A friend of mine took some hdr photos for me. Let me know what you think.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/KeithG_20/l_d4a20b741ea6178a1e1d3c76ef2cfd5a.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/KeithG_20/l_429d68ff7acdb3afaf1012fc160f1909.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/KeithG_20/l_6050f0d75b06403e1aca22a5dff1e092.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/KeithG_20/l_946ae2c1611f1c3c7b877adbec7df26e.jpg

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/KeithG_20/l_e837b7e14d56153618ec454bebda3940.jpg

--Keith

nice i believe i see an five axis kit :) did you get it molded?

Sure do i decided to mold it in this winter.

--Keith

damn the kit alone is nice, but it being molded, is so much better!

damn the kit alone is nice, but it being molded, is so much better!

x2

haha hmm i have the kit right now just havent had the time or place to put it on yet. People told me not to mold it because if it cracks the whole bumper is gone. But it looks great on your tC..take some more pictures in a sunnier morning.

Thanks guys. There is a link to more pics in my signature.

--Keith

I had a question, do you know if they had to remove the exhaust in order to put the rear lip on?

1 & 2 arent really HDR...4 & 5 are questionable...

nice work on 3 tho

I did it myself. I just took the rear bumper off so i could put it on a stand to do the mold work. But if you are just putting it on you can do it with the exhaust on, because i had the rear lip on and off a couple times test fitting it.

--Keith

thanks man..I wish I lived in PA so I could get it painted by you

People told me not to mold it because if it cracks the whole bumper is gone.

Heres a write up i did on the molding. I have a couple pics in there of what happens if you hit something to.

--Keith

i like it, the pics don't look too good but even though the car makes it better :) i thought you where getting new rims?

Very nice shots!

2 3 and 4 are all nice with 3 being by far my favorite. Excellent location and background choice. I might have changed angle and shooting height a little but maybe not!

Next step... slap a polarizer on that camera... get rid of some of the unwanted reflections and isolate the ones you want to really bring out the lines of the car...

Sweet ride, sweet shots! Whoever your friend is has a good eye and got it seems got some good luck with the lighting!

I am waiting on a MBR 09 and I hope the blue looks as nice as that does... I know everyone says IIP is the best blue but MBR is the only choice I have so :P

i like it, the pics don't look too good but even though the car makes it better :) i thought you where getting new rims?

Thanks. Yeah i want to get a new set but i need to sell these first. Wanting to get a set of 18x8 axis pentas.

--Keith

these arent hdr but still nice

Very nice shots!

2 3 and 4 are all nice with 3 being by far my favorite. Excellent location and background choice. I might have changed angle and shooting height a little but maybe not!

Next step... slap a polarizer on that camera... get rid of some of the unwanted reflections and isolate the ones you want to really bring out the lines of the car...

Sweet ride, sweet shots! Whoever your friend is has a good eye and got it seems got some good luck with the lighting!

I am waiting on a MBR 09 and I hope the blue looks as nice as that does... I know everyone says IIP is the best blue but MBR is the only choice I have so :P

Thanks i will pass it along to him. He is wanting to get a better camera soon. He has some nice shots of his suby i'll upload in the morning.

And yeah IIP FTW! :P I do like the new MBR though. Good luck with the new purchase.

--Keith

the lip kit looks so nice molded :clap: good job :clap:

Since this is about photos...I have to say, they arent good ones. There isnt much that is HDR about them, and the quality is horrible.

I hate to knock his photography skills, but I am big into it. And when someone is doing HDR they need to understand how it all works.

Car is looking good tho. i love the lip kit!!!

quality is due to photobucket...and as i said before...#3 is the only close to HDR...but only a little

what is HDR?

High Dynamic Range photography. It's used when a single exposure can't capture all the color and shadows in the frame so you use multiple exposures to capture each different range of the scene.

High Dynamic Range photography. It's used when a single exposure can't capture all the color and shadows in the frame so you use multiple exposures to capture each different range of the scene.

thanks! :clap:

oh man i shouldnt have dropped my photography class :(

You wanna see some really anal arguments, go check out people trying to decide exactly what HDR really is or isn't...

