My first HDR shot
HDR is the acronym for High Dynamic Range, first introduced to me by the hubby. Had some time this morning to play around with the camera (had a playdate but nobody turned up, pfft) and some software. Any experts reading this? I know this is slightly overexposed. I generated the image with a trial version of Photomatix and took the ‘cheat way’ of saving the image by PrintScreen-ing (the software only generated .tif images that for some reason my Photoshop could not open). Anyway, which looks better?

or

Will definitely spend more time playing around.
EDIT: I’ve played around with the tone-mapping bit, which as I discovered, was essential to producing a REAL HDR image, thanks to the hubby.
Check the results out:

Download a copy for your desktop! More shots and desktops of this rose and pinecones here.
julie
I like the second one – doesn’t look as blown out.
Feb 15, 2007 @ 11:40 am
julie
…but upon further review, I have to say I really enjoy the color of the pink background in the first one.
Feb 15, 2007 @ 3:39 pm
Kelantan Gal
I like the second one better. I can see the details of the rose clearer. But I guess it all depends on what you want to use the pic for. The first one gives me the feeling of “daze” like just woken up or kena kidnapped/drugged and then just woken up that sort of feeling… the mystery novel feeling.
Feb 15, 2007 @ 9:47 pm
German Vasquez, Jr.
I was doing some research for HDR and stumbled upon your site. I am a novice photographer and have never done a HDR, but I have experience doing graphic and web design. Personally, I agree that the first rose is blown out, but I do like the brighter pink background. I like the rose head on the second image. I think the image with the tonal range (the one you offer as a background) is very noisy. Maybe you could cut the head off the second rose and paste it in the first and play with the levels/curves a bit to tone down the overexposed leaves in the first pic (the one in the foreground and one in the background.
Mar 05, 2007 @ 9:18 am