there are a few ways to do it, depending on what effect you want (keep’n it reelz looking or cartoonish). You can make an HDR from one RAW image, you will not get as much detail though and some people will argue that it isn’t a “REAL” HDR image. The images also don’t HAVE to be RAW, you can do it with 3 .jpgs.
To keep it real:
Use at LEAST 3 exposures.
Make sure you use a tripod.
Use the light meter in the camera(put the setting to “spot”)
meter for the darkest area in the shot (write it down)
meter for the brightest area in the shot (write that down)
figure the in-between. Make sure you are keeping the same aperature, just change the shutter speed
Merge the 3 images using CS3 or Photomatix or what ever floats your boat.
Use the adjustments to get the darks a little more bright and the brights a little more dark and save the image(in CS3, you will have to change it to 8bit from 32).
Open the saved .jpg and do the minor edits… I usually just do a little contrast and very slight sharpen… done.
Cartoonish looking HDR:
Follow same steps but either use “Local Adaptation” in CS3 after the merge and play with the points or Tone Map in Photomatix and just blow everything way out of realness.
To make a fast HDR from one image, I like using Irfanview… it’s free(you still need an HDR program to merge them) but here is what I do to get the 3 images.
Open RAW file
Save as file1.jpg
use same RAW file and turn the exposure down about .5(under “EDIT-Enhance Colors”)
Save as file2.jpg
Edit - UNDO
Use the same RAW file and turn the exposure up about 1
Save as file3.jpg
now that you have 3 files (dark, normal and bright), follow the steps above.
Tip: if you are going to use 3 or more exposures, make sure nothing is moving in the shot (such as clouds, people, water, leaves from trees…). Also, try not to leave any shadows that are too dark. Photomatix will just make a lot of noise in that area.
You can edit each of the exposures also before merging them. For a sunset shot, if there is some purple in one of the shots, feel free to enhance that. Kinda cool effect.
I don’t mean to offend, but your methods for making your “HDR’s” are questionable at best, which shows in the results. I would wait until you get a bit more seasoned with some really good HDR examples before you post “how-to” threads.
Just my .02, as I am pretty familiar with good HDR and the Techniques.
I don’t mean to offend, but your methods for making your “HDR’s” are questionable at best, which shows in the results. I would wait until you get a bit more seasoned with some really good HDR examples before you post “how-to” threads.
Just my .02, as I am pretty familiar with good HDR and the Techniques.
I don’t mean to offend, but your methods for making your “HDR’s” are questionable at best, which shows in the results. I would wait until you get a bit more seasoned with some really good HDR examples before you post “how-to” threads.
Just my .02, as I am pretty familiar with good HDR and the Techniques.
I agree… sorry to burst dozr’s bubble but digital photography is not an absolute skill. Its not like there is only one way to do something, especially these, its whatever you want it to look like.
I don’t mean to offend, but your methods for making your “HDR’s” are questionable at best, which shows in the results. I would wait until you get a bit more seasoned with some really good HDR examples before you post “how-to” threads.
Just my .02, as I am pretty familiar with good HDR and the Techniques.
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You see the normal thing to do is post up some of your amazing HDR’s so we can see just how aweso-amaza-riffic you are. Instead of just calling someone out and not giving any example to what you actually know.
I am not saying that I have examples, nor am I saying that I am a photographer, but I do hire good photographers. Look at the examples I posted previously for some excellent HDR.
I’ve been asked at least 5 times how I do my HDRs, so I figured I’d put it into one thread instead of having to type it out each time. So I explained how I do it and people can adjust the method to meet their likes. I have never gotten paid for any of my pictures, nor do I want to. I do this for fun.
