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Shooting HDR...halp?

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The.Man
Posts: 212 - Karma: 249
Okay, so I've recently decided that while I'm at the beach I wanna shoot some HDRs. I have a D7000 and basically know how to use the bracketing burst feature....but I have some other questions.

Software. What do you recommend using? Has to be free. I can torrent if you have a link that you have personally used, I'm on a mac and quite paranoid.

And finally, what is your method of shooting? Do you do 3 exposures 1 stop apart? or 5, or what? Sorry, total noob here.

+k for help!
Jul 30 2011 7:21PM
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TWoods
Posts: 10014 - Karma: 8,386
do you have photoshop?
Jul 30 2011 7:34PM
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The.Man
Posts: 212 - Karma: 249
No photoshop
Jul 30 2011 7:35PM
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Shredability
Posts: 2756 - Karma: 501
I use photomatix pro, just torrent it.

When your auto bracketing just ask yourself what you dynamic range is missing, if you sky is totally blown out, try 1+-, then if each frame is what you want you should be good, if parts of your +1 frame is still blow out, turn it to +1.5, if parts of your -1 frame is under exposed turn it to -1.5.

Make sure when your post processing is really light, remember that point of HDR is to get the correct exposure for each part of the frame (foreground, subject, and background)
Jul 30 2011 7:36PM
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Shredability
Posts: 2756 - Karma: 501
Get it
Jul 30 2011 7:37PM
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The.Man
Posts: 212 - Karma: 249
torrent link by any chance? But thanks. I've been using the bracketing burst on my camera, should i do it manually instead?
Jul 30 2011 7:37PM
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Shredability
Posts: 2756 - Karma: 501
nope, burst works fine, if you have a tripod you might wanna try manually
Jul 30 2011 8:01PM
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alexat955
Posts: 2732 - Karma: 112
Get Photoshop. I'll link you to the torrent I used when I get on my computer
Jul 30 2011 8:35PM
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pr4l
Posts: 348 - Karma: 56
just search piratebay.com, i would link you to where i got photoshop but im on a PC.
Aug 2 2011 1:28PM
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alexat955
Posts: 2732 - Karma: 112
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/6114465/Photoshop_CS5_MAC_OSX
Aug 2 2011 10:05PM
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Chunter
Posts: 2050 - Karma: 1,894
Honestly it is really hard to make HDR look right, even with software like Photomatix or DP-HDR (which I have tried also). If your going to shoot HDR, try and keep it simple. Dark, moody clouds and highlights all over the place only look cool for so long.


This to me is about as good as a HDR can get. Strive for this.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/big_pixel_pusher/3649157437/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Aug 3 2011 4:39AM
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Ben.
Posts: 21463 - Karma: 683
Ew. That was awful, it was wayyyy too drastic.

HDR should be incredibly subtle (actually it just shouldnt be done, but if it must...)
Aug 3 2011 10:58AM
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
thats not even true HDR as that was obviously taken from 1 RAW image.
Aug 3 2011 1:23PM
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iLLbiLLy
Posts: 2865 - Karma: 2,631
this is probably the best HDR image I've shot. I used photomatix 3 pro.
Click for larger image
Aug 3 2011 1:26PM
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