DSLR Shots and Discussions

Pintsize725

I love nature photography until......

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Tracie

jpkirk

So yea, that's crazy. Jus' hangin' wit' duh bears.

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kenchan

lol...

Pintsize725

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Tracie

Pintsize725

Badly HDR'd and probably crooked. I need a new laptop for editing as it didn't appear that saturated when I was editing. Shrug.

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Tracie

Pintsize725

Those of you who dabble with HDR, what software do you use? I bought Photomatix Essentials but it's way too basic to get the kind of pictures I want. I'm not so sure the Pro version would help me any more than their basic.

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Tracie

6spd

It really depends on the "kind" of look you want to achieve. I've used multiple programs over the last 7-8 years, and I don't use any of them now. Many leave artifacts behind that hinder image quality and also scream "HEY IVE BEEN HDR'ed!!" such as haloing and unrealistic colors.

If you shoot RAW, using Adobe Camera RAW gives you crazy levels of modification and also the glamorous Clarity slider, which IMO will render better results than any HDR program. Yes it can be time consuming to manually try and do what HDR programs do, but the payoff is better. As a professional photographer, I couldn't possible put out work that has Haloing, color issues, JPEG artifacting, noise, etc caused by HDR programs.

The industry secret to HDR = Dodge and Burn

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-Jay- jonathanjamesphotographer.com

jpkirk

Or layering your own. (I have never really liked the auto HDR tools) Then use PS layering tools to bring in the detail for how you visualized the shot. Great shots usually have great amounts of work behind them.

I have not used CS6 HDR tools yet though.

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6spd

I dont think anything changed in CS6, but IDK. You can layer your own exposures, but you still have a lot of work from there to achieve true dynamic range. FYI, if you look on youtube for tutorials, some are 30-40-50 minutes long and those are with pro's doing the work. One HDR shot could take 2-3-4 hours easy.

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jpkirk

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HKYStormFront

That's one reason I avoid HDR like the plague^ I'm a big fan of K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid). Get as much as you can done in the camera and you avoid hours of work, per image, after. Sometimes that's just unavoidable, however. It's all in how you shoot and the subject. Guess the intended result is part of the equation as well. If you want it to look like a painting, HDR is the way to go. If you want it to look more realistic, you can usually get what you want in one RAW exposure.

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MadChemist

Could go for some advice on DSLR lens. Almost all of my photography that I do it at night, when I have free time. I really would like to do a little bit of astrophotography. I saw that canon released a new lens today, 10-18mm, but the downside is the F stop ,4.5-5.6. Anyone have experience with the Tokina 11-18mm f/2.8? I am thinking of pulling the trigger in a day or so.

Titan1080

The key to getting good astro shots IMO depends far more on having a dark sky than on your lens. A sturdy tripod and a remote trigger (wired or not) can get you great shots with just a kit lens if you can get as far away from city lights as possible. If you're keen on getting something though, I've been using a 28mm f/1.8 lens and that extra bit of aperture does add some flexibility, but can be spendy:



Admittedly, I did not use my kit lens to take the shot above but I very easily could have since I was way out in the sticks with effectively zero light pollution. Pic info: ISO800, f/1.8, 10 sec exposure on a crop sensor Nikon D5000. I was experimenting with how much I could get with such a short exposure, normally I'd run around f/2.8-3.5 for 20-30 seconds since the stars will be more pin-pointy after longer exposures than if the aperture is wide open, based on similar lenses I used back when I shot 35mm film, that Tokina lens should get you what you're after if it's got good glass. With an 11-18mm range, you can probably go as high as a minute at 11mm before the stars start to trail noticeably.

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6spd

Why the hang up with the F stop? If you're shooting with a tripod its just a marginally slower shutter speed? Can you be more specific about what you like to shoot at night?

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jpkirk

The upside of the slightly slower lens is that it will very likely be lighter. If you ever intend to walk around with it, could be a factor.

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