Need some advice on these HDR shots

Ok today was my first day trying some hdr shots. It was really windy and had prob's keeping the camera steady so I think my first prob is vibration coming through in the images, though I have heard of people handholding hdr shots??

Also the focus seems bad in the shots, do you just take 3 shots without touch the camera or should you change the focus in every shot?

I'm not very familiar with producing HDR images, but these don't even look like HDR. #3 is probably the best, but they all look like the two images didn't match up right and made everything blurry. You can really see it in #4 on the lower right.

Im not trying to make them look like anything, its to cover a scene tat ldr photography cant cover.

A simple grad filter would have worked much better...one shot, and you're done. No need for aligning multiple hand-held images and the necessary HDR processing.

At first glance I like #3 and #4 (The other two just don't do anything for me.), but the longer I look, the less I can tell you why I like #3. I think that means there was just some feeling about it but when my brain took over it couldn't find "the subject" or something. At any rate, I like #4.

As far as them looking out of focus, I find my shots look out of focus when I do tone mapping with Oloneo with just a single RAW shot (that looks in focus when processed normally).

I do handheld a lot then match up in Photomatix. I lock focus on what im about to shoot. Try less movement and depress with highspeed drive enabled. take 3 pictures and voila. Hand held won't yield as good results as on tripod, but if in limited situation, using the right postprocessing, you may get something good.

i used corel ps pro3 maybe its not that good at lining up the shots? I also think I made some pretty basic mistakes too. How about focusing on 3 different objects in the 3 shots?

The foreground still looks very underexposed. How many shots did you bracket?

yah.. when you shoot quick in high speed they dont refocus.. hence my reasoning to shoot handheld or even on tripod in speed or on tripod with focus locked. I sometimes lock it to be accurate.

Also the foreground is a little dark, but it's in the converting process... you have to be good. I still cant figure out how to make them pop..

I like #4 a lot, except the rocks aren't sharp--like you've got some misaligned images. You've probably got a shot where the rocks are properly exposed. If they were mine, I'd do some selective masking of the rocks and add a little bit more contrast in the rocks, hills and maybe a tad in the sky.

#3 is awesome too, but you've lost a little contrast in the horizon region. Again, I think some selective masking could be helpful.

Just my opinions...I'd be interested in seeing the bracketed shots on the last two.

Wind is tough. If you haven't got a stable tripod, you'll just have to do the best you can. This is why I'd really like to get a Canon 7d with the high fps...come on Craigslist!

If you live near these places, they'd be worth going back to for a re-do if you can't make these work.

I think you should have read how to produce an hdr image and then go out and take some, not vice versa First off, hand holding for an hdr shot is basically a big no-no as even the slightest movement will result in blurry shots if merged or possible countless hours spent masking out for perfect alignment. To answer your second question 99/100 times you do not want to change the focus (certain situations/end photos in mind change this but don't worry about it now).

Here's what i suggest doing:
First, get your camera on a tripod (remote is possible) and set up for your shot. Lock in your focus, aperture, shutter speed, iso, WB, etc and once everything is locked in place turn everything to manual mode; we don't want the camera changing around all the settings we just made! Now depending what camera you are using (although i'm pretty certain that most modern day dSLR's have this) you want to have either auto-bracketing mode on (1 full stop works fine for me) or doing your own bracketed images (what i like doing most). When using auto-bracketing i'd suggest changing your camera's shutter drive to take multiple photos as you hold the shutter down

So again, with all your setting on Manual (including your AF!) you can now change your focus spot to the foreground and have the camera take an exposure reading. Only adjust the shutter speed to properly expose the foreground. Do the same for middle/background or as necessary. You want to capture data from each photo that would normally be absent (shadows/highlights) then later you will compile using hdr. Sometimes this can be done in two photos or i've seen as many as seven used to make up a single image.

Now that you have your shots put em into your program and watch it do it's magic! It will pulling missing data from the appropriate photos to properly fulfill the High Dynamic Range of data. Everyone has their different ways of doing an hdr image and a different way of thinking how one should look, but that's what i do

Unfortunately i'm seeing nothing in your photos that represents hdr; uneven lighting, 'flat' images, missing detail in shadows. However, there is no blown out highlights so that's something good! Landscape photography offers great subject matter for hdr images and i really like the scenery you choose for your photos! Now get back out there and try it again! (Also, if you didn't understand things i've been saying you should really get out that owner's manual and get to reading through it)

jonny5000 wrote in post #11906987
I'm not very familiar with producing HDR images, but these don't even look like HDR.

Good!! For me, a superb HDR image is one that truly represents what the human eye sees. Or as i dare to call it, a "normal" photo

Also, just a little advice that was great for me. Don't go looking for a hdr photo. Hdr is used to solve a problem should the problem arise with a photo you're trying to capture, not the other way around (looking for a 'problem' to capture? Not so much)

See, if these shots were being blown out I see a point in using HDR or a filter..

I think you could easily take these shots without HDR or filters and come upo with a beautiful if not better result with some editing..