Possible HDR cheat: Using 1 RAW shot only?

Nethawk

Nethawk

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Hey all. Excuse the newb, please. Up until now, my sights (and pocketbook) were set on getting the D40 or D60 with the 18-70 and 70-300 VR.

Problem: I`ve fallen head over heels in love with the look of (well executed) HDR photography. Trouble is of course, that neither the d40 or d60 have auto bracketing as a feature. The D80 does and the D200 and up series too. So, either I scrounge around for a used D80 (as new as possible) and scrap my plans for getting the 70-300VR, or I keep my sights on the D40 and manually take three shots to perform standard HDR.

So...is it possible to "cheat" with both the d40 and d60 and take one raw shot, open it up in CS2, rework the exposure, and save the file as three separate under/spot on/over exposed Jpegs to then convert to HDR?

I`m dreaming, right? Or is it feasible?
 
I assume it might be, but that said you can still do bracketed exposures on D40/60; Just because it isn't automatic doesn't mean it's impossible! (and will give nicer/more controllable methods than this solution)
 
I would, but I plan on doing portraits with possibly non static backgrounds. I just don`t want to end up with trails or artifacts.

But yeah - for straight landscapes, I`d definitely manually expose.
 
Yes, there is basically no problem with using 3 (or more) jpg's or tif's formed from one RAW image for HDR.

Indeed photomatix (my HDR program of choice) has a function to do this directly from one RAW, without you having to do the jpg conversions.

I have used this when HDR-ing images of moving subjects, when 3 images are simply not possible.
 
I've tried it a few times, but the finished image always looks noisy compared with one made from 3 separate raws.
 
When I've used Photomatix to process from the single raw it's looked grainy. On the other hand the results achieved when passing three separate pictures to Photomatix pre-processed at -2 0 & +2 from a single raw seems a lot better.
 
That makes sense since the elements of noise within the image will be multiplied when you combine the pictures because they are in exactly the same position in each.
 
I find it works well with photomatix if the source image is a tad overexposed to start with, certainly you get a lot less grain.

No real expert on HDR (going the other way to you I'm afraid Nethawk and falling completely out of love with it) but that has seemed to work for me in the past. :)
 
If its entry level equipment you're after / limited to and want auto-bracketing, consider the D50. 2nd hand of course. But then I imagine a 2nd-hand D200 is not far off the price of new D60s these days, and one of those would be much preferable to a D50 (although not so good for HDR at ISO400 and over, even if you do use separate exposures)

As for using a single RAW to create a pseudo-HDR, either do as Dan says and expose to the right (without clipping!), make sure there is plenty of light or use the lowest ISO setting possible. Or preferably a combination of all 3 (y)
 
I've been looking for 2nd hand D200s and they all seem to go for roughly 800.00 Canadian. Not a whole lot more, but if I could get away with 650.00 or just below 700.00 I'd like that a lot more. D200 is a very respectable DSLR from what I understand. I'll keep my eyes open.
 
What you mentioned is possible to a degree but I wouldn't rely on it. It does however come in handy when you don't have a tripod and only have a chance to take one shot. As far as I'm aware it is called split raw processing? Hope that is correct...
 
Imagenomic Noiseware does a cracking job of getting rid of the noise inherent to HDR images. I also have Noise Ninja which really struggles with this level of noise.
 
Tufuse by Max Lyons lets you do exactly that.
Tufuse is a free program Tufuse pro is a low cost program with more options Both work well.

http://www.tawbaware.com/tufusepro.htm

It also lets you use multiple exposures and will also focus fuse for extended depth of field.
 
the canon 400d can if it helps??

as can the 1000d
 
You might want to save yourself some time and hassle and use the D-lighting feature + RAW. You can adjust an play in Capture NX to get the result you want without inheriting the surreal effect that often comes with HDR, unless that is the effect you wish to achieve.
 
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