Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

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ChrisNM
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Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by ChrisNM »

Here are a couple HDR shots from a recent Hyla arenicolor. I like the results, but not certain if all the editing is worth the consumed time in the field to get the 3-shot series for stacking.

The 2nd shot was after it climbed up the juniper "mini" trunk.

Image

Image

Back to enjoying the insomnia.
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Jason Mintzer
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by Jason Mintzer »

I really really like the first picture :thumb:. Nice work.
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chrish
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by chrish »

If you shoot raw, you shouldn't have to shoot three shots to stack. Just create three or more shots from the same raw file.
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Jason Mintzer
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by Jason Mintzer »

Chrish, great advice, I don't know why I have never thought of that. I shoot in RAW and have been shooting multiple shots to stack. Also, shooting only 1 will be easier to stack because everything will be in the same place.
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brick911
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by brick911 »

chrish wrote:If you shoot raw, you shouldn't have to shoot three shots to stack. Just create three or more shots from the same raw file.
Then what? Do you use photomatix? I might try it this way. HDR is something I'd love to play around with.
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ChrisNM
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by ChrisNM »

brick911 wrote:
chrish wrote:If you shoot raw, you shouldn't have to shoot three shots to stack. Just create three or more shots from the same raw file.
Then what? Do you use photomatix? I might try it this way. HDR is something I'd love to play around with.
I actually did what Chris mentioned for the above photos, but that was after I tried to frustratingly handhold for the 3 shot burst. The drawback for me shooting NEF in this case was that I think I average 4 or 5 fps. If I switch to JPG I can get 6 fps, but I also have the MB-D10 battery grip which allows me to shoot at 8 fps in JPG.

Back to NEF though. I use Nikon's ViewNX software to convert over to JPG. Since I'm shooting in NEF (RAW) I have the ability to adjust, among many other setting, the photo's exposure values. I my case I save the original image exposed for the animal in this case. And then I'll adjust for -1.0 exposure bias, save. Then again at +1.0 exposure bias. The -1.0 and +1.0 adjustment value will depend upon what my actual exposure value was. For example, if the profile shot above had an exposure value of 0.7, my next 2 saves would be at -0.3 and +1.7.

Software wise, I have both photomatix and Essential HDR. Many like photomatix, but my images look weird with it as the stacked, aligned default image produced looks cooked. Essential HDR does not do this. The images you see above have the default tone mapping values applied by Essential HDR. Further adjustment of those tone mapping values can give the artistic, and IMHO overly done, cooked images you see within HDR image galleries. Some of these such images look downright amazing, and others, well to quote J. Jonah Jameson from Spider-Man, "They're crap. Crap, crap, megacrap." And I won't be giving $300 like he did in the movie.
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VanAR
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by VanAR »

Are those HDR programs freeware?

Chris, nice call on using a RAW to get 3 photos- that's brilliant!
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by Jason Ksepka »

I am shooting Nikon Raw as well and when I tried the method suggested above, under and overexposing and saving as appropriate, the image produced in Photomatix was a series of electronic signal lines kinda like when you take a video of a screen. I would love to go back and go all HDR crazy on some of my favorite images, should I try something else with my raw files to get it to turn out? I use Aperture 3 for most of my basic stuff and also have Capture NX 2 and PS CS4. Any suggestions would be very welcome. Take Care, Jason
Jason Ksepka
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by Jason Ksepka »

I actually managed to make it work this time. I must have missed some kind of setting last time I tried. If I produce anything worthwhile, I'll post some up here to get some critiques.
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ChrisNM
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Re: Hyla HDR fun....NOT an AZ animal LOL

Post by ChrisNM »

VanAR wrote:Are those HDR programs freeware?

Chris, nice call on using a RAW to get 3 photos- that's brilliant!

Van...

Yes and No. If you happen to have photoshop, I think CS2 and above, it will merge pics for HDR. The programs I use (Essential HDR [in this case] and Photomatix) have a trial version that places a watermark on the image along a border. They also regulate the size of the image unless you have the full version.
Jason Ksepka wrote:I am shooting Nikon Raw as well and when I tried the method suggested above, under and overexposing and saving as appropriate, the image produced in Photomatix was a series of electronic signal lines kinda like when you take a video of a screen. I would love to go back and go all HDR crazy on some of my favorite images, should I try something else with my raw files to get it to turn out? I use Aperture 3 for most of my basic stuff and also have Capture NX 2 and PS CS4. Any suggestions would be very welcome. Take Care, Jason
All I do the my NEF is adjust the exposure as Harrison mentioned and save under a different name within ViewNX when I convert to JPG. PS CS4 should do HDR merge also! The issue you ran into with photomatix isn't what I've had, but the default results I get with photomatix look like crap. Thus I use Essential HDR. I'm not looking to "cook" my HDRs, but rather merely merge the multiple exposures for a more this-is-what-my-eye-saw photo. There's a time when you leave the meat raw to medium and then there are other times when you cook the crap out of it! HDR to me is not the time to cook the crap out of it unless you're going for the artistic look.
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