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I’m just getting started at HDR photography – which I’m finding out is pretty involved! lol! 🙂
So, I’m going to ask a difficult question – How do you edit your HDRs to look realistic? I love the idea behind HDRs – actually being able to properly expose for beautiful sunsets, sunrises etc and the foreground elements, too. But, the thing I don’t like about HDRs is that often they look very unrealistic. But all don’t, some look really amazing! So, I’m wondering how folks go about editing to make them actually look realistic?I think the key is in the shooting- I do not really use a set number of exposures, but rather use the live view histogram, and starting from the right (Light)side, shooting overlapping exposures by adjusting iso or shutter speed. You don’t want to use your aperture for this because it will mess up your depth of field. I find that a well taken and blended HDR needs little editing, because you don’t need to try and draw as much detail out of highlights or shadows.
You know, @creative-click-photography, this is something I would have to do a little more research on. Perhaps we could do a coaching call about it? For starters, I would learn what you can from Jimmy McIntyre’s free videos (I can’t remember seeing anything inappropriate on his website or YouTube channel) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnUOWBfHNpdQjhTPSd3-0cw, and of course, there are his structured courses, https://www.shutterevolve.com/hdr-photomatix-tutorial/ (which I have never personally reviewed, but have reason to believe are very, very good!)
Thanks for that, @josiahw! That’s an interesting thought about the editing side of things – I hadn’t thought about it from that perspective before!
this is something I would have to do a little more research on.
Sure thing, @jamesstaddon.
Perhaps we could do a coaching call about it?
That would be helpful as I know totally nothing about editing HDRs! I can’t really say that I have direct questions about it, because I don’t know about it, if that makes sense. Would you recommend me learning as much as I can from Jimmy McIntyre’s free videos before we did that?
Would you recommend me learning as much as I can from Jimmy McIntyre’s free videos before we did that?
Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!
Ok. Sounds like I’ve got some video watching to do. 😉 After I’ve watched them I guess I should let you know and we’ll go from there?
Righto! So, I’ve watched 9 or so of Jimmy McIntyre’s videos now (some of them twice!). I feel like I understand more about HDR/Exposure Blending photography and post processing. But, while I know more about it, it still doesn’t make entire sense to me and I have lots more questions! 🙂 I ended up going online and downloading some sample images that people can practise blending with, as I haven’t had a chance to actually go into the field and try shooting more HDR images since my last attempt. But, I couldn’t really get the blending to work (I must be doing something wrong. lol). I managed to get it to kinda work on one of my (many) attempts, but I couldn’t explain what I did. I think part of the confusion is that I haven’t used Photoshop a lot and don’t understand about layers and masks very well. (Lightroom is my baby! 😉 And there’s still a lot I don’t know about that!) So, are you still open to doing a coaching call sometime? There’s no rush or anything – if you’re too busy or need to research it more that’s totally no problems. Just let me know where you think it’d be good to go from here!
Let’s do this, @creative-click-photography! I think if you share your screen and show me some of the stuff you’ve tried, I’d be more likely to be able to pinpoint the missing links, and then if I share my screen it would be easier to show you how to do the things in Photoshop.
Will you be available at any of the dates at https://www.lenspiration.com/product/personal-consulting/? Since you’re in Australia, I’ll obviously need to change the time than what’s listed there. 🙂 Would 7pm or 8pm work better for you on any of those dates?
Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, @jamesstaddon! We were away for a few days and then we’ve a bit been busy. . . So, I’ve had a look at the dates and October 18th (actually 19th for me!) works – Does that work for you? In regards to working out the time difference! (worldtimebuddy to the rescue! 😉 ) We’ve just started Daylight savings, so I believe that 7pm your time is 10am my time – which works! Does daylight savings end in November in the US? Just want to make sure your time doesn’t change between now and then otherwise we’ll be working on different times. lol
I think if you share your screen and show me some of the stuff you’ve tried, I’d be more likely to be able to pinpoint the missing links, and then if I share my screen it would be easier to show you how to do the things in Photoshop.
Sounds good! Silly me didn’t save the HDR merging failure, so now I don’t know what I did wrong. I’ll give it another go before then and save that. So are you going to be showing me the Exposure Blending method in Photoshop that Jimmy McIntyre uses? That’s what I was playing around with.
I don’t really know anyone to talk the ‘technical’ side of photography with, so this’ll be fun. 🙂
@jamesstaddon, I forgot to ask, do I need to do anything else?
Looking forward to it!
Ok, this is fantastic! Nope, Daylight Savings Time doesn’t end until November 4, so there shouldn’t be a problem there. I had something tentatively planned at around 7pm Thursday, October 18, so let me make sure I can re-schedule that affirmatively and will get back with you to confirm I can be free! I’m glad you hadn’t booked anything yet. 🙂
If you can give the HDR merge a try again, that would be great! The main thing I think will be to step through that together. Could you send me the original files that you are attempting to merge? You can use this Coaching File Request link. Yes, the Photoshop Exposure Blending method, and maybe some others.
Feel free to have any other questions ready in case we have extra time!
Sure, I’ll send you the RAW files soon. It’ll be great to step through it together – then you can show me all the steps I’m missing as I really have know idea what I’m doing. Lol 🙂
Please don’t feel like you have to change your plans around just for me if that day suits the other person. We can reschedule to do it some other time.
Feel free to have any other questions ready in case we have extra time!
🙂 Well…I have a list of questions in regards to the HDR merge and then if we have time, some other questions too.
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