HDR dilemma, never seems to work well for me

[andrewilley]

I processed some other pending HDR images from my HD at the same time, I'm starting to get the hang of this I think:

Andre

 

[DIsneyDsgn]

I processed some other pending HDR images from my HD at the same time, I'm starting to get the hang of this I think:

These French Quarter pics look awesome!

 

[andrewilley]

These French Quarter pics look awesome!

Argh, I've just realised that the courtyard one is not straight, darn. Oh well, I've got all the XMPs still so I should be able to redo it from the RAW files without having to change any settings and just level it and reprocess.

Andre

 

[andrewilley]

POFQ courtyard now straightened out.

I'm not sure whether the POFQ lobby photo is a bit too oversaturated though. I prefer to keep the colours for the photos on my site quite bright and well saturated (giving a bit of a 'postcard' look) but that one might have gone a bit too far. Any opinions? (I also might Photoshop the chap in the background out, as otherwise the photo is really clean)

Andre

 

[andrewilley]

I'm gradually working out that "less is more" seems to be the best mantra for HDR images. I actually do like some of the amazing, wildly overdone stylised HDR images out there, but for my own purposes I think I was trying far too hard to turn night time shots into pseudo-day lighting, and thus fighting a lot of digital noise in the process.

I've been working on a batch of Port Orleans Riverside images, and I'm finding that Contrast Optimiser seems to give me more natural images than Details Enhancer (and far less controls to worry about too - which in Detail Enhancer seem to fight each other a lot of the time anyway)

Andre

 

[elmoandzoey]

I think one of the misconceptions (and probably also the reason why a lot of people condemn HDR photography) is that the results are highly saturated in unnatural colors. But that's only part of what HDR photography is. The human eye has a much wider dynamic range than a camera sensor. If we perceive a blue sky in the background with green trees in the foreground, the camera sensor may blow out the sky (turn it white) or underexpose the trees (turn them black). In order to compensate for that, you'll need HDR. A lot of people will see an HDR photo and not even notice it is HDR. If you have Photomatix, look at the natural or photographic setting to see what I mean.

I love your night shots. That's where HDR is truly a benefit if you ask me. They both have a bit of a reddish/red tint still if you ask me (the white balance seems to be off). Nighttime shots will always be nighttime shots - but HDR let's you show the dark areas as well as the well light areas which a single exposure would not.

 

[elmoandzoey]

Oops. Accidentally posted twice.

 

[andrewilley]

I tend to edit my pictures on the warm side generally as I feel they look more "welcoming", but I have found these night shots a bit of a challenge to get right. Also I'm using a Dell U2415 IPS as my editing monitor, but with only minor tweaks from the out-of-box settings (mainly for black/white levels) so maybe I should calibrate it fully?

Does this seem better to more people, it feels a bit cold to me, although the trees do look greener:



Andre

 

[fractal]

@andrewilley Those look great!

 

[nbaresejr]

I'm gradually working out that "less is more" seems to be the best mantra for HDR images. I actually do like some of the amazing, wildly overdone stylised HDR images out there, but for my own purposes I think I was trying far too hard to turn night time shots into pseudo-day lighting, and thus fighting a lot of digital noise in the process.

I've been working on a batch of Port Orleans Riverside images, and I'm finding that Contrast Optimiser seems to give me more natural images than Details Enhancer (and far less controls to worry about too - which in Detail Enhancer seem to fight each other a lot of the time anyway)

Andre

These 2 are really really really good. I agree with your statement that less is more with HDR. Its very easy to go over the top. While I do have some over the top images mostly I just like to blend for highlights and shadows.

If I had any critique on the top image it would be to adjust the white balance to have the lights less yellow. The 2nd image is fantastic!