What is HDR??

themask70 · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:28

I know about HDR from Half-Life 2 and CSS, but what exactly does it mean in photographic terms?? Also, how do you process / make HDR photos?? Any help would be appriciated

Jotun · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:37

Have a look at this

It's just an image with a High Dynamic Range basicly.

divine` · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:43

HDR in Half Life 2 is more just 'ZOMG OVEREXPOSE EVERYTHING FOR THE WIN!!!!11' rather than proper High Dynamic Range lighting.

In photography, it is basically a combination of 2 or more different exposures of the same scene so one photo can have multiple levels of exposure.

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:53

Its basically the end results of camera bracketting. When you take one photo and you preview it. You may be disapointed with under exposure or over exposure in parts of your image. Although you can not alter this within the camera due to something always been either under or over exposed (unless you use filters, and even then its not always possible) So you shoot about 3 - 9 images of the same thing at different exposures ensuring that multipue areas of the photos gets the correct exposure. Then by either manual use or CS2's inbuilt HDR engine to combine all the images to give a correct overall fixed exposure.

Psilonaught · 2 Apr 2006 at 22:02

i'm new to this myself but have found that i'v been able to go through old images and bring ones that i initially couldn't use back life - like the below. In the original the foreground was very dark with the background very bright. Increasing the raw file exposure any more would have meant the bright areas would be blown out

themask70 · 2 Apr 2006 at 22:03

thanks guys

cyKey · 2 Apr 2006 at 22:16

Great shot Psilonaught.

Colin_da_Killer · 3 Apr 2006 at 08:43

cyKey said:
Great shot Psilonaught.

I agree

I really like that, gonna try this HDR stuff when I get some time, the outcome is pretty impressive

Alex53 · 3 Apr 2006 at 08:47

Let's see whats the first body to do in-camera HDR. Would be nice.

skorp- · 3 Apr 2006 at 10:31

Alex53 said:
Let's see whats the first body to do in-camera HDR. Would be nice.

Might have a fiddle with this technique when I have time, will go through some old shots and see what can be done... Thanks for the link.

lloydt · 3 Apr 2006 at 22:25

So a tripod is a must ?

Could you produce several tiffs files at different exposures from one raw, would that work ?

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 3 Apr 2006 at 22:45

lloydt said:
So a tripod is a must ?

Could you produce several tiffs files at different exposures from one raw, would that work ?

Yes. The file automation process will stack the images up like layers and apply processes to even out the entire exposure. If you are shooting anything but stable. It will show through as dogdy CA and or Ghosting parts to an image.

Alex53 · 3 Apr 2006 at 22:45

lloydt said:
So a tripod is a must ?

Could you produce several tiffs files at different exposures from one raw, would that work ?

My guess is yes, but that restricts the total dynamic range to that which one RAW can capture as opposed to 2, 3, 5 or whatever, so if the scene goes beyond the dynamic range of one RAW image then you are still pushing it just as if you select areas of the same image and treat them differently with levels/curves etc.