@msmoto -= When you are using the in-camera HDR, are you also saving the RAW images?... That is are you shooting both RAW and jpeg and allowing the jpegs to be processed to an HDR? Does that even work? ... I think I'll have to give that a try as I would feel a lot more comfortable having the RAWs to fall back to.

@donaldejose....exactly...I think the final is a bit light, maybe because the shadows in many cases get opened up so much. But, then we can drop the overall exposure down and get a really nice rich detailed shadow.

I have been doing some landscape in-camera HDR on Auto with my D800 and find it helpful. Basically, it extends the dynamic range covered by darkening a bright cloudy sky a bit and lightening up dark shadows a bit. The overall scene tends to come out a bit lighter than I like so I darken it a bit in post processing. I will try some with the exposure compensation set at -0.3 to see if that produces the exact effect I like. I would encourage others to try the D800s in camera HDR.

Eric said:
@bjrichus - I noticed that...also the lack of contrast under the shack. I assumed it was a dodge for effect. What software are you using?

Photoshop CS6 and Nik HDR Efx Pro.

@msmoto - Yes, that is interesting, and I like it. The manner in which the HDR engine is trying to align exposures does provide an interesting effect that seems to enhance the feeling of motion, while the in-focus floor tile anchors the image. Diagonals pull in the eye.... So, definitely interesting and I believe one could argue for a bit of artistic goodness as well. In fact the more I look at it the more I like it.

@Eric.... I am sliding toward selling a house, ha, ha, ha....then another camera...

Actually, I do not see the need for a D800 at present. I am fascinated by the Fuiifilm X Pro1, but am waiting to see what the D400 will bring.

As for the HDR, it is the one time I shoot JPEG, then I try to remember to switch back to RAW. But, as an aside, here is an interesting shot, the word is interesting, not good, which uses the camera's HDR technique to produce a different abstract effect.

@msmoto - Thanks for the info. My admittedly irrational bias against jpeg has resulted in a lack of experimentation with this feature.

Just for fun sometime try setting up the D4 for exposure bracketing then shoot handheld, RAW, continuous high speed. The D4 is fast enough (and I know your technique is good enough) so that you can use the resultant photos for HDR. If you download a trial version of Nik Software's HDR Efex Pro, you can then process the RAWs into HDR.

I mention this because the manner in which the D4's high frame rate allows RAW based HDR photos to be taken hand held is really impressive. I think you would get a big kick out of the process.

BTW, Are you sliding towards a d800 / 14-24 f/2.8 combo? ;-)

Eric said:

@msmoto - Is this in-camera or done in post?

The HDR was plus/minus 3 f/stops in camera...then a lot of PP in LR4.1. The juke box was sitting in an extremely dark area, and thus the dark wood was almost black even in the HDR in camera. But, I pulled out some of the wood tones so as to make it appear like the eye sees it....

@bjrichus - I noticed that...also the lack of contrast under the shack. I assumed it was a dodge for effect. What software are you using?

@bjrichus...a handful of photographers will always be able to make high art out of technology,but it's the millions of us that can't fit into the hand that usually give it a bad name ;>)

shutterdancer said:
I must admit to not having read this thread from page 1 to present....,a first for me.....When I discovered HDR,I used it like most other newbie photogs do....in other words,I went extreme with it.....it looked cool at first....lots of times something new always looks cool ;>)

The garrish look soon failed to delight however,and I quit doing it........but Lately ,when I see photographers using HDR,and you can't tell if they have used an ND filter or produced an HDR.....in other words...everything looks " Real"......,I love it!

Some images just scream to me that should be HDR processed and others don't.

I have another few landscapes from that day and because of the dull and flat light I struggled to get something out of them *until* I used HDR.

HOWEVER, the portraits and others from that day shot outside should simply not be HDR processed and a quick drag of the contrast or D-lighting sliders sorted them out. Practice and you learn to recognize them.

