HDR versus routine processing

Trevor, you can always improve on something but i think youve nailed it with number 4. I too am a bit disillusioned with HDR but i really think its down to my pp rather than the technique per say... ive seen some incredibly well executed natural looking HDR work... i just cant do it myself!

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Originally Posted by tbob

I may completely give up on HDR. I am finding almost 100% of my efforts a little too unnatural looking to my taste. This entire posting was an effort to discover if people thought the end result was acceptable. When I shot this scene I was trying HDR as an option to dodging and burning.

I will check into Enfuse as an option. I will have to see if it works with Aperture. I don't use any other program currently.

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I think people are still mis-understanding what HDR is (and isn't). In a nutshell, it's just a way to stuff more dynamic range into a file to work with. The dynamic range of the finished product doesn't change (it's always normal dynamic range). HDR doesn't produce any kind of "look" - and - once one has produced an HDR composite then one STILL NEEDS TO PROCESS IT LIKE ANY OTHER SHOT. Some software will attempt to do a lot of that work for you, but you'll still need to push/pull things to get it looking right. And a word to the wise -- they can be tricky little b^stards because there's a world of difference between an image that simply has the source dynamic range compressed into the final normal dynamic range file - and one that has all of that and still looks believable. Local contrast needs to be handled very carefully.

Yes Trevor, this is the one for me ;)

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Originally Posted by tbob

Very good observation. I incorporated it

Version 4

http://i60.tinypic.com/30wutzd.jpg

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HDR doesn't produce any kind of "look" -

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It doesn't have to, but it often does, I think because of the tone mapping. Just google "hdr images" without the quotes and hit the image link: http://tinyurl.com/kbn59v7. Hideous stuff, some of it.

Apparently, some HDR software (I don't use any, so this is hearsay) offers the option of simply blending exposures to increase dynamic range, but if that is what one is after, why not just use exposure fusion?

I never used dedicated HDR software, but I did do a few HDR images with Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop. I'll post below two composites, one done with HDR in photoshop and the other done with Lightroom Enfuse. The second is LR Enfuse. The unnatural color of the sky and foreground rocks in the first one was what pushed me to use Enfuse since that time.

http://backup.cambridgeincolour.com/...G4vnTdP-XL.jpg

http://backup.cambridgeincolour.com/...blended-XL.jpg