HDR suggestions

[carrbowl]

WEll I took some photos at Christmas that are not properly exposed. I was told that HDR might help them!!! (on my knees at this point!!!) So any help to make this easier would help...So far all I've been told is to make several different exposures and then merge them with HDR. I'm assuming there is more to it than that.... any suggestions??

[luis_relampago]

One question. Did you shot those pictures in RAW? if you did then it is posible to make them better in HDR and also in camera RAW from Photoshop CS3. It is a bit complicated but nothing out of the extraordinary, you just have to play with the settings and tweek a couple of knobs and you will be in bussines in no time.

[adirty1]

http://stuckincustoms.com/2006/06/06/548/

take a look at his site. he's a local austin photographer and really lays out the process very well.

[carrbowl]

thanks...


Someof the shots came out in raw and some did not. I have talked to several people and we have yet to figure out what happened. All the shots were in manual and I did not adjust the buttons on the back of the camera ????

[kenmyers70]

Renae, You will probably find out that HDR is not going to particularly well-suited for people (They tend to move between exposures). If some of your images were not captured in Raw and some were, I would look at the mode your camera was in. I figured out that my little XTI will capture JPG in the full auto (Green Rectangle) mode by default. I normally shoot Tv, Av or M mode so this threw me for a loop when I tried to do post processing on some pics my son took in Auto. The default (Raw/JPEG) camera setting may be different for Auto, M, Av, Tv.

[carrbowl]

Thanks Ken, that is one of the things we looked at...did I accidentally change it to the green square? But when I look at the files, it shows I shot it in Manual? It's a 5D and someone said there is a way to change the RAW+Jpeg vs just Jpeg on the "top" of the camera. I never knew you could do that, and he couldn't remember how, so I need to look and call Canon if I can't figure it out. I had to have done something to change it, but if it is still on Manual it should have shot both during the entire session...????

[Duffy Pratt]

It would help to see a representative picture.

Duffy

[carrbowl]

Well I did some playing with HDR and wasn't happy with the results...I'm sure operator error. I took them to a local photo shop and was told the print job I have is good considering what they have to work with!!

[luis_relampago]

Renae I hope you don't mind I did some tweeking on your original pic, I hope you like the color correction and the over all out come.

[adirty1]

there is not much wrong with your image. about the only thing i can really think of to darken the back ground a little and a tad on the foreground.

in your image you still have details in the blacks. yours could use a little more exposure but not much.

[Duffy Pratt]

The sidewalk on the back left, and part of the fountain, looks blown or close to it. The shadows in the clothing are nearly plugged. I haven't looked to see if there is any detail there worth saving. Otherwise, its perfectly acceptable. I'm not entirely sure on the skin tones either.

It's hard to judge what you did without seeing the original.

Duffy

Edit: I looked at it in PS. There is definitely detail in the shadows, and there is some room to work in the highlights as well. I did this to show that its possible, even in this state, to get detail in the Mom's dress and the Dad's shirt, and to tone down the fountain without darkening everything.

I created a new layer, set mode to luminosity, and did a shadow highlights adjustment. In shadows the amount was like 27, tone range was like 8, and the radius was pretty high. In highlights it was an amount in the 50s, with low tone range (5 maybe) and again a pretty high radius.

Then I put a curve adjustment layer between the two layers, with mode set to color. I boosted the green some on this with a point from the Grandpa's face. I then lowered the blues a touch from a point taken from the Grandma's neck. The idea was to cut out a bit of the magenta in the face, and to add some yellow. This is a matter of taste.

This edit would be much better if done from the original, I think. As it is, the kid's socks are a little blue, and I would fix that. But what's done here I think is enough to prove the point I'm trying to show.

[carrbowl]

I thought I posted the original, but I'm not sure, so I'm posting another...I'm going to try some of your suggestions just for learning purposes, but I am SO done trying to please this customer. I took these photos on Christmas day...for some ridiculous setting fee, photoshoped until every little piece of dust was to her liking, and either she's going to be happy or not. On top of that, she ordered a 5 x 7 with 22 people in it!!! She's going to need a magnifying glass to see the people in the photo!! But I would still like to learn the technique, in case I screw up again. Thanks for the help. (nice lense flares don't you think???? )

[luis_relampago]

Here is my second attempt

[carrbowl]

Luis, that looks really good on my screen..I wish it was calibrated!! What did you do to it? I would like to try it, to see what it would look like printed...

[carrbowl]

Ok...so I watched a video and lets see if I understand this procedure with a flash in the highly lit background issue I'm having. So I set my flash at it's sync speed. 200 and lets say the aperture is f11. I can't change my sync speed to get less light in the background, so would it be better to up the flash , or could I change the aperture value higher, lets say f18 or f22 to get less background light. Would this work? Do I understand it right????