HDR G9 Image

[Stephen Scharf]

Thought I would try an HDR conversion with the G9...this is a vineyard shot taken near Livermore, CA, on a mostly cloudy day. G9 was on a tripod, and shot aperture priority, only changing shutter speeds. As the sky was quite dark, exposing for the vineyard was blowing out the sky, exposing for the sky was making the vineyard way too dark. The HDR is comprised of four images, spanning approx. -1 1/2 stops to +2 stops.

http://photos.imageevent.com/puma_cat/canong9testimages/TreeandVineyards2_HDR1.jpg

[amironsi]

WOW man... should i sell my 350D and get a G9???

[Chosenbydestiny]

WOW man... should i sell my 350D and get a G9???

lol no, just do HDR with your 350D shots? O_o

[rowdyred94]

Very nice!

[thelightofsound]

thanks for sharing. i've been wanting to give this a try on the g9, but it seems every time i have my tripod, i also have my slr.

nice image and nice conversion.

[condyk]

Nice one ... be nice to see it cropped top and bottom widescreen style. Has great symmetry in the centre portion

[andydajo]

Great shot, just shows how powerful this camera can be.

[nutsnbolts]

I have a couple HDR shots which I did with the G9. Not too bad. I will post here when I get the chance.

[Chris30D]

Looks great Stephen! I've tried HDR using CS3 but I get lousy results. I'm sure I'm missing an important step or something. Can you refer my to a good tutorial somewhere? TIA!

[thelightofsound]

Looks great Stephen! I've tried HDR using CS3 but I get lousy results. I'm sure I'm missing an important step or something. Can you refer my to a good tutorial somewhere? TIA!

i like this one: click (http://backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-create-professional-hdr-images.html)

[Jethro790]

WOW man... should i sell my 350D and get a G9???

No kidding, I think I need to upgrade from my XTI to a G9!

[///M3Matt]

No kidding, I think I need to upgrade from my XTI to a G9!

i think upgrading the person who is behind the camera will make a bigger difference


OP - great pic!!!

[Stephen Scharf]

Chris30D:
I used a program called Photomatix for the HDR conversion. It is about $99 as a standalone app.

[openspace]

Photomatix seems to get all the praise. I just don't hear the same praise for the HDR tools in PS CS2 or CS3. Anyone else care to comment on this?

By the way - Photomatix has a freeware basic version of their tool available for download. I works quite well too & is worth the quick download.

[Chris30D]

Thanks thelightofsound for the link! I'll try that tonight.

Chris30D:
I used a program called Photomatix for the HDR conversion. It is about $99 as a standalone app.

Seems like everyone uses Photomatix. I just didn't want to part with any more money after the expense of the camera, CS3 and the computer memory upgrade to run it. I'm also interested to hear what shortcomings CS3 has.

[Chris30D]

i think upgrading the person who is behind the camera will make a bigger difference


OP - great pic!!!

Absolutely right. Your XTi takes better pics than the G9. Spend that money on a good photog class. You'll be amazed what you can do witht he XTi!

Hey ///M3Matt, what year M do you have?

[///M3Matt]

01 street car & a 95 that is fully gutted/caged that i race

[Chris30D]

Nice! I have a '97. Sorry for the off topic. We now resume our regularly scheduled thread....

[lukeeesteve]

I've been further inspired....thanks for sharing!!

[rpolitsr]

i like this one: click (http://backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-create-professional-hdr-images.html)


Thanks thelightofsound for the link! I'll try that tonight.
Seems like everyone uses Photomatix. I just didn't want to part with any more money after the expense of the camera, CS3 and the computer memory upgrade to run it. I'm also interested to hear what shortcomings CS3 has.


Photomatix seems to get all the praise. I just don't hear the same praise for the HDR tools in PS CS2 or CS3. Anyone else care to comment on this?

I tested Photomatix and got interesting results. I was not happy using Photoshop CS2 HDR tools, but I think I did something wrong.

