HDR B/W

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Now that I've ordered the D 800 to supplement my view camera drum scan work, I'm going to take a serious look at tonal range stretching in HDR. Might as well since I never shoot people  and usually use a tripod.

Hi John,

The D800 requires much less bracketing to capture a scene's dynamic range, although shadows always benefit from capturing more photons.

Can anyone recommend a GOOD video tutorial on it ?  I detest all the garish hdr work out there as well, most of it is comical, but I can see it being used tastefully to increase shadow and highlight detail with some files under certain lighting conditions.

Depends on what software you intend to use. Most video tutorials are about specific software products that are used to tonemap the HDR Image captures. Perhaps a better way of understanding the specifics about HDRI, and comparisons between the different software solutions, is covered in a recently updated book on the matter, The HDRI handbook by Christian Bloch. He also has a website with lots of information about the various aspects of the subject. Mind you, it's more than 600 pages packed with information, so not something that a simple video can cover in a short period of time, unless it's about a specific product.

Cheers,
Bart

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

I do a lot of B&W HDR work.  Here are a few:

Hi Mike,

Some good examples. The harbor clouds are a bit too much for my taste, but the others have made good use of the extended luminosity range. The best thing is that such HDR tonemappings even look good when inspected up close at large output sizes.

Cheers,
Bart

[deanwork]

Thanks Bart,

I'll check out his website and book. Much appreciated.

john

[HSakols]

Thanks for the info.  Also look at http://www.outbackphoto.net/.  I like this guy's HDR photos of Alcatraz.

[wolfnowl]

Hi Mike,

Some good examples. The harbor clouds are a bit too much for my taste, but the others have made good use of the extended luminosity range. The best thing is that such HDR tonemappings even look good when inspected up close at large output sizes.

Cheers,
Bart

Thanks, Bart.  I agree re: the harbour shot, but sometimes you just gotta have some fun...

Mike.

[RFPhotography]

Christian's book is excellent.  It is also very technical.  If you want that and a pragmatic approach, Jack Howard's "Practical HDRI, 2nd Ed.", also from Rocky Nook is excellent as well.  It's a tad dated now that CS6 is out but the techniques and information are still very valid.  These are, in my view, the two best books on HDR out there.

[deanwork]

Now that is a good example of why someone would want to work with HDR. Things we could do with compensated negative development with large format negatives  (D-23 developer with second water bath to let the highlights gradually equal out, etc)  in the old days can be replicated with HDR. It makes total sense in this case and isn't just a gimmick to get attention. In that case it is a fantastic amazing tool.

john

I agree, although it may take some effort to make it look simple.

Here's an example of needing HDRI to capture the scene dynamic range in the first place, and an attempt to bring it down to print capabilities (which are relatively limited) with tonemapping.

Attached is one of the exposure bracketed shots that started to capture some of the overhead window light details, but pushed +2EV to show some shadow detail. It was rather dark inside. The second attachment is the result of a 7-exposure exposure blending in SNS-HDR, and tonemapped with still some shadow and highlight clipping. This particular shot does not lend itself to a B&W conversion, IMHO.

Cheers,
Bart

[PhotoEcosse]

Hi John,

The D800 requires much less bracketing to capture a scene's dynamic range, although shadows always benefit from capturing more photons.


Cheers,
Bart

That, indeed, is one of the advantages of the D800. I find that I only need to record exposures at 2-EV intervals (unfortunately auto-bracketing on the D800 cannot cope with that, so, if I want to be lazy and use AB, I have to record 3 or 5 or 9 at 1-EV intervals and then ignore the even numbers.)

Haven't yet found a natural scene that needs to be reined-in by more than plus and minus 4 EV to get a printable image.

.