hi guys... some awesome pics in here... don't know why I waited this long to check this thread out. I took a few shots yesterday after getting her all cleaned up. Then I learned HDR!!! not that hard to do... I still have a lot of editing to do to clean her up, but the initial result was great already, and I was too tired at 2 am last night :( What you guys think??? Any suggestions for improvement composition-wise or shot-wise?

NON-HDR

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ofDSC_0033.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ofDSC_0058.jpg



HDR's

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...DR1noplate.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...s/REALHDR3.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3.../REALHDR2B.jpg

G2Z -- those are excellent photos.

Thank you onzedge! Yeah I was SO excited to learn HDR yesterday. It's pretty neat. I'm stoked to take more scenic/landscaping shots now too... I'm not as good as you guys on this thread though, but I am slowly learning.

BTW, is that you in your avatar??? :D

^^^What HDR software are you using & how many exposures/shots did you use. The 1st one is good, but the last one is really "noisy". I find that HDR shots look best with night shots or low light shots at dusk/dawn. Too much overexposure when you shoot during hard mid-day sunlight.

Here's a an HDR shot I took a week ago while at my brother in law's lake house in MA. It was kind of an on the spot shot and I didn't have my tripod with me. It came out okay though, but it could def have been better if I were prepared.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1312815253

^ hi Mike... yes, I agree, the first one was best. I believe I had 5 exposures for each of them. The 1st pic was good because I really had good lighting, plus my values were around -2, -1, 0, 1, and 2... which is perfect. The other ones were more closely spaced, and not even :( There was definitely too much noice there. I need to get a remote trigger, because even though securely locked on tripod, pushing the button still initiates a slight shudder.

BTW, I use EASYHDR. It rocks. Photomatix was just ok... and picturenaut was only TIFF.... :(

Use the timer if you don't have a trigger. Skip the wireless remote and go for the wired trigger. Its more responsive and easier to control.

I have been using Photomatix and it does get a little tricky sometimes. It seems like I always need to tweek it in Photoshop afterwards. I tried EasyHDR and found it was easier to get more natural looking HDR images with that program.

^ thanks for pointers man! Yes, I will try to use timer next time, then wired too. Where to buy those? hmmmm

Yeah I love EasyHDR. I think it's easiest to use and for beginner's gives great results. I'm sure Photomatix does it better and has features that Easy can't do... but until I get much better, I will play with EasyHDR first.

btw, your HDR shot above, with NO tripod? Damn dude... you are a GOD. That looks fantastic for no tripod.

mike- awesome shot! :tup: looks mystical. :D

G2Z- looking good. im a little confused on your last shot (and the shot that you're using in your avatar) because the reflection or shadow on your car looks like someone spray painted your car gray. :confused: i first thought it was my screen but then it looks like that on 3 other screens including my droidx and MBP... is it suppose to be like that? :confused:

Ummm, yeah. It has that "I just got paroled" look about it.

Lol, thanks...but I'm far from a pro. I bought my trigger from a local shop, but I also buy most of my gear from B&H. That shot was taken with the sun just about to set and got lucky. I left my tripod at home, so it was either get an okay shot or nothing. I used camera bracketing, set the shutter button to "burst" and had to set the ISO to 800. Even then, with the aperture at f/11 it was tricky to get a consistent shot that would line up in HDR. Also, absolutely nothing wrong with using EasyHDR. I just find Photomatix takes a lot less time to render.

That's the ground reflection. HDR punches out the dark tones, which can sometimes cause unwanted results. Fixable in Photoshop though.

ahh i see. thanks for the explanation.

i wish i had more photoshop drawing/painting skills cause when i want to remove reflections in the door sometimes dont know how to paint it out. :D
small things i can spot brush and remove but not an entire door....

HDR now has me intrigues. I must check it out.

Thanks Ken... yeah... it's the result of the HDR "render". I didn't get a chance to photoshop it yet. Come to think of it, I don't even HAVE photoshop... LOL. I need to use NX2 or something... Yeah, in that first one, like my avatar, if you notice, the door handles are grayish too. It's good learning, so I know how to fix it for next time. But the HDR concept themselves are very interesting. I like it.

HAHA... I like the smug look man. You look like someone just messed with your Z ;)

Go for it! I was reading about it all this time too and I finally tried it out... loved it... and bought the software... lol.... It's something different, if anything.

Double post but i like this shot for some reason : )

http://i367.photobucket.com/albums/o...0/DSC_0322.jpg

^^ Cool, Nitex.

was gonna say that looks like western washington... derp haha

Would you be able to doctor that image in photoshop (I don't have it :() to show me what it "should" look like? After Ken's comment, now it's all I see :( I might try to render it again tonight, so see if I can do something with tone mapping, etc.... to fix it :(

uh oh...



i too wish i knew how to paint in photoshop. this way i can fix some of the door reflections in my shots. :facepalm:

I wouldn't suggest a painting a whole door - at that point your more drawing then photographing. Plus it can be really, really tricky to match multiple direction gradients on something like a curved surface leaning away from you ;)

I think the HDR shots are just overdone - if you toned it down (a lot) and or combined it with a regular image masked, you could just use the HDR DR compression where you need it, not sure the car did.

Can you post the originals, or the one that has the best look for the car?

Here, is this better Ken? LOL

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...ternoplate.jpg

^^^ Sharp photo!

Hi all:tiphat: i've not been in this thread and look how it continues to grow :tup: looks like theres many of us who likes to shoot:happydance:

here's another contribution of mine :

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2636/...ace01ef0_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6027/...013ede37_b.jpg

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6027/...4ae0c613_b.jpg

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5065/...b83ed75e_b.jpg

and last but not least, this one is a bit special to me coz this is my first shot with 3 seconds hand held:tup:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/...063bfc69_b.jpg

no ****, that's 3 seconds hand held!? wtf are you, a sniper!?

no **** lol holy crap

My tripod gives me more camera shake than this guy's hands do

:icon18:

:icon18: yeah sort of:bowrofl::roflpuke2: LOL

Thanks guys:tiphat: well at that time i didn't bring any tripod with me so i got no choice but to hold it my my self:tup: im pretty suprised with it my self:happydance:

nice shots indeed... I like the sniper comment. Did you seriously hold it free-hand? Or did you rest it on something, say you sitting down, on your knee, etc.... Because if totally free-hand, that is indeed impressive. Damn.

I also like the chicken shot.

******* this.

If that is seriously handheld the military needs you.

Yea, no ****. I am pretty sure he stopped his heartbeat for that one. :tup:

Beautiful shots...

interesting thread, a learner here as well :)

LOL... he feigned death for 3 seconds, then resurrected to snap the pic.

Much better.

I hope you don't mind. I was playing around with your pic's.

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1313076788

^ that looks EVEN better! What/how did you do?

All done in Photoshop. The older one rendered the background better so I used that with the newer one which rendered the car better. Applied a slight lens blur to the background & soft light to darken it a bit. Also adjusted the levels and curves. For the car I air brushed a soft light layer to the underexposed/overexposed areas. The wheels/tires were a bit overexposed and the body was a bit underexposed. I also cleaned up the artifact on the asphalt with the clone tool and adjusted the brightness/contrast.

G2Z- yep, much better! :tup:


:iagree: ... *kenchan hides under desk*...

(off topic, and thus spoiler'd)

holy moly CMike.... I think the only part I understood there was the levels and curves which I have done in NX2. I think EasyHDR has that too. I should utilize that as well. Thank you for all the work on that. I might have to send you the hi rez version so you can tweak and resend back to me :)