I was introduced to HDRI almost two years ago. If you don't have a clue on what it is, it is basically taking three photos of the same thing taken at different exposures to create a super image. The cool thing about it is that you can get rich detailed colors and really interesting looks. After coming across something about it again on the web today I decided to give it a try.
Like I said, to create these images you are supposed to take three different pictures with different exposures to get the look. I already had a picture that I wanted to try the HDRI look to but the problem is that I took it a couple of weeks ago and only took it with one exposure setting. I decided to cheat and see what would happen. I have a program called Adobe Lightroom. It is basically like developing your "film" for digital pictures. You can go to www.adobe.com and download a 30 day trial if you are interested in it. It really is a cool program. Anyways, I took the one picture and developed it two more times, one with a +2 exposure and the other with a -2 exposure. I used the origianl picture as the third picture needed. You can create HDRI in photoshop, but there is actually a much better program to use for them which is called Photomatix. You just need to take the three pictures and generate the HDRI. From there there are all sorts of adjustments you can make.
If you are interested in doing this, you don't need a digital SLR or even photoshop. You need to be able to set the exposure on your digital camera manually. If you can do this, you cold create these HDRI images. Anyways, here is a before and after example of my experiment with HDRI.
Now I realize that it is hard to see the detail in these small pictures, so if you want to check out larger size version, click on the after photo, or click the photos tab at the top of the page.
So what do you think? I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt at it.
3 comments:
That is pretty sweet. I have yet to even figure out how to use Photoshop. There's infinate amounts to learn!
I think that is a huge problem with the internet for me...I keep finding things that interest me and that I want to learn. My brain can't handle it all, it is already full of useless info!
That is so cool how intricate the detail looks in the 2nd photo. It's amazing the things you've learned how to do. Lawrence bought me a photoshop hardware that I haven't even installed yet & have absolutely no idea how to use. I haven't taken the time to figure it out. As Reese said, "there's infinate amounts to learn."
Anyway, I'm totally impressed with your mad skills!! You go, Greg!
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