Some people claim single RAW shots can be made HDR, some say you can only HDR multiple shots, then there is the argument of exactly how much range qualifies as "high" and whether simply displaying 10bits of data on an 8 bit display means you are showing HDR...

Problem is HDR is a term that doesn't have a solid real world definition at the moment... many people simply apply the fake HDR option in Photomatix to get crazy local contrast and call that HDR.

I have to agree, there is not much in these shots that shows extra dynamic range... would even believe these were single shots processed maybe.

But I still like the shots. Not pro magazine quality or anything, but I like them better than 90% of the amature shots floating around out there...

Just my opinion though.

HDR is very useful to get a shot of something that has a WIDE range of brightness and color in the picture. I fyou are taking a picture of something you will focus on the object, the camera can only capture (to the correct exposure) the object you are focusing on.
Now if the background is VERY bright OR DARK, it will be under or over exposed. The only way to compensate for this is to take multiple pictures and merge them so you are using the correct exposure of the object, plus the correct exposure of the back ground, and the correct exposure of the foreground.

Unless you have perfect lighting you cant do this in a normal single shot. Now if the whole area is equally lit, it will look decent.

but take my picture below. This was when I first tried HDR. It was very bright out. If I focused on the brightness of the sky, the car turned out dark. If I focused on the brightness of the car, the sky was bright white and not blue.

I merged 6 pictures and now have the tree color showing, sky showing and the car showing. Plus the ground showing its true color. (old school orange gravel in Yorktown)

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c25/nick120580/car/Yorktown/Merged-car-2-INTERNET.jpg




Not a perfect HDR, but gives the example of how the car looks amazing and sky isnt washed out.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c25/nick120580/car/Yorktown/Merged-car-3-INTERNET.jpg

Now compare to this:


http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c25/nick120580/car/Yorktown/IMG_4102.jpg

HDR is fuuun


nice pics

here are some of mine

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd310/scion_jon1/IMG_203811.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd310/scion_jon1/IMG_2039HDR-1.jpg

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd310/scion_jon1/-0gf.jpg

oh and nick are your hdr pics photoshopped hdr pics or actual one shot hdr?

They dont look HDR at all!....Have u looked up what HDR photos look like???....lol

HDR photos are always photoshopped and can't be shot in camera...thus the reason people do HDR

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e1/hondamasta/car2.jpg

Scion Jon, they unfortunatly, TO ME ATLEAST, dont look HDR. You have dark areas and extremely bright areas. The purpose of HDR is to Eliminate that.


Teecizzle that is an awesome example of true HDR.


DonNGuyen. HDR can be shot in a camera. My Canon shoots in HDR. I just then have to take those pictures and process them. So you are right they cant be shot and combined in camera, but they can be shot in camera.

ScionJon, there is no such thing as a one SHOT HDR. They have to be multiple pictures. And they arent photoshopped. I use photomatrix to merge. No editing or photoshoping done other than resizing and cropping.


I will post the pictures used to get those pics.

what i meant is...you can take the shots to be make an HDR photo, but you can't take a single frame and have it come out like an HDR photo....

nice pics.

Here's a few HDR Tuturiol links:

http://www.hdrjapan.com/photography/tutorials/hdr-photography/

Here's a good site!

http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/

what is HDR?

Check this site out...

http://www.vanilladays.com/hdr-guide/

Okay, I have a friend who is into photography and has a nice SLR camera and all that good stuff. And he's got several beautiful HDR shots. From what I've gathered hanging out with him and learning from him, this is my defintion/explanation of HDR:

An HDR image, is a single image, comprised of taking several "RAW" images, each of which is at a different exposure. Longer exposure shots bring out the color in the normally dark areas of the picture, while the shorter exposure pictures that are taken, don't allow the bright areas to get so bright that you can't pick out details.

