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First attempt at HDR
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Posted by: Phil---------------------

I took these last week at Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The first two were made from single RAW shots, the last one I took three bracketed shots from -2 to +2 EV. All were done using the freebie version of Photomatix.

I'm fairly happy with the results, but I haven't really gotten in to all the options yet.

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j...G_0354_1200.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j...G_0478_1200.jpg

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j...G_0488_1200.jpg

Posted by: Squid31---------------------

Not bad at all Phil. I like the fact that you didn't go over board with the tone mapping and make it look fake. Maybe just a bit more saturation would really make these pop.

Here's one of my first few tries with Photomatix.

Before..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...07/Original.jpg

After..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v...%202007/HDR.jpg

Posted by: Chili---------------------

I like the first two the best. I downloaded the demo of that program but didn't have a clue what I was doing. It's on the to do list to try to find some time to play with, guess I should shoot some raw stuff so I have files to work from.

Posted by: digifox---------------------

Those are pretty cool.

I have Jasc paint shop pro 9
and its has everything for Shoopin da whoop-Making a 5MP photo look 10MP
I`ve never really played with the color controls though

Posted by: fatcat216---------------------

Nice stuff everyone.

Posted by: Rich Rohrich---------------------

Ever since you guys posted these great shots I've been meaning to try this.

I figured I would test it out on something hard like a sunrise landscape shot where the range was really wide. So I got up early on Saturday morning and tried to stay warm waiting for the sun to come up at the now empty Montrose Harbor.

I have to say, Photomatix is really cool. It will certainly take some work to understand how to use it properly, but it seems to have great potential for the types of shots I like. Thanks for the tip Phil.

http://www.chicagostories.net/harbo...598_7_4_DRN.jpg

http://www.chicagostories.net/harbo...604_3_2_drn.jpg

Posted by: _JOE_---------------------

Looks like it's gonna storm in the second pic!

Posted by: Rich Rohrich---------------------

Quote:

Originally Posted by _JOE_

Looks like it's gonna storm in the second pic!

Both pics are from the same morning, just different times during the sunrise and different range of exposures for the images that make up the HDR. The colors in the sky were incredible that morning, just dumb luck that I was there with my camera to see it.

Posted by: Chili---------------------

Rich, are those made from one RAW image or a series of bracketed shots? I played with photomatix a bit but so far user incompetence has kept me from getting anything I was happy with to this point.

Posted by: Rich Rohrich---------------------

Doug - I used 3 RAW images for each. The first one I actually shot 7 frames with different exposures but I tossed 4 of them due to camera shake (it was really windy). The first one has about 6 or 7 full stops between the brightest and darkest images, and the second one about 2 1/2. I check the files later for the specifics.

Here is one I did with 9 RAW images + - 4 stops over the metered exposure ( I think I metered off the sky, it was a couple of years ago I shot this)

http://www.chicagostories.net/night...0And8moreNX.jpg

Posted by: _JOE_---------------------

Looks like there should be ghosts flyin' in the sky.

I really like it. It's cool how it can take an ordinary shot and make it look pretty unique.

Posted by: Rich Rohrich---------------------

One more series of 4 exposures HDR from the same night.
http://www.chicagostories.net/night..._tonemapped.jpg

Posted by: Chili---------------------

Rich how about you post up the original shots, I recall these being very nice shots before the HDR treatment. Would be an interesting comparison.

Posted by: Rich Rohrich---------------------

Here's the original shots I liked best. Just cropped with a change in white balance temp, and small changes to the black point.

http://www.chicagostories.net/night...5_NX_01_DRN.jpg

http://www.chicagostories.net/night...50_NX_2_drn.jpg

Posted by: Chili---------------------

Cool, the HDR does bring it to life a bit more for this type of shot even though I really like the original single exposure as well.

Posted by: Rich Rohrich---------------------

I think if I spend the time to learn to use the HDR software properly it will prove to be really useful for the night shooting I like to do. I've just scratched the surface with it but I'm really impressed with it's capabilities so far. At this point I've just let the HDR software process the RAW files stright out of the camera, but I'm going to try doing the post process my normal way first on the images and then sending TIFF files to the HDR software.

All in all my guess is it will prove to be software worth buying.

Posted by: Rich Rohrich---------------------

I changed it up a little bit :
http://www.chicagostories.net/night...3_NX_1a_DRN.jpg

Posted by: 2strok4fun---------------------

Neat stuff-

I just started playing with the free Photomatix. I think I will buy this program.

Here is one of my first attempts, the picture is lame as there is no subject, but I thought I would just try to get a shot that had a lot of range and texture. Im finding it difficult to not overdo the tonemapping.

Posted by: dohp---------------------

i like that shot alot, even though there's "no subject",

almost looks painted

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First attempt at HDR

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