The tutorial linked by thelightofsound seems to be interesting and, as I usually trust Photoshop, I was caught by a comment I read there:


I've come to believe that there are few things in the digital photography world that Photoshop can't do better than most other programs. HDR turns out to be one of them. Photoshop CS2 has a little-known (it seems) built-in HDR assembler...

I will follow the tutorial as soon as possible!

[Chris30D]

Okay, I tried thelightofsound's link and did a quick HDR using CS3. Interesting result - not sure if I'm happy with it. Any feedback?

First one is from RAW, second is HDR.

[///M3Matt]

Nice! I have a '97. Sorry for the off topic. We now resume our regularly scheduled thread....

www.bimmerforums.com ??

/thread hi-jack

[hassiman]

I have been following a lot of HDR threads for a while now and it seems that Photomatix is decidedly better at HDR than CS3's Merge to HDR. If not set properly Photomatix will give you the halo effect but with proper use of the tone mapping controls it goes away.

I would hate to see Adobe corner the market on EVERYTHING!:lol:

[openspace]

LOL - if Photomatix remains the better technology, Adobe will find a way to buy them out I'm sure. :0) Just like they did with Pixmantec's RawShooter.

[thelightofsound]

chris, you were going in the right direction with that.

also photomatix seems to be the favorite. i use both an tend to like the photomatix most of the time, but sometimes cs2 works better for me.

[bilposter]

I use Photomatix for HDR and tonemapping with a 30D. The advantage over the G9 is that you can specify the exposure values (- or+ 2 stops gets better results) and that the frames per second rate is much quicker.
This means that using the G9 for multi exposures, you have to use a tripod and that HDR using more then one image is only really suitable for very still subjects. The other disadvantage with the G9 is that any scene other than bright will produce noisier results with Photomatix which tends to flesh out grain generally.
Nevertheless with these limitations in mind for further post processing, you can produce a fair result with a G9


http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y229/bilposter/no2And3More_tonemapped_filteredMedi.jpg

[hassiman]

I know that the G9 frame rate is slower... but I was only planning on using it on still subject matter with a tripod... But I do believe it will bracket 2 stops +/- from a center point so that should give it plenty of DR with 3 exposures.

[bilposter]

Yes it will bracket up to 2 stops but as far as I know not automatically (max is 1/3 stop). You will have to manually alter exposure which will introduce some camera shake even on a tripod.

[rpolitsr]

I can confirm from page 131 of the G9 Camera User Guide that Auto Exposure Bracketing is available in P, Tv and Av modes.

With AEB enabled, if you press the shutter button once, it will shoot three pictures with differente exposures.

For HDR, Av (aperture priority) is recommended. It limits you to 1 sec. max. shutter speed, but I guess it will be enough most of the time.

[bilposter]

I didn't make myself clear ;)...AEB on G9 is limited to three exposures but at one third of a stop apart only. That is not ideal for the range required for effective exposure range in Photomatix. Of course you can manually alter the AEB but it all takes time!

[rpolitsr]

...AEB on G9 is limited to three exposures but at one third of a stop apart only.

You are not limited to a fixed 1/3 f stop bracketing.

You can Adjust the compensation range in 1/3 increments from -2 to +2.

[hassiman]

That's what I thought.... It would have been useless to add such a feature but to limit the sequence to 1/3 stop increments. With +2/-2 it has the right amount of range for most subjects.... but waves on a beach will not be one of them... though the effect might be interesting.... :lol:

[bilposter]

I think we are both wrong actually:D..... Yes it will bracket +/-2 but not automatically. You have to take three shots at 1 stop intervals (not 1/3 as I originally put), say -1, 0, +1. Then manually adjust exposure bracketing to say -2,-1,0 and then change again to 0,+1,+2. If I am wrong I would be delighted but I can find no way to increase the bracketing from 1 stop to 2 which is what is really needed.

[rpolitsr]

I think we are both wrong actually :) .....

I compared the User Guides of the powershot G9, the powershot Pro1, and the EOS 350D (EOS Rebel XT). As I understand the manuals, the three cameras operate basically in the same way regarding the Auto Exposure Bracketing.

