Results from my first try with HDR

CatOne

Results obtained taking an image exposed for the sky, masking the foreground, moving the black point right to the left edge of the histogram, saturating, sharpening:



Results obtained with HDR, using "local adaptation" to set the black point at the left side of the curve, saturating, sharpening (I merged 7 shots with HDR, the 1DII can rip off 7 shots at 2/3 stop bracketing in about 1 second):



The foreground looks pretty bad with HDR. Not sure what I can do differently; monkeying with the curves in the HDR settings doesn't seem to do it. "Highlight compression" doesn't look great either. Maybe there's more detail in the blacks in the HDR version, but for now, I'm not seeing the limitations of exposing for the sky and pushing the foreground a bit. Certainly looks a lot more color true. Anyone had good luck with it to date?

DavidTO

Looks to me like the HDR provided a good starting point. I don't think that you should expect the results out of it to be final, it seems like it's going to be like RAW, provides a great starting point with lots of latitude. The rest is up to you.

Course, all I've ever done with it is look over your shoulder, so what the heck do I know.

ginger_55

Black Point?

Did someone here teach that?

sounds interesting.

ginger (David sounds to be correct. Now how much time can one spend on a photo. It used to be a "snap", got a jpeg did the set things, and let her go.......

Now it is taking me longer, and I have never heard of a black point.

DavidTO

ginger_55 wrote:

Black Point?

Did someone here teach that?

sounds interesting.

ginger (David sounds to be correct. Now how much time can one spend on a photo. It used to be a "snap", got a jpeg did the set things, and let her go.......

Now it is taking me longer, and I have never heard of a black point.

yeah, one of us who went to yosemite will have to write up a tutorial on it. Pretty simple stuff, but not gonna happen while I'm at work.

CatOne

ginger_55 wrote:

Black Point?

Did someone here teach that?

sounds interesting.

ginger (David sounds to be correct. Now how much time can one spend on a photo. It used to be a "snap", got a jpeg did the set things, and let her go.......

Now it is taking me longer, and I have never heard of a black point.

I'm not really referring to "black point," in the same way that Marc referred to it (and what Dave is referring to), though.

What I mean is, when adjusting the image and converting HDR from 32 to 16 bit, you can do it with curves. If you've worked with curves, you can drag the "black point" along the bottom of the curve, as seen in this screen shot on Luminous Landscape:



Snugging the start of the curve to the left side of the historgram will really tell Photoshop where the "black point" of the image is -- you're saying there is nothing darker that it in the image. Curves is really just much more flexible levels, but at this simplest level, what I've done is bump the left slider in levels up to the start of the histogram.