HDR in Chasing

[Derek Mohr]

I've been putting some thought into trying out HDR (high dynamic range) in storm chasing, unfortunately that means also looking into a new camera. But, I'm sure some of you have done bracketing and photomerging and I was curious to know how that works when on the chase. Mainly I guess I'm asking to see some HDR pics and see if it's worth trying out next spring.

 

[James Langford]

There was a thread on this sometime back you might lookup. We had a pretty in depth discussion of HDR.

Personally, I've started to shoot with tone mapped HDR images in mind most of the time now. I either shoot with bracketted exposures (-1/0/+1 or -2/0/+2), or I use a single RAW file to pull a stop out in either direction.

I only have 1 storm shot using HDR, but I think it came out with great results:

Canon 30D with Canon 20mm prime lens. F16 and 1/60 second with -1/0/+1 bracketted exposures for each of a 6 frame pano.

I think HDR is going to work pretty well in some storm images, such as where you have a large variance in range of lighting.

Good luck,

James

 

[Brandon Goforth]

I recently tried experimenting with HDR in landscape photography and I just can't get it right. I did the whole -1/0/+1 bracketed exposure thing, but when I merged them, they came out looking hazy and weird...just plain bad.

 

[Derek Mohr]

I recently tried experimenting with HDR in landscape photography and I just can't get it right. I did the whole -1/0/+1 bracketed exposure thing, but when I merged them, they came out looking hazy and weird...just plain bad.

see thats what i was worried about...might not be enough light or color most of the time to make a great shot

 

[Andrea Griffa]

As regards my opinion I have to admitt that it could be a very pleasant thing: but not simple to do with tornadoes, especially if those are moving fast and if sky conditions are very dark.

 

[Thomas Dolmer]

One also has to be really carefull in the post editing (the tone mapping), otherwise the photo will look unnatural.
In severe weather the movements of the clouds and the grass etc. makes it almost impossible to get good results if you capture 3 photos (-1,0,+1).
Instead i produce 3 versions in my RAW-converter and use them in the HDR application.
I'm still practicing.. The photo below are produced with this technique

 

[Andrea Griffa]

One also has to be really carefull in the post editing (the tone mapping), otherwise the photo will look unnatural.
In severe weather the movements of the clouds and the grass etc. makes it almost impossible to get good results if you capture 3 photos (-1,0,+1).
Instead i produce 3 versions in my RAW-converter and use them in the HDR application.
I'm still practicing.. The photo below are produced with this technique

Thomas, this picture is somewhat natural: I like this application of the HDR technique compared with the "artistic" one (that I like anyway).
The rule, as you said, is to be very careful with tone mapping, if you want a "normal" looking result.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

HDR is ok depending what your goals are (keep in mine a significant part of photography is the artistry - everyone has their own taste!). Even James' nice capture shows signs of haloing (look just above the tree line). If you shoot raw, you can do a poor-man's HDR from one exposure. I'll process the raw at +/- 1 plus the original, then use HDR to slightly increase the dynamic range. In this case, the result isn't much different than if I combined two exposures in PS and masked/dodge/burned certain areas.

 

[James Langford]

HDR is ok depending what your goals are (keep in mine a significant part of photography is the artistry - everyone has their own taste!). Even James' nice capture shows signs of haloing (look just above the tree line). If you shoot raw, you can do a poor-man's HDR from one exposure. I'll process the raw at +/- 1 plus the original, then use HDR to slightly increase the dynamic range. In this case, the result isn't much different than if I combined two exposures in PS and masked/dodge/burned certain areas.

Good call on the haloing. That is one of the side effects of pushing them image using Photomatix.

I also do the poor man's HDR quite a bit, and it can give great results, as you say. I'm not too good at masking in Photoshop, so I tend to run them through Photomatix with a small amount of tone mapping. The biggest down side to this is that it really punches up the noise.

James

 

[James Langford]

One also has to be really carefull in the post editing (the tone mapping), otherwise the photo will look unnatural.

Sweet shot! Really captures the intensity of the storm IMO.

I'll echo what Aaron said by saying that it's up to you as the Photographer to decide how to represent your images. Folks will either like it or they won't. When I work my images, I get them to the point that I feel they most acurately reflect the scene as I saw it. I also like to include details on how I processed them when I post them, and let folks draw their own conclusions.

James

 

[Derek Mohr]

The poor man HDR is okay, i usually duplicate+desaturate+overlay, but when I see the true shots with the added exposures it still is a noticeable difference if you work with images a lot.

BTW Thomas, it's shots like this that made me want to start making their own, much closer to the way it looks out in the field as opposed to through a camera...nice work!