I like this type of articles a lot: before and after images. Now I show you some outstanding HDR images we had done in a past. Do not do them much now, busy with in-studio work with the products, but I still enjoy working with HDRi.
I will not give you many technical aspects how to make HDR photos, but this is what our photographer Alex Koloskov has told me about how he shot these landscape HDR photos:
” I usually do from two to four or five exposures for each HDR, decision s made based on how wide dynamic range is needed.
For bright sunny day, where there is a deep shadows and bright sky or water is present, up to five exposures may be needed to get the correct exposure for the whole range of brightness. On dusk and dawn, two or three exposure will be enough.
I rarely use auto exposure bracketing (when camera makes from 3 to 5 images for you form up to _3 to +3 f-stops), but rather shoot on manual, making more then 3 f-stops bracketing when needed.
The idea is to get correctly exposed the darkest and the brightest part of the image , the rest should fall in between.”
~Alex
For these landscape images I used Photomatix Pro 3 because I like some unrealistic effect it gives.
When I need more realistic images (especially for architecture) I like to use Photoshop, selecting two or more files from a set of exposures to merge and create a High Dynamic Range image. There is even more accurate method: using masks, when I manually merge specific areas of the image by masking them and blending with another layer.
But again, for these particular photos I used Photomatix Pro 3 plus some Photoshop adjustments.
Mouse Over to see Before and After
HDR photography before and after, Atlanta, GA
Continue reading High Dynamic Range images. HDRi before and after. Landscapes.
. You may not know it, but camera RAW format is 12, 14 or even 16 bits per color (depending on your sensor), compared to 8 bits per color for a JPEG. What does that mean? RAW gives significantly more room for adjustments, as it has more color information (this is a raw snapshot from a camera’s sensor), allowing more brightness, contrast, white balance, and saturation, without losing quality. The final image will be converted (down-sampled) to 8 bits per color, because our monitors only support 8 bits per color anyway. Working with JPEG is like manipulating on a small web-size photo, compared to a full-resolution source and saving it to a small size afterward.
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