HDR? Yes/No?

[PhotoDave219]

So do you make HDR composite photos? If so, what's your software of choice?

 

[mkt]

Yes.... I've used Photoshop, but I'm not a fan of the results, so I switched to Photomatix... until I just stopped liking it. Now I'm using Dynamic Photo HDR, and I'm much happier with the results. It gives me a much greater degree of control over the final product.

 

[WDWFigment]

Yes.... I've used Photoshop, but I'm not a fan of the results, so I switched to Photomatix... until I just stopped liking it. Now I'm using Dynamic Photo HDR, and I'm much happier with the results. It gives me a much greater degree of control over the final product.

I've used all three. I think Dynamic Photo HDR is the best for tone mapping; Photoshop is the best for auto aligning the subjects (if shot handheld); Photomatix is the best for...costing the most?

I don't really care for tone mapping anymore, so I just use Photoshop now. I mostly use HDR to squeeze a little more dynamic range into an image--to make it look more like what our eyes would see in a scene.

 

[RiversideBunny]

I like the look of HDR, High Dynamic Resolution.
However I have never tried it.
I have a Canon EOS 50D with good lenses.

Is it possible to get an HDR shot of anything but still landscapes?
It seems that a moving subject would not work for HDR.

For those who are wondering, HDR is the ability to get both the highlights (brighter areas of a scene) and the shadowy areas to show up. Normally you have to compromise between the two.
The human eye can see both bright and shadow areas at the same time but a camera has some trouble.
With HDR, you take about 3 shots of the same scene using varying exposure levels, up and down, and combine those using software.
To get such shots correctly usually means using a tripod. All the individual shots have to match up.

 

[mkt]

Is it possible to get an HDR shot of anything but still landscapes?
It seems that a moving subject would not work for HDR.

It wouldn't be true HDR. You could do a tonemap from a single RAW file that would be pretty convincing if done correctly. It would require more work though.

 

[E P C O T]

Not keen but I have used it to see what happened. Takes a lot of time and effort to produce a half decent result. I prefer the highlight shadow tool.

 

[CoryonFire]

I've used both Photomatix and Photoshop for HDR stuff. Had more success in Photomatix, but still have to do a fair amount of work in Photoshop after tone mapping in Photomatix to make the image work.