Lessons
Class Introduction
04:44 2Bracketing
10:31 3How to Set-up Bracketing
02:54 4Tools to Capture HDR Better
02:09 5Scenes for Good HDR
07:49 6Process Images in Lightroom® & Photoshop
10:52 7Hyper HDR Style with Photomatix
11:39 8Post Processing in Lightroom®
07:56Lesson Info
Class Introduction
I've written a couple of books on the concept of HDR, which I think is kind of neat. When I first wrote, like, the very, very first book I wanted to call it, "Exposing HDR" because it was like "dun dun dun". Guy going to expose it. Because, truth be told, I don't take it very seriously. For me, I'm like, dude, a monkey could do it. It's so easy to be able to do and to be able to set up. There's really nothing to it. And I wanted to kind of write it like that, and the people that I was working with at the time, they were just like, "Nah, man. "You can't be so, like, "bad-mouthy about it, "like, you just wanna, pop, "pop the balloon." They're like, "You know, you gotta "make it seem a little cooler," and all that. I was like, nah man, there's really not that much. So it's a very anticlimactic class, but you will learn a lot of really cool things, so don't worry too much about it. You'd be surprised as to how many times I run into the concept of using HDR, right? So this is my patchy bald...
head over at Kerry Park, is it, right? Like yesterday, I was sitting there and I was hanging out and I'm taking a series of pictures and I wanted to take a picture of this one area, and I was just like, "Oh the skyline'll be really cool." And I see this guy trying to take these pictures, and he's just, like, making a go of it, he's trying as best he can. And I'm like, "Dude, are you setting up bracketing, "are you working on this, "are you bracketing your shots?" And he's like, "Dude, I have no idea "as to what you're talking about." And I'm like, "Oh, man! "If you turn around and you grab it." And that's when I get crazy eyes. (laughter) I'm like, "Naw, it's crazy, you can do this, man, "you can grab this." And I start going through this entire thing about, I was like, "Look, you're gonna be my guinea pig, I'm doing this class," and I was like, "If you learn how to bracket "and you learn how to take all of these shots, "it's cool." And he said, "Well, are you worried for your shots?" I was like, "Nah, man, I'm good. I got my shot. "Don't worry about it." So I was working with him. This is the shot that I did, right, coming out of it. So for me, a lot of the times, I tend to look at HDR as very technical and artistic situation. There are people that get into it, and I'll tell you right now, there's plenty of people that are just like, they see the concept of the world of HDR and they're just like (gagging). Because it has this kind of connotation of over-crayoned, over-artistic, over-Impressionistically kind of things. It doesn't have to be. It can be realistic, it can look realistic. There is a technical component that is involved in that kind of stuff and you can kind of go that way. There are times that I do. There are also times when I do look at it as putting a paper down and taking crayons out. There's a person who said, "Don't shoot what it looks like, "shoot what it feels like." Right? So, in that, I think it's kind of cool. Like, sometimes I just wanna put the paper down, I wanna take the crayons out, and I just wanna get the things out of my head, and just start working on that. And I think that as a photographer, you have the ability, you have the license to do that. Sometimes it will look real, sometimes it will look weird. Sometimes you just wanna be able to celebrate somebody. This was something I did at a Star Wars convention. I love people who love stuff. I've always wanted to make friends with a superfan. Because I think it'd be great to be able to know that. And I didn't know anything about Star Wars, and I was out there, and I was just like, "Oh man, "I totally would love to meet a person "that does the Star Wars thing." They're like, "Oh, there's a convention "where everybody dresses up." And I was like, "Cool, I'm gonna go." I hadn't seen any Star Wars, and I showed up, and I was really kind of nervous about it because they're, like, Storm Troopers, and I'm just a guy with a camera. And I walked up to one of them, and I just finally worked up the nerve, and I was like, "Can I...can I...take your picture...Storm Trooper?" And you hear this voice that's like, (high-pitched voice) "Sure, that'd be awesome." (laughter) And there's just like a little kid inside the Storm Trooper thing. And he sat down, and these people spent hours and hours and hours, trying to feel like they're part of the movie. And I was like, a picture inside of a convention center wouldn't do it, but then HDR did. Which got me to do some stuff for folks at Lucasfilm, blah blah blah. But it was kinda cool, right? I call this one, "This is Why Mommy Drinks." (laughter) But, then I can do HDR for black and white work. A lot of the times, I tell people, like, "Ansel Adams was the ultimate, OG HDR guy." Like if you follow Zone Method stuff, he was just like, "You print this tonality "at this range and you take this tonality "and you print it in this range." All that was was literally HDR inside of a darkroom.
Ratings and Reviews
Liz Farrell
It truly doesn't matter if this instructor creates work that looks different from what I like to make. What I got from this course were skills I needed to try something new. (In my case, I watched this before doing some interior photography, knowing I would need to use HDR in Lightroom.) RC teaches you how to set the camera up for bracketing and how HDR software works (in Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.) Apply your own creative aesthetic once you nail down these basics and you'll thank him, too.
Wayne
Just what I was looking for. Basics of what HDR is and the basic steps to do it. I do not care yet about making it realistic or not. I can get into advanced features later, but I am strongly leaning towards non-natural, more impressionistic, looks.