What do you think?
- This topic has 13 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated Feb 6, 2009 at 10:29 pm by
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I just started experimenting with HDR photography. My family/girlfriend/friends think the images look pretty cool but I wanted some other opinions. Please let me know what you think and leave me any suggestions. All are welcome and thanks!
1 Like the color of the sky but not the foreground.
2 Again nice color. Is that house leaning over to the right?
3 Like it, think i ‘d play around with my crop tool a bit.Im generally not a fan of HDRs, they usuually appear surreal or cartoonish. Sometimes the work, for me though that normally means Id wouldnt know it was an hdr unless the producer told me.
So with that personal
Thanks for the feedback. I didn’t even notice that the lean on the house was that visible. Its an old eighteen hundreds farm house and probably is leaning. I fixed it up and hopefully it will look better now.
John, what exactly do you mean by top/down? I am new to this entire photography thing and don’t know all of the proper terms.
I like HDR in moderation and think that it can enhance portions of an image quite a bit.. Check out the HDR sticky thread. Of course, its a subjective thing … Personally, I like image #2 the best. It seems to have a real painterly feel, but I would prob tone it down a little .. I tend to like images that give just a hint of HDR. Thanks for sharing!
Brandon, by top down I mean pespective. In this case your almost right over top of the jaw bones shooting “down” at them. The perspective can work at times but usually I find shots at the same subject matter but taken from a lower perspective have more …ooomph.
Don’t have any jaw bone images to show but think of the cliche’d skull in the desert image where the photograph is taken from ground level. In the future when presented with something intersting like like that laying on the ground, try both. One with a low angle/perspective with the bones jutting up and one thats more top/down.
I’m not a fan of HDR either, but there are exceptions. Mostly on landscapes when used to get more detail out of shadows or skies. Anything too surreal and saturated is just pretty colors and “cool” technique more than it is good photography. That’s not always the case, but I usually find people trying to jump on a technique rather than learning basic photography first.
http://society6.com/grainfarmer Fly Fishing and Landscape open edition Photography prints.
http://grainfarmer.vsco.co/ iPhone photos
http://instagram.com/chad_simcox InstagramNever seen a HDR that worked well either.
Your example are nice shots, that IMHO would have been good shot as natural photos – they don’t look bad, just a little overcooked on the computer.
Most people new to photography (and some old hands who should know better) tend to go to hard on the post process on the computer and the shots end up looking overdone and to far removed from basic reality.
My advice is learn the basics first and try to keep the post to a minimum so you get a feel for shooting things right in the first place.
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
I also am not a fan of the majority of HDR images but I do like your second image. Most HRD really is way over baked and looks nothing like a photograph, as much as it appears more like digital art. I also agree 100% in learning the discipline of photography as so much more is gained with the disciplines of getting the shot correct in body.
HDR, Tone Mapping or Exposure blending does have its place though. HDR really has not been defined properly as some consider it a process that must have a + – 6 stop variance from mid the mid range image. Tone mapping is very similar, with out the stop range, but can be performed with a min of 2 photographs, the same with exposure blending. The application for these are best used when the limits of a sensor are reached, any thing other is a handicap in not trying to maximize the potential of a cameras sensor capabilities. Properly tone mapped images and/or exposure blending the images can lead to very impressive photo realistic images and come far closer to delivering what the eye actually saw.
Still though, I do like your second shot but it seems to be overly sharp, did you use a high pass filter on it? The composition is really cool— good eye!!
Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it. I agree that most of these pictures tend to be way overdone, but in some I still like the detail that can be brought out. Whenever I go out to see whats interesting I mostly concentrate on finding good lighting and getting the right exposure and trying to get the subject framed in an interesting way. Since I usually take multiple shots of each subject it doesn’t hurt to take a couple more with different exposures. Either way I appreciate the advice!
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