Trying out HDR Images...

[Glezga]

Wasn’t sure where to start this thread….

Had a go at HDR today. I don’t know if its what NathCarr91 meant by exposure bracketing – exactly, as I haven’t had a chance to read up on it yet.

I took multiple images changing the light meter/fstops and merged them in lightroom. The church was the least dramatic change with 7 merged images, from dark to light and ending up in the middle. and the stumps, 3 images each. The stumps came out much sharper. And the twin stumps – they have a pink tinge. I’m thinking that’s an effect from ghosting?

The stumps are under tree shade with the light pricking through, they lost a bit of this in the merge. Ive tried to snap these before with no success – it worked this time. Odd looking things!

All done on the 50. I'm going to get into trouble in work - stopping to take pictures isnt in my job description.

Had a bit of trouble saving the merged images, they kept saving as multiple files. I think I worked it out.

Thanks again for your input guys, its made me try new things and get better results!

Steve


Barr Chirch by Steven McNeill, on Flickr

Dromoe Stump by Steven McNeill, on Flickr

Dromore Stumps by Steven McNeill, on Flickr

[Bill53]

Nice set especially the third image.
HDR can be useful but tends to look unnatural if overdone.

[Trev B]

Third for me

[NathCarr91]

Pleased you had luck bracketing your exposure and merging them all together.

Lightroom is ok for merging them, I only ever used it for merging my images but then somebody showed me how to do it in Photoshop and it was much easier to understand, you then save the file as a TIFF and then open the TIFF file in Lightroom for your edit.

Either way though, looks like it worked. I thought you could really see the Dynamic range in the first image. The greens in the trees are standing out and th colour and texture in the walls are noticable too. Great work.

I know you mentioned that you haven't really read up on it, so it's worth mentioning that if you're bracketing your exposure, do it either on a tripod or a fixed solid surface. That way it's taking the same image and same composition every time, and when you come to merge the images together you shouldn't get any ghosting on your edges.

I'm also not too sure if I'm right on this one, but whenever I've bracketed my exposure, I've only ever adjusted the shutter speed to under and over expose because I have a fixed point of focus and want my DOF to stay how it is. I always thoughts adjusting aperture for bracketed exposures would mess with DOF too much. I could be wrong and hopefully someone will correct me if I am. Only reason I've done Shutter speed adjustments anyway are because I only ever really bracket when shooting moving water etc
Like this

IMG_1537-HDR (1).jpg
This was 9 images 4 under exposed 1 at normal exposure and 4 over with my main focal point on the waterfall apparently at F29 according to the Exif data although I think that's wrong and they were all at f11 all taken with the same lens youre using

[John Liddle]

If you want to get a feel for HDR, the 70D will do it automatically for you - just enable HDR in the picture style menu and set the shutter to high speed. You should be able to select the range of exposures (I think limited to 3 images on your camera, but it is all in the manual). This way you get the Canon idea of what is required, but at least it is easy and quick to do and examine the effects.

If you want to delve deeper, then I find that Aurora HDR is a better and more sophisticated program for melding the images and has the great advantage that you can reduce the strength of the effect so that the final result is much less “in your face” than some HDR output, which can be rather garish.

Keep at it - I find it an extremely useful technique and use it frequently.

[Glezga]

Thanks, I watched a few videos last night. Seems there’s a few ways to do it but shutter speed seems to be the “true” way. I confused myself with the meter as I’m constantly using it, since the advice from a previous post.

I also saw the photoshop way – but that was for focus, I assume it can be used for different methods etc.

I didn’t know my camera had built in HDR, thanks for that, every days a school day. Ill have a go at that too!

@john/bill – I seen some examples; I didnt know they were HDR until now but I see what you mean by unnatural/garish.

Thanks again guys

[Glezga]

I took some more HDR shots today, this time I read up before taking them. just before sunrise I travelled to the perfect site but had to leave again about 10 mins before the sun actually rose. So, all I got were dark, noisy images. I even used a tripod this time! I wasn’t happy lol

I also used the cameras built in HDR but I dont think I bracketed enough and I was in a hurry too, typical really.

Here’s a few I got a bit later – This isn’t my normal route (holiday cover) so wont get a chance again for a while. Im happy with them but I feel although I had some fun with HDR, its not really worth the time as my PC took a while to process them. I think I may need a faster PC!

Thanks for your advice guys!

Morning Mist by Steven McNeill, on Flickr

Claudy Sun by Steven McNeill, on Flickr

Ballinrees Uplands by Steven McNeill, on Flickr

Ballinrees Res by Steven McNeill, on Flickr

[John Liddle]

The first one is a cracker - well done!

[NathCarr91]

They're awesome, I'd of said they were well worth the time put into them, especially the 1st one