Of course, the likes of Trey Ratcliffe have built a career on stylized HDR shooting and good luck to him. I just wish it was me instead ;-) Oh well. Wonder what the next "creative technique" we can come up with and get a print into the Smithsonian (like Trey has for HDR) and build a career out if it too?

Eric said:
@bjrichus - I also though that the contrast between fence and sand and the nature of the fence added something of a forbidding / foreboding flavour... Nice job!

Thanks.

Something I have noticed in the small version of the image is that the fading round the tower is more visible here than in the full size one. No idea why! I guess the down sampling is the cause of that! This one is kind of like it used to be when you did just a little bit too much dodging and burning back in the old darkroom days...

I must admit to not having read this thread from page 1 to present....,a first for me.....When I discovered HDR,I used it like most other newbie photogs do....in other words,I went extreme with it.....it looked cool at first....lots of times something new always looks cool ;>)

The garrish look soon failed to delight however,and I quit doing it........but Lately ,when I see photographers using HDR,and you can't tell if they have used an ND filter or produced an HDR.....in other words...everything looks " Real"......,I love it!

@bjrichus - I also though that the contrast between fence and sand and the nature of the fence added something of a forbidding / foreboding flavour... Nice job!

Eric said:
@bjrichus - pretty. Nice mood. I think the low color saturation really does a nice job of capturing feeling. IMO it enhances a feeling of loneliness, emptiness, isolation. Really interesting image with lots to see and think about.

Exactly.

This was shot the week after Christmas when the location was all but deserted. for me at least, the eye starts on the right with the life guard lookout tower and then moves to the left with the sea birds and the fence. On the full size print, there is a lot of detail visible, which keeps ones attention, as you look deeper, you see more, like the grain of the wood, the nail heads and then the wire that holds the fence together and then the blades of grass.

The grass gets a little bit out of focus especially towards the bottom left which is a shame, but they were moving in the breeze and the focus point was just a little bit too far back to get it all in perfect sharpness... Oh well.

I spent 30 minutes yesterday watching as people read the signs in great detail. The larger sign on the side of the tower is about the beach warning flags and what each color means, including the one about "Dangerous Marine Life" meaning SHARKS!!!!! (also jellyfish, stingrays etc).

@bjrichus - pretty. Nice mood. I think the low color saturation really does a nice job of capturing feeling. IMO it enhances a feeling of loneliness, emptiness, isolation. Really interesting image with lots to see and think about.

Eric said:
@bjrichus - Can you post the photo so we can see it?

You already have my HDR version of the other picture in the exhibition earlier in the thread from about 3 weeks ago - its the one of the guy fishing off the beach.

This is the more heavily treated HDR picture, reduced in size to just 800px wide to fit the forum:

Done using Photoshop and NIK software.

@bjrichus - Can you post the photo so we can see it?
@msmoto - Is this in-camera or done in post?

I like to see in the photo what I think I saw in the real life setting. Or, an artist's rendering. HDR can be very useful for both of these. And in some cases, a photo is not possible unless HDR is utilized. Here is one with the settings at a plus/minus 3 f/stops in the D4, and the final print is as close to what I saw as I can remember. Extremely dark venue, but a nice subject IMO.

spraynpray said:
Hey congrats so far!

C'mon - give us the link - it would be good to see yours and the other images. You know us, we're like family right? Well, in NR's case, we are better behaved than my family!

Thanks for the congrats. I don't usually do the framing and stuff myself these days as most of the time the images I sell get used in documents or on the web & when they do exist in a physical format, they are printed and framed by a commercial service so *I* don't usually do the "dirty work", but this time, it's all me!! LOL!

Family? FAMILY? You've got to be kidding me! My own family knows squat about what makes either a good picture and/or one that sells. In particular, my wife (bless her heart), will always (and I do mean 100% of the time) pick the crud and non-sellers, which makes her opinion really valuable to me so I can pick the shots I do need to work with... ;-)

bjrichus said:
It's finally on the wall in the Gallery (framed 11"x14" print from an Epson printer) this and next week along with another much more serious bit of HDR imagery from me too. Jury will be "in" on Monday when the Gallery is closed.

