Tips for getting great HDR.....

[zenon5940]

All very good tips here. I don't see anywhere mentioned that it is also important to do the bracketing without changing F stop... but by ajusting the shutter speed or ISO as on some lenses the change in F stop will have an effect on the Focal length and on all lenses it wil have an effect on DOF (Depth of field).
Just my

[Bambi]

It means you shouldn't take HDR's unless you wearing a monkey suit or have a really hairy body.

so that's why your HDR pictures are so good!

[F8&Bthere]

I know this thread is a bit dated, but I'll throw in my 2 cents anyways....

After I got over the initial wow-I-love-this-eye-candy phase of doing HDR, I started to learn how to tone down the settings in the program that I use, which is Photomatix.

The sky in outdoor shots is often the place where HDR pumped up all the way looks terrible. Noise, oversaturation/overdetailed, haloes- just really unnatural looking. In Photomatix, bringing up the micro-smoothing and highlights smoothness sliders slightly helps get rid of that unnatural looking sky.

Ghosting is also a big problem with HDR merges. If it's a windy day and you are bracketing a scene with tree branches or anything that moves, you can try to bracket super fast (like set the camera so that it can fire off it's fastest possible 3 shot burst), but likely you will still see ghosting in the final result. So then you may as well resort to pseudo HDR where you create an underexposed and overexposed version of the original image (preferably RAW) and combine those in your HDR program instead. No alignment necessary.

The only other solution I have tried for ghosting, but with limited success, is to do the normal HDR from 3 or more shots, then bring that resulting file and one of the original files with the best exposure into Photoshop and use layers to blend them in a way to get rid of the HDR version only in the areas that show ghosting. But it's not easy and often doesn't look right. I also use this method for images where the HDR program just stubbornly does some weird clipping or colour noise in areas that I can't seem to shake in tone mapping.

But yes as others have mentioned, using a tripod is key, as is using aperture priority mode.

Edit- oh crap, I just noticed it was Casil who started this thread, so given her studious approach and fairly advanced skills most of what I've written will be kinda like "duhhhhh" by now. Sorry Lisa, but maybe others will still get something out of it.

[casil403]

Hi F8...lol...I started this thread for Bambi (and anybody else) who was initially having a tough time with HDR shots. I am a terrible explainer (ask me how to make creme brulee or what kind of flower it is and I'm all over that! )for these kinds of things and I know there's people out there like you and MA and many others who can do a better job of 'splaining than I can.
Basically for me, in Photomatrix and almost every other program i use, I just keep moving the sliders until I see what I like and then I hit the save button. I have no idea what exactly I am doing technically.
Thanks for the input...

[ericmark]

More of a question than answer. On tripod use. I was carrying my tripod everywhere and then lazy I fired of a few bracketed shots without. Using Photoshop CS4 I found they worked fine. Reading about Photoshop it seems one of the upgrades between CS3 and CS4 is that it auto aligns the image.

So with CS4 do I really need to lug that tripod around?

Remote shutter release was another point. I find (likely because it was cheap) the cable remote can fire shutter when I don't want it so it has not been used much. The infer-red release needs the button pressing three times to get bracketed 3 shots. But cable and direct fires off all three with one long press. The time delay using the infer-red seems to have a marked effect on final result. So I now use release on camera it's self. Must buy new cable release.

Third was focus. I considered it would be better to use manual focus but I found mirror going up is down was moving focus ring on lens. So I have gone back to auto focus. Took quite some time before I worked out why some images were out of focus thought it was me forgetting to set.

[F8&Bthere]

...
So with CS4 do I really need to lug that tripod around?

Well, I've also had some success bracketing handheld, but I consider the tripod to be just a bit of added insurance. Better to have it, but once it becomes more of a burden then maybe it's worth taking chances handheld (or maybe even propped on some other available stable surface). I have a gorillapod strapped to the side of one of my backpacks and it adds very little bulk and weight and comes in handy sometimes.

On the cable/remote, well I guess that only applies to a hands-free shooting situation (tripod, etc). I use the inexpensive wired releases available on ebay from Hong Kong.

On the focus issue- wow that's a new one to me. Either your mirror slaps like a kickboxer or your focus ring is really loose. As always, we have to remember that so many focus problems are not actually focus problems, they are movement problems, either subject or camera.

[ericmark]

I saw focus ring move so yes very loose ring. On auto focus motor holds it so not a problem. Thanks for info or hand held yes I will normally lug tripod but off the aqueduct where people even this time of year are trying to pass one not really an option. Pushed up against hand rail.

[Mad Aussie]

I take a large amount of my bracketed shots handheld and it seems to work ok. I do go to the trouble of make sure I'm steady though. I also use my 2 sec timer function so I'm braced and ready when the camera fires off the 3 shots. With my camera, if I use the 2 sec timer it fires the 2 brcketed shots in quick succession.

That brings me to the remote release question. FOr HDR I don't bother, I just the 2 sec timer.

If I'm not lazy or have the tripod with me I will use it. Sometimes the longest exposure of the bracketed shots can be just too long for handheld. If your brightest bracketed shot is very bright then you are going to have a soft shot no matter what due to the over-exposure bleed so using a tripod is definitely the better way to go. Neither CS4 or Photomatix can align the shot if it's too soft/blurry.

My little 50mm has a very loose focus ring too. After a few shots it can go out of focus so I often hold the focus ring.