All in all, this makes your colors more, hmm...vibrant maybe is the word? Your green grass looks greener, your sky has a deeper blue, or more deep, dark clouds, etc.....

When you have your raw images, it's not a process in which you can just take each picture and paste them on top of one another and adjust opacity. There are special programs out there that allow you to open each picture and when you are ready it will take them and "morph" them all together. Your result is a rich, vibrant picture like the one that TeeCizzle posted.

The 3rd and 4th pics tctuner posted look like good examples, but they look kinda grainy/noisy, i'm guessing they just got resized or something when you posted them?

I didn't take time to read everyone's answers about what HDR is, so I may be stating a bunch of stuff that was already said. Regardless, that's my understanding of HDR images.

That is deffinetly what HDR is. But the pictures dont have to be RAW. They can be done in normal JPG format. But RAW is much much better. And its not exposure timing you adjust. You adjust the range of the aperture value. usually plus 1-2 steps in either direction from normal.

click to enlarge, when the link opens lol
http://scionjon.deviantart.com/art/Grasshopper-75871090
this was my 3rd attempt to do hdr back in january

what do you guys think?

Deffinetly an awesome picture. But doesnt look HDR to me. Just looks like a high contrast picture.

That is deffinetly what HDR is. But the pictures dont have to be RAW. They can be done in normal JPG format. But RAW is much much better. And its not exposure timing you adjust. You adjust the range of the aperture value. usually plus 1-2 steps in either direction from normal.

So it doesn't have to be raw, didn't know that.

Well here goes...

The process of HDR is to capture more dynamic range than one shot can handle. It's important to understand what dynamic range is before getting more of it. Technically it does not mean color, the range that is being referred to in HDR is the light to dark range, ie capture detail in bright areas as well as dark areas simultaneously.

The reason you have to snap multipel shots is that in an 8bit or even 10 bit image, you only have so many colors and brightnesses to work with. So usually a camera will evaluate the scene and try to choose the best range to represent what you are looking at. Often this means clipping out the brights or leaving out the dark areas.

For instance, lets say an shot has a birght light source as well as a dark shadow in frame. You could think of the range it covers as:

Pitch black Staring at the sun bright
|---------------------------------------------------|

In other words areas of the picture cover that range of brightness.

Now your camera can only get this much range in one shot

|------------------|

so what does it do? It gets what it can so compared to the actual image it only captures a small portion of it, blowing out the brights and loosing image detail in the dark.

What there is:

|---------------------------------------------------|

And this is what your camera captures:

|------------------|

So you can see you will miss a lot of real image as the brights will all just be blown into "white" and the darks will all be lost into "black".

So when you take multpile frames at different exposures, then you capture all the range like this:

What there is:

|---------------------------------------------------|

What your camera captures:

Frame 1
|------------------|
Frame 2
|------------------|
Frame 3
|------------------|

Now you can see you captured all the detail from the darks all the way to the brights.

Now you have to tone map it. And this is where HDR purists say you don't have an HDR anymore... you have a tone mapped HDR image. The reason is that while you still collected say 24 bits of data in your 3 frames, you will be eventually be showing them back on an 8 or 10 bit display... so it's not really HDR by the time you see it on your screen, because you only have the normal 8 or 10 bit display range.

But letting that asside, this kind of shows you what HDR is trying to capture.

Popping colors and crazy angry looking clouds are actually not what HDR is supposed to be about originally... the originaly point of HDR was to be able to show you natural looking scenes that have high range.

Your eye is very good at doing this, you can look at a sunset with the sun in front of you and still see detail in the ground around you and the clouds in the sky all at once.

On film this tends to be very difficult... you blow out close or sun or you loose ground detail into the darkness.

HDR helps alleviate this. A side effect of the processing is often that colors pop. HDR Purists will not like this, light blooms, color pops and anything that makes the picture look "fake" offend pure HDR fans.

The classic example of when to use HDR is standing inside your house on a bright day, take a picture through a window to the brightly lit outdoors.

