Pixiq

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

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/

I agree Tucker it is a shame.

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http://www.inkfarm.com

nice article... in-depth explanation and neatly written !!
check out my HDR photographs as well...

http://digital-camera-photography.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-do-hdr-pho...

check out my hdr pics as well...

http://digital-camera-photography.blogspot.com/2011/10/how-to-do-hdr-pho...

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

is the human eye ball hollow? just like going to the market for sugar and returning home with $30.00 worth of groceries and no sugar.
your articles got me pumped up abouth HDR they are great, informative and clear but still didn't get me the answer for the question i was looking for.
is the human eye ball hollow, like the camera between the iris and the receptors? thanks, emilio

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.

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.

Will, your Cave photo is stunning – fantastic work!

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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?

Wow lovely all that detail….

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.

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

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.

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!

eat5hams: Great tip, thank you very much!

thanx,overprocessed I think it’s what Hdr is all about sometimes,anyways I love experimenting with the subject!

Great Article!!!
There is a lot of buzz on the internet on HDR photography. any photographers think HDR photography is a party trick but this is defiantly not true. High Dynamic Range Photography is a major part of the future of photography. HDR photography is a new technology so many photographers are skeptical or unfamiliar with it. Like in any business you have to learn the new technology or trends, ignoring it or being scared to learn something new will just get you left behind. Information is power.

I think the words

“… quite possibly the first major way in which digital photography does something which film photography can’t emulate – or even come near:.

Is a little untrue. To begin with, film has a much higher dynamic range straight out of the camera than any DSLR. Most of the time the purpose of HDR is to reciprocate the dynamic range of film or the eye in general. The fact that multiple digital photographs have to be taken, imported into photoshop, tonemapped, and put together to emulate film is a statement in and of itself.

Thank you for your wonderful tutorial. I am in Japan and love shooting hdr!

this is how ‘fake HDR’ helps to enhance my photo.captured with a crappy 3.2MP handphone camera.i mean by fake cause it was only 1 photo snapped.http://www.flickr.com/photos/38244635@N08/3548322142/

this is how ‘fake HDR’ helps to enhance my photo.captured with a crappy 3.2MP handphone camera.i mean by fake cause it was only 1 photo snapped.

great guide my friend! i’m really impressed with hdr photography. HDR photos always look amazing.

A great read that was the introduction to HDR that I really needed.

Thanks for posting!

Now that HDR has integrated into the world of photography,
there are a few new styles of HDR starting to crop up around
the internet.

For those who are interested in trying their hand at one of them I have just finished writing a tutorial for “Dark Style HDR”

Which you can view with the link below:

http://www.mrdphotography.co.uk/tutorials/darkstylehdr/ds-hdr-tutorial-i...

We have just started experimenting with HDR. Thanks for the article. Helps to clear things up!

HDR, as so many before have already said, can be, and usually is, grossly overdone. When used tastefully it can be beautiful. I often go to the ‘Stuck in Customs’ website for a good laugh. Not only are Trey’s photos ugly, but they pander to the gross commonality of trivial taste. Sure he wrote a book about it, so many people who want to be part of the herd and do like everyone else want to do the same technique that everyone else seems to be doing – tastelessly.

As for character assasination – take a look at this guy’s grammar, and spelling? what’s that? Did he ever graduate high school?

I get wonderful results using one raw image and pulling out of it whatever I can. That’s enough for me. I can learn from other’s work in HDR – especially what NOT to do.

Fiddler, your remark paints you as smug, arrogant, pampas ass. Your remark is WAY out of line! Art as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Not everything is for everyone. But you’ve taken it to a personal attack when you slung “As for character assasination – take a look at this guy’s grammar, and spelling? what’s that? Did he ever graduate high school?”out there. Your spelling is not perfect either…. “assasination” is spelled assassination. Did you ever graduate grammar school? His book is not nearly as “tasteless” as you personality. If you have something to share constructively please do so…..if not Shhhhhhhhhhh!

Fiddler, your remark paints you as smug, arrogant, pompous ass. Your remark is WAY out of line! Art, as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Not everything is for everyone. But you’ve taken it to a personal attack when you slung “As for character assasination – take a look at this guy’s grammar, and spelling? what’s that? Did he ever graduate high school?”out there. Your spelling is not perfect either…. “assasination” is spelled assassination. Did you ever graduate grammar school? His book is not nearly as “tasteless” as you comment…..which makes you sound a little jealous and insecure, with a bit condescension added to the mix. If you have something to share constructively please do so…..if not Shhhhhhhhhhh! I for one don’t want to hear personal attacks because you don’t share someone’s taste….Shame on you!

H came by a really great resource for HDR on a website by Dan Norcott. Its basically where I learnt how to do it!

http://dannorcott.co.uk/hdr-tutorial/

And here is my little collection. I’ve come a long way in the last year with HDR. My early attempts were really poor!

http://www.aaron-photography.com/portfolio/hdr-photography/

The assertion that Ansel Adams managed to accomplish the same thing as HDR with a single shot is rather misleading. Ansel’s amazing images are a result of precise exposure AND the amazing amount of effort that he spent in the darkroom dodging and burning. His photos are not straight prints, but they are absolutely beautiful. Using software to manipulate digital images is the only way to accomplish the same things that we used to using darkroom techniques. It takes skill to use the software in such a way as to produce a desired result and is no less professional than using darkroom skills to do the same.

Thanks a lot for sharing!

Here is link to online HDR photo tool to create cool pictures from one photo

http://anymaking.com/funny-hdr-tone-mapping-picture-effect

Have fun!

Great post! Always enjoy what others have to say about HDR.

Nice stuff, check out my HDR at http://www.macleod.arknet.co.uk/photoblog and leave some comments :)

Really good post, lots of helpful info

Hi, great (and useful) blog here. For those of you who do not own a camera that can bracket raw images, we’d like to offer you ten image sets from rawhdr.com to play with. Just join (free) there and enter “photocritic” without the quotes into the coupon box after you join to receive your ten free credits.

Enjoy

I don’t understand why so many photographers are so threatened by HDR. If you don’t like it, don’t look! I don’t appreciate a lot of visual art out there…it doesn’t mean that I go around spewing hatred and insults at it. It is what it is and isn’t it great that we are all different?

Great article but could do with a few better hdr pictures to demonstrate your point. Feel free to check out http://www.waitingforvisas.com for some HDR travel photography

I think it’s a real shame people are bagging HDR, yes some people really over do it and it’s awful but HDR can really help you bring out the shadows and highlights and if done right can be amazing.
and if you don’t like it just don’t use it or view it
look at my London eye picture and tell me what you think
http://www.exploretravelphotography.com/gallery/h22354d25#h22354d25