This is my first attempt at HDR Photography. This was taken from the 69th floor of the Diwang Building in Shenzhen.
Some things I've learned:
1. This type of photo really can be dynamic once you figure out how to take them and process them properly.
2. I dont have a wide enough dynamic range (DR) in this photo. I'll attempt the same again in Hong Kong tomorrow, and use a wider range of f-stops to increase the DR, should result in an improved photo. Further, I prefer to start shooting night photos when there is still some light left in the sky. I arrived at the Diwang Building too late for that last night.
2. I shot this photo from behind one inch of glass that wasnt terribly clean. My next photos will be taken outdoors, getting rid of any negative effects of the glass.
3. I wish I had a wider angle but this was the best I could do in this situation. Focal length here was about 32mm on my D70 (48mm in film). Camera was set on Av with f8 as the benchmark, and this particular photo is a composite of three RAW photos taken at increments of +1 EV. I think I'll experiment with a smaller aperture in Hong Kong tomorrow.
4. Patience is required in this type of photography. After a botched first attempt at processing (see my comment below for a link to that image), I finally found a decent website that outlined most of the steps necessary in CS2 to get it right. It can take an hour or two to process one HDR photo.
I would appreciate any critiques or ideas on improvements if anyone has anything to say. HDR Photography is really new to me, and I have a lot to learn, but it is very interesting once you figure it all out.
Some of the processing included:
1. merge three photos into HDR; 2. various adjustments via layers (curves, colour/saturation, brightness/contrast) as an HDR file; 3. conversion to JPEG for uploading here.
I think the rice terrace images you posted a year or so ago, are some of your best work. I hope you are equally successful this time around. Best of luck, and safe travels.
Mark, I just left Hong Kong. The weather was good but once on the peak (Victoria Peak) you could see the massive cloud of smog hovering over Hong Kong. The photos I took up there two nights ago are a bit disappointing but will see if I can make something out of them.
I will be off to Thailand for a week on the 29th, then when I get back, going to travel to Guangxi again, and visit the rice terraces, some old wooden villages, and some very nice covered wooden bridges. All in the same area as the rice terraces.
James, Very interesting. The picture has a surreal aurea about it. I have no knowledge of HDR. Will look at the link and try to learn. I hope you are enjoying your travel time. Mark
Hi Jim. I read more than a dozen different HDR "how to" sites before I found the one I linked to above. It was the easiest one to understand and was one of the few good ones that had a tutorial using CS2 and not Photomatrix software (although the writer of that tutorial also has a tutorial for Photomatrix).
I'll upload my first attempt at processing an HDR photo here so you can see the difference following a good tutorial makes. This photo was taken from the same place as the original upload, just a different side of the tower.
Quite an impressive shot nonetheless. Thank you for posting the link to the HDR tutorial. My quick experiments with HDR have not been very successful. This shot just Pops!
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{K:24393} 1/20/2008