If (and do mean *IF*) I win anything, I'll post links etc to the contest and stuff, after all, successful artists only show off good work..... Who wants to see the failures?

There is a "peoples choice" category where visitors to the place can vote by completing a form and dropping it in a basket by the door. The lady who runs the place said today that I had already got a number of votes for it, but won't tell me what the count is until after judging.

Will I make it to Tuesday morning? LOL...

Hey congrats so far!

C'mon - give us the link - it would be good to see yours and the other images. You know us, we're like family right? Well, in NR's case, we are better behaved than my family!

bjrichus said:
Alright... After a bit of messing about, I got the thing uploaded [...]

It's finally on the wall in the Gallery (framed 11"x14" print from an Epson printer) this and next week along with another much more serious bit of HDR imagery from me too. Jury will be "in" on Monday when the Gallery is closed.

If (and do mean *IF*) I win anything, I'll post links etc to the contest and stuff, after all, successful artists only show off good work..... Who wants to see the failures?

There is a "peoples choice" category where visitors to the place can vote by completing a form and dropping it in a basket by the door. The lady who runs the place said today that I had already got a number of votes for it, but won't tell me what the count is until after judging.

Will I make it to Tuesday morning? LOL...

@Gitzo - Why not post some of your work on PAD (Photo a Day on this forum)? I'd like to see it.

I find that I like what HDR can do. It's easy to take too far, but I like the additional dimension of enhanced reality that can be extracted using HDR techniques.

Having just arrived on this website yesterday, I will attempt to keep this short; I rather agree with Pierre; I think it's a case of the old adage that "beauty is in the eye off the beholder". Obviously, we all see things with different eyes; even though mine are getting pretty old, they are still functioning many times as well as my ears are. I can't really express to others what pleases my eyes, but I know it when I see it.

I have seen quite a lot of HDR that I really liked, and I have seen just as much that I didn't care to take a second look at; I have been looking at other people's photography for a very long time now, and I'm constantly finding myself wondering, why on earth did he (or she) elect to photograph THAT ? I'm sure that photographer would most likely think the same if he (or she) were to look at some of mine. At the same time, I see a lot of work by some of the great wildlife photographers, and I find myself hoping to do half as well.

I am personally very much "into" vivid colors; I spend a lot more time on my computer creating what I like to refer to as "gradient art" than I usually do taking pictures. Sometimes I combine the two, usually using the gradients as a frame for the photography.

When I finally put a few things on an "art" web site, I discovered that I must be the only "gradient artist" out of all the thousands on the site ! Overall, the average age of members on the site is quite young, and I'm anything but young, so I'm sure that explains why my "art" hasn't been in "great demand" there. For years I never showed it to anyone; a few years back, when I showed a few samples to someone at the Cultural Center in Chicago, they insisted that I should "do a show"! If you knew me, you would realize why I think that's so humorous ! A few things that I do please me a lot, while other things I grow weary of quickly. In the end, it really doesn't make any difference what others think; when I create something for my own enjoyment, and I end up deriving enjoyment from doing it, it was well worth doing; if others enjoy it also, I suppose that's even better.

I had hoped to try my hand at HDR sometime, but so far, I haven't gotten around to it.

msmoto, nice! Locating the specific settings to get most, or even all of the gray scale is an art. But sometimes we cannot, or do no have enough time, which is definitely the time and the place for bracketing and HDR.

Dynamic range - D4 & D800. I have never seen a camera with enough dynamic range to replace flash painting, and/or HDR.

Do not forget Flash Painting, which is very easy now, especially using remote flashes to mimic enhancing dynamic range in a specific area of a picture, without doing it across the entire scene. Try it sometime; it is FUN!