Now try to do that and get whatever is out side your window to show up at the same time as the tables and chairs or whatever inside your room do.

This is pretty much impossible witha single shot. You either get the outdoors showing up, but the room completely blacked out, or you get the room to show up but the window is just a big white square that you can't see anythingi in.

Not the best result, but this gives you the idea of this in action

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanlivingston/2299687615/in/pool-truetonehdr

Here is another shot that does HDR well

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fersy/2361649823/in/pool-truetonehdr

With a normal single shot, both of those would have had very dark areas or blown out white areas. It's tempting to say they don't look special at all, taht's just what you would normally see... but go try to shoot similar shots with a single from on a regular camera and you will start to understand what HDR is all about.

However some like the color popping and think that is what HDR means and thus strive for crazy colors and angry clouds. I personally say it's up to you. But hopefully here you will understand what HDR is about at least.

Oh and be careful messing with aperature to get HDR.... that is NOT A good idea. Changing aperature changes focal range and DOF. Getting 3 shots with different focal range and DOF means they won't look the same and when you blend them you will get weird blurines and incorrect image data. You wnat to LOCK y our aperature and change exposure to get your multiple exposures, not the other way around. You need multiple shots that focus the same, but have different brightness ranges.

What you want is called exposure bracketing. It changes the EV compensation automatically and snaps shots at multipel exposures for you. If you are on a tripod this eliminates the possiblity of movement between shots so your result will line up right. Be aware that often EV bracketing will be done by the camrea by altering the aperature. So put yoru camera in aperature priority mode, lock your aperature, and then snap away.

Also images do not have to be RAW, the reason some people like RAW is that a cameras sensor often can pick up 12 bits of data and dump it all into a raw file, then chop and compress the range to fit into an 8bit jpeg. Sticking with raw means that 3 exposures could cover up to 36 bits of range while 3 8 bit jpgs could only cover 24 bits... (you always overlap exposures so you won't ever get those numbers, but the point is).

Bear in mind many cheaper cameras these days (I am saying sub $500) do nto have sensors capable of much more dynamic range than a 8 bit jpg can hold... so going RAW on cameras witn sensors that don't really capture more range than the jpg can isn't nearly as beneficial.

Wow very thorough explanation! :clap: :clap:

Well, my camera is around 200-250, so I can't do raw and stuff.

But........is it possible at all, assuming I could get a program that does HDR, to simply take pictures at different exposures and get a similar, HDR-ish effect?

Well, my camera is around 200-250, so I can't do raw and stuff.

But........is it possible at all, assuming I could get a program that does HDR, to simply take pictures at different exposures and get a similar, HDR-ish effect?

Yup. Re-read the last paragraph in the great explanation^. The one thing that your camera will need to do is provide a manual exposure mode wherein you can control both the shutter speed and aperture.

BTW depending on what camera it is you may be able to mess with the firmware to get raw shots, if you have a canon look at CHDK and see if it supports your model. I wouldn't worry too much about it though... JPGs will do fine to start.

The problem with no built in bracketing is that when you change your exposure settings you will move the camera around and result in pictures that aren't exactly the same. When you stack them and process them HDR you will have to do some tweaking to get a good result.

Give it a try and see how things turn out though...

Oh and one thing I forgot to mention, HDR and car shots are tricky because one of the effects of HDR is high local contrast... what that means is that those reflections in your body will likely be enhanced. Sometimes this could be good, but often it results in a busy look that messes with the lines on your car.

A polarizer can help with this.

Excelent explination. but fro all the pictures i have taken and the research I have done on HDR, aperture bracketing is 95% of the time, the reccomended way to do it. The AEB settings is how it is done on Canons atleast. Just go to the AEB set +/- 1-2 steps and shoot from there. If I want more than three pictures, I adjust the exposure a tad and repeat.

So I can just shoot adjust exposure shoot again and continue? I dont need to bracket it?

Cool beans. I'm using a Canon A720 IS. Assuming I get a job this summer, one of the first things I plan on getting is a super dooper high quality camera.

