HDR comparison, Comments please

I'm not spotting much in the scene (going by the originals) that the camera hasn't managed to cope with in terms of the dynamic range.

Neither extremes - highlights or shadows are pushing the limits so I don't see the need for HDR unless it's a style you're after ?
 
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Neither look sharp what lens and settings are you using on your D90?
 
Thanks for taking the time to comments guys, much appreciated. I think I do prefer the originals too ha ha, this was more of an exercise for me to see what I could do with HDR than to necessarily create a “better” image. As I said it’s my first stab at this technique.

Dinners: yeah I can see there’s not much extra shadow detail but I thought the highlights in the sky were loads more defined in the HDR version. I couldn’t stop the brightest bit of the sky from blowing without losing loads of detail in the alleyway, and that’s what at the time made me think of having a go at HDR. The second one of the door, yes, I was just going for the style, and deliberately pushed the sliders really far and applied loads of extra sharpening, just as an experiment really. I probably could’ve gone further, maybe I’ll have another go and see how far I can push it.

D in W: good point about the crop. I’ll chop it down tonight and see how it looks. Thanks for the advice.

Dcash: actually this is something I’ve been wondering about most of my shots when I compare them to ones I see on here: sharpness, and the lack of it! I’m a proper novice, but very keen to learn, and any pointers would be really appreciated.
OK, kit lens 18-55 vr. All shot in raw.
Number 1: 18mm, 1/640s, f/8, ISO200, spot metered on the clouds and applied +1 2/3 EC. “Expose for the highlights, develop for the shadows” and all that. The HDR for this one was bracketed +/- 1½ stops.
Number 2: 26mm, 1/40, f/8, ISO1600, matrix metered and 0 EC. HDR was bracketed +/- 1 stop.
Maybe I’m not applying enough sharpening in PP? For number 1 I used something like radius 1.0, amount 50. Zooming in to 100% the sharpening was creating a bit of noise, so I put luminance noise reduction to 5. Maybe that’s softened it a bit? For number 2 I’m puzzled because I went crazy with the sharpening, first in ACR, then again with more in PS. Any thought’s on this lot? Sorry for the essay ha ha

Thanks for all the comments guys they’re really helpful.
 
The 1st one looks to me, very well done. My only problem with it is the clouds - too distracting. Everything else is nice & subtle, then you look at the sky & BOOF, HDR! :LOL:

Don't see much need for HDR in the 2nd, maybe just a colour temp change :shrug:
 
Boz I wouldnt bother with sharpening in ACR at all. In there i many a time only adjust clarity between 25/50, a little fill light for any bad shadows and recovery any blown highlights. For sharpening in PS work between - amount 75/100 - 0.8/2.0 radius - threshold 0.0.
Or a contrast sharpening of amount 20 - radius 50/70 - threshold 0.0

To me your Hdr sky is over cooked and the buildings far to dark.

In Ps i opened your original and in no particular order...

Adjust highlights/shadows
Adjusted blue sky - selective colour
Levels
hue/saturation
shadows/highlights
unsharp mask.

Only had a quick look at shot two original where i...

Adjusted shadows/highlights
Levels
Unsharp mask 20/50/0
Slight edge sharpening

Why use iso 1600?

Maybe you'll get far different comments but the above was only a quick play, didnt find the need for Hdr.
 
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I could have sworn that I had already responded to this thread but apparently not :bang: If I'm honest I don't really think that the HDR processing has done the images any favours you seem to have actually lost some exposure on the actual buildings :thinking:

Matt
MWHCVT
 
dcash29 said:
Boz I wouldnt bother with sharpening in ACR at all. In there i many a time only adjust clarity between 25/50, a little fill light for any bad shadows and recovery any blown highlights. For sharpening in PS work between - amount 75/100 - 0.8/2.0 radius - threshold 0.0.
Or a contrast sharpening of amount 20 - radius 50/70 - threshold 0.0

To me your Hdr sky is over cooked and the buildings far to dark.

In Ps i opened your original and in no particular order...

Adjust highlights/shadows
Adjusted blue sky - selective colour
Levels
hue/saturation
shadows/highlights
unsharp mask.

Only had a quick look at shot two original where i...

Adjusted shadows/highlights
Levels
Unsharp mask 20/50/0
Slight edge sharpening

Why use iso 1600?

Maybe you'll get far different comments but the above was only a quick play, didnt find the need for Hdr.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your advice on sharpening. I struggle a bit with sharpening, I think because the changes can be so subtle.

If you still have your edits I'd love to see them? Seriously they'd be worth their weight in gold to me!

ISO1600? I use autoISO, set to min SS 1/60 and max ISO1600. There really wan't much light for number 2. Camera's maxed out the ISO and even still had to go a bit longer on the SS (1/40).
 
Thanks for the critique Matt. I had another stab at number 1 last night, taking everything I've read here on board (except that it doesn't really require HDR ha ha!). I know what you mean about buildings too dark. I'll get mk.II uploaded tonight and see how it fares.

Cheers,
Leon
 
Boz alter your preferences so it says editing is allowed.

You need to get off auto iso.

My quick edits are as follows, they are not hdr and off your original shots as posted.

orig
6386311329_8017e756ac.jpg
6394817071_8c7c0a23da_z.jpg


Havent spent anytime on this thus not happy

orig
6386302575_84c948e622.jpg
6392256283_8461a350ec_z.jpg
 
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Thanks very much for taking the time with those. The first one is wicked.

I had another go at the HDR thing and realised how to get the HDR look. You need to go mental with the sliders!

Thanks for all the help everyone
 
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