Ok, I've taken a slight interest in HDR/Blending/Stacking images for a more "dramatic" look. Not 100% sure how to go about it. I'm currently working typically with LR3 as my overall PP software. I don't have a CS program, and still use Photoshop 6.0, but only for the littlest things, frame actions, etc...I'm aware of the overall concept of multiple images @ varying exposures.
Here are 3 that I took today, not much but I thought I'd try something since I had my tripod with me today...
If there is someone on here who would care to "Process" them and maybe kind of rundown the process you use, and maybe even post the final product, I'd really appreciate it!!! Thanks!!!
That is not a scene with a high dynamic range. The shadow behind the barn and under the eaves are the only areas that might benefit from merging the exposures and they are very small. You may get a bit of noise reduction in some of the deeper tones, but you'd have to work with TIFF converted from the Raws at full resolution to see a difference.
If you want the pseuod-hdr faux hdr look for more "drama", then you can tone map the image any number of ways. But tone-mapping is not HDR.
Thanks for that bit of explanation. I know what I'm trying to "do", but not quite sure if I'm saying it the right way. Maybe I'm getting the HDR and super rich tonality and vibrant look kind of mixed up. I know that particular image isn't anything that will be award winning no matter the processing. I may need to read and research a lot more!!!
Here's what I would do to the image. First, rotate it some so the barn wall is vertical. Boost the contrast to make it more dramatic. You might want to play with the saturation some to improve the colors.
However, in my opinion, you should have shot this at a larger aperture to blur the background some which would put more focus on the barn.
I suspect you are referring to tone mapping rather than HDR. In this case you could achieve the same with PS. This is one of the default tone maps from Photomatix. Import the 3, auto-align and select compressor tone map
reno.peterson wrote:
Thanks for that bit of explanation. I know what I'm trying to "do", but not quite sure if I'm saying it the right way. Maybe I'm getting the HDR and super rich tonality and vibrant look kind of mixed up. I know that particular image isn't anything that will be award winning no matter the processing. I may need to read and research a lot more!!!
Indeed you seem to have your terms mixed up. But it is a murky swamp to wade through since many, many people get the terminology wrong. It's such a common mistake that the term HDR to the "layman" does mean tone mapping, which is not strictly correct.
HDR is simply capturing dynamic range greater than a single shot allows. You can achieve an HDR image in several ways, one of which is tone mapping (likely what you are looking for). However, there are other approaches to HDR such as exposure blending.
As was said above, tone mapping is not a technique limited to HDR images or even multiple exposures, it is simply a way to map the tones of the raw data into the tones of the finished picture. It typically gives that rich "HDR look" that you seem to be after.
