HDR Pup

[Kyle]

Here is my first attempt at an HDR photo. I was throwing the ball around with my dog in the backyard and got a few good photos. This is the first of those. I'm a little unsure of how much I like the vignette. I thought it helped emphasize him but I'm not sold on it. Also, I did not use a tripod so I think it is a bit more blurry then it should be.
All C&C is welcome of course.

[Manfred M]

Hi Kyle - the vignette is way too heavy for my taste. I often use vignettes, but they usually are only 30% - 40% opacity (i.e. they darken the corners without being noticed). I've never had a lot of luck with vignetting with black in a snow scene; it makes the snow look gray and that tends to not work for me.

The image doesn't particularly look HDRl; what were your shooting paramters and how many images did you blend?

[Kyle]

I see what you mean with it making the snow gray. I'll reduce it to see if I can make it work or I'll just remove it.
I'll have to check the shooting parameters once I get back in my computer but it was something like f/3.5 1/250 and ISO 100.
I shot 3 pictures with the exposure compensation on high. My camera has a slow frame rate on continuous so I could only get 3 before he would move.
Maybe I didn't end up doing it right but from what I read I set the camera on continuous while having an exposure compensation set and it should automatically take 3 shots with 3 different exposures. I assume you get better results out of merging more pictures.

[NorthernFocus]

Nice looking pooch, Kyle. Nice turn of the head and raised eyebrow gives a sense of personality. I agree the vignette is a bit heavy. There are also some odd colors on the snow around the dog.

[Manfred M]

I see what you mean with it making the snow gray. I'll reduce it to see if I can make it work or I'll just remove it.
I'll have to check the shooting parameters once I get back in my computer but it was something like f/3.5 1/250 and ISO 100.
I shot 3 pictures with the exposure compensation on high. My camera has a slow frame rate on continuous so I could only get 3 before he would move.
Maybe I didn't end up doing it right but from what I read I set the camera on continuous while having an exposure compensation set and it should automatically take 3 shots with 3 different exposures. I assume you get better results out of merging more pictures.

Three images that are -2 0 +2 stops apart will usually be a good starting point and shooting aperture priority (avoiding changes in DoF) do it. HDR images are usually fairly flat contrast wise and this image isn't and the ghosting cleanup seems too perfect, which is why I am asking.

[IzzieK]

Beautiful doggie, Kyle...I too do not want the orangy snow around him...can that be reduced to look more like snow "snow"?

[Colin Southern]

Hi Kyle,

It's a purely reflective scene, so to be honest, I can't see why you'd need HDR techniques to capture it; I think you'd probably get a cleaner result from just one of the 3 frames.

[Bobobird]

Colin has a good point.
What made you try a 3 shot in the first place? Normally it would be to get detail in all parts of the pic. But then the vignette killed part of the reason for doing it.

All said - doggie came out nice and he sure is a lovely one.

[Colin Southern]

[Kyle]

Dan and Isabel, thank you for the feedback. I actually didn't notice the colour in the snow right away. I'll see if I can correct that.

Manfred, I played around with the saturation and luminance quite a bit after merging the 3 images. The image had more than enough contrast in it so I was actually able to reduce it. I believe I shot the image in aperture mode so I could keep it at f/3.5.

Bobo, I just finished reading on how to actually take 3 shot with my camera and then merge them in photoshop. Tucker (my parent's dog) was visiting for a few days and he usually makes a very good subject so I figured I'd try the technique to see if I could come out with anything good. I haven't read enough on HDR to fully understand where the best situations are to use it.

Colin, your edit looks great. I am going to edit one of the single frames instead of the HDR. Your edit gives me some good ideas on how I should edit it.


Thank you everyone for your feedback, it really helps. I took a few nice photos yesterday so expect a few more Dog shots once I get a chance to edit them.

[Manfred M]

Kyle, not every scene is a good candidate for HDR treatment; generally the technique makes sense when the dynamic range exceeds your camera's sensor's ability to record the scene. That does not really seem to be the case in this shot.

I also find HDRI is usually not a great way to treat people and animals as they tend to look a bit strange (unless you are trying for this on purpose).

[AB26]

Kyle,

To be honest. I think this is one of the more pleasing doggy shots I have yet seen. (Not comparing Richard’s studio shots.)

Colin’s edit makes it look better but that background, if only that background was not there.

[Kyle]

Taking inspiration from Colin's edit (and everyone's advice) I edited the photo again and I think it came out much better.

Here is the version with the merged pictures. I changed the vignette to while, added some clarity and darkened the background to make him stand out more.





I also worked on one of the photos that I had used to merge into the above photo. I'm not sure if it would benefit from a darkened background or not.




And lastly, here is one from a different angle.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Kyle,

As suspected, the image didn't need HDR techniques to handle the dynamic range; so in that context it just adds "risk" without the "reward".

All images look great in terms of tones and colours, but they're in need of some proper sharpening; they're looking very soft.

I'd be happy to give on a professional retouch for you if you'd like to flick me an appropriate original.

[Kyle]

I see what you mean about the HDR, Colin. The two photos turned out very different and while I wouldn't say the HDR one is not as good, I can see how is would be possible to ruin what would otherwise be a good shot.

I haven't actually used the sharpening section of lightroom before. I'm slowly learning each section and function one by one. I quickly read up on how to use it. It has a very subtle effect that makes quite a difference.

Here's my first attempt at sharpening two of the photos:






Here is a jpg version of the original. I really appreciate your offer to sharpen the photo for me. I'd like to see how it should look after sharpening so I can keep practicing towards that.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Kyle,

HDR is a set of techniques used when the dynamic range of the desired scene is greater than what the camera can capture is a normal single exposure. Often it's going to occur when you're shooting into the light, but still have foreground shadow detail that you want to protect. Most cameras will capture somewhere up to around 12 stops of range (at base ISO), and most scenes like yours will only be somewhere around 6 or 7 stops - so HDR techniques won't gain you anything ("no reward"), but they can give you issues with tone mapping and/or subject movement ("the risk"), so best to avoid it when not needed. Having just said that though, there's absolutely nothing wrong with shooting a bracket of shots and then choosing just one that gives you the best exposure to work with.

Usually with scenes like this the most you'll need to do dynamic range wise is to apply a little compression by using the fill light slider to reveal some of the darker detail.

I'd be happy to give one of your images a full retouch, but I really need to be working from the original RAW file (or files) - it's usually easiest to upload them to a file sharing service like Google Drive or MediaFire, and then PM me a download link.

The sharpening you've applied above is better than none, but you've chosen too small a radius and too high an amount, which has resulted in the start of what we call "frosting" (visible halos around small detail). I've written a bit about sharpening in the past - you might find this interesting (or you may not!)

When/How to Best Sharpen a Digital Photograph

Sharpening and Noise Reduction Sequence

[Colin Southern]

PS: Here's a couple of examples where HDR was needed - in both cases I'm shooting into the light and the foreground detail would be just shadow & blackness without it.

[rpcrowe]

I agree that HDR is kind of a strange look when used on a dog (or other animal). As an experiment, I tried this image using the single shot HDR effect available in the NIK software on Pugsley, our little Maltese-Pug puppy.

Here he is without an HDR effect added:



Here he is with the NIK HDR Efex filter added. I certainly like the first treatment better. It is also a LOT more realistic! However, OTOH, I really didn't spend a lot of time working on the second rendition...

[Kyle]

Thanks again for all the advice Colin. I'll be going through those threads and the sharpening tutorials soon.

Richard, while the first shot is much better the second one looks like it gave your pup a fresh coat of paint! It changed his fur colour quite a bit.