First try at HDR

[sritri]

I took a shot at creating my first HDR pic. I followed Jay's tutorial to the book and it was fun. Here is the 27 pic sequence.

How did I do ?




20D, Tokina 12-24 @ f11

[EMSbyDay]

wow, i definatly like it

[peterst6906]

Hi sritri,

Congratulations on the move into HDR and 27 images, wow. That is some dedication to your first try at it.

Given that this is your first try, this is a good effort and I guess you chose the scene because it was at hand.

If I had any comment as far as a C&C goes though, I think this scene could have been shot equally well or better without resorting to HDR. That's just a general comment and not really a criticism. When you want to try something, then shooting what is immediately available is a good choice.

But what I mean by my statement is that the sky is white, the ground is white, the buildings on the left are very high key as light gray, the yellow building in the distance is high key as a pastel yellow and the building on the right is fairly high key as a bone color. The only things in the image that are fairly dark are the inside of the garage where the car is parked, the tree trunks and possibly the bins (though you've lifted their color nicely in the HDR).

So given that this image has a fairly narrow dynamic range, with a couple of exceptions, I think this could have been captured effectively using a single exposure; with the added benefit that the sky would have been a more believable gray.

I think you might get an even better result for your next try if you choose a scene that has a broader dynamic range and you'll get an easier conversion if you drop to 3-7 exposures (though I can imagine using 27 to try to get a high defintion panorama like the format you've used here).

I hope that helps.

Regards,

Peter

[sritri]

Peter,

Thank you very much for the C/C. I respect your criticism very much and am thankful again for your time. It was a spontaneous reaction seeing slowly falling snow without any wind on a boring friday afternoon. I set out thinking that I should try a panaroma kind of shot, but not knowing how to do that either, I shot a series of pictures on continuous mode rather than the correct way of bracketing my exposure at different EVs. The entire scene was brilliant white, except for the garbage bins and the far off yellow home.

After reading your comment, I realise that I need more color depth for a HDR kind of shot and will try to do more next time at a better place.

I could not get the panaroma to work as I liked either because I shot the series from a downward incline rather than a straight plane, so I need to work on that too

[peterst6906]

Originally Posted by sritri

After reading your comment, I realise that I need more color depth for a HDR kind of shot and will try to do more next time at a better place.

I could not get the panaroma to work as I liked either because I shot the series from a downward incline rather than a straight plane, so I need to work on that too

Don't be too hard on yourself. I think the panorama looks good and the HDR looks good also, but it would look better on a scene with more natural dynamic range.

For a first go, it should definitely be encouragement to do more, of both the panorama and HDR.

Regards,

Peter

[Fusion]

Like the image but why 27 image conversion ??

[august]

a composite hdr made from a panoramic image?

Originally Posted by Fusion

Like the image but why 27 image conversion ??

[sritri]

I took 9 sets of 3 images each by moving the tripod head by 1" at a time. And then I stitched each of these into 9 images to be tone mapped in Photomatix.

What I should have done though, is to have bracketed the images, instead of continuous shooting them in sequence I realised my mistake, thanks to Peter for his insight.

I hope to do a better job next time

[august]

takes a bit of time don't it?

definately better to run your different exposures before moving...still, it turned out very well. good work.

[Jason Hermann]

Very good Job IMO. The HDR looks great and you certainly captured all the Dynamic Range available.

As for the stiching I think it looks excellent!! The verticals even towards the edges are near perfect, and had you used an ultra wide angle that would not be the case IMO. The destortion factor of my Sigma 10-20mm sux for Strait lines in buildings and stuff. Using a panoramic method works really good for this type of shot and it shows

Over all I think you did a very good job processing and there are several good tips I read in this thread for your next effort

Keep up the good work!!

Best,
Jay

[sritri]

Thank you very much Jay. It means a lot to me, as does all the tips/encouragement I have got from Peter and others and motivates me to do better next time.

Thanks everyone for taking time to guide me.

[Fusion]

Sorry forgot to say I really like the picture. Good job just wondering about the number of frame used to make it.