HDR autobracketing: 3 vs 5?

[DRT-Maverick]

I've finally recieved my K20D in the mail (to replace my broken *ist D) and am experimenting with the new features. It's night and day between the two cameras - everything from the ISO to the menu has changed, and the *ist D didn't have shake reduction, which the K20D sports (and I hear it's been improved upon since the K10D?).

One of the first things I've been messing with is the new autobracketing. My old camera couldn't do good autobracketing, it was limited 3 shots at 0.3 or 0.7 stops difference between each shot, the K20D however allows me to do either 3 or 5 exposures, with a difference ranging at: 0.3, 0.7, 1.0, 1.3, 1.7 or 2.0. This is extraordinary compared to what I've been dealing with.
I haven't been able to leave the area much do to circumstances I'd rather not discuss the exact details but, suspended license, so I'm not gonna drive on that. I haven't been able to get many good photographs in HDR but I've been working on it.

These photos are all 5 brackets at 1.0 stop difference.


http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9002/rubblehdrke2.th.jpg (http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/1360/rubblehdrtw8.jpg) http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/9015/winterrenoez1.th.jpg (http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/267/winterrenomy6.jpg) http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6236/window2hdram1.th.jpg (http://img212.imageshack.us/img212/6236/window2hdram1.jpg)


Now these are just me screwing around a bit for the first time with HDR, figuring out how to get it to work. (Though it was very easy in the end). My question though, is it necessary to take 5 photographs? Will there be a large difference between 5 or 3? My final question, what preference do you have at stop differences in HDR? I want to maintain realism, I'm not looking for too intense of an effect.

Thanks for the help!

[jstpeter]

DRT,

3 or 5 depends on the scene. The more extrem the contrast between light and dark areas the more exposures you want. If it is just subtle 3 is probabaly fine. I think with the scene you used as an example three exposures would be fine.

[anonymouscuban]

DRT,

3 or 5 depends on the scene. The more extrem the contrast between light and dark areas the more exposures you want. If it is just subtle 3 is probabaly fine. I think with the scene you used as an example three exposures would be fine.

:agree Depends on the range of the shot. You should use the histogram to check if you got enough range in your brackets.

[Ryan Armbrust]

:agree Depends on the range of the shot. You should use the histogram to check if you got enough range in your brackets.

I ALWAYS shoot 9 exposures, all one stop apart. I may only use 5, 7 or 9 of them in editing though.

[kdog]

I ALWAYS shoot 9 exposures, all one stop apart. I may only use 5, 7 or 9 of them in editing though.

That's fine if you have absolutely no motion on the scene, like clouds or blowing vegetation. Otherwise, you're better off taking fewer shots at two-stop increments as rapidly as possible to minimize ghosting.

[Roadkill]

Did you use photomatix or photoshop on those.

I have just started to play with hdr and im not getting very good results, yet.

Any tips?

[jstpeter]

I am in the HDR smugmug community and came across fellow smugger Jason Herman - http://jasonhermannphotography.smugmug.com/

He has some great HDR videos on his smugmug site. Check them out they are worth it if you are just getting into HDR :thumb

http://jasonhermannphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/5797625_Gowgr

[Quantum3]

This guy is absolutely right: "
DRT,

3 or 5 depends on the scene. The more extrem the contrast between light and dark areas the more exposures you want. If it is just subtle 3 is probabaly fine. I think with the scene you used as an example three exposures would be fine".

I would add you can measure the shadows and the highlights, in order to find how much stops of diffrence you have there in order to select the amount of bracketings you will need. I rearely went into 16 shots, but can happen :)

[jhelms]

...Otherwise, you're better off taking fewer shots at two-stop increments as rapidly as possible to minimize ghosting.

I agree w/ kdog, it's more about how many stops of exposure spread you need rather than how many actual exposures.

My D200 will allow for up to 9 bracketed exposures, but only a max of 1 stop between each one.

I personally hand hold almost all the HDR stuff that I've been doing lately and would love to do a 3 shot burst of -2 / 0 / +2, but in order to get that spread I had to set the camera to take 5 shots... -2 / -1 / 0 / +1 / +2.

I make sure I'm in A priority mode also, with auto-iso off.