HDR and people

[zack3082]

i want to try some hdr on a model.
she would have to hold perfectly still for the 3-5 shots for the picture to come out fine correct?

[Mark_Cohran]

Correct. It's going to be really difficult to get those kind of shots I think, unless you've got a very good model. The slightest movement can be enough to cause blue in the final HDR image.

Mark

[bieber]

Why? Do you really need to shoot the model in a situation where the dynamic range is too great to capture in a single exposure? If that's really the case, then you're going to be best off just exposing one shot for the model, then having her leave the scene, exposing for any other parts you need properly exposed, and then masking them together with Photoshop. Same effect as an HDR merge (assuming you're not just looking for that cartoony look, in which case there's no reason you need to use HDR) without the irritating hold-still-while-I-bracket-a-bazillion-shots problem...

[howzitboy]

now thats a great tip!

[DrPablo]

Try a blowgun dart with curare -- that will hold her still.

Otherwise, if you've got a really huge dynamic range (like you're deliberately shooting her when she's backlit by the sun), screw the HDR -- just spend $50 on a used Canon 35mm SLR that will take your lenses, and use some Fuji Reala or Pro-C or Kodak Portra 400 UC. Pretty cheap, and it's almost impossible to blow highlights with these. I have a friend who just accidentally overexposed some film by twelve stops (he had metered for an IR shot, but forgot to put on the filter) and his negative was still completely printable (and had a ton of shadow detail!)

[howzitboy]

i printed a photo that some "pro" shot long ago. it was a studio shot of Miss Hawaii and I have no clue how he shot it but that negative was like 10 stops over exposed! and it printed out a perfectly exposed shot! could never figure out how on earth he did it.