Excelent explination. but fro all the pictures i have taken and the research I have done on HDR, aperture bracketing is 95% of the time, the reccomended way to do it. The AEB settings is how it is done on Canons atleast. Just go to the AEB set +/- 1-2 steps and shoot from there. If I want more than three pictures, I adjust the exposure a tad and repeat.

So I can just shoot adjust exposure shoot again and continue? I dont need to bracket it?

Really? To tell the truth it's been a long time since I read HDR guides so I can't recall what they recommended at the time I was learning, but I can definitely tell you that consider how aperature works, it seems like a horrible way to do it.

Think about it... do you really want to mess with DOF when trying to snap multiple shots that you want to stack and combine? A tree will be blurry in one picture that won't be in another and what not...

I agree, AEB is the way to go, but I always make sure my camera is in Aperature Priority mode so I can set it to what I feel is appropriate and then shutter speed controls the exposure. Remember like I said, letting a camera control EV compensation on it's own can result in any combination of aperature and shutter speed fiddling (maybe even ISO).

If aperature has been working for you, ok... can't argue with results, but understanding how tinkering with aperature works I can't really see how it does unless all you shoot is landscapes.

BTW just to make sure there is no confusion, AEB stands for Auto Exposure Bracketing... it just controls how many stops you bracket, not how... maybe you thought AEB stands for Aperature Exposre Bracketing? The only time AEB will result in aperature bracketing is in Shutter Speed priority where the camera can only alter aperature to change exposure.

And the A720 is no slouch of a camera. It's not up with DSLRs by anymeans but from what I recall (never owned one but read up on them) it was a pretty decent performer across the board. I would think with a tripod (and I think you can slap CHDK on that) you would be fine to start snapping HDR with the A720.

Another note, for canon owners, if you can get CHDK running there are scripts made specifically for HDR. I think AllBests build has an intervelometer that can automate some of the process and if not there are some other things in the works. I haven't tested them much as when I started they were all pretty weak and I just do things manually:

Put camera in Aperature Priority

Set AEB Brackeing to +/- 2 stops (I think 2 is the max... I haven't changed it in so long I don't remember)

Setup the tripod

Put camera in 2 second delay (you want to do this so your finger doesn't shake the camera releasing the shutter. 2 seconds sitting on the tripod will let the camera be completely still for all your shots).

Shoot away.

If the scene has a LOT of range, I will set EV compensation to -2, shoot 3 shots, then go +2 and shoot 3 shots. This gives me 5 shots instead of 3 which has worked out well for me in the past. Problem is it involves touching the camera between the 2 sets of shots so it's risky...

What you say deffinetly makes sense. And you are probably right that I was confusing AEB. I thought the A was Aperture.
I run a Canon Xt. I shoot HDR on the Adep setting.

I willd effinetly try out the way you are talking by adjusting shutter speed instead. Hope I dont move the camera when spinning the wheel.

Just to be clear, if you are shooting a 3 shot bracket, don't touch the wheel, just set AEB and put the camera in aperature priority mode (not sure what the equivalent is or if there is one on the XT). If you force aperature, the camera has no choice but to adjust shutter speed to get the different EVs. This does not require spinning the wheel at all for a standard 3 shot bracket.

If you mean for the 5 shot bracket, yes you will have to touch the dial.

From what I understand about ADEP I would stay away from it as it is allowing the camera to chose Aperature. I prefer to lock it using Av mode.

If you have been using ADEP and AEB you are basically doing the method I am talking about. I would just switch to using Av and AEB. This will let you set an aperature and it will stick, no chance the camera will mess with it.

BTW Despite it's price range I think the sensor in the XT is good enough that it's wroth shooting RAW... might get you a little better results and gives the added benefit of being able to develop it how you like after the fact if you should feel like it...

Watching, gonna have to try this out with my D40. What programs do you guys use to combine the images? PS?

