HDR & M9

[Eastgreenlander]

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It looks aweful. If I was getting images like that out of a 3mpix minolta xT, I would be upset. Out of a Leica it isnt defensible unless it is intentional artistic interpretation, in which case I will hold my comment on your taste.

 

Thanks for the critique. Can you post a HDR from your 3MP minolta?

[charles-k]

With respect, HDR is just another tool. Not to everyone's taste if overdone, but it is used vastly by professionals, where the final image you would not even guess that HDR had been used. What I am talking about is real estate, architecture and commercial product shoots where the DR is too large. This is also not to take away the artistic form that a lot have embraced either.

 

It is great the M9, does have the bracketing facility even better than my 5DII, which is limited to 3 shots before readjusting.

 

Also another application of HDR software is to utilise the full 32 bit RAW data, modifying a single image to +/- 2ev exposure, saving and then recombining in HDR before finally converting to 16 bit format

[FredSF]

I have experimented with HDR only with the M9, and only recently. First of all, I mostly deal with Black and White, which I think is great for it. Color, on the other hand, is quite another matter. The latest usually do look fake in a funny, well HDR way. Although, some subjects lend themselves better to HDR (like lava fields in Iceland, for instance).

 

The one thing I don't like too much with the M9 bracketing technique, is that it only works in 'A' mode. Updating the firmware so we could make it work in manual mode will make me a very happy camper.

 

I'm also looking forward Nik's HDR tools. Looks promising.

[pop]

...

 

Over on Post 5 Tone mapping thread, pop Philipp got a reasonable result but it seems from an image that already held the information so the tone mapping I guess was an exercise in image editing by applying a plugin rather than adjusting layers and manually selecting the parts (which takes only seconds) that were needed to bring the final image up to speed.

 

I can confirm that. The result shown came about by fiddling with a single JPG out of the Lumix LC1. It's not an application of HDR but only of one process which is used in HDR.

 

I'm a bit skeptical about the bit about manually selecting the parts which require adjustment. But then, I do not have much experience in PP, so Rob just may be right.

[vanhulsenbeek]

 

The one thing I don't like too much with the M9 bracketing technique, is that it only works in 'A' mode. Updating the firmware so we could make it work in manual mode will make me a very happy camper.

 

 

 

This has been amply discussed before. Not that it may not be possible, but you want automation in manual mode: an oxymoron! And what is the difference when in automode you are happy with your initial , "middle of the row", speed? You get the same result!

NIK's tool look promising indeed. The cityscape they use to show their new software on the website is pretty yucky though, not at all a plug for HDR IMHO.

[gravastar]

................... Not that it may not be possible, but you want automation in manual mode: an oxymoron! And what is the difference when in automode you are happy with your initial , "middle of the row", speed? You get the same result! ...........................

 

Unfortunately if you are stitching several frames to make an HDR or Image Fused panorama you don't get the same result. The auto exposure changes as you photograph different parts of the scene.

 

Bob.

[vanhulsenbeek]

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Sorry, but that is not correct.

 

With the M9 only the W(hite) B(alance) may change when it is on Auto. Focus and opening do not change unless you touch them. So, with WB on manual (Daylight preferred), you have fixed opening, fixed focus and fixed WB: ideal for HDR and Pano as well, where for both you only wish the speed to be changed. The speed you can either change with bracketing (M9 ), or by hand. No difference there in results, only the latter is slower.

 

See a M9-bracketed HDR pano here: Zenfolio | Sander van Hulsenbeek Photography | Panorama's

[Tina Manley]

The M9 does give great results for HDR as long as the subject is static. If it could produce a few different exposures at different ISO's simulanteously it would be a real HDR winner.

 

You don't really have to have several exposures for an HDR look and it doesn't have to be a static subject. If you use LR's virtual copies and process one for the shadows, one for the highlights and one normal, you can combine them in Photomatix.

 

 

Broken link. Here is the photo:

 

http://www.pbase.com/tinamanley/image/120763541

 

Tina

[vanhulsenbeek]

Tana,

 

That is true, but the Jury is still out out the question which is best: the 'one-shot-HDR' or the 'multi-shot-HDR'. I would say, the if you just want to bring out shadows and highlights, the one-shot-HDR will do. When you want the real HDR effect, the multi-shot-HDR process gives the greater possibilities. As well as those HDR's that some respond to with: yuck

[pop]

... the Jury is still out out the question which is best: the 'one-shot-HDR' or the 'multi-shot-HDR'.

 

There are numerical answers to those questions, if you are the kind of person who likes numbers.

 

Your typical run-of-the-mill display has a color depth of 8 bits. So has your printer, I presume. So has your usual image file in the jpeg format.

 

As long as your image contains all the information you want to be visible on your print or display, a one-exposure image and some tone mapping ought to do the job.

 

As soon as the 8 bits per channel present in your jpeg image are not sufficient any more to encompass all of your scene, you obviously need more than those 8 bits.

 

The next step consists of using the raw format of your camera to the fullest extent and up to the dynamic resolution your camera can deliver. That way, we're still in the one-exposure domain; tone mapping becomes mandatory but not the hassle of combining multiple shots.

 

Only when the dynamic range of your cameras sensor is not sufficient to record the dynamic range of your scene arises the need to take several exposures and to combine them using the HDR software. Once the exposures are combined into one, you use the same tone mapping procedure you did before.