Looking for a good HDR tutorial

I'm looking for a good HDR tutorial that will work well with the e520.

Since the exposure bracketing on the e520 sucks for HDR, what is the best techniq for changing the ev without touching the camera? Is there some kind of hacked firmware that will allow larger EV steps?

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Originally Posted by Justintoxicated

I'm looking for a good HDR tutorial that will work well with the e520.

Since the exposure bracketing on the e520 sucks for HDR, what is the best techniq for changing the ev without touching the camera? Is there some kind of hacked firmware that will allow larger EV steps?

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Hey - thanks for the reminder. I've got an article from one of our members on making HDR images. I just have to get it put together. The soonest it will be up is tomorrow. But I keep forgetting about it and this will help me get it done.

So what's wrong with the exposure bracketing on the E-520? Do you want to bracket more than three shots? And is there any reason you can't put it on a tripod and bracket manually?

I only know my D80 will only bracket 3 shots and I do it manually on a tripod...very carefully.

3 shots is enough, but the EV step is not. Unless theres some special way to get it to go more than 1 EV stop at a time. From the tutorials I have read a stop of about 3 is needed most of the time.

It would be nice if our cameras could do like 3 or more EVsteps that way you can set it whereever you want without even using a tripod, set it for 2 second timer, click the button once, and get all the shots you need... The EV step of one or less is good for regular photos but why do they limit us so bad? Is there a way we can crack the firmware and change this?

HDR is still a very new thing and probably has a very limited number of users in the big picture. It's not likely it's something camera designers are really worried about right now. I just checked the Canon 40D and it will do two stop bracketing. I also checked the E-3 and it will bracket 5 shots, but still only in 1 stop increments.

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

HDR is still a very new thing and probably has a very limited number of users in the big picture. It's not likely it's something camera designers are really worried about right now. I just checked the Canon 40D and it will do two stop bracketing. I also checked the E-3 and it will bracket 5 shots, but still only in 1 stop increments.

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Dang well the tutorial I read said to use the bracketing which is found on most cameras, but what good is 1 stop bracketing for HDR? Or is that all you really need. The tutorial seemed to contradict itself somewhat.

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Originally Posted by Justintoxicated

Dang well the tutorial I read said to use the bracketing which is found on most cameras, but what good is 1 stop bracketing for HDR? Or is that all you really need. The tutorial seemed to contradict itself somewhat.

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It probably meant bracketing three shots, not three stops. I would think that three stops for each image would be too much. However, I have made few attempts at HDR and so far they all sucked. So what do I know? :rolleyes:

I think three stops is to much. I have only done a few and three shots one stop apart would work I would think.

wait wait wait.... theres a way to make the camera take more than one shot at a time, with different metering?

what I did was put the camera on a tripod, use Aperture priority, and took 3-5 shots with different EV [EV is the +/- number right?]
then let photoshop do the rest

The only time I have attempted it I set up on a tripod and then adjusted the Aperture starting with the exposure I wanted and then I went up 3 shots, one stop each, and then down 3 shots one stop each. This allowed for 2 things. It increased the DOF and allowed me adjustability there as well as the full dynamic range of colours. I think they turned out ok ... but it's like asking your mom if you are a good singer.. she'll always say yes =)

I use aperture priority or manual, set up on tripod, leave the aperture alone and push/pull shutter speed. Probably would be a good idea to meter off the different areas and use those meter readings to do the adjustments on each exposure.
I wouldn't use different apertures becasue then each exposure would have different dofs.

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Originally Posted by Atomic2

wait wait wait.... theres a way to make the camera take more than one shot at a time, with different metering?

what I did was put the camera on a tripod, use Aperture priority, and took 3-5 shots with different EV [EV is the +/- number right?]
then let photoshop do the rest

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Are you hinting that using the bracketing does not work anyways because you need to change the metering as well?

I mostly leave my metering on auto most of the time, I'd like to hear an example of a shot where you need to change metering so I can better understand how to incorperate metering into HDR photography. I think it would help but I can wait for the tutorial as well. I'm heading to the beach in San Diego this weekend for Mom's B-day party and would like to try some HDR shots.

