Seriously. I tried doing a few HDR pictures the other day, and I just got around to uploading. I like them, but are they dead? Is taking 50mb of pictures and creating one super-saturated image gone the way of the d0d0? I haven’t seen a lot of good HDR shots in a long time and mine don’t even come close. I’ve never been great at HDR but it’s fun.
This is my boat. Sort of. It’s not really mine, but it’s at my house and I’m the only one who uses it. Then, I haven’t used it in almost 7 years. Click on the picture to see some more images. And, while you’re here, leave a comment to tell me what you think about HDR. Is it in it’s final days as a photographic fad?
Tags: bc, boat, dynamic, HDR, high, Photography, photos, pictures, range, Vancouver Island, victoria
I don’t think it is dead but I do believe it has a purpose and is useful when the dynamics of a scene warrant the use of using HDR. If however you are only using it to gain an oversaturated image with lots of tonal values then there are several other ways in which to do that. Normally, I find the type of people that use HDR are the one’s who can’t control the exposure in a normal way and for them it is getting an image without the dark areas or blownout sky. I like your image, it looks natural, has a lot of depth and works well compositionally.
Cheers
David
HDR Doesn’t have to mean super saturated. I’ve done black and white HDRs, faded color HDRs… In my mind it has plenty of every day use to help correct the narrower exposure range of digital to film. I also find some of my best HDRs come from a single, properly exposed RAW file.
I think saying it’s dead is ridiculous since most non digital photographers have never even heard of it, and every time I see someone doing a show with HDR, they feel they need to post a “WHAT IS HDR?” notice.
And since HDR is mostly trying to better re-create what the human eye sees (since your eye resamples for light many many times a second) I don’t think it’s going to go away.
And for what it’s worth, I like the image, but I think your sky changes a little too drastically when it meets the trees on the right. It looks like the left half was taken when it was overcast, and the right half the sun came out. Shouldn’t be too hard to fix with some adjustment layers and masking in photoshop. Your framing and composition is great though. Great camera work, just needs some more time in the digi oven :)
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HDR was never really alive outside of flickr, at least in the over processed sense you have shown. Fudging the dynamic range of a picture is a great technique for dealing with some high contrast images and bringing in the sky, but I think care should be taken to make it as close to what our eye sees, or can see. I think its a fine line of giving the viewer what they expect but also pushing past that into something sensational. At first glance and image with over done HDR looks sensational and surreal, but it looses its impact right away. In the scheme of technique it seems HDR has gone that same way.
I’ve tried some HDR on film, and let’s just say it’s way easier with digital.