When an outdoor shot has to be captured, no exceptions, do some HDR work

[freelanceshots]

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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]Heres an example of the typical HDR
type work that i have to do. With this shot and most of all my shots
I have two days to capture all the required images where I travel to do these
assignments. If the exterior weather is not cooperating while I'm
there tough luck. With this shot no matter what manual settings I tried I
could not get a decent day time photograph because of the crappy
weather. I finally threw in the towel I packed up all my gear and just said to myself I'll deal with it once I get back home. When I got home and
pulled it up on the computer screen it was truly a dismal image. I got kind of worried at that point but even thought I did not
have much to work with I think it came out all right. Not my best
work but the client will find it acceptable where I can at least
collect my money.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]The two original images that I worked from:
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"][img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.32.66/Under-Exposed.JPG[/img]


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.32.66/Over-Exposed.JPG[/img]


Here is the Final image that I was able to produce:





[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.32.66/Fixed-Exterior.JPG[/img]

[Brendan7]

wow! just wow.


I have no post processing software so changes like that seem extraordinary.


IMO great job!

[msmiley]

Yeah that is quite an improvement. As someone who is new to HDR, can you give us some insight into what you used to combine the images? Did you shoot RAW?

[elmo_2006]

HDR if done correctly is great, but I find that it has been over-utilized everywhere to the extreme where the image itself is too cartoon like. However; looking at this final photo, it does not seem to lend itself to HDR.


Very nice nonetheless.


[:|]

[freelanceshots]

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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]To go into more detail I shoot my
images with the 5D2 because of it full frame capability plus its low
light noise control ability. The shots that I usually take still
produce quit a bit of noise so if it weren't for the 5D2 it might be
a real nightmare.

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]I do shoot in RAW mainly to take
advantage of color balance adjustments and get the image captured in
14 Bit instead of 8 Bit.I am not a big fan of HDR photography
as it has been taken to extremes where I cringe when I look at most
of it. I come form the Newspaper Industry where its forbidden to
modify/manipulate any part of an image because your changing the
truth. Since leaving that industry and performing commercial
photography clients expect perfect pictures because everyone is fully
aware of what can be done with the aid of the computer and software.
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]I don't use any HDR type software where
I use good old Photoshop. I'm a photographer that tries to use as
basic as tools possible to get the job done right. I've always used
the simple and free DPP to open up all my images and do slight
tweaking and conversions where I then take them into CS4. CS4 has a
lot of unique tools and improvements that make it the best tool for
photo editing. I was watching the Matrix movies the other day where
I again caught the part where they need to fly a helicopter off the
roof of a building but no one knows how to fly one. Well the simple
move in the movies is to call back to the mother ship Nebuchadnezzar
and say download it to me. That would be really cool if we could do
that with Photoshop as it is such a vast tool which just takes years
of playing around with it. Wouldn't it just be cool to know
everything that it can do and how to do it in the most practical way?
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;"]When it comes to my list of things that
I do there is no specific list. I just learned through trial and
error what works and what doesn't where I continue to learn new things everyday. I
look at a picture from square one and figure out a starting point and
then go on from there. Each picture has its own specific needs so I
setting up helpful script never works for me. I can say that an image like
I've done here has close to 400 or 500 individual little actions
done to it. There is a lot of cloning, layers, selecting, and copying
done so these tasks can add up quickly. The history pallet is very
helpful so that you can compare the improvements to the previous look
and then undo it if something gets messed up or does not look right.

[freelanceshots]

Just a side note: the final, full size image looks a lot better on my screen at home then it does downsized on the Digital Picture website. I dialed down the quality/pixel ratio of the image a lot to make it easier and quicker to view which might have been to much but in the end it gets my point across.

[waving_odd]

I don't use any HDR type software where
I use good old Photoshop.

Did you use regular Photoshop layering technique or CS4's "File &gt; Automate &gt; Merge to HDR" ?


I used "Merge to HDR" a couple times but the outcome is always too overexposed (my source files are RAW's produced by 5D2's exposure bracketing +/- 1 EV)...


Thanks in advance for sharing knowledge!

[freelanceshots]

No, I don't use any of CS4's HDR tools. I heard that this was not very good plus I don't even know where they are in photoshop.



I just do it all with layers at this point. I don't like to use specific HDR
type software because it usually over does it. Halo's around objects drive
me nuts.