Im sorry, Im bad with terminology, Ive only been at this for a short while. I know what all the buttons do, and how to control them, but Im not really sure how to go about explaining it.

so what Ive gathered [and done] was put it into Ap priority, set the ap to a relatively small size to get everything in focus, and then take 3-5 photos. is EV the plus and minus number that you adjust with the secondary button and wheel? the EV tells the camera how much you want to over or under expose right? relative to where the camera is metering.
so I take the 3-5 photos with different levels of EV? or am i thinking of compensation?
im more confused then ever

"HDR is still a very new thing ..." - Photo John.

I dispute this comment. I have been doing HDR imagery for the last 35 years. 35 years! I am far, by many decades, from being the first exponent of an HDR image.

Consciously and correctly exposing film to record the maximum brightness range possible within a (given) film's exposure latitude, then processing the film to an optimum contrast index, then printing on paper by flashing, to kick off an exposue toe, which is considered as 0.1D above base plus fog, (on what ever grade of paper) consistent with measurable highlight detail, then printing the negative normally, after flashing, to render adequate mid tones and adequate shadow detail ... that is an HDR! Transparencies boringly display HDR.

I have embraced HDR s for the last 35 years as I've said. HDR imagery has been around since the onset of the photographic image ... and still no process to date has usurped the Degeurrotype in recording a high dynamic range. There are not even monitors readilly available today, that can render a high dynamic range image ... so we truly, we do not know what a digital HDR is.

Producing a true HDR image is not within the realm of digital photography, and certainly not rendered within only "3 exposures" that was stated above, that many novice photographers think is achievable. It is digital photography that can not record extended brightness ranges faithfully. The recordings that are common place for film are basically all HDRs. It is digital recording that truly needs to employ the recent HDR programmes and tone mapping techniques, to be not so lame in their CI/BR, as a recording medium.

If anyone wants to discuss the mathematics of recording and displaying the properties of light, employed within sensitometry and densitometry to realize a high dynamic range image ... I'm more than happy.

Warren.

PS, the hottest HDRs I've seen use about 13 exposures. Personally I like between 5 to 8 exposures or even more, depending on the brightnes range of the light.

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Originally Posted by Atomic2

Im sorry, Im bad with terminology, Ive only been at this for a short while. I know what all the buttons do, and how to control them, but Im not really sure how to go about explaining it.

so what Ive gathered [and done] was put it into Ap priority, set the ap to a relatively small size to get everything in focus, and then take 3-5 photos. is EV the plus and minus number that you adjust with the secondary button and wheel? the EV tells the camera how much you want to over or under expose right? relative to where the camera is metering.
so I take the 3-5 photos with different levels of EV? or am i thinking of compensation?
im more confused then ever

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Well thats what I was thinking, but I was not sure about how to set the metering for each shot.

Wow 13 shots? I guess I'm really only looking to do HDR shots that look great on current monitors that are readily available. I do understand that it will be some time before real HDR monitors are released cheaply if ever...I'm really jsut looking to do the regular run of the mill HDR shots you see all over the net. Do I still need to take 10+ shots? If instead I only want to shoot 3-5 shots how many ev steps apart should I be shooting??

Do I need to adjust the metering as well?

well I got photomatix, and took some test shots this morning no tripod on my way out to the car to get to work. I believe there were 2 stops apart hand held, no tripod and is the first attempt at a real HDR image.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3004/...b3601b5d0a.jpg

Here is a fake HDR Image, single picture that I made 5 different exposures from in lightroom then HDRed the pics back together, notice some areas are still blown out and I didn't spend time adjusting the colors but I think it is still a cool effect, esp compared to the original image.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3293/...ea2ace795e.jpg
it seemed to make the sky darker blue, and brought detail out in the paint and tires. its not real HDR and is only a 16 bit image

And here is another Fake HDR, that I used some filters on in lightroom. It thougth it was still pretty cool. My friend took a decent picture of me with my camera, It's good to have a friend with an olympus SLR so they know how to use it :)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3117/...91ae377aa9.jpg

Mostly these were just for fun and testing but feel free to critique these images anyways.

If Olympus could change teh firmware and allow for 2 stop EV bracketing I could do all sorts of handheld HDR's even with people in them...Why they max it at one I will never know.

John how is the tutorial coming along?

