Tips for making a HDR photo

[cannockwolf]

Originally Posted by Worm324

Thats the best way to do it in my opinion Welcome to the camel and lets see some of your pics!

Best,
Jay

That's nice to know as I hadn't read it anywhere before.

Here are a few of my photographs click here I am only a novice so be gentle with me LOL

[xplodn]

I am new here as well and have been playing around while in Alaska with my new XSi/450D. I have just been going to Av mode and using the auto bracket to set it to -2, 0, and +2 then firing them off on a continuous to get 3 exposures, in RAW. Is that the best way possible? How can I get 5 shots or do I need to do that manually between each shot?

I guess I'm really just looking for a little bit more advice from the pros.

[xplodn]

My pictures can be found under flickr user name 'xplodn'

here is a link to one: containershipHDR_2_non sharpened resized on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thanks for any tips.

[cannockwolf]

Originally Posted by xplodn

I am new here as well and have been playing around while in Alaska with my new XSi/450D. I have just been going to Av mode and using the auto bracket to set it to -2, 0, and +2 then firing them off on a continuous to get 3 exposures, in RAW. Is that the best way possible? How can I get 5 shots or do I need to do that manually between each shot?

I guess I'm really just looking for a little bit more advice from the pros.

On a Nikon d300 you can auto bracket 5 and up to 9 exposures does yours do that or stop at three?

[Worm324]

The xti/ xsi only does 3 shots in AEB mode unfortunatly. A nice advantage that Nikon has over most Canons.

xplodn, You got some nice stuff on your site. Some of the pics look a bit dark to my eye, perhaps posting some larger versions here on he camel so we can get a better look. I'm sure you will get more comments as well.

As far as getting more exposure, you would need to use the exposure compensation or manual mode. If you set the camera up for AEB at 2 stops apart as you said, you can use the expposure comp to move the Brackets over. -4,-2, and 0. Take those 3 shots, then move the exposure comp the other way so it's 0, +2, and +4. You can then delet the redundent 0 exposure and you will have 5 total to HDR.

I hope that helps,
Best,
Jay

[xplodn]

Dave/Jay,

Thanks for replying. Yes my XSi does stop at 3, but I do know what you mean Jay. I have tried that a few times, but its difficult to get the settings changed without moving the camera at least partially. I guess Photomatix does compensate for that.

Thanks for the props on the pictures, I took about 2000 shots in Alaska this month, and still have so many to go through. I will post more, but some of those are darker, a few just turned out that way, but some I made darker for the look that I liked at the time, namely the container ship one. I have posted then in full size to my gallery here.

Now one question I did have, as I was converting the CR2 files over to tiff, the Canon software will allow you to change the exposure level some, is that truly changing it or just not as good as capturing it in RAW with the AE at +4, -4?

[cannockwolf]

some only shoot one raw file and then make 3 tiff from it, but many think you should make the files in camera by taking 3-5 shots

[xplodn]

So I could take my +2 exposure RAW and create a tiff that was +4? I guess that is not too much of a digitalized change.

[xplodn]

Here is one I just worked on some, I didn't go to far because it seemed very grainy. Any suggestions?

[xplodn]

ok... it appears as if the grainy-ness went away....

[xplodn]

Another...