HDR without tripod.. 5fps?

[Collin85]

OK, I'll admit it.. I'm not a huge fan of tripods. It cramps my shooting style and although I most definitely bring them for night cityskapes/evening shoots, I tend to leave it home most other times. But I really want to explore HDR more, so here I'am.

My question is: I was wondering if the continuous shooting in cameras like the 30D would be good enough for me to leave the tripod home (for daytime situations). Say I set the 30D on 5fps, bracket 3 exposures.. what kind of shutter speeds would I need (for say, the overexposed shot (which requires the slowest shutter speed out of the lot)) to make it all work out relatively well?

I was thinking probably atleast 1/200th, but again I know it would depend on one's level of hand shake and their own definition of what is acceptable for shot to shot disprepancy.

Anyone have any experience with this?

[adam LC]

depends on the lens you use and the available light, I wouldn't have the slowest shutter speed any less than double the selected focal length, i.e FL@100mm=SS@1/200. Trial and error.

[NOsquid]

Just lock your elbows and give it a go. Photomatix has an alignment, and I'm sure there's way to do it in PS. Not ideal I suppose.

If you're not satisfied with the sharpness of your images then start with the tripod. Nobody can decide if the results are satisfactory but you.

[Collin85]

Woops, I forgot to specify the lenses. It'll most likely be the 10-22, 17-40 or 17-55. I'd assume even 1/60th might be OK if you've got steady hands, but to be sure I thought I'd suggest something more like 1/200th.

[azpix]

i say it won't work because if it's off even slightly the software gets jacked and also you mentioned night shots which means longer exposures.

That said...give it a shot.

[adam LC]

Originally Posted by azpix

i say it won't work because if it's off even slightly the software gets jacked and also you mentioned night shots which means longer exposures.

That said...give it a shot.

I agree, handholding for bracketed shots = trouble.

[Jim Barnes]

Yes it works, I've done it with a D60 (and I'm not sure of the frame rate on my dinosaur but it's well short of 5 fps). Photomatrix and Photoshop both perform alignment on images so much of it is taken care of for you.

You have to be careful with the shots though and keep a steady hand
on the odd occasion I've had to perform a crop and rotate for images that were well off but sooner or later the software grabs a hit.

To be certain of results I try to use a tripod but often its not possible. It's well worth a try, give it a go, experiment and work on your hand holding technique and you should see some results.

[stckciv]

How bout a monopod?

[aCiD99]

I do this ALL the time (I hate tripods too), in fact I did several just yesterday.

You'll probably have to take the same exposure set 3 times to get one set where you stayed sufficiently still between exposures. But it's not hard to get them aligned yourself in PS, then move them into whatever app you use for creating the HDR.

[grig]

Just make sure that the longest exposure respects the 1/f rule and you'll be fine. 90% of my hdrs are handheld.

[Roy C]

I have done successful HDR's hand holding the 30D with a 17-40 lens using 5fps mode and bracket 3 exposures (usually -2. 0 +2). Photomatix does a fairly good job of aligning the images providing there are some good well defined points to work to. Having said that, using a tripod is clearly best.

[ccp900]

when all else fails, you can use 1 raw file to do an HDR.

[Roy C]

Originally Posted by ccp900

when all else fails, you can use 1 raw file to do an HDR.

Yep, Pseudo HDR from a single RAW works reasonable well for some shots.

[Miyagi-san]

wow those are a couple of awesome hdr shots, grig!

[Donte]

Ok I am new to photography but what is a HDR image?