I lost all originals .raws somehow (I'm still kicking myself). I shot it with a 300d though, Wasia Firmware hack so its same as a canon 10d basically. Tripod, +-EV 2 bracketed with MLU. Compiled in Photomatrix Pro 3, slightly tone mapped it to my liking, then exported to photoshop, adjusted the color channels and saturation, then histogram, levels, ect... converted to 8 bit and exported as Jpeg,
 
So the EV Compensation is not the exposure that needs to be messed with?

The most recent Tiburon image I did with Photoshop, Just went into its properties and I got...
F/3.9
ISO-100
Exposure Bias says +2 step
Focal Lenght 12mm
Max aperture 3.082
Metering Mode average
No Flash

It doesn't say anything for exposure time n crap... I want a new camera :'(

When I look at one of the RAW Images, I'm guessing Its RAW cause its one of the 9 images I took with different EV Compensation, it says:
Exposure 1/683 sec f6.4, -2step and crap like that. And actually shows the camera model n shhhh.

Do you think I should clean up the images in Photoshop first? Like do all the auto stuff? I just took shots of two different scenes. Clouds are def my worst enemy... Cause I cannot seem to work fast enough for the moving clouds. I also took a single shot at 0ev adjustment that I will take in photoshop and duplicate with different exposures to see how they come out.
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Should I not be trying to take an image towards the sunlight or what? Is that screwing up images? Anyone wanna try taking a hit at a set of my photos to get something good out of it?

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And the Fake HDR, Taken a shot of the scenery with a 100iso and 0ev. Changed the exposure for two more photos to -2 and +2. And merged using HDR on Photoshop. Not exactly what I had in mind, but ended up a pretty sweet looking photo.
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What kind of camera you using? I've only dealt with Dslr's so maybe it's something with the image sensor.
 
Its a HP Photosmart 4.1mp Camera. So its kinda old and basic. I keep trying to buy a nice DSLR camera but I end up spending the money on my car.
 
High quality lenses for the DSLR. You can buy the best body offered, but if you're shooting the kit lens or some cheap one, it'll just give you an average picture. The body only does so much, but good lenses will really make your pictures look better.

If you want an introductory DSLR, the Nikon D40 is a very popular camera and is very affordable. That'll give you a lot to play with if you're new to photography, while giving you options that you don't have on your point and shoot.
 
D40 huh... I swear I just saw someone selling one locally... Hrmz... I've always been into photography. But getting good photos out of a cheap ass camera, yeah.
 
I would recommend a D80 instead of a D40, the price should not be that different now that the D90 is everywhere.
 
Damn now this has turned into a tease thread. All around 500 bucks... I wont have the cash for a while. This sucks. I'll see what I can come up with locally from other people upgrading.
 
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