HDR Pano, Take 2

Deckham wrote in post #6449317
...which makes the image an artwork, but strays so far from photography, I question why it is even displayed in a photography forum...

Art is whatever you want it to be, but surely there is some kind of limit to what is done with a photo before it is no longer - a photo.

That is a slippery slope

OCPickle wrote in post #6449405
That is a slippery slope

True.
I shouldn't have opened that door.

I think you can open that door and discuss what you see. I also think you have a point. The problem lies in that people will take it as far as they can.

Well we are in the HDR section of POTN.

The problem lies in the fact that photographers are becoming more efficient in Photoshop and are trying to improve their photos. Some will argue whether they are in fact improving those photos!

HDR is an effect where you can definitely go to far. How far is too far? Well thats pretty subjective. I'm gonna do a pano and see the reaction.

HDR is not an effect. Tonemapping an HDR with extreme contrast is an effect that can be achieved if you want to produce such an image. I think the term "HDR" gets used as a catchall phrase to describe many different things at different times in different contexts. Using a single RAW image and tonemapping it is not creating an HDR image. Using a single RAW image and producing multiple "exposures" from it in ACR, etc.and combining them is not creating an HDR image. You are not creating any more information in either of these processes than the original sensor can record in a single exposure. However, most of the posts here that use these techniques are described as "HDR" - technically, they are not; however, in this context the use of the HDR monicker is one of the description of the high-contrast, sometimes overdone, effect of tonemapping. You can tonemap any image you choose, even an 8-bit image - that is what you are doing when you make a "curves" or "levels" adjustment in PS. With HDR, tonemapping is necessary because you typically have much more dynamic range than a RGB monitor or printer can display.

Just to clarify, I don;t mean to be pissy about it, but I think when we are all using the term "HDR" we recognize that sometimes we don;t really mean a high dynamic range image, we mean the tonemapping effect that is often generated in Photomatix or other tonemapping routines required to display a 32bit HDR.

Again, with respect to HDR Panos, you can stitch together a full HDR pano in Hugin or PTGui or Photosphere without having to choose a combine-and stich, or stitch-and-combine workflow. But, suit yourself if you choose to kick it old school. Hugin (PC.Mac) and Photosphere (Mac) are free for nothin'.

Rock on.

Kirk

Deckham wrote in post #6449317
...which makes the image an artwork, but strays so far from photography, I question why it is even displayed in a photography forum...

Art is whatever you want it to be, but surely there is some kind of limit to what is done with a photo before it is no longer - a photo.

I'd tend to agree, although who's to say what constitutes 'real photography' versus 'art'?
In terms of HDR, photography has always been limited by the recording medium when it comes to dynamic range. If and when technology reaches a stage where merging bracketed exposures isn't required because the entire light range can be recorded in a single shot, those digital negatives still have to be processed in some way, much like any 'negative' has to be processed, which is where personal vision and artistic interpretation comes in to play.

I specialize in infrared panoramas which has no colour and has different tonal properties than standard visible light photography, but I still regard it as real photography as well as photographic art.

kirkt wrote in post #6449884
HDR is not an effect. Tonemapping an HDR with extreme contrast is an effect that can be achieved if you want to produce such an image. I think the term "HDR" gets used as a catchall phrase that is used to describe many different things at different times in different contexts. Using a single RAW image and tonemapping it is not HDR. Using a single RAW image and producing multiple "exposures" from it in ACR, etc. is not HDR. You are not creating any more information in either of these processes than the original sensor can record in a single exposure. However, most of the posts here that use these techniques are described as "HDR" - theu are not; however, in this context the use of the HDR monicker is one of the description of the hig-contrast, sometimes overdone, effect of tonemapping. You can tonemap any image you choose, even an 8-bit image - that is what you are doing when you make a "curves" or "levels" adjustment in PS. With HDR, tonemapping is necessary because you typically have much more dynamic range than a RGB monitor or printer can display.

Just to clarify, I don;t mean to be pissy about it, but I think when we are all using the term "HDR" we recognize that sometimes we don;t really mean a high dynamic range image, we mean the tonemapping effect that is often generated in Photomatix or other tonemapping routines required to display a 32bit HDR.

Again, you can stitch together a full HDR pano in Hugin or PTGui or Photosphere without having to choose a conbine and stich, or stitch and combine workflow. But, suit yourself if you choose to kick it old school. Hugin (PC.Mac) and Photosphere (Mac) are free for nothin'.

Rock on.

Kirk

Right on.

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Duder wrote in post #6448991
I always merge the exposures first before stitching the panorama.

Can you explain this a little?
I have Photomatrix software. I'm not familiar with the process of merging exposures.

When I take a pano (I've only done 3 or 4) I set the camera on manual settings and don't change them over the course of the shots. I take white balance off auto and set it on cloudy or other setting to match conditions.

I've tried a pano series on Av for example and after the stitch the ski always gets variations in colors.

Maybe I just need to read more on this topic.

tomd: My method is to take your pano as per usual but you take multiple exposures to produce a HDR image which you may choose to import thru a program like Photomatrix. The trick is to save your settings in PM to use on each sequential shot which is going to be stiched later in Photoshop or some other pano program. I hope thats clear.

There is obviously more than one way to skin a cat this is just one and the way I would go about it. Watch this space for more HDR panoramics.

tomd: pretty much what Gum6y said.

Merge the exposures means: generating the HDRi from your bracketed exposures. Once you've created all the constituent HDR images, you then stitch the panorama together, and then do your global image processing on the complete panorama.

Duder whats your panoramic stitcher software of choice?

CS3.

Do you have any links to any of the preprocessed images? I think I'd like to see this as closer to what an Grad ND filter would do to it, minus the foliage on the edges.

Nice work on it though.

I like this look myself. I can see real anytime.

This is the HDR forum, but as to photography, I'd like to see you do this without a camera.

canonloader wrote in post #6462036
I like this look myself. I can see real anytime.


This is the HDR forum, but as to photography, I'd like to see you do this without a camera.

Perhaps I lack the skills to do that. But I'm sure someone handy with a brush could do it....

I tried doing this, and failed miserably -- How did you do this exactly.

Did you take 3 shots at one angle (left oriented), 3 shots at the middle, and three shots at another angle (right oriented) make HDR's of each, THEN do the pano? That's what I did, and I couldn't get the image to merge correctly. The exposures were all off.