First attempt at HDR, hit or miss?

Hi all, first post after lurking for a while. Anyway, finally got round to trying some HDR, and there are some obvious flaws, halos, ghosting etc, that i cant really figure out how to avoid, any advice welcome.

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I don't know why these images need HDR processing. They have fairly normal dynamic range by themselves. If you want a darker sky a pola would be a much better choice. Simpler is almost always better.

You are right, i do need to invest in a set of filters, flash is next on the shopping list tho

I tried a series of HDR stuff from Belfast over a few hours in mid day, and these were the best of the bunch, still not happy with them, early days i suppose...

Here is one of the originals from the Duke of York for comparison

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i like original better..

didnt need the hdr imo. once you get the cpl you wont have the problem with blown out sky.

The first one has a pink sky on my screen - brr...

Both don't look sharp to me either - at least as an HDR image.

I think I can understand why you used HDR in the first one - but even an HDR image can be edited so that it looks like a normal image.

Additionally I can see some colour fringing in the second image..

sharpness with HDR has eluded me so far, any tips would be more than welcome. second one is a bit of a write off imo, the more i look at it the less i like it lol

capri_stylee wrote in post #11112798
sharpness with HDR has eluded me so far, any tips would be more than welcome. second one is a bit of a write off imo, the more i look at it the less i like it lol

Tripod.

And self criticism is good - as long as you don't become too critical - better than having 10 similar shots and being unable to decide between them.

(Although I had some good results handheld too - does your software align them?)

capri_stylee wrote in post #11112798
sharpness with HDR has eluded me so far, any tips would be more than welcome. second one is a bit of a write off imo, the more i look at it the less i like it lol

That's because, technically, these are not "HDR" images. Unfortunately, the term HDR has become synonymous with "excessive tonemapping". That's fine if you're trying to create a piece of digital art, but HDR should reflect what your eyes actually see.

The November issue of Outdoor Photographer has a brief article that touches on HDR processing, which you might find useful. The link below is an excellent resource on how to capture and process multiple images such that the HDR image will actually resemble the actual scene as observed, not the cartoonish look that too often gets passed off as HDR:

HDR Photography

Cheers for the C&C everyone.
Excellent link argyle, been bookmarked

argyle wrote in post #11112851
That's because, technically, these are not "HDR" images. Unfortunately, the term HDR has become synonymous with "excessive tonemapping". That's fine if you're trying to create a piece of digital art, but HDR should reflect what your eyes actually see.

The November issue of Outdoor Photographer has a brief article that touches on HDR processing, which you might find useful. The link below is an excellent resource on how to capture and process multiple images such that the HDR image will actually resemble the actual scene as observed, not the cartoonish look that too often gets passed off as HDR:

HDR Photography

Good point - but I am under the impression the above are from several exposures?

DetlevCM wrote in post #11113084
Good point - but I am under the impression the above are from several exposures?

The number of exposures are irrelevant to the point that I was making....they're still over the top as far as tonemapping goes and no longer resemble reality. The whole premise of HDR is to reflect reality, and since the human eye is capable of approximately 3x the DR as that of a digital sensor, we need to combine multiple exposures of the scene in order to render the scene as witnessed...its not to tonemap the image until it looks cartoonish (unless that's what the end goal is). When HDR is done properly, the viewer should not be able to tell that the HDR process had been used. Some may agree, some may not...