The Curse of HDR

[McGunnigle]

Some people like the over the top look. Depending on the subject, it can often work well on the final image.

agreed... at times it is a cool effect. I typically make about 1 in every 10 over the top.

 

[StinkyD]

Put me in the camp that doesn't mind the occasional over the top processing. Personally I think Vegas shots would be the ones to over-do. Unfortunately it seems to be 90/10% not 10/90!

I've been wanting to play with Photomatix but wasn't sure if I could get the "what my eye sees" look very easily as opposed to the super saturated look. I don't have Photoshop and just use Lightroom to make small adjustments. I guess I should just get the Photomatix trial version, give it a try and post to this thread and see if anyone pukes :biggrin:.

 

[twinturboteddy]

Good god. Every landscape picture is HDR now in flickr.

Mind you HDR belongs to landscape shots, but still!

 

[ArtScott]

this is the type of HDR that i like: http://www.lonelywolf.pl/

unfortunately, for every photographer who's doing it "right" there's a thousand of people who do it "wrong". I've only done HDR a few times, but I'm only happy with one result, because it doesn't look like sugar coated plastic.

++1 agree totally

 

[fiveoboy01]

I don't see the issue, if many people like to apply the over-saturated look to their HDR photos, who is anyone else to complain about it?

What a person thinks about a photograph is entirely subjective, one guy might hate it but another might really like that look. I just don't necessarily think there is a "right" or a "wrong"... I think it's just another facet of photography... If someone sees an over-done image and wants to do that, well hey didn't we manage to just get another person into photography?

 

[Tom Larsen]

I like HDR when done with restraint, but that is rarely exercised. The secondary problem is that many seem to think HDR is the cure all for an otherwise average or mediocre photo. Garbage in garbage out, and cranking it past eleven only makes it worse.

 

[yellovrs]

I see HDR as a bridge between traditional Photographic art work, painting art work, and when it is overdone then Japanese Manga art work, Nothing wrong with any of it if it is to the creators taste.

 

[alemmo]

I have never been much of a fan of HDR either, but i figured i would try a few recently... this first one is my ode to Ken Rockwell lol , the rest are much more subtle you can find them at: http://www.lemmophoto.com/p969815710

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[twinturboteddy]

I don't see the issue, if many people like to apply the over-saturated look to their HDR photos, who is anyone else to complain about it?

What a person thinks about a photograph is entirely subjective, one guy might hate it but another might really like that look. I just don't necessarily think there is a "right" or a "wrong"... I think it's just another facet of photography... If someone sees an over-done image and wants to do that, well hey didn't we manage to just get another person into photography?

Nope, I don't think of it as another person we got into photography. HDR fiends tend to be the fanatics of the moment. They are in the same group of people to me as the yahoo's that pickup expensive, "it" cars and show up to a track event and expect the experienced racers to be in awe of them.

 

[Rob T]

this is the type of HDR that i like: http://www.lonelywolf.pl/

unfortunately, for every photographer who's doing it "right" there's a thousand of people who do it "wrong". I've only done HDR a few times, but I'm only happy with one result, because it doesn't look like sugar coated plastic.

I think B&W images definitely lend themselves more to HDR than color, for the obvious reason that you don't have to contend with the over-saturated colors that make so many color HDR images look so unnatural.

 

[e_No]

I actually love doing HDR so that unless I tell, the viewer has no idea that I used the technique. Here's a sample, a 4 vertical frame HDR panorama I put together this weekend. HDR really let me get a lot of detail out of the shadows in the upper right and in the burned trunk in the foreground without making the shot look over-cooked or noisy -- the latter was the result I got when I stitched the 4 LDR images and pushed the shadows out in PP. If you like this, you should see the full res image, which I will soon print larrrge

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[twinturboteddy]

I actually love doing HDR so that unless I tell, the viewer has no idea that I used the technique. Here's a sample, a 4 vertical frame HDR panorama I put together this weekend. HDR really let me get a lot of detail out of the shadows in the upper right and in the burned trunk in the foreground without making the shot look unatural or noisy -- the latter was the result I got when I stitched the 4 LDR images and pushed the shadows out in PP. If you like this, you should see the full res image, which I will soon print larrrge

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

I can tell. =D

But it still is a good image.

 

[e_No]

I can tell. =D

But it still is a good image.

Is it the sky that give it away? I've been thinking about going back, masking it out and using the sky from the dark (-1 stop exposure), but that is a lot of work.

 

[Vernon t]

Oh, you guys and girls.......
I like HDR when done "right"....whatever that means.

Below is am 1888 HDR image!
It was probably hated at the time by a lot of critics.

Gauguin's Swineherd to be specific.

HRD is art, pure and simple.
I'm pretty sure that when Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin painted this there were a great number of quite terrible postimpressionists around....and a few that were great.

Time will tell.

Bad art is a lot easier to produce than good art.
HDR will find it's place in good hands.

I hate a lot of the HDR images I view, just like I hate a lot of non-HDR photos here and everywhere else.

Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

 

[NYracefan]

When photography started going digital, how many photographers out there cursed digital, saying it was too easy to get good shots or improve them on the PC, like they are not really good photographers at all. Now we have digital photographers cursing HDR, saying the same things the film guys used to say.

What will be next craze in photography that people will not like?

 

[LB Jefferies]

Now I like HDR images.

I do not like auto tone mapped click this button and you're done HDR images. (photomatix, etc.)

Y'all's mileage may vary. :wink:

 

[Julien]

When photography started going digital, how many photographers out there cursed digital, saying it was too easy to get good shots or improve them on the PC, like they are not really good photographers at all. Now we have digital photographers cursing HDR, saying the same things the film guys used to say.

What will be next craze in photography that people will not like?

Personaly if I don't like HDR it's not because it's easy to get good shots or improve them on the pc, it's just that I find it ugly and particularly distasteful. Plain and simple.

 

[mrluilou]

the worst part is that the people who do those atrocious hdr pictures get a million faves

 

[RossoGTV]

I really don't have a problem with any form of HDR. Personally, I don't like the image posted earlier of the street scene with the balloon but, it is still a valid image and created by the artist to how he wanted it to look.

In the same vein as the Gaugin above, impressionism was hated by some when it became popular. After a while things settled down and there was room for everything. In other words, we're in a transitory stage; just like with selective colour of a few years ago which has itself started to go out of fashion.

If an image isn't liked, move on to the next.

 

[e_No]

Personaly if I don't like HDR it's not because it's easy to get good shots or improve them on the pc, it's just that I find it ugly and particularly distasteful. Plain and simple.

You obviously haven't seen HDR done right, namely, just for the purpose of increasing dynamic range and shadow detail -- as opposed to making impressionistic cartoons.

At the risk of over-tootin' my own horn, here's a recent favorite of mine (click on the thumbnail to get the larger size image):