HDR "art"

[Rooz]

amazing stuff. really incredible.
http://www.hdrsoft.com/gallery/gallery.php?id=41&gid=0

[FLiPMaRC]

:cool: Interesting, but an "acquired taste" :)

[Turn]

I really don't like that kind of HDR, I prefer something more natural...

http://beachrockz4eva.deviantart.com/art/test-109640069

[TheWengler]

I like the realistic HDR look. Gary S's snowy sunrise bridge shots are a good example of the look I prefer.

[Visual Reality]

Some of them work really well (5, 6, 7) but some don't.

[cdifoto]

amazing stuff. really incredible.
http://www.hdrsoft.com/gallery/gallery.php?id=41&gid=0
That's not HDR. That's tonemapping, which has given HDR a bad name.

[benp]

That's not HDR. That's tonemapping, which has given HDR a bad name.

Tonemapping and HDR are essentially the same thing, compressing a high-dynamic-range image into a medium that has lower dynamic range e.g. computer displays or printed images.

In HDR you start with several images, each of which has low dynamic range but which together span a large range. These are assembled into a single HDR image. But in order to actually display this HDR image on your screen you have to apply a tone map function.

[devin]

Hmmm looks like a photoshop plugin...

[Visual Reality]

Tonemapping and HDR are essentially the same thing, compressing a high-dynamic-range image into a medium that has lower dynamic range e.g. computer displays or printed images.

In HDR you start with several images, each of which has low dynamic range but which together span a large range. These are assembled into a single HDR image. But in order to actually display this HDR image on your screen you have to apply a tone map function.
They are not essentially the same thing, because the use of the term "HDR" refers to the combining of multiple exposures to obtain the end result of an image with a greater dynamic range than could be captured from a single exposure of a modern camera sensor...don't know a better way to describe it.

Tonemapping a single image is just that. It is processing, but it doesn't create any new data or enhance dynamic range.

[r3g]

Thats some good stuff. #5 is kinda creepy though lol

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Nice art but not an effect I'd ever aim for.

[benp]

They are not essentially the same thing, because the use of the term "HDR" refers to the combining of multiple exposures to obtain the end result of an image with a greater dynamic range than could be captured from a single exposure of a modern camera sensor...don't know a better way to describe it.

Tonemapping a single image is just that. It is processing, but it doesn't create any new data or enhance dynamic range.

Just capturing the extra dynamic range is no good: a computer screen has low dynamic range, so you can't display an HDR image on it.

Tone mapping is the process that takes you from your HDR image to something that you can display or print.

i.e. there's no HDR without tone mapping, is what I was trying to say.

[Visual Reality]

I understand what you mean.

However this is simply tonemapping a single image. "Processing" I would call it. But HDR it is not...

Still, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Depends on the image.

[Prospero]

I understand what you mean.

However this is simply tonemapping a single image. "Processing" I would call it. But HDR it is not...

Still, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Depends on the image.

The images in the link Rooz posted are not only simply processed images, some of them are made of several exposures.

In some of them you can clearly see that the photographer blended multiple images. Around the contours of faces and other moving things, you can see ghosting which occurs when you use multiple images on a subject that is moving.

Other than that I agree that tonemapping a single image is not HDR.

Then, about the pictures themselves. I agree with DPR, they look interesting, but definitly not something I would go for myself. The halooing, ghosting and strange contrast are things I try to avoid when creating HDR pictures.

[Visual Reality]

I guess I couldn't see evidence of that, but I didn't examine them really closely.