Can someone help with HDR?

Since I'm a newbie in this forum and in the DSLR world, I've been reading a lot of great stuff talking about HDR, but I was not able to find good info on what it is and/or some steps on how to do it...

I'm very interested in HDR, since I've seen some amazing results, especially in landscapes and pictures of some great cars...

Even though the web is full of information on "how to's" in HDR, I would like to know from you people, if you have some tips to someone that wants to start working with HDR.

I'm not asking for a step-by-step explanation, but maybe a good explanatory website, or something like that.

From reading posts in this forum, I think I get the idea of what type of picture can benefit most from HDR, and I believe Photomatrix is a good program to use...

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but these two pictures below would have been great ones to use HDR in...unfortunately I did not shoot'em RAW, nor did I take more than I shot with different exposures, since I didn't really know about HDR at the time.

Thanks in advance for replies!

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Luminous Landscapes has a pretty good article. It is pertaining to using CS2 though.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial​s/hdr.shtml

Some basic things to remember:

Use a tripod
Shoot in Manual Mode
Shoot in Manual Focus
Shoot with a chosen WB, not Auto.

In2Photos wrote in post #3113160
Luminous Landscapes has a pretty good article. It is pertaining to using CS2 though.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorial​s/hdr.shtml

Some basic things to remember:

Use a tripod
Shoot in Manual Mode
Shoot in Manual Focus
Shoot with a chosen WB, not Auto.

Thanks for the tip! This was exactly what I was looking for. I'll experiment with CS2 for now and see how it works out.

The link you sent explains HDR very well...I'll delve into HDR and maybe soon I'll post some test pictures. Hoping to get nice weather down here this weekend!

Good HDR site is at http://www.hdrphotos.n​et/

Flickr has several HDR blogs with general information and numerous HDR examples:
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/hdr/discuss/
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/artizenhdr/
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/qtpfsgui
http://www.flickr.com/​groups/easyhdr/

Thanks rzych! Another site I've flagged for deeper research!

Whats the difference between the HDR helper in CS2 and a HDR software like photomatix

I don't see a need for HDR in either image; both can be properly exposed with a single exposure, assuming that there wasn't actually a ton of detail in the sky that you just lost to overexposure...

I'm not a great fan of HDR but then that's probably because I haven't used the right scenes/method etc. Having said that nearly all the images I've seen posted in HDR examples/forums etc. look more like artwork than photography.

What I do use though, to bring out more detail in areas such as sky/clouds is Photomatix and the "Combine Auto" command. In DPP I make one conversion of my single RAW file to bring out the detail in highlight areas (which initially may look overexposed) and then make a second conversion to bring out the detail in the shadow areas. These are then combined in Photomatix and PP'd in CS2. The Auto function in Photomatix has not caused, so far, the halo effect that can sometimes be a problem when combining such files.

As a simple benchmark I often also do a "straight" conversion in DPP and then PP in CS2. The difference in the Photomatix combined file is usually greatly improved detail in cloud (or other highlight) whilst at the same time having good detail in shadow areas. It still looks like a photograph and pretty much as they eye records.

Running the same conversions through Photomatix (or CS2) HDR function usually ends up with a picture that has unusual colours/lighting/expos​ure effects, etc. even though I try to make all the necessary adjustments in tone mapping. However, I do accept that to get 'proper' HDR then multiple exposures of the scene itself should be taken and not just multiple conversions of one RAW file - so that's my fault and probably not HDR's.

So, to answer the original question - I would recommend Photomatix and it's "Combine" function, for multiple conversions of the same RAW file, if you want to keep highlight details such as the sky in the examples above whilst retaining shadow detail. It works well for me.