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Spot the HDR photo


hershy314

Guru
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I have two photos of the exact same thing. One was shot at shot at different exposures and combined using Photomatix. Both use the same creative filter using Photomatix again. Then brought into Photoshop and using the unsharp mask. To me they look so much a like that it's going to be hard to figure it out. This is just for fun, there is no winner sorry

test 1.jpg
 

Tom Mann

Guru
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If I had to guess, I would say that the one on the right went through Photomatix, but the changes I see could just as easily been caused by a slight change in the pattern of dappled light falling on the sign.

The most prominent change I see is that the bright spot on the lower left of the sign is well controlled in the RH image, but completely burnt out in the LH image. Also, the brightness of the red lettering on the RHS of the sign is also more controlled in the RH image, but because the shadows caused by the light coming through the leaves of the trees, these observations could be completely unrelated to the use of Photomatix.

To be honest, I'm not sure what this was meant to illustrate. In fact, I would say that it's a potentially misleading representation of the typical uses of HDR. There are at least a dozen adjustable parameters in Photomatix, so one can set it up to do almost nothing, or, just as easily, set it up to wildly compress the dynamic range of a scene. In addition, the strong, and, IMHO, completely unnecessary oversharpening of the image obscures changes introduced by Photomatix's algorithms, and only detracts from the artistic merit of both images.

IMO, below is a much better, and much more typical example of the type of changes introduced by HDR tone mapping algorithms. The 1st image is the best conventional, single exposure of the scene, whereas the 2nd image was produced by feeding Photomatix with 6 exposures of the same scene, spaced one stop apart. No further processing was done to these images except down-rez'ing for posting on the forum.

Note that after the HDR process, the deeply shadowed side of the more distant chair is much brighter and details are now easily seen. Similarly, the complete lack of detail in the overexposed area of the blinds (just above the arm of the distant chair) in the conventional shot is completely fixed in the HDR version. These are two examples of what tonal range compression is supposed to do.

Tom
 

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MikeMc

McGuru
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I now have a headache!...I see where Hershey was going, BUT I also love Toms example to show the why's of HDR.

Many photographers never studied the Zone system and when the did they "Saw the Light"!

I like to think of full tonal range...easier to say than do.

Back on topic... I would say the right side, but that is due to hearing what was done to the other image. I really do not see the need for HDR with the sign, BUT as I tend to over-sharpen and increase contrast routinely I like it!
 

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