HDR Photo's in Photoshop

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petach

Active member
 Brentwood, the capital of Essexdom
Discovered the joys of HDR in Photoshop CS5.

For the uninitiated:

It blends over exposed, under exposed and correctly exposed pics into 1 pic, where you can then boost certain aspects to achieve a certain effect, as below. I think they come out pretty decent.

6.jpg
5.jpg
4.jpg
2.jpg
 
I've never been a fan - it looks so unreal. :(

Before HDR similar results could be achieved using "curves."
 
not bad,quite like them. i also use the 'curves' setting to achieve similar effects. prefer the 2nd image to the others !
 
I'm 50/50 with HDR.. I believe that in B&W, you can get some astonishing shots:

But when playing in colour, it can take a bit of work... I think the best shots come out from a dark source, like this:

Bembi_Rear_by_petrakon.jpg

or this:

New_but_not_new_HDR_by_carlzon.jpg

Which I think is stunning.
 
yeah, for some reason 2nd shot looks better than the others. Have tried different exposures with layers but can't quite get the same effect. I have seen a lot of hdr stuff on the web and like it. I missed out on a PS course at adult college by acouple days, so hope to enrol next term.
 
When done well, HDR pictures can look very good.

Sorry petach - your pictures are ok but they need a lot more work on to make them work for me.
 
Haven't done much in HDR but I like them. Depends on the subject though and I agree, darker mood pics can look the best. Prob with HDR is though it can make the pic look like a still from a modern computer game!
 
the best HDR pics for me are when you aim to make them as realistic as possible... HDR is overkilled imo.

petach... the HDR on the car looks great but the background needs some work. Keep it up though, i can spend hours on shots in photoshop tweaking here and there! :thumbsup:
 
mikee_j said:
the best HDR pics for me are when you aim to make them as realistic as possible... HDR is overkilled imo.
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i agree... although HDR always looks kinda unreal to me.

one of my attempts:

8proop39.jpg
 
I'd highly recommend using LightRoom. HDR"esque" shots are a lot easier to come by using a slider called "Fill Light" along with a few others.
 
My new iphone got this HDR feature with the software update :P

Didn't know what it was and was getting annoyed that the camera kept saving two pictures, then I noticed one was slightly lighter than the other. Thanks for clearing this up for me, I am not a photo geek :poke:
 
Sorry the Z4 shots from the original post look horrible, really nasty and badly used HDR. Sorry, just being honest.
 
shabba said:
Sorry the Z4 shots from the original post look horrible, really nasty and badly used HDR. Sorry, just being honest.
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Bit harsh - as petach has only just started using it :|
 
Serves me right for sticking my head above the parapet! Someone is bound to come along and pot you with one out of left field. I don't mind a constuctive critique, but to call then horrible and nasty? I'm gonna tell my mum on you!
 
I've been using Photoshop professionally for over 15 years. After a while you can instinctively see when an image has been manipulated.

Personally, badly-done image manipulation is a real turn-off, whereas I get a real kick from seeing something which is very well-done.

All the fancy effects in the latest versions of image manipulation software available can be done with more control from earlier versions of Photoshop if you know what you are doing.

My problem with fancy effects is that most of the pics we see are the end-result of haphazard tweaking, at best resulting in a "happy accident" derived from what the software has done for us.

Don't get me wrong, this can result in a stunning image (albeit accidentally).

Nevertheless, for me a really stunning final result HAS to have a very good photo at it's heart.

Photoshop can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear for me, and an over-manipulated image looks just naff when you know how it's done and have seen it all before.

Of all the images above it's ///carbon's which impresses me most. :fuelfire:
 
If you're looking for something which looks heavily post-processed or slightly surreal, I think it's a great tool. I've only taken a few photos with the aim of producing an HDR shot.

I liked your car in those shots Petach. With regards to the background, I wonder if it's the breeze causing movement of the trees which has caused the problem as you're not getting three shots which are identical. I've had that problem before.
 
Funny you should mention the trees jimmy, not the only person to have mentioned it. I have persevered with hdr, trying all different tweaks to try to change my pics from "horrible and nasty" to "easy on the eye". I think of all the pics, the 2nd one is the nicest or least offensive. I am going to sign up for a PS course locally in the next term. Having looked at a lot of hdr pics on flickr and other sites, I think they all look surreal or hyper real. Mine don't look all that out of line from those.
 
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