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My first S3 HDR Picture-Thoughts?

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ChiSoxFan

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My father in law just sent me some info and instructions how to make an HDR picture so I whipped out my S3 and turned on exposure bracketing to try it. This was my first try and I just took a picture of the ugly buildings across my street in Chicago. Spending 30 seconds and turning it into HDR though turned it into a great shot IMO. What do you think?



 
Oh, when you compare the pics make sure to click on them both because the HDR effects are the most dramatic on the right side of this picture I think.
 
For the amatuer, could you explain what HDR is?

It looks like the second pic has proper exposure for more areas of the picture. For example, you can see the clouds in the sky in the second picture, but not in the first.

I dunno what you are doing, but yes the second picture looks quite a bit better.

--
Clint - Amatuer With an S 3 I S

 
OK, here goes...

I think you're on the right track, but the HDR process is not perfect and still requires practice and the right images.

The overall right half of the picture looks somewhat unnatural to me. There are flares of overexposure in your tree in the foreground and the bricks look less consistent. The tress seen unnaturally colored for the apparent lighting in the rest of the scene.

That being said, I believe it is a good start - you definitely picked up some lost detail and color using the technique. Keep working it....

Jay B.
 
I'm an amateur with this myself, but here's the rundown. If you have exposure bracketing it makes doing HDR much easier. On my S3 I did bracketing at 0, -2, and +2 so every picture I take actually takes 3 in burst mode. Then you run the 3 picture files through a program or filter. I used one called Photomatix and it creates the HDR image. Then you can adjust the HDR image as you like to customize it. HDR basically will take the best of all worlds and create one image from it. Like in the image above if the building is exposed properly, the sky is overexposed or vice versa. You can do a ton of HDR effects and get incredible lighting. Pretty cool stuff. Here's the Flickr group dedicated to HDR images so you can see some examples and what you can do.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/hdr/pool/
 
Thanks for the input. I agree that it does look a bit unnatural, but that was sort of what I was going for since this was my first try. I wanted it to stand out so did +2 and -2 EV. Should I use less severe EV like +1 and -1 for best HDR images? It was a crappy picture to start out anyways but still amazing what you can do in such a short time with this software. I just took some pictures of the Chicago skyline and will try that out now. Thanks again for the critique.
Jay_B said:
OK, here goes...

I think you're on the right track, but the HDR process is not
perfect and still requires practice and the right images.

The overall right half of the picture looks somewhat unnatural to
me. There are flares of overexposure in your tree in the foreground
and the bricks look less consistent. The tress seen unnaturally
colored for the apparent lighting in the rest of the scene.

That being said, I believe it is a good start - you definitely
picked up some lost detail and color using the technique. Keep
working it....

Jay B.
Click to expand...
 
If you don't have the auto bracketing feature on your camera you should use a tripod. Then you can take picture 1, decrease EV and take picture 2, then increase EV and take picture 3 so they're all identical. I handheld all of mine because the S3 takes all 3 pics so quickly. Night shots would probably need to be tripod though.
Amolmd said:
Did you need to use a tripod for that or the software takes care of
it. I had fruitless attempts of this in photoshop as I tried to use
its MDR feature. How about photomatrix?
--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/amolmd
Click to expand...
 
I think he has a special pre-production accessory placed in front of the lens to create the faint grid/watermarking effect. If only they were portable :- .

peace\dewde
--

I feel like a quote out of context, with holding the rest, so I can be for you what you want to see. -Ben Folds
 
I wish it was that technical, but that grid was just incidental. I took the picture from inside my house and that my exterior window screen you see as the grid. I think it ended up looking kind of cool, but can't take credit for it as something I did on purpose. Like I said I rushed the heck out of this picture just to see what it was all about :-)
dewde said:
I think he has a special pre-production accessory placed in front
of the lens to create the faint grid/watermarking effect. If only
they were portable :- .

peace\dewde
--
I feel like a quote out of context, with holding the rest, so I can
be for you what you want to see. -Ben Folds
Click to expand...
 
Taking the picture from inside my house was also the reason for the weird abberation on the right side on the tree. I think it was the reflection in the window of inside the bedroom.
 
I just took some pics from my rooftop and this is one of a Ukranian church a couple blocks away. Original and then the HDR output below. I still went pretty strong on the HDR effects but like the result. Cropped it a bit too to make it more like a panorama.



 
ChiFoxFan,

At first it looked a bit unatural but I think it's only because our eyes aren't used to seeing everything exposed correctly. I love the effect and you have me thinking now. Is PS Elements 4 capable of HDR?

Pat
 
Thanks, I agree it does look a bit strange at first. The Photomatix software I'm using is only available as standalone or as a Photoshop CS2 plugin according to their website. Check it out, the picture of the Eiffel Tower on the main page is awesome. http://www.hdrsoft.com/
 
Just downloaded the trial software myself and quite pleased with the results. Much quicker and easier than blending 3 bracketed shots in CS2 or PSP.



--
Neil
 
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