PS or Gimp are the two most popular ways to do it manually. And manually is pretty much the best way as it gives you full control over what is selected and what is tone mapped. Using the automatic programs often results in odd colors, light blooms and other odities... automatic is never as good as manual :P

That said I still use the automatic programs most of the time, the manual method is quite time consuming and I like to play around a lot, so a quick program is just convenient.

But to start I recomend photomatix and dynamic photo hdr. Start with them, and then when you start to get a feel for HDR, try the PS or Gimp methods for control. Just like cameras, start with a simple P&S and when you outgrow the auto settings, start doing manual :)

I will switch over to AV. and try shooting in RAW. See what happens. I might mess around with some indoor shots, to outdoor and see what happens.

Thanks for the tips!!!

Always glad to share what knowledge I can! Lord knows it was an uphill battle sorting out the details back when I was first picking up HDR... Some of the threads I recall put "VVTI vs VTEC" to shame!

Something to consider, I think Photomatix handles RAW images natively... not sure but worth checking out too.

I only have an S3 so I am already jealous of you SLR guys :P

Watching, gonna have to try this out with my D40. What programs do you guys use to combine the images? PS?

search for PHOTOMATIX.
It should be a freeware program to download. Does very well. PS CS3 can do it. but its very ahrd to use. Deffinetly not as user friendly as photomatix.

That is deffinetly what HDR is. But the pictures dont have to be RAW. They can be done in normal JPG format. But RAW is much much better. And its not exposure timing you adjust. You adjust the range of the aperture value. usually plus 1-2 steps in either direction from normal.

Why would you adjust aperture? Wouldn't that change the depth of field? Changing the shutter speed to get the different ranges of exposure so that you can keep the same depth of field in all your exposed pictures would be the more correct, no?

CS 3 for me seems to work the best since the pictures line up correctly, even if all your pictures are slightly off.

Watching, gonna have to try this out with my D40. What programs do you guys use to combine the images? PS?

search for PHOTOMATIX.
It should be a freeware program to download. Does very well. PS CS3 can do it. but its very ahrd to use. Deffinetly not as user friendly as photomatix.

Thanks, just downloaded it. Gonna have to take a bunch of different shots later.

So what's the easiest way to just take a bunch of shots? Should I just take a bunch of pictures with different exposure settings and leaving aperture and shutter speed the same?

Sadly the D40 doesn't have AEB so you will have to figure out how to manually bracket.

Here is how to pull it off with a D40... sadly the lack of bracketing means you run the risk of moving the camera and not having perfectly lined up shots. This can be compensated for during the HDR process if the movement is slight.

http://dptnt.com/2007/10/hdr-photography-using-nikon-d40/

Sadly the D40 doesn't have AEB so you will have to figure out how to manually bracket.

Here is how to pull it off with a D40... sadly the lack of bracketing means you run the risk of moving the camera and not having perfectly lined up shots. This can be compensated for during the HDR process if the movement is slight.

http://dptnt.com/2007/10/hdr-photography-using-nikon-d40/

Or just use a tripod.

Definitely try to use a tripod. I have found however that even with a tripod sometimes even the slight pressure to operate buttons and dials can end up shifting the image enough to add a noteable effect.

Just tried it out, took 6 pictures in total and combined them in photomatix. I'm going to have to play around with it some more, didn't come out as vibrant as I wanted.

http://i30.tinypic.com/2qxb8l5.jpg

A friend of mine took some hdr photos for me. Let me know what you think.


http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/KeithG_20/l_6050f0d75b06403e1aca22a5dff1e092.jpg

--Keith


Beautiful shot. lookin sweet.

Nice pics man. That 5-axis kit looks sweeeettt on the IIP.

http://i31.tinypic.com/2nk017p.jpg

Amidoinitright?

That is pretty decent. The coloring is great. The picture looks natural and that is the point. Most people think HDR is about making it look amazing. But you made it look natural, like what the eye should see. So yes, you achieved it.

My over exposed pic was slightly off, thats why theres some weird crap going on in the D/S headlight and the silver trim on the grille is off.

very nice...

