What's up guys. I know....this forum is pretty slow. Modding is kind of a cush gig, lol.

Curious if any of you guys are doing any HDR photography. It's something I've always been intrigued by. I feel some of it is a little silly looking, but some is pretty darn cool. Anyhow, I've recently started playing with it a little bit. Just some quick shots of my truck, dog, Iroc in the garage etc. etc. No planned shots per se. I'm planning a shoot here in the next few weeks, and I'll post up what I come up with.

Curious if YOU guys have played with HDR at all.

For those who aren't familiar....
HDR stands for High Dynamic Resolution. Essentially you take 3 or more photographs at different exposures. Each exposure perfectly capturing differently parts of the photograph. Then using software, you take the perfectly exposed parts of each, lay them on top of each other to create a perfectly exposed photograph. The best photos are setting where there are lots of highlights and lowlights. In theory, if what your shooting is lit perfectly from the beginning, there's no need for 3 photos, -just use the one perfect exposure!
Then of course you have the artistic side, and what makes a good HDR photograph. My preference is a final picture that kinda draws you in, and looks great, but...not quite real. Your eye knows the lighting is almost too good...but you can't put your finger on quite why. Some like very surreal, artsy looking photos, but that's not as much my style.

The photos below are literally the first photos that I used Photomatix for. Still on the free trial version, hence the watermarks. I literally walked outside and took a few pics. These aren't from any photoshoot obviously, lol. ...and I couldn't use any pics from previous shoots because as I mentioned, you need THREE exposures of the same shot to merge them into an HDR image.

 

So here's a few shots I've been playing with.

Obviously right off the bat you see the PHOTOMATIX watermarks. That's the HDR rendering software, and I'm on the trial version right now. There are a few, and I wasn't sure which way I was going to go. I do believe I'll purchase the full version here shortly. Again, these pics are just me playing around, not something I would consider a "final" shot. ...and these are low rez JPGs for posting too, so lots pixelation here and there.

 

Well, I have nothing to contribute, as I had never even HEARD of HDR until I read your thread, and did a quick search of the internet. Cool idea. Makes sense. But I don't have any equipment new enough to have that feature.