Question about HDR

NeVeR

Hi all,

I'm totally new to the world of photography, I've been on flickr looking at all the amazing photos.

I came across a HDR pool, I've read a little about it on wikipedia,

But i was looking at this image
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elementalpaul/2533360626/in/pool-hdr

My questions is this... Does it look like it's been hand drawn,, it just doesnt look like a photo to me.. I know HDR are built up of a few pictures. Do they do anything else to the pic before they upload it?
here another few that just dont look like normal photos, and i'm not saying they are bad, I love them they look cool.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andres_medina/2532326202/in/pool-hdr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edugallego/2532309598/in/pool-hdr

I love the pics, so many nice ones lol..

Shzm

Look up 'tone mapping'.

Phototoxin

I agree with the OP's hand drawn comment. it doesn't look like a real photo to be honest. (not trying to start a digital vs film fight !)

DaireQuinlan

Phototoxin wrote: »

I agree with the OP's hand drawn comment. it doesn't look like a real photo to be honest. (not trying to start a digital vs film fight !)

In fairness, you could perform the same dreadful butchery on a scanned film image, bad taste is pretty much format-agnostic.

mathias

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/cambridge-gallery.htm

Have a look at the above link for some tasteful( I think anyway ! ) HDR , jacking up the sliders for that psychedelic effect is not my cup of tea at all !

NeVeR

mathias wrote: »

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/cambridge-gallery.htm

Have a look at the above link for some tasteful( I think anyway ! ) HDR , jacking up the sliders for that psychedelic effect is not my cup of tea at all !

Some amazing shots there... really amazing.. i love them.. My friend has a camera that i might take a lend of.. and try something.. I dont think my camera will be able to take pics like this lol.. I've only got a Konica Minolta DiMAGE z1 cost €600 when new,,, saving to get a new one.

RealEstateKing

I always feel a bit ill after seeing HDR pictures, they're so sugary sweet and hyper-real. Why do they always look as if they're CGI ?

DaireQuinlan

RealEstateKing wrote: »

I always feel a bit ill after seeing HDR pictures, they're so sugary sweet and hyper-real. Why do they always look as if they're CGI ?

BAD HDR pictures look like this. There are a couple of people here (Fenster, amcinroy and others) who use HDR to good effect. Look at this one for example (this is a shot from Fenster) :



What's the most crucial thing you notice about this ? The fact that at a casual glance you can't TELL that its HDR ! Its apparent from the fact that you know the windows ought to be blown out if the inside is exposed correctly etc etc, but there's nothing OTT and in your face about the processing.

RealEstateKing

alright, and actually I like some of the Cambridge ones above.

Duchovny

It's about personal taste there is so HDR that doesn't look like photos i personally don't like, and there is the ones that doesn't even look HDR, in the end it's a matter of personal taste...

DaireQuinlan

Duchovny wrote: »

It's about personal taste there is so HDR that doesn't look like photos i personally don't like, and there is the ones that doesn't even look HDR, in the end it's a matter of personal taste...

I guess that depends on whether you ascribe to the notion that photography is completely subjective. I'd opine that the first photograph above has no merit whatsoever, either as a photograph, or as a work of art, or an abstract. I don't understand what would make people do that to their image. Its exactly equivalent in my mind to taking pictures of puppies or kittens and then applying an emboss filter or something equally nonsensical.