Church HDR - please C&C & advice.

[wayne_eddy]

This is my first real attempt at HDR and I'm hoping to do a lot better on my trip next week where there will be very high contrast canyons.

This is a 9 shot HDR with increments of 1EV each.

C&C and advice on technique appreciated:

http://members.iinet.net.au/%7Edamask/Wayne/Photo/forum/_MG_1297.jpg

[brucea]

Looks muddy and the sky (clouds) are washed out. You should be able to tweak the image in the HDR software to adjust.

Which software are you using? I thought I was getting good results with Photoshop's HDR engine until Photomatix was recommended. What a difference! Will never use PS for HDR again.

[Peano]

Hard to tell what might have been possible without seeing all the exposures. If you have one that is a lot brighter, I would manually blend it in to bring out the details of the building better. I mainly adjusted levels to get this:

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3456/churchfn8.jpg

[Swift1]

Doesn't look like an HDR to me, sorry lol. I'll try making it look better (like what Peano did) if you don't mind.
http://i33.tinypic.com/2e320b8.jpg

[wayne_eddy]

Doesn't look like an HDR to me,


Do you think it's because I used increments of +/-1EV at a time?

[Sere81]

Maybe try using a 3 or 4 shots ???

[Peano]

Do you think it's because I used increments of +/-1EV at a time?

Those increments might be closer than you need, but you can always throw a few away and choose a sequence of exposures that cover the range you need. I assume you're changing shutter speed and not aperture?

[wayne_eddy]

Those increments might be closer than you need, but you can always throw a few away and choose a sequence of exposures that cover the range you need. I assume you're changing shutter speed and not aperture?

Full Manual Mode with fixed white balance (cloudy). Shutter speed alone was changed.

I'll experiment with photomatrix and HDR a little over the week coming if I have time. The article I was reading does suggest +/-1Ev though does suggest +/-2Ev may be enough.

[tmcman]

Did you use Photomatix to make and work the HDR?

[bckane]

Looked a little washed out....here's a beefed up version in CS3
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a276/bckane/_MG_1297.jpg

[Swimming_Bird]

An HDR doesn't necessarily need to be tone mapped. However the halo effect that tone mapping gives is... apt... for a church.

[wayne_eddy]

Did you use Photomatix to make and work the HDR?

I used CS3 but will give it a go with Photomatrix today & repost.

[wayne_eddy]

This time I used Photomatrix to create a HDR of three exposures metered 2EV apart.

The image was then sharpened with CS3.

Here is my second attempt:



http://members.iinet.net.au/%7Edamask/Wayne/Photo/forum/IMG_1294_0_2.jpg

[Swimming_Bird]

I'd do some color corrections if I were you. The whole thing is a bit brown, maybe if you tone down the darker browns and bring out the greens, oranges, pinks, and whatever's in the stained glass it'll look better.

By orange I mean the brighter orange, by brown i mean a little too earthy. Visually this earthy look seems more litke it's coming from the lighting. Maybe even some WB adjustments are in order.

[weemannie]

Are you shooting Raw or JPG? Raw will give you more control over the final image.
3 shots, 2 stops apart are OK in most situations, but you may need more in certain lighting situations. Make sure that you capture the full range of EV in the scene. Ensure that at least one shot has no burnt out highlights. Photomatix does a good job, but most results will need some final touches in PS afterwards. Try increasing contrast with a 's' curve.
Also, not all scenes require HDR techniques.
Good luck, its a fun process. :D

[tmcman]

Nice.
In my experience, Photomatix does a better job.
But you still need to do a full routine in Photoshop
on the tone mapped result from Photomatix:
curves, saturation, hue, sharpening,
whatever would be "the works" that you would do on a shot right out of the camera.
And sometimes it looks good to blend the tonemapped image
with your favorite single shot right out the camera.

[canonloader]

Wayne, I tried numerous tutorials I found online for PM, and for the most part, they just say to adjust to your liking. But that's just like saying, your on your own, good luck. What I needed were some xmp preset files from a finished HDR that I liked. Just like in CS3, you can import a preset much like importing an Action and it will work with any Photomatix 3.0 version.

I never got anyone to send me some samples of theirs, so I just saved some of my own to share with others. As it turns out, once you have the settings near to what you like, from there, adjusting the sliders in small increments makes it much easier to learn. So here is a Zip file with 4 of mine for various shots. Drag them out of the zip into the PM Presets folder on your hard drive, then load them from the little drop down in the Tone Mapping adjustment window. It's near the bottom and will say Previous in it by default. Click that, then load one of these presets to see what you get. Try them all, it's completely reversable.

And 9 shot HDR's are usually the most noise free once you are done. Shoot in RAW, and then load the RAW's into PM. Works best that way.

[zacker]

it could stand to use a bit of contrast, try re tonemapping.. also you can open it up in photoshop, convert it to a 32 bit image then down convert it to a 16 bit and a widow will open letting you adjust the gamma amd tone.. sorta like photoshops own tone mapping.. try that.