Loving Friends - First Attempt at HDR

[SNOWBIRD72]

Let me know your thoughts on my first hdr processed shot.

I set this up in my kitchen as a trial. Granted an outdoor landscape photo may have been a better choice but I was inside "watching" the kids. I tried capturing the blue sky outside while also highlighting the details of the bears fur...the whole notion of capturing the moment as your eyes see it.

I used five photos for this and a tripod.

Not sure this is really the intended use for hdr. I can't wait to get outdoors and try some landscapes.

Thanks in advance for your comments.

[jasonstiller]

Picture is too little.

[SNOWBIRD72]

Sorry about that. I'm still getting used to this whole posting thing.

[SNOWBIRD72]

Any suggestions Looking for some feedback.

[JoePhotoOnline]

Welcome to the forum! This is a great community and you will learn a lot. If you go to your control panel and enable "Image Editing Ok" then we can take a shot at this photo and help you out.

A few things, forgive me, I'm a little direct. It's just my opinion and critique, so take it with a grain of salt.

Well, before HDR can work, the image needs to be interesting and have such a vast range of dynamics to make HDR worth while.

There are a few things working against this image:

1) Teddy is dead center. This composition style rarely works. Try cropping it a bit so the bears pick a side, and start out by hunting for the 3rd lines.

2) It lacks contrast. The lightest parts of the whole image are the haloing-effect around the bear. It's ugly and distracts from you subject, which is too dark.

3) The stuff out the window is boring. HDR let you keep it, but you don't need it. One of the Golden Rules: If it does not directly help you composition, it's hurting it. That's the case here.

4) All of this together means that we don't need HDR here. Let the stuff out the window go bright because it's not important. Keep our eyes in you image, but not on boring stuff. If you took your original exposure, brightened the bears a bit, and cropped them to the right side, this image would transform.


Keep shooting, and keep posting so that we can help you out. It's a good start.

[dynamitetony]

also, the photo seems slightly underexposed and the choice of photo for HDR, for me, is just the wrong type of photo

just my 2p

[Golden Hunter]

While I agree with most of the previous comments, it should be noted that as far as an HDR shot goes, I think you did a very good job for a first attempt. It is not overdone, you contained that blast of sunlight and although the bears are a tad underexposed, the detail is there and you can't brighten them up too much or the shot will look flat, I think. You've got the right idea.

[SNOWBIRD72]

Originally Posted by JoePhotoOnline

Welcome to the forum! This is a great community and you will learn a lot. If you go to your control panel and enable "Image Editing Ok" then we can take a shot at this photo and help you out.

A few things, forgive me, I'm a little direct. It's just my opinion and critique, so take it with a grain of salt.

Well, before HDR can work, the image needs to be interesting and have such a vast range of dynamics to make HDR worth while.

There are a few things working against this image:

1) Teddy is dead center. This composition style rarely works. Try cropping it a bit so the bears pick a side, and start out by hunting for the 3rd lines.

2) It lacks contrast. The lightest parts of the whole image are the haloing-effect around the bear. It's ugly and distracts from you subject, which is too dark.

3) The stuff out the window is boring. HDR let you keep it, but you don't need it. One of the Golden Rules: If it does not directly help you composition, it's hurting it. That's the case here.

4) All of this together means that we don't need HDR here. Let the stuff out the window go bright because it's not important. Keep our eyes in you image, but not on boring stuff. If you took your original exposure, brightened the bears a bit, and cropped them to the right side, this image would transform.


Keep shooting, and keep posting so that we can help you out. It's a good start.

Joe: I really do appreciate your thoughts, especially the direct ones. Why beat around the bush? Btw, I have turned on image editing if you want to have a go at it.

My initial thought for this photo was more to test out photomatix and see if I could create an image where the definition both in the foreground and background would show through. I realize now that I needed even more depth of field for this to really work...my aperture setting was too big at 6.7. Probably the high teens would have worked better (although it wouldn't have helped the composition).

Point 2 - Image Haloing - how do you deal with this? Is this a PS thing or can it be dealt with through photomatix?

Point 3 - note taken

Point 4 - I realize here I probably wouldn't really need HDR but it was just a test run

Thanks again for your comments.

[SNOWBIRD72]

Originally Posted by Golden Hunter

While I agree with most of the previous comments, it should be noted that as far as an HDR shot goes, I think you did a very good job for a first attempt. It is not overdone, you contained that blast of sunlight and although the bears are a tad underexposed, the detail is there and you can't brighten them up too much or the shot will look flat, I think. You've got the right idea.

