my first hdr

[Stephen]

there are natural-type HDRs, too. They are harder to recognize as HDR because of the reduced amount of tone-mapping. Next time I do some I will show the difference.

I know, but at that point its not really necessary. Fill light, RAW exposure controls, and more post processing can take care of all that

[daniel]

I know, but at that point its not really necessary. Fill light, RAW exposure controls, and more post processing can take care of all that

then don't make HDR images ;)

I'd rather do it this way than take one photo, make several layers of it in photoshop, then blend together all the layers with the appropriate exposures in the appropriate areas. I don't have the skillz to do all that, and if i did have the skillz, i probably wouldn't have the patienze. Maybe I will learn to do that eventually, but right now I'm just messing around with photography.

It's not like you can take one photo with large variances in exposure throughout the frame, adjust the fill light and exposure and some other things for just that one image, and then come out with a high quality image that is all of the sudden evenly exposed throughout the frame. If that is the goal, your options are either use bracketing + photomatix, or as you mentioned, (i am assuming using photoshop) make a few copies (layers) of the same image and adjust the exposure in each copy to apply to different areas of the image. I guess you could also use the "retouch" option in lightroom and drag your cursor around in the areas you want to adjust, but that isn't very precise.

Or am I completely missing your point? I'm not trying to sound aggressive or argumentative. If I am, I apologize. I'm just trying to learn everything I can, and so far this is what I know.

[Stephen]

No no, and im not trying to be a h8r.

You're pretty much right with the PS workflow, theres a few other things you can do, but those are sorta optional. Are you shooting RAW?

Basically, if thats the look you want, then you're doing what you need to do. Im just saying i'm not big into HDR, and The more mild HDRs equivalents can be made with just a solid photo and some tweaking.

[daniel]

No no, and im not trying to be a h8r.

You're pretty much right with the PS workflow, theres a few other things you can do, but those are sorta optional. Are you shooting RAW?

Basically, if thats the look you want, then you're doing what you need to do. Im just saying i'm not big into HDR, and The more mild HDRs equivalents can be made with just a solid photo and some tweaking.

Yes I am shooting RAW. I am not all of the sudden an HDR fanboy or anything, I am just experimenting with different photographic and editing techniques that I think I can manage just for fun. I won't be going around taking 5 exposures every time I want a shot or anything, but again, I like experimenting.