Camera Labs

Now there is one thing I really don't understand: HDR-pictures.
Some software copies several shots of the same subject at different EV-corrections together and then? What do you get?
Something that has reduced a real world contrast of let's say 16 stops down to 10 stops? So you effectively reduce contrast! I've never thought that this makes for interesting pics

Examples see here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=HDR&w=all
One tries to explain it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45699166@N00/485316263/

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Hi Thomas, the idea - as I'm sure you know - is to correctly expose for things which are very dark or very bright in the same composition. A normal, single exposure can only capture a limited dyanmic range, so you inevitably end up having to compromise and lose shadow or highlight detail.

In theory, HDR lets you have the best of both worlds.

In practice though, you need the right subject matter to do it justice, otherwise it can just end up looking a bit odd.

One of the best examples I've see of it was by a good friend of mine who lives in Sydney. I hope he doesn't mind me linking to his flickr account!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lgrayson/s ... 242882170/

Gordon

It's like other effects, use it well and it will give you really nice results. B&W also only works well on some pictures and same goes with saturation and so on IMHO.

For example the picture "HDR Washington Mews - Greenwich Village" from the first link you posted would probably look a bit doll, the road would be dark and gray and the sky look overexposed. But I think it looks really good with some HDR editing where you can see high contrast in the road and a nice blue sky.

It's a matter of personal taste, personally I like it on city pictures where light can be a problem

BTW thought it was an acronym for High Dynamic Range?

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Minolta primes: 2.8/20 2.8/24 1.7/50 2.8/135
Minolta zooms: 28-135 35-70 70-210(beercan) kit
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Hey Rune, those HDR photos look really great!

Is that your flickr account, or are you a fan of this photographer's work?

Gordon

You're right, Rune.
I corrected the headline accordingly.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I whish I could do such great pictures This was actually one of the pictures from the first link Thomas sent, I will use a reference to the name instead of deeplinking.

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Minolta primes: 2.8/20 2.8/24 1.7/50 2.8/135
Minolta zooms: 28-135 35-70 70-210(beercan) kit
Minolta cameras: Dynax 5D 7000
M42: Pentax Asahi S-M-C Takumar 1.4/50 and 2.8/105 Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 2.4/35 Industar-61L/Z Kiron 2.8/105 Macro

Whoops!

Well they were very nice examples anyway...

Gordon

Not sure about the basic of HDr but what i like is that you can produce some fantastic stuff with it maybe not realistic but hey, we get plenty of those shots imo.

one of my favorite hdr artists imo and this is my latest favorite that he has made.

http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/57055595/

Nice shot!

Not too bad. A polarizer would have helped though, imo.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

I have to admit that most of the HDR images posted nowadays on the net look artificial to me... the problem lays - if I understand correctly - in the tone mapping algorithms/settings used to compress the higher dynamic range into the standard one that can be displayed on most of our monitors...

That being said, I think that increasing the useful dynamic range that can be captured with digital cameras will be the new hot issue as soon as the race for more megapixels slows down... Hopefully, monitors with 10+ bits per channel will become more common and cheaper soon...

Related to the HDR discussion topic, I remember reading one of Thom Hogan's postings on dpreview some time ago in which he mentioned something about a book on HDR written by Vincent Versace. I assume he got a review copy as I could not find any mention of it anywhere else... I'm looking forward to browsing (and possibly buying it) when it becomes available in bookstores...

Darrin

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Nikon D40 | Nikkor 18-55 VR | Nikkor 55-200 VR | Voigtländer Ultron 40mm SL-II | Nikon Speedlight SB-400

Well i belive hdr will always look more or less artificial imo.

You do enhance the picture more than just pulling som levels in ps.

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Ad Vitum
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Nikon D80, 18-135mm lens,

Check this out ...

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/cambridge-gallery.htm

I tend to agree that most HDR's are absolutely ... well boring expecially the nature shot and warfalls and other water things ... but these Cambridge shots are trully magnificent

Much, much better that most of today's HDRs!

Darrin

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Nikon D40 | Nikkor 18-55 VR | Nikkor 55-200 VR | Voigtländer Ultron 40mm SL-II | Nikon Speedlight SB-400

Very nice Cornelius!