I have access to the Pro1 and to the 350D (Rebel XT) and both work as I said.

I can not test the powershot G9 because I do not have it, so the G9 users have the last word on their camera behavior.

Unless other G9 users confirm what I said, I will stand corrected.

[GordonSBuck]

I think we are both wrong actually:D..... Yes it will bracket +/-2 but not automatically. You have to take three shots at 1 stop intervals (not 1/3 as I originally put), say -1, 0, +1. Then manually adjust exposure bracketing to say -2,-1,0 and then change again to 0,+1,+2. If I am wrong I would be delighted but I can find no way to increase the bracketing from 1 stop to 2 which is what is really needed.

Put the G9 in Av mode, manual focus, auto exposure bracket at +/- 1 stop. Fire off the three shots (only one shutter press required). Now, without changing the AEB, set exposure compensation to -2. Fire off three more shots. Again, without changing the AEB, set exposure compensation to +2 and fire off three shots. Now you have nine images; only seven are unique but the spacing is -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3. The advantage is that you've only touched the camera twice.

Or, set the AEB for +/- 2 stops and get the three shots. Set exposure compension to -2, three more shots. Set exposure compensation to +2, three more shots. This way you have only five unique exposures but each exposure is two stops apart: -4, -2, 0, +2, +4. This is the procedure I usually use.

Strictly speaking, HDR is the process of merging and not the adjustments to tonality, saturation, etc. I think the Photoshop and Photomatix HDR's are about the same. The real usefulness of Photomatix is the tonemapping. I usually use the Photomatix plugin in Photoshop for tonemapping.

[cagatay]

I have a G9. I'm really interested in HDR imaging. Are these recommended HDR settings for G9 and/or within 3 shots (-2, 0, +2) is it possible to get the same results? If it is possible for you; could you please write a short article about "step-by step HDR with G9 for Dummies"

Put the G9 in Av mode, manual focus, auto exposure bracket at +/- 1 stop. Fire off the three shots (only one shutter press required). Now, without changing the AEB, set exposure compensation to -2. Fire off three more shots. Again, without changing the AEB, set exposure compensation to +2 and fire off three shots. Now you have nine images; only seven are unique but the spacing is -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3. The advantage is that you've only touched the camera twice.

Or, set the AEB for +/- 2 stops and get the three shots. Set exposure compension to -2, three more shots. Set exposure compensation to +2, three more shots. This way you have only five unique exposures but each exposure is two stops apart: -4, -2, 0, +2, +4. This is the procedure I usually use.

Strictly speaking, HDR is the process of merging and not the adjustments to tonality, saturation, etc. I think the Photoshop and Photomatix HDR's are about the same. The real usefulness of Photomatix is the tonemapping. I usually use the Photomatix plugin in Photoshop for tonemapping.

[GordonSBuck]

I have a G9. I'm really interested in HDR imaging. Are these recommended HDR settings for G9 and/or within 3 shots (-2, 0, +2) is it possible to get the same results? If it is possible for you; could you please write a short article about "step-by step HDR with G9 for Dummies"

Often there is not a lot of difference between an HDR made from 3 shots as compared to 5 shots. Take a hard look at the live histogram and think about how many shots and how much exposure bracketing is necessary to capture the entire tonal range. If fact, if the exposure can be set such that a single shot produces a "good" histogram then, for my tastes, there is not much point in attempting to make an HDR image.

[hassiman]

I you really want to get jazzed.... try Bracketeer. It will combine all of your bracketed images using the "ENFUSE" algorythm and it does a much more natural job than Fotomatix and is very quick and easy to use as well as costing only $30... :lol: I own both programs.

[cagatay]

Thanks to google and rapidshare :) They give me the option "Try before buy" I you really want to get jazzed.... try Bracketeer. It will combine all of your bracketed images using the "ENFUSE" algorythm and it does a much more natural job than Fotomatix and is very quick and easy to use as well as costing only $30... :lol: I own both programs.