# HDR (and DR) Question



## J.R. (Feb 22, 2014)

While there have been various DR discussions on this forum where posters have been beating their chests on the issue of DR, I've wondered whether the difference in X stops makes a difference in real world shooting. 

Personally, I simply look at a scene and decide whether I need an HDR shot or not. I don't go into measuring the stops of DR that I need to push/pull to determine before I decide on bracketing my shots and get an HDR. Now-a-days, I am using the 32 bit float on PS CC (Thanks privatebydesign) to shoot high DR shots and feel that a loss of a couple of stops of DR on my Canon cameras be damned ... TBF, only as long as I am not shooting handheld. 

What is your personal experience? Do you know where a more DR camera would have helped you or do you go simply by instinct in bracketing your shots? 

Thoughts???


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## distant.star (Feb 22, 2014)

.
Most everything I shoot would benefit from the expanded range of HDR. I see it all the time.

However, I'm not willing to haul around and set up a tripod everywhere I walk.


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## J.R. (Feb 22, 2014)

distant.star said:


> .
> everything I shoot would benefit from the expanded range of HDR. I see it all the time.
> 
> However, I'm not willing to haul around and set up a tripod everywhere I walk.



Being an old school type shooter, I don't run into a no - tripod situation too often. My question though was whether the 2 stops would have been enough?


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## Steve Todd (Feb 22, 2014)

I'm like you, I just size-up the scene and make my decision based on how much contrast it contains.

I have found that 2-stops works pretty well! I have shot several hand-held (highest continious shooting speed) in full sunlight that turned out very well when using the "Auto Align" feature in DPP. However, I would use a tripod and the slow continuous shooting speed setting for scenes with less than full sunlight.

Hope this helps.


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## TexPhoto (Feb 22, 2014)

Would I like an extra 2 stops of DR in my camera, in every shot? Hell yes. It might not improve every photo, but nothing in photography does. DR is something i ope we'll see real improvement in over the next few years. My next camera might be a good used 1Dx when the next 1D comes out, but if Canon wants me to consider the 1Dx2 or what ever it's called, they will need to improve int he DR area.

Do I sometimes shoot HDR with tripod and 3-7 Images? Hell Yes.



REX50041_2_3_4_5_6_7h by RexPhoto91, on Flickr

Do I sometimes cheat and use HDR processing on a singe RAW image? Yes, but don't tell anyone.



REX46287h by RexPhoto91, on Flickr


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## deleteme (Feb 22, 2014)

TexPhoto said:


> Would I like an extra 2 stops of DR in my camera, in every shot? Hell yes.
> 
> Do I sometimes shoot HDR with tripod and 3-7 Images? Hell Yes.
> 
> ...



The fact that one can retrieve that much detail from the shadows while retaining highlight detail is a testament to the data that is already in the file. I use HDR a fair bit but lately I have found that reverting to my old darkroom days of dodging and burning coupled with aggressive treatment in LR allows me to get results that are very pleasing without the need for HDR.
In many cases I find that an HDR image yields only slight advantage for the hassle.
Probably the best but most tedious method is preprocessing several files and then layering in PS.

That is just my experience.


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## RLPhoto (Feb 23, 2014)

DR helps but it doesn't make or break me. Getting what you want requires much much more than just DR.


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