Post Your Best HDR Photo

[Michael James]

The 40D has three "C" modes. What I would recommend is pre-prepping them so that in the field you can set up a shot to capture quickly with just the flip of the dial.


Like have the first one C1 setup with the camera settings so that it begins with a negative exposure compensation and C2 with a positive exposure compensation so that you can put the camera in AEB mode and fire off three AEB in C1 and then turn the dial to C2 and immediate fire off three more.


I'd imagine if you used C3 as well you could use all three settings to work out 9 exposures, but at the expense of having to touch the camera twice (once each time you turn the dial). A very steady (rock solid) tripod is crucial if you intend to touch the camera. You'd be amazed at how easy it is to change the alignment touching the camera even lightly.


If you do the math based on the steps between each frame of your AEB, then you can very quickly end up with 6 frames equally spaced using C1 and C2 (9 if you also use C3). The only challenge you will have in post is that they were taken separately so the software may ask you to input the steps you used manually after you have selected the images to use when merging to HDR.


Michael James


http://www.digitalcoastimage.com

[HiFiGuy1]

Michael,


Thank you for the replies. Of course, experience is a great teacher. I am the kind of guy who wants to get it right out of the gate, but I will have to be patient. I do enjoy learning by doing, so this should be a great adventure.


I wonder if the 1D Mark II or Mark IIIhas more points for AEB. I want one of those for other reasons anyway, so this might put me over the edge. I'd have to wait on the Mark III, but might go after a Mark II immediately. I'll look into it. I don't want to risk moving the camera.

[HiFiGuy1]

rgravel,


Out of curiosity, what is the EV spread of your "images"?

[Michael James]

I know the 1Ds mark III does up to 7 for an AEB sequence and +/- 3.0 to boot. I heard from someone online that you can even program in a much higher number of frames as well. I'm not sure about the 1D series.


I never really looked at the 1Ds series because it was out of my price point when I first looked. I'll tell you though. That Canon 17mm T/S is looking a must have for me. Nikon has a 24mm, but that 17mm offering by Canon would be really beneficial to me.


There are about a dozen times a week where I can't get a decent shot off of a room because of optical issues relating to where I can even stand (tripod). And most of these rooms require me to be from 16-18mm because they are condos or smaller homes.


The thing that makes me cringe is the 3 AEB of Canon (ughhh!!!).

[peety3]

Why wouldn't a single RAW shot, with copies made to be underexposed and overexposed in a RAW processor, be just as good as multiple shots? Is the reason for having multiple shots to give more sample data to the image processing software?


Also, I am imaginingthe advantage of 7bracketed shots versus 5 or 3 iskind of like having a 14 bit image versus a 12 or 10 bit image. Is that conceptually sort of the right perpective? More for the image information for the processing software to use for decision making?
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The 14-bit capture uses designated ranges across the 4096 values for different sub-ranges within the sensor's dynamic range. Some sub-ranges (say 18% gray to one stop darker) get a higher number of values (perhaps 2048 of them) than other sub-ranges (say 8 stops darker to "black", getting perhaps 256 values total across those 1-3 stops worth).


Using a single image file to perform HDR becomes a manipulation of the brightness values of the file's pixels to create a file with details not otherwise as visible. Doing so involves perhaps boosting some pixels from a range where there's little detail. Using multiple files of varying under/overexposure provides more detail in those various brightnesses to create the end file. Is single file bad? Nope, at least to me. How about the hybrid method mentioned above? The data is, in the end, the same whether the software gets to work with a single image file or copies that have been brightened/darkened.

[devsalvi]

A couple of HDRs :


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[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.24.65/IMG_5F00_3063_5F005F00_0_5F005F00_1_5F00_tonemappe d_5F00_ls.JPG[/img]

[Colin]

This was rendered in Raw Shooter Essentials.


I don't know if it's HDR. Well, in terms of high dynamic range, it was very much so...


It looks totally artificial, but I like the effect. Kind of sickening []

[Rodger]

Im hopping on the HDR wagon. Well, you could say Imrunningbehind it right now. :P


I've read most of this thread and from that I know is that HDR is done with multiple shots that have different exposures. (Im lost on thetechnicalities).


I took three shots for this: Exposure compensations of [-2, 0,+2] I used Essential HDR Community Edition because it was free. I just hit the "merge and align photos" button and then after that finished I hit "tone mapping" and played with the sliders for a bit. Anyy input at all is welcome.


I'm a complete novice to HDR. Are there certain scenesthatwork better for it? Sorry for my lack of knowledge.

[Michael James]

I'm going to cover Essentials HDR on my blog. I'm launching the blog this week. It is up but without posts as of tonight.


http://www.hdriblog.com


I speak briefly about the app here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogex5stQ2vg


Michael James


http://www.digitalcoastimage.com

[HiFiGuy1]

Michael.


Congratulations on the blog.


Interesting introductory tutorial. What are these HDR monitors you mentioned? I haven't heard of them before.


There is a television technology in my business with like a 1M:1 contrast ratio. The name escapes me right now, but it is only about 30" diagonal and cost like $10k a year or two ago. It uses LCD, but with an LED backlight.


EDIT: It is the BrightSide brand. It is a 37" called the DR37-P. The dynamic range is shown to be 200,000:1 and the price was listed as $49k. I don't have one personally, if you're curious. []


Ialso see OLED monitors being pretty high performance in the near future, along with my personal favorite, which is SED or SCED, though that has stalled commercially for the time being over some intellectual property rights hassles.


BTW, on your recommendation, I did purchase Essentials HDR. I have played with it a little, and like it pretty well, but don't really know how to utilize it to its fullest yet. That might be an interesting blog topic/YouTube video for you to do. Also, I would like to know how you see shots in the real world that make you think, "hey, that's gonna be a great candidate for HDR!"