Can you post the normally exposed (or best looking) single exposure?

From what I can tell you "did it right" in terms of processing, but the choice of frame was not what I would consider a good one for HDR...

Generally for HDR you want to choose a frame with high dynamic range. I see you had your lights on which would qualify as a bright or blown out area but one thing keeps me from really feeling this as a good example of a time to use HDR:

Bright light sources are often considered acceptable to be blown out because, well, your eye couldn't make it out either. For instance if the sun is blwon out in an HDR, that's fine, there really isn't a decent way to capture and reproduce that. So the headlights, while technically out of range of a normal shot, are somewhat questionable in making this an HDR candidate in the first place.

Technically I think you did it right and technically your source does appear to have a high dynamic range, but really in this situation I would probably have chosen to just single shot it as nothing but the headlights seems to push either end of the range spectrum.

I would concentrate on looking for the right opportunity to get an HDR shot... a good one would be a car with a sun setting behind it. Again the sun will probably still be blown out, but getting the car to look naturally light as well as whatever background you have while simultaneously getting the clouds to show with good contrast would likely be an excellent test of HDR.

As for your toy car pic above, I have to say again I think there just wasn't enough range to begin with to make an HDR a really feasible method.

Indoor lighting where the light source is not directly visible is very seldom a good choice for HDR. Likewise overcast or early day/late noon shots tend to display limited range and not be the best for HDR .

In my experience the best times for HDR are:

Shooting something that is heavily shaded along with items that are in bright direct sunlight in the same shot.

Sunsets or sun rises facing the sun.

Night or dusk shots with light sources in them (bulbs or headlights etc).

Good work though, seems you got the process pretty much down!

^ Thanks, just to let you know, I've never taken HDR photos before...in fact, I've only been shooting with my D40 for about 1 month now. :P

Here's the normal exposure shot (only used 3 shots, +2.7, 0.0, -2.7 EV)

http://i30.tinypic.com/ig99w6.jpg

I left the HIDs on to see how they would come out.

Looking at your nomral exposure compared to your HDR one I don't see much difference, which again ties into how suitable a shot is for HDR.

If you look under the wheel wells in the car on the left, your cars shadow and grill and the HIDs you will see that the final product doesn't really show much that the normal shot does. Those would be the place I would think would show the results of more dynamic range first.

But even more important, the normal expsure looks pretty good already to me. ie there really isn't much for the HDR to "Fix" (nothing left out due to lack of dynamic range).

Looks like the process and idea are solid, just need to practice finding the right frame to shoot!

And thanks for bashing on BRM! If I don't like it when I see it now I am blaming you! :P

Thanks for the tips, I was mostly doing the HDR thing to enhance the colors

And I used to have IIP, that's why IIP > NBM/BRM :P. But it doesn't matter, because SW > all other colors.

If you really just want popping colors, you can probably get away with a single shot and use the pseudo hdr effects in photomatix.

^ I didn't even think of doing that :rofl: . Atleast I'm getting some practice taking multiple shots without moving the camera. Now that I have a tripod, it should be much easier.

http://static.bbmp3.com/smilies/jacked.gif

with cs3, i cant save my HDRs as .jpg, what format do you save it in so you can upload to sites such as photobucket? please help

^ With photomatix, it saves them as .tif or .jpg, so I just use .jpg so I can upload it to tinypic.com

ahh nice, photomatix is alot easier to use then cs3

^ Yes. Yes it is. :rofl:

I gotta find a key to register it, these watermarks are annoying lol.

um bit torrent? and get on AIM. me and optional are having a nice convo and you should get on.

hmm i dono. o well.

ooh carbon, i got my reg key, hit me up on AIM and ill let you in on a little secret. my SN is in the thing below my sig

Lol, sorry I'm at work so no AIM :(. I come and go during the day on SL, so if I post then don't respond, it's because I'm actually working :P.

oh lame, send optional a PM hell get you registered :)

He already got to me :P.