Comments on: The ultimate guide to HDR photography

By: Haje Jan Kamps

Haje Jan Kamps — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 07:37:52 +0000

eat5hams: Great tip, thank you very much!

By: eat5hams

eat5hams — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:33:28 +0000

http://www.stuckincustoms.com has some of the most amazing HDR work I have seen, and he also has a great tutorial on the subject here …. ( http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/ )

Great Article!

By: Max Ferguson

Max Ferguson — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:19:22 +0000

Zach read the final paragraph in the section marked Theory Behind HDR photographs. Think a little laterally about editing a bunch of various tonal ranges from the same shot processed in RAW and then do the HDR thing.

Good pictures are about a good subject carefully exposed and framed. I think good processing film or digital shouldn’t be obvious. I think it should serve the picture.. When a picture is about the treatment and not the content I think it tends to fall over.

I have 20 different versions of Summertime on my iPod, ranging from country, trip hop, club mixes, Janis Joplin Louis Armstrong, operatic styles and so on. They all sound good.. Some better than others but essentially they all sound good because it’s a great song in the first place.

A good picture is a good picture. You can throw all the digital fairy dust at a bad image but in the end it’s just a heavily treated bad image. IMHO most HDR images I’ve seen could do with a little less “HDR”

Just a thought.

By: jason

jason — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:26:33 +0000

This is such a great article, the whole site seems awesome. My biggest thing with hdr is getting the artistic look without the overdone colors. I’m currently trying to get a blog up and running about lightroom 2 if anyone wants to help contribute some articles etc. Please take a moment to view the blog at the following link Click here for lightroom 2 blog

By: Shivanand Sharma

Shivanand Sharma — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:15:24 +0000

zach: A good DSLR would have the minim fps of 3 i.e it will take at least 3 shots per second in continuous mode. While a second is a long time for people to move, it will still make sure that movements are kept to a minimum. Also just in case u are not using a tripod, you will find it handy that photoshop has a feature to realign images automatically for HDR merging. Hope that helps.

By: design

design — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:15:47 +0000

Wow lovely all that detail….

By: zach

zach — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 07:03:18 +0000

Hi I am new to HDR, took a couple of my first shots today. I am curious though about one thing. I have seen some photos on flickr that have people in them and I was wondering how an HDR photo was taken with them? You could also look at the picture of the Eiffel Tower you have above. People are obviously going to move while you’re taking your photo’s. So how does one take an HDR photo with people?

By: Popular Technology

Popular Technology — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:27:36 +0000

Great article! :) The most comprehensive HDR photography article I’ve read so far! :)

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:01:46 +0000

StuckInCustoms has a good HDR tutorial to go along with these wonderful tips. I’ve just started experimenting with HDR, and there are definitely folks who like the more “subtle” look. The technique itself is fascinating with so much room to experiment.

By: CodyR

CodyR — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 05:25:38 +0000

funny. i used to read this blog pretty regularly and came back to it today to see my photo on the front page! that example is not really my favorite because, as you can tell from its name, it’s one of my earliest experiments.

i’m used to seeing HDR haters on the internet and by this point, i’m sort of over trying to defend it as an interesting and more importantly - fun! - technique. usually when people wonder what the heck HDR is doing anyway, i point them to a comparison of a shot i took from the same exact spot, on the same exact day as another flickr user who did not use HDR.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/codyr/207595990
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hapgood/304712265

By: laurie

laurie — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 09:47:13 +0000

You forgot to mention a trick. When using the camera on the tripod, if you don’t have a remote trigger you can avoid camera shake by using the self timer.

By: George L Smyth

George L Smyth — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:59:02 +0000

HDR is just another technique that can be used and/or abused. The artist gets the opportunity to decide exactly where to go with the image, and it can go from subtle to hitting the viewer over the head.

Then again, sometimes it is the only way to get incredible detail that would otherwise never exist. An example of this is the extreme panoramic I created in Edinburgh while shooting from the top of the Sir Walter Scott Monument. The image can be seen at http://glsmyth.com/projects/scotland/edinburgh/edinburgh.htm.

By: Jure

Jure — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:42:52 +0000

I agree with Will, using the HDR to extend the dynamic range is OK, but too many HDRs are just ugly and grossly overprocessed. Stunning image of the cave, btw!

By: Haje Jan Kamps

Haje Jan Kamps — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 22:12:53 +0000

Will, your Cave photo is stunning - fantastic work!

By: Tibor

Tibor — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:07:12 +0000

I’ve never understood what people try to achieve through the use of HDR, it’s just another gimmick.
Ansel Adams pretty much nailed true HDR through proper skill and technique, in one single exposure, 70 years ago.
These new age digital HDR photos make me somewhat nauseous. It’s just decorative art.
People never seem to be able to use any sort of subtlety, they always overdo it, and like nate said, get that crap looking typical HDR effect.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:02:16 +0000

Don’t listen to nate, I’m really glad you put this together. I’ve been aching to try this, and what do you know! One of my favorite photoblogs slaps it right on my figurative desk.

By: Omid

Omid — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 21:29:51 +0000

Agreed, the first two pictures are WAY overprocessed. If you get the halos after tone-mapping, you’re doing something wrong.

By: Will

Will — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:33:20 +0000

Great post. HDR is great but I don’t like it when you can see that the photo is obviously HDR. I like to try and use HDR so that you can hardly tell it has been used. It can really make a photo POP if used right. Here are a few of mine:
http://www.willbl.com/2008/08/misty-morning/
http://www.willbl.com/2008/07/cave/
http://www.willbl.com/2007/12/emerald-lakes-tongariro-crossing/

By: nate

nate — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 01:45:47 +0000

hideous. absolutely hideous. the first 2 pics are perfect examples of why so many people hate hdr. skies with grungy overtones and horrible blue halos around the edge. piling on more doesn’t necessarily make a better picture. the other 2? why stack? just do a photoshop abortion to any old picture