*New Tutorial Video* Silky Water & HDR

[Jason Hermann]

M4tt, Thanks for watching the videos, and I'm glad you liked them!!

The software I use is iMovie. It came with my Mac and is amzingly easy to use/ learn. I also have adobe Premier which is the bada$$ video editing software but it's so freakin powerful I need to spend a few hours learning it. iMovie is pretty much drag and drop super easy!! I used Screeflow to do the video captureing on my PC. That program is also very easy to use!

Learning curve for iMovie is prolly about an hour or so fiddleing around, but there are online movies on Mac's site to show you how to do the more tricky stuff

Best,
Jay

[Deemac]

Jason, loved the video tutorials (apart from the location sound - I assume the built in 5d mic - not good).

I have the same Manfrotto tripod and never thought about removing the centre column!! (Duh). Also never dawned on me to combine HDR AND long exposure shooting!! (Duh). I have a good waterfall location locally that I will be playing with very soon. Again thanks very much. Your images look fabulous and are pure class.

[KB5150]

Worm,

Just getting into HDR and just joined this site. Thanks so much for your tutorials, you put a TON of work into it and I thank you. I'm learning so much from everyone on this site...Can't wait to put this new knowledge to work.

Great work too...I hope to be that great!

[Jason Hermann]

Originally Posted by Deemac

Jason, loved the video tutorials (apart from the location sound - I assume the built in 5d mic - not good).

I have the same Manfrotto tripod and never thought about removing the centre column!! (Duh). Also never dawned on me to combine HDR AND long exposure shooting!! (Duh). I have a good waterfall location locally that I will be playing with very soon. Again thanks very much. Your images look fabulous and are pure class.

Thanks for the comments and feedback You are correct the built in mic totally sux on the 5d Mark II, but they make a really nice aftermarket mic that fits right into the hotshoe!! I'll get it eventually I just recently figured out that my center colum comes out on the tri-pod as well, so don't feel bad!!

Originally Posted by KB5150

Worm,

Just getting into HDR and just joined this site. Thanks so much for your tutorials, you put a TON of work into it and I thank you. I'm learning so much from everyone on this site...Can't wait to put this new knowledge to work.

Great work too...I hope to be that great!

Right-on I did put a lot of work into these, but it's worth it!! I learn in the process, plus I enjoy doing it when time permits

Best,
Jay

[JPhotoz]

Jay, I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question but here goes. How do you prevent the blown out whites when doing water shots. During the Photomatix process I adjusted the white lower than the histogram suggested, but once I was in Lightroom again there were blown out whites again. I tried to use the brush tool but it turned it blue. I then reduced the blue but it did not go away.

What do you think? It was not even hardly light out when I shot them at 6am.

Jordan

[Jason Hermann]

Jordan, I'm not sure why the whites are blowing out on you? If the histogram looks good in photomatix, they should not be blown in Lightroom. Does the histogram in Lightroom look good?

PS: Sry I didn't reply sooner to your question!!

[akhome]

Jason,
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm for photography. You saved me a lot of time trying to learn how to use Photomatix and Lightroom. Your HDR shots are inspiring!

WHAT A PRO!
Thanks,
Steve

[Harry]

Outstanding! I learn more and more about my camera, HDR, Photomatix and LR every time I watch one of these.

Question: Can you use photomatix to make adjustments like this when you have a shot that wasn't bracketed, just over or underexposed?

[Jason Hermann]

Thanks guys and your very welcome!!

Harry, You can do that, but the results most likely won't be good. If all the dynamic range was not captured in the single exposure, it won't produce that good of a result in photomatix. The shadows will be really noisy, and the highlights will most likely blow out.

Best,
Jay

[murphyrl]

Jay,
I have been lurking on here for a year and finally got around to watching your tutorial. I am now compelled to post -- thank you for a great tutorial!! (entertaining as well lol).

I have tried a couple of HDRs with water and they didn't turn out to good. The example below is a 100% crop showing the problem -- note the "holes" in the specular highlights of the water. I am guessing this is caused by water movement between pictures? Have you seen this? How to fix? Would a polarizer help?