Golden Hunter: Thanks for the positive reinforcement. Now that I am looking at this from my work monitor, I realize I probably need to calibrate my home monitor..again! It didn't look so underexposed at home. When I look at my other posts, I notice the same problem. Thanks for the comments.

As an aside, can someone tell me how to multi-quote? Such a rookie...

[Golden Hunter]

Where you clicked on the icon for "QUOTE" you will see an icon with a "+" sign to the right of it. Click on this icon in all the posts that you wish to quote before you hit the "post reply" button.

[Golden Hunter]

Did a quick 5 minute job on it. Brightness, Shadows/Highlights, Curves.
Edit :repost pic

[kirkt]

@Snowbird72 - This is the exact experiment that a new-to-HDR person should do for their first post. You have a brightly lit exterior with an interior in shadow - this is a High Dynamic Range scene and is often the most overlooked aspect of HDR imaging - choosing an HDR scene. While this may not be the most compelling subject from a composition or aesthetic standpoint, the subjects are also well chosen because the have good texture in the mid to shadow tones and are useful in evaluating local contrast and the discrimination of detail in the shadows, another thing that often goes bye-bye in exercises in HDR imaging. This texture is also very helpful in evaluating image sharpness, another thing that suffers from a poorly executed HDR image, especially when images are slightly misregistered due to camera shake or subject movement. There seems to be some funkiness going on with whatever that colored doo-dad is maybe stuck to the sliding glass door (although the blurred ghosted outline of the thing could be due to double pane or coated glass reflection - you can also see it in the horizontally oriented tree branches). Your LDR version is perfectly acceptable in that I do not know what the teddy bears looked like in the lighting that your eyes could see, but the above edit is also acceptable in that it adds more contrast and exposure to the bears - all a matter of interpretation.

I think the haloing is okay - your use of a large radius is a lot less obvious than some attempts at a "natural looking HDR" and you captured the rimlighting from the outside nicely on the bears' fur.

Very nice job- this is precisely what HDR is about.

Kirk

[SNOWBIRD72]

Originally Posted by Golden Hunter

Where you clicked on the icon for "QUOTE" you will see an icon with a "+" sign to the right of it. Click on this icon in all the posts that you wish to quote before you hit the "post reply" button.

Well that seems straight forward now that you mention it. Thanks.

Originally Posted by Golden Hunter

Did a quick 5 minute job on it. Brightness, Shadows/Highlights, Curves.
Edit :repost pic

Nice edit. You even took out the watermarks. The bears weren't that bright in the kitchen since their backs were to the window but I like they way you have highlighted them. Again, this was a test for me to see if I could actually pull it off. With the stills I took, either the bears were nicely exposed with the background completely blown out, or the background ok with the bears completely underexposed. This hdr compilation gives me the best of both worlds and proves to me that hdr photography is AWESOME. I hope to be posting more in the near future.

Thanks again.

[SNOWBIRD72]

Originally Posted by kirkt

@Snowbird72 - This is the exact experiment that a new-to-HDR person should do for their first post. You have a brightly lit exterior with an interior in shadow - this is a High Dynamic Range scene and is often the most overlooked aspect of HDR imaging - choosing an HDR scene.

That was exactly my intent. Thank you for the observation.

Originally Posted by kirkt

While this may not be the most compelling subject from a composition or aesthetic standpoint, the subjects are also well chosen because the have good texture in the mid to shadow tones and are useful in evaluating local contrast and the discrimination of detail in the shadows, another thing that often goes bye-bye in exercises in HDR imaging. This texture is also very helpful in evaluating image sharpness, another thing that suffers from a poorly executed HDR image, especially when images are slightly misregistered due to camera shake or subject movement.

OK...I didn't think of all that but you make very good points here which I will certainly keep in mind for future tests.

Originally Posted by kirkt

I think the haloing is okay - your use of a large radius is a lot less obvious than some attempts at a "natural looking HDR" and you captured the rimlighting from the outside nicely on the bears' fur.

I wasn't sure if that is "acceptable" or not. Is that actually considered haloing?

Originally Posted by kirkt

Very nice job- this is precisely what HDR is about.

Kirk, thank you very much for your comments. While I always appreciate constructive criticism and feedback, it's reassuring when someone see's things in a similar "light" as well (sorry, I couldn't help myself).

[kirkt]

Take a look at this thread for more hdr Teddy bears:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...d.php?t=822375

Kirk