I have been playing, and found that even single shot images can gain dynamic range and really make the photos stand out. Maybe some people don't like the look but this shot certainly has more detail than before I ran it through the photomatix beta 3.1. Took this shot with my 50mm prime lens.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3160/...8fc1f86d_b.jpg

Still learning here but I think I'm getting the idea. There does not seem to be a magic 1 or 2 stop setting, it varies greatly depending on what your shooting and what is getting blow out in the shot. In this shot mostly the clouds and landing gear were blown out. And there is some purple haze artifact around the landing gear (I don't know where it came from) I might run it through the software again tomorrow and allow photomatix to guess the exposure levels vs what I selected in lightroom.

The purple was artifact of the photomatix beta,
Process was as follows.

Take shot, adjust levels in lightroom.

Save image as DNG
Decrease one exposure, Save as DNG Photopro Color profile
Increase one exposure from my selected normal value, Save as DNG
Increase another exposure, Save as DNG

Go into photomatix and generate HDR image using DNGs.
Adjust Tone Mapping as desired.
Saved it as a 16 bit TIFF (beta does not seem to allow 32 bit, or maybe it's just my single shot process that messes it up)
Brought back into lightroom and made adjustments (Auto Tone, Adjusted Colors Temp and Tint) Sky was purpleish in one area.
Export as Tiff,

brought it into photoshop, made a clone of the first layer, and cleaned up the noise with Noise Ninja, masked out the plane to preserve detail. This was the result after saving with SRGB color profile 8-bit jpeg for the net.

Thats all well and good when things that are blown out are clouds, but when things that require detail are blown out, theres really not much you can do about it.

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Originally Posted by Atomic2

Thats all well and good when things that are blown out are clouds, but when things that require detail are blown out, theres really not much you can do about it.

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Right, but I'm just playing with the software for now, selecting pics that might be suitable for this process since I have not had the time to take my tripod and get some real HDR shots of anything worth while. You still get a good idea of what to look for when taking pics, but for beginning I will just do a crazy variety of stops. and merge several images. The software is slow at work with only a dual core and 3 GB ram, but my new PC at home overclocked quad core @ 3200mhz x4 with 8GB ram and 64 bit OS eats it for breakfast. Its still totaly workable at the office, but photoshop CS3 tends to crash on me as well at photomatix 3.0 (hence why I am using the beta)...

Here's a link to a podcast by one of the better photography teachers I have had the experience of listning to, Tony sweet. I haven't had to time to sit and go through it yet but one of my friends tells me it has a lot of excellent information contained within.

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=7Xx...H53nlib2RGaU1Q

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Originally Posted by Jaedon

Here's a link to a podcast by one of the better photography teachers I have had the experience of listning to, Tony sweet. I haven't had to time to sit and go through it yet but one of my friends tells me it has a lot of excellent information contained within.

http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=7Xx...H53nlib2RGaU1Q

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Bummer I get a page cannot be displayed error when I click the link for the video.
edit: N/M have ti right click it save as...

So he also does 2 under 2 over, and more inbetween. I wish olumpus would allow us to do better auto bracketing, surely this could be corrected via firmware?
With 2 over 2 under and one neutral on auto you could get better results hand held on rapid fire...

I don't understand why people are messing about with exposure compensation when changing shutter speed is easier and at least as effective.
I think the number of shots needed depends on the range of the scene being shot.
You can get something without a tripod and ok to see what you get but you won't get something good.

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Originally Posted by Frog

I don't understand why people are messing about with exposure compensation when changing shutter speed is easier and at least as effective.
I think the number of shots needed depends on the range of the scene being shot.
You can get something without a tripod and ok to see what you get but you won't get something good.

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You must be refering to my house shot, or other crappy pics above (although I do like the airplane cause you can't use a tripod for this type of shot anyways) :P
I would think that with a pretty steady hand and good lighting you could pull off HDR shots fine with 2 stop exposure bracketing (5 brackets would be e3ven easier when using a tripod). I dont see why changing shutter speed wouldn't work either I think think its more of a guess until you get more familiar with the camera, and could possibly lead to allowing more stuff to move around in say, a light breeze or water motion. Also my camera does not bracket shutter speeds only aperature.