Playing with HDR

Today I was mainly playing with different HDR programs, not to actually create a HDR image, but rather to tonemap and add contrast to an existing image LDRthat was quite flat, and lacking in contrast.

I also read and watched a few HDR tutorials as well. Probably the most well known HDR photographer is Trey Ratcliff (Stuck in Customs) who has a HDR tutorial on his blog. After reading that tutorial, I read an article he wrote for Smashing Magazine: 10 Easy Steps To Advanced Photography Skills, and I was surprised that the majority of the comments were 'anti-HDR'.

Quite a few comments also said they thought the images posted as part of the article were rubbish as well, e.g.

I’m done with crappy HDR… like most of the photos “featured” in this article

Personally, I thought most of the images were great, much better than I could do. A couple were a bit over saturated for my liking (Times Square, and the one hanging in the Smithsonian), and one had visible halos (the Icelandic Horse), but I still thought they were good photos.

Maybe fans of HDR are in the minority, or maybe it's just not something that Web Designers like. (Actually it seems weird for Smashing Magazine to have a photography article, maybe they just liked it because it's in a list format).

In Trey's HDR Tutorial, he mentioned that he uses Noiseware Professional to remove noise produced by the HDR tonemapping process. So I did some searching to try and find what the best Noise reduction software is (currently I don't use any). A dpreview forum thread with some comparisons is here: Noise removal software?, and looking at the results there, and reading and looking at images from other sources, it seems that Nik Dfine or Topaz Denoise do the best job.

After lunch I watched Der Golem with Mauser and L, which seemed like an anti Jewish film, but apparently it was written by a Jew. Anyway, it was quite good.

In the evening me, Moccle, and L watched 'It came from outer space', which was a bit boring really.

The weather was overcast all day, in the evening it rained, then about 9pm the rain turned to snow. Yep, that's right, it was the day the rain turned to snow. Oh wait...

Food
Breakfast: Strawberry Jam Toast Sandwich; Cup o' Tea.
Lunch: Mature Cheddar Cheese, Brie, Mouldy Cheese, Iceberg Lettuce, Watercress, and Chilli Salsa Dip Sandwich; Clementine; Scone with marg, cream, and Strawberry Jam; Cup o' Tea.
Dinner: Lasagne; Potato; Carrots; Green Beans; Ground Black Pepper. Pudding was home-made Mini Doughnuts (made in Clare's Doughnut Maker she got for Christmas), with sauce made from: Posh Dark Chocolate; Fudge; Cream; Golden Syrup; Milk; Sugar. Coffee.