Murf

[captainkimo]

Great video Jay, thanks for taking the time to do one. Its funny how different every ones HDR process is. I guess that just adds to each one individual style.

[Jason Hermann]

Originally Posted by murphyrl

Jay,
I have been lurking on here for a year and finally got around to watching your tutorial. I am now compelled to post -- thank you for a great tutorial!! (entertaining as well lol).

I have tried a couple of HDRs with water and they didn't turn out to good. The example below is a 100% crop showing the problem -- note the "holes" in the specular highlights of the water. I am guessing this is caused by water movement between pictures? Have you seen this? How to fix? Would a polarizer help?



Murf

There really isn't much you can do with this type of issue. The highlights are clearly blown out, and the Chromatic aberrations is what causes the purple stuff. I would suggest shooting at a different time of day for a scene like that. HDR doesn't work for every type of situation, and this is a good example of a tuff one!

Originally Posted by captainkimo

Great video Jay, thanks for taking the time to do one. Its funny how different every ones HDR process is. I guess that just adds to each one individual style.

Right-on Glad you like it!!

Jay

[georgebellon]

Awesome tutorial, makes me wanna go out and find a river to practice on

[murphyrl]

Originally Posted by Worm324

There really isn't much you can do with this type of issue. The highlights are clearly blown out, and the Chromatic aberrations is what causes the purple stuff. I would suggest shooting at a different time of day for a scene like that. HDR doesn't work for every type of situation, and this is a good example of a tuff one!

Jay

Thanks for feedback Jay. I know this isn't much of a picture -- I only picked it because it illustrates a typical problem I come across and I didn't see any hint of such a problem in your tutorial. I don't have the experience to know when a shot will work for HDR and when it won't work but I will keep at it. For this shot I didn't have the option of coming back for better light -- on vacation with the family and just needed to record the event best I could. I did start another thread on this problem (see below) and got some useful suggestions.

How do I fix water reflections on HDR pic?

Keep up the good work on this forum -- I always look forward to your posts.

Murf

[kamelot]

Hi Jay!

thanks for the informative tutorials. i have one question though...in Part 2, why did you elect to have the 2nd set of photos bracketed (exposure compensation) to 0, +1 1/2, and +3 but you set the AEB to 0, -1 1/2, and +1 1/2?
thanks in advance.

lino

[Jason Hermann]

Originally Posted by murphyrl

Thanks for feedback Jay. I know this isn't much of a picture -- I only picked it because it illustrates a typical problem I come across and I didn't see any hint of such a problem in your tutorial. I don't have the experience to know when a shot will work for HDR and when it won't work but I will keep at it. For this shot I didn't have the option of coming back for better light -- on vacation with the family and just needed to record the event best I could. I did start another thread on this problem (see below) and got some useful suggestions.

How do I fix water reflections on HDR pic?

Keep up the good work on this forum -- I always look forward to your posts.

Murf

Right-on Murf

Originally Posted by kamelot

Hi Jay!

thanks for the informative tutorials. i have one question though...in Part 2, why did you elect to have the 2nd set of photos bracketed (exposure compensation) to 0, +1 1/2, and +3 but you set the AEB to 0, -1 1/2, and +1 1/2?
thanks in advance.

lino

Lino, I adjusted the brackets so the spread out a bit more. I really didn't need to do that though. I then used the exposure comp to raise the exposure to 0, +1 1/2, +3. Does that make sense? It's kinda confusing.

Best,
Jay

[kamelot]

Hi Jay!

actually i initially got confused with autoexposure bracketing and exposure compensation...but now i think i understand what you mean...by using AEB you in fact set it up so you can easily raise the exposure to 0, +1 1/2, and +3. thanks again and regards.

lino

[KU]

thanks so much for doing these. it made me think about my processes in a whole new light. great work!

[thebeing]

erm, i have a question... how to get rid of this kind of "stains"? or what to do to avoid them? i got them when i tried an hdr of a small waterfall, too.

thanks in advance!

[seanmacman]

Jay, thanks a lot for the tutorials, I learned a lot. I will soon post my own HDR and hope to get some things corrected.