{"id":7416,"date":"2011-09-17T11:32:46","date_gmt":"2011-09-17T09:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.breigh.com\/wordpress\/?p=7416"},"modified":"2013-01-14T17:08:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-14T16:08:19","slug":"hdr-mania-or-just-my-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/archives\/7416","title":{"rendered":"HDR Mania or Just My Style?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the things that I had on my to do list was to learn to make HDR photos<\/a>.\u00a0 A while back I got Photomatix<\/a> and played around with it to try to teach myself how to do it.\u00a0 Some of the photos came out really well, others\u2026 not so much.<\/p>\n

For example, I loved this one\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Hotel<\/a>
\nOn the other hand, this one did absolutely nothing for me\u2026 blech.<\/p>\n

\"Cloudy<\/a>
\nUgh, I mean it\u2019s okaaaay<\/em> but not one I\u2019m particularly crazy about..<\/p>\n

Granted, when it comes to HDR it\u2019s all \u2018overdone\u2019 to some extent, just by doing it at all you are over<\/em>doing it, that’s the point of the whole thing.\u00a0 It\u2019s taking the photo a step beyond, creating something that looks sort of surreal.<\/p>\n

I think I\u2019ll always love the way out there type of HDR that a lot of people hate.\u00a0 Like this one, which is one of the first I ever did\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Project<\/a>
\nSure, there are a few glaring issues, mostly the halo, the lighter bit going on around the top of the building on the right.\u00a0 Still, I love it\u2026 halo and all.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t look at all REAL, but (to me at least) it looks REALLY cool!<\/p>\n

To some people this is a complete bastardization of what photography is meant to be, and in a way I can see their point because this isn\u2019t really just photography but also digital art.\u00a0 So it\u2019s kind of like apples and oranges really, but I enjoy the editing just as much, if not more than, the actually photography…<\/p>\n

Not all HDR is as wacky as others though\u2026 Recently I started playing with the HDR toning in Photoshop (on PC\u2019s found in Edit \u2013 Adjustment \u2013 HDR Toning, no idea where you Mac folks can find it!) and I can\u2019t stop. I just CANNOT STOP WITH THE HDR! Argh\u2026\u00a0 It\u2019s not the same level of HDR as in the ones I\u2019ve done previously, especially like the cloudy one above.\u00a0 Rather, it just gives the photos an extra pop that I really like, and I just can\u2019t stop doing it.\u00a0 Can’t stop, can’t stooooooppppp – HELP!<\/p>\n

When I am editing a photo, I can\u2019t silence that voice in my head that says \u201cWhat would it look like with some HDR toning?\u00a0 Go on Tammy, you know you want to\u2026 just a little, just this one last time\u201d.<\/p>\n

It appears that HDR is the new crack\u2026<\/p>\n

I went back through a few of my photos from different photography walks and outings I\u2019ve been on, just to see how they\u2019d look different with a little touch of the HDR toning.\u00a0 With some, the difference is hardly visible, but with others it makes a rather drastic difference.\u00a0 In 80% of cases, I prefer it with the extra touch and the only ones I seem to not like as much with it are macro type photos or portraits.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples …<\/p>\n

\"hdrcompare\"<\/a>
\nLet\u2019s take this photo of the lighthouse from my recent trip to Texel<\/a> as an example.\u00a0 At a quick glance you may not even see the difference.\u00a0 It\u2019s not spacy or totally out there like some HDR might seem, but if you look closely you can see the differences.\u00a0 The colors in the lighthouse, the detail in the grass and sand and how the clouds stand out just that little bit more.<\/p>\n

Which do I prefer?\u00a0 The bottom photo with the extra HDR editing, no question\u2026<\/p>\n

Another example, from my photo walk with friends in the Veluwezoom<\/a> last autumn.<\/p>\n

\"hdrcompare3\"<\/a>
\nAgain, the bottom photo has the HDR toning.\u00a0 It also has some haloing as well (which I intend to learn how to correct ASAP) but this was just a quick example I did for this blog entry.<\/p>\n

Not a massive amount of difference between the two photos, except for the lights are a little lighter, there is a bit more detail in the leaves and the trunk of the tree.\u00a0 The light on the hill stands out more and the detail of the fallen leaves looks a lot nicer.\u00a0 There are a few things I\u2019d try to edit if I were to keep this photo.\u00a0 For example, as I mentioned, I\u2019d fix the haloing that is happening along the top of the horizon.\u00a0 I would also try to fix whatever is causing that one part of the bushes to turn purple.<\/p>\n

All that said though, even with those imperfections I would still<\/em> choose the bottom photo.<\/p>\n

Here is another example from my trip to Texel<\/a>, which is a little more obvious.<\/p>\n

\"hdrcompare2\"<\/a>
\nThis one has much more noticeable difference.\u00a0 There are things I\u2019d tweak if this was going to be a keeper as well, the bit of (*sigh*) haloing around the guy, the brightness \/ contrast in the sky etc but even just with the HDR toning alone with minimal editing beyond that, it\u2019s still worlds better than the original (IMO).<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s the thing.\u00a0 I\u2019m an insecure animal at heart and I exist within a world of photographers that are head and shoulders above me when it comes to knowledge and skill.\u00a0 I belong to a photo club with some people who take photos that leave me completely in awe<\/a>, like literally\u2026 speechless.\u00a0 I can\u2019t help but always worry about what other people think of my photos.<\/p>\n

Well, I can help it somehow, I just haven\u2019t quite figured out the best way of going about not giving a shit yet.<\/p>\n

Knowing that HDR and too much post processing will instantly get some people\u2019s hackles up and make them hate your photos by default (this isn\u2019t about my photo club but just some photography people in general), it holds me back from just doing what I want with my own photos.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want people to look at my photos and think they suck, or that I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing (I don\u2019t really, but I don\u2019t want them to KNOW that!)<\/p>\n

This feeling really makes me angry with myself\u2026 mostly because I\u2019m sure nobody cares nearly as much as I like to think they do.<\/p>\n

Is this HDR thing just a phase?\u00a0 I have no idea\u2026 is it something that belongs in every day post processing of all my photos?\u00a0 Again, no friggin idea!\u00a0 Maybe one day I\u2019d look back at my photos from this period (the ones that I will do the HDR toning on, I mean) and shake my head and want to go back and do them all over AGAIN.\u00a0 It\u2019s likely\u2026 but it\u2019s what I like right at this moment.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what is most important\u2026 what I<\/em> like, right?\u00a0 These are my photos after all and while what other people think of photos will always <\/em>matter to everyone (I think those who say they don\u2019t care are lying, at least a little)\u2026 it can\u2019t be everything.\u00a0 Everyone needs to find their own \u2018voice\u2019, so to speak.\u00a0 Perhaps this is mine and I need to continue to explore it.<\/p>\n

Then again, it\u2019s entirely possible I\u2019m just a complete HDR addict and am trying to fit it in wherever possible.\u00a0 Maybe my friends should consider an intervention.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to say\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the things that I had on my to do list was to learn to make HDR photos.\u00a0 A while back I got Photomatix and played around with it to try to teach myself how to do it.\u00a0 Some of the photos came out really well, others\u2026 not so much. For example, I loved …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[302,573,881],"class_list":["post-7416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-photography","tag-confusion","tag-hdr","tag-photography-artsy-fartsy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7416"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7430,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7416\/revisions\/7430"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadutch.nl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}