| » Forum Index » Straight photography and off-topic » Topic: my LDR of HDR la la la |
|
Posted on 09/07/09 2:49:26 PM |
|
Pete
Body Booster Posts: 121 Reply  |
my LDR of HDR la la la
I have seen a few posts about HDR photography on here so I thought I'd share my stab at it... http://www.flickr.com/photos/pikuseru/sets/72157617573462132/ |
Posted on 10/07/09 09:09:12 AM |
|
The Mad Lep
Four-Leafed Fantasist Posts: 323 Reply  |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
Thanks for sharing those Pete. Love the Wayfarers Chapel!  |
Posted on 10/07/09 09:20:07 AM |
|
Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7040 Reply  |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
Absolutely spectacular! Fantastic images! |
Posted on 12/07/09 4:06:43 PM |
|
Pete
Body Booster Posts: 121 Reply |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
Celia, Steve, Thanks very much, glad you like them. |
Posted on 21/09/09 8:24:36 PM |
|
Pete
Body Booster Posts: 121 Reply |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
a few more added: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pikuseru/3938173706/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/pikuseru/3938114902/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/pikuseru/3932086413/ hope you like them! |
Posted on 21/09/09 9:21:03 PM |
|
GKB
Magical Montagist Posts: 4019 Reply  |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
Very nice Pete. I have done the occasional HDR image using Photomatix and have found that the best results come from not using too many images or exposure variations as the results can quickly look quite ghastly. You seem to have avoided that. _________________ Maturity is knowing when and where to be immature |
Posted on 21/09/09 10:33:22 PM |
|
BigVern
Q Quipper Posts: 674 Reply  |
my LDR of HDR la la la
Pete, they are lovely images. I particularly like the Vegas, Station and Chapel images. What is tone mapping and how do you do them? |
Posted on 22/09/09 11:38:09 AM |
|
Pete
Body Booster Posts: 121 Reply |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
Hi Vern, I'll do my best to explain... First of all, you need a scene where there is too much contrast to capture with a single photograph. For example a stained glass window with the sun shining through it. A photo that captures all the detail in the window will leave all the inside of the building black, and a photo that captures the inside stone work will have the window blown out and white. What you can do is take a range of exposures that captures all the light information from the brightest bit of glass to the darkest stone area. Some cameras have automatic exposure bracketing to do this, but I have managed to do it manually a few times with a tripod and manually change the exposure between each shot (although this is not recommended). Here is what you end up with: 
The next stage is to merge all these exposures into one HDR (High dynamic range) image. You can do this through Adobe Bridge into Photoshop (In Bridge: tools -> photoshop -> Merge to HDR..) or another simple to use program is Photomatix (http://www.hdrsoft.com/), which is what I use most of the time (also avalible as a photoshop plug-in). This HDR image usually has too much of a dynamic range to be displayed properly on a monitor, so it will look quite weird at this stage (you can usually scroll through the exposure levels), and you are now in the realms of 16 or 32 bits per channel imagery (something newer versions of Photoshop can handle). You can do all sorts of stuff with HDR images, and it is especially useful in 3D for image based lighting techniques. One of the artsy things you can do is tonemapping (back to your original question). This is where programs like photomatix really come in. Tone mapping is basically blending all the different exposure levels back down into a low dynamic range image, but it works in a way that doesn't just squash the histogram together. So in our example the tonemapper will reduce the light intensity of the stained glass window, and bring up the light levels of the dark stone work (in a way similar to dodging and burning in photoshop). There are a number of sliders and options in photomatix that effect the way the tonemapper works, and the best way to learn this is to have a play with them. Tonemapping is a bit like what an artist subconsciously does when painting a scene, keeping all the areas of a painting in detail. A quicky tonemapping of the example: 
Hope this explains, you can find out more info here: http://www.hdrlabs.com/book/index.html (the book i read on it) |
Posted on 22/09/09 12:14:40 PM |
|
Pete
Body Booster Posts: 121 Reply |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
Thanks Gordon, You are very right, it can be quite easy to slip into over-cooking everything. I try to keep on the tasteful side of things, I hope! Do you have the advanced renderer in C4D?... if so have you tried image based lighting? (the main reason I looked all this stuff up) Pete |
Posted on 02/10/09 02:49:11 AM |
|
Pierre
Constructional Confabulator Posts: 637 Reply  |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
I really like your HDR stuff. I'm in Flickr too and there's so many people there, it's hard to link with someone with similar interests! Really great work! _________________ |
Posted on 02/10/09 09:52:20 AM |
|
Pete
Body Booster Posts: 121 Reply |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
Thanks Pierre! |
Posted on 11/10/09 00:52:07 AM |
|
BigVern
Q Quipper Posts: 674 Reply |
Re: my LDR of HDR la la la
Thanks for the helpful demonstration Pete. I would like to have a go at tone mapping but have realised that my Nikon D40 does not have an auto bracketing feature so I would have to change the bracketing manually to +2ev and -2ev manually between shots using a tripod and hope nothing moves too much. Sounds like a challenge .... so I may have a go. Thanks again for showing us such beautiful images. Vern |