First HDR with my T1i...Remeber the Alamo!

[nazarioj001]

I had the day off, so I decided to venture out to the River Walk and try out some HDR. I'm pleased with my first attempt. I know what I did wrong and what I'll need to do next time for a better result. But please feel free to comment.

I used Lightroom 3 with the Enfuse plugin. I let the program do all the work. I'll try and do a bit more work in lightroom when I get a chance.











--
Be a Rebel!
Canon EOS T1i

 

[PDine]

I like HDR images when they are subtle, and ones done using Enfuse generally are. Is this a true multi exposure HDR, or a tone-map? Either way, Id be interested to see how this compares to a 0 EV original image.

 

[Peter 13]

I do not see the need for HDR for those images, and some of them have blocked shadows and poor highlights (part of the sky of the last one).

 

[nazarioj001]

I went out this morning specifically to take pictures to try HDR. My metering was off in all but one. The fountain picture is the only one I'm really happy with.

These are indeed 3 exposure HDR images. Here are the original 0EVs











--
Be a Rebel!
Canon EOS T1i

 

[nazarioj001]

I agree, subtle HDR is better. See below for 0EV originals.
--
Be a Rebel!
Canon EOS T1i

 

[richj20]

These are indeed 3 exposure HDR images.

How did you determine the other exposures?

In #1, for example, one of the exposures needed to be at least -1 ev, IMO, so as to be able to take care of the very bright area in the center.

I find the best way to get several exposures is to monitor them on the LCD in live view.

Setting an aperture value in Manual Mode, I just dial up the shutter speed until the brightest area becomes usable for one of the exposures.

This is a very nice scene, and if I had arrived home without an ideal exposure, I would have used some artistic license, which I hope you will permit as a test using your 0 ev image!



Your Original HDR



regards,

-rich

--
"Careful photographers run their own tests." - Fred Picker

 

[Granamere]

Could you walk use through what your work flow was? Did you just have the one RAW and do your exposure bracketing from it? Did you do any work on the photo before you made the HDR?

--

I took a course in art last winter. I learnt the difference between a fine oil painting, and a mechanical thing, like a photograph. The photograph shows only the reality. The painting shows not only the reality, but the dream behind it.

 

[nazarioj001]

Yeah, It was really my first time trying. I setup the AEB to -2, 0, +2 with Partial metering. The T1i only does 3 automatically. I shifted the AEB to do a set of -4, 0, +4, but the camera wont do it automatically. I thought it was going to be too much, but I just put them ogether, and it came out pretty good.



I didn't really know what I was looking for when reviewing the pictures on location.

I have a better idea now what to look for, but I expect it will take some practice.

Oh well, I guess there are worse things than walking around and taking pictures.

--
Be a Rebel!
Canon EOS T1i

 

[nazarioj001]

When taking the pictures, I used the T1i Av mode with the smallest app and AEB. set to -2, 0, +2.

For the rest, I followed along with this tutorial:

http://yanikphotoschool.com/tutorials/video_tutorials/creating-hdr-images-directly-in-lightroom-video-tutorial/

I couldn't get Photomatix to install, and I wasn't happy with some of the other programs I found, so I went looking for a way to do it finding lightroom 3 and found this.

The Enfuse people ask for a donation to use the full version of Enfuse, but there is no set donation. I paypaled $5 to them and got the activation code. You could probably give them $1.

--
Be a Rebel!
Canon EOS T1i