You give me too much credit, P_C. I don't know much about HDR; I was just trying to help because no one else was saying anything.

Skid said:
....
I'm going to a car show today, and I thought it might be neat to try this on a photo of a car or bike.....

But would you truly need multi exposure HDR for that subject matter? True multi exp. HDR is used on subjects that have large brightness differences which can not be properly captured within a single exposure. Don't know what camera you're using but if you use the Exposure Histogram you can be sure that you don't need to employ HDR if you can make the curve fit without it hugging the edges on a single exposure.

jonnyapple said:
No problem and I'm sorry about that, P_C. You're absolutely right that jpeg has inherently low dynamic range; I just thought that calling the remapped image an hdr image was pretty standard.

sadly true that it is standard to wrongly call non HDR formats HDR and also true that many of those using the HDR term don't understand the true meaning and purpose of HDR.
I expected better of you Jonny :)

Panamon_Creel said:
Oh please do me a favor, don't call a Jpeg image HDR because you created it with "HDR" software. The Jpeg is at best a tonemapped image derived from a true HDRI so please call it tonemapped HDR or tonemapped pseudo HDR if it didn't come from a true HDR to begin with.

No problem and I'm sorry about that, P_C. You're absolutely right that jpeg has inherently low dynamic range; I just thought that calling the remapped image an hdr image was pretty standard.

Thanks for the links and tips guys.
The type of HDR that I'd like to try is with multiple images at different exposures combined into one image.
I'm going to a car show today, and I thought it might be neat to try this on a photo of a car or bike.
I'll look into that Photomatix program. Just need a easy to use one as I'm not the best at computers...not yet anyways.

What type of HDR are you looking for? The real HDR 32bit per color channel images that had been created via multiple single exposures over a wide EV offset range and their tonemapped derivatives that are to represent the wide dynamic range of the human eye or are you looking for "overcooked"/"doomsday" tonemapped images that may have derived from a true HDR but most of the time derived from nothing close to HDR (single exposures, multi exposure WB shift, single exposure split with SW EV shift,....)?

-Dynamic Photo HDR- does both and makes the overcooking easy, also allows to make single exp. pseudo tonemaps.
There is also EasyHDR but haven't used it so can't tell you about it ;)

Oh please do me a favor, don't call a Jpeg image HDR because you created it with "HDR" software. The Jpeg is at best a tonemapped image derived from a true HDRI so please call it tonemapped HDR or tonemapped pseudo HDR if it didn't come from a true HDR to begin with.

Photomatix Pro is without doubt the best there is, I have tried a few others and being trying out the merge to HDR in Photoshop CS5 which is much better than previous versions but I will still use Photomatix. I suggest that you give it a try as I believe it has a 28 day trial.

A good place for video lessons on line is Russell Brown at http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html He has some good basic HDR lessons.

Ben Willmore is the HDR specialist, he has some books and videos out (not free). http://www.digitalmastery.com

Rich.

Well it's not free... but Photomatix is one of the best HDR softwares around.

Photoshop CS5 is a bit better now with setting up HDR files... but it's still no Photomatix.

I found one (nothing special). This was shot without a tripod, so the alignment isn't perfect.

merged file
overexposed file
underexposed file
uncompensated file

The only HDR software I've used are the merge to HDR in Photoshop CS4 (I wasn't impressed, but I didn't spend too much time playing with it) and a Lightroom plugin called LR/enfuse. I think it's donationware, but it did a pretty good job with default settings (the only thing I tried.

One of the forum members (graphicnatured) posted a link to a tutorial here that he wrote (using photomatix pro):
http://theartoftylerjordan.com/blog/hdr-high-dynamic-range-photography-tutorial/

I'll see if I can find one I merged with LR/enfuse.

I have never tried to HDR, but I like the look of it. Is there any good (preferably free) programs out there that I can download? What do you use to create HDR photos?