First test using HDR Photography. I used a Canon S3 IS set to bracket 3 exposure of each scene. Photomatrix was then used to join the exposures together. This was my first try at this, so the photos do look a bit saturated and surreal. But it does show how you can get a great deal of range in the photos. Especially areas that would be too dark, or hidden in shadows. This was mainly a test to get myself acquainted with he process. I will be purchasing a Canon 30D soon, my first DSLR. HDR was just one of the many things I want to do with it.
I didnt notice I had such a bad sun glare in these until after I looked at them later. It caused the truck to wash out quite a bit.
I purposely pointed this shot toward the sun. I wanted to see how the HDR coped with the bad glare and hugely over exposed sun. It didnt do quite as well as I had hoped, though that may partly be my editing. But still not bad considering.
I wanted to see what HDR could do with really low light as well. As above, I took 3 exposures, the sample below being the brightest of the 3. As with most low light shots, there is quite a bit of noise, but it did brighten up the walls quite a bit, while at the same time, stopping down the over exposed top of the stairs.
I decided to go back and try this out on a few photos that I had previously taken. These were single exposure photos. I made two copies of the photo, darkening one, and brightening the other. Then applying the same HDR process to them. This is not nearly as effective as using actual separately exposed photos. These were also already in jpeg format. HDR should be done with RAW formats.
Here is the original panorama photo.
This is the resulting HDR processed photo.
Not only is the color much more vibrant, but the shadows under the trees have also greatly been reduced.
The photo also has more 3D relief to it, and doesnt look as flat.
I applied the same HDR process to this similar panorama photo.
The trees to the right are a bit faded and washed out, but other than that, I think it brought out some detail and gave the photo more depth.
This time I decided to really push the HDR limits. I took one of our caving photos, and again, applied the same HDR process. The original image was quite dark and had quite a bit of noise. I wanted to see just how much HDR could brighten the underexposed areas. Overall it didnt turn out too bad, considering you cant brighten what isnt there in the first place. So there are still underexposed areas, but it did seem to add a bit more contrast and depth to the photo. This allows you to see a bit more detail in ways, but the over saturation makes the photo seem less detailed and natural.
