you do hate this...right? ... why, in several short sentences :-)

Maris

Member
Joined
Jan 17, 2006
Messages
1,577
Location
Noosa, Australia
Format
Multi Format
Don't hate it as such. It's just another way of making pictures that is completely irrelevant in this corner of PHOTRIO.
 

mshchem

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 26, 2007
Messages
15,001
Location
Iowa City, Iowa USA
Format
Medium Format
Yikes, hate too strong, maybe could be useful to someone, sure as hell not by me. HDR is weird, MHOFWIW which ain't much.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Kodachromeguy

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 3, 2016
Messages
2,073
Location
Olympia, Washington
Format
Multi Format
Sigh, we will see even more examples of overdone HDR in places where elevator-music photography is used, such as the background screens of Chromecast or Amazon video (casting to your television). The Dpreview techno-crowd will love this software. This is as exciting as dual card slots or more megapixels.
 

removed account4

Subscriber
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Messages
29,832
Format
Hybrid
Thanks!
Would be great for. Making negatives!!

( that is my short 2 sentence response , longer response below )

i've been spending the last year revitalizing old post cards from the turn of the century. i love old post cards. from what my leeky research has told me, some were done with the Chromolithography Process. they were vivid and colorful and sort of HDR of their day done in 1900 in what one might call a Photo Shoppe. i've been using a simple levels, burn dodge technique but using this program would make my life easier LOL, i wish they'd give a trial subscription
 
Last edited:

awty

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 24, 2016
Messages
3,681
Location
Australia
Format
Multi Format
I was listening to a radio interview with someone who was an expert in developing AI technology and he said even with the latest improvements the human brain is far superior in any visual understanding. An example he gave was you could draw a rough picture of a kangaroo with a stick in mud for someone who has never seen or has any concept of a kangaroo and if they then saw the animal would know what it was simply by the rough drawing, quickly without much effort. You still cant teach a computer to do that. Humans are very good at recognizing people without even seeing their face simply by the body shape the way they walk, dress, etc. Humans are very good at picking up emotions, moods and feelings.
A computer program can help with basic aesthetics, but it takes a great deal of human intervention to give a human connection. I see a lot of pictures both digital and film based that are technically great, but say nothing and take you no where.
I dont have a problem with using any tools you have available to make your picture better, composing and editing is very challenging to do well, but at the end of the day HDR picture of nothing interesting wont hold my attention any way and in fact often makes me ill..... still wiping the vomit off my monitor after looking at some of the examples in the link.......honestly they should come with a warning jtk .
 

runswithsizzers

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 19, 2019
Messages
1,830
Location
SW Missouri, USA
Format
Multi Format
Actually, I rather like HDR for some scenes. As with any other technique, it can be overdone.

I wonder how many people hate infrared photography, or stereo photography, or other niche branches of the photographic family like macro photography and astro photography?

It's funny how photographic styles come and go like the length of ladies hemlines and the width of mens neckties. The pictorialists liked warm and fuzzy and lots of atmosphere, and they weren't shy about manipulating their images. Then the Group f/64 photographers decided that was not cool anymore. And so on, and so on, scooby dooby dooby.

It might be worth remembering a few more words of Sly Stone's wisdom:
I am no better and neither are you
We're all the same whatever we do
You love me you hate me
You know me and then
You can't figure out the bag I'm in
I am everyday people

There is a long hair
That doesn't like the short hair
For being such a rich one
That will not help the poor one
Different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on ...
from Everyday People, Sly and the Family Stone​
 

Sean

Admin
Admin
Joined
Aug 29, 2002
Messages
13,170
Location
New Zealand
Format
Multi Format
It reminds me of when you go looking at TVs and the shop has the colors and contrast pumped to the max. It's almost what people expect and consider normal now? I still have an old plasma that I tweaked for hours to have pure and natural tones and it looks superb. I suspect someone with the latest 4K HDR panel pumped to 100 would think my panel is broken.
 

runswithsizzers

Subscriber
Joined
Jan 19, 2019
Messages
1,830
Location
SW Missouri, USA
Format
Multi Format

Extrapolating in the other direction, I wonder how many people have adjusted their flat panel TV screens to black and white as their primary viewing mode? I'm guessing, not many.

Yet, long after black and white is no longer mandated by necessity - long after b&w TV, movies, magazines, and newspapers have been mostly replaced by color versions - a surprising number of photographers are still shooting black and white. (Including me.) Photrio is like Havana, where everybody is still driving cars from the 1950s. To me, that's almost as weird as HDR. Is exaggerating color in a photograph really any more weird, or manipulative, or artificial than sucking all the color out of life?

I happen to have a nostalgic fondness for automobiles of the 1950s to mid-1960s. Like black and white film, they have a certain aesthetic charm. But I'm not going to throw rocks at someone who wants to drive a modern car no matter how stupid I think their bluetooth-connected touch-screen on the dash is. Because the modern touch screen is really no more absurd than the tail fins on a ...


Not all HDR images have pumped up colors:
 

awty

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 24, 2016
Messages
3,681
Location
Australia
Format
Multi Format
BrianShaw said:
Don’t like; don’t look
Click to expand...
Its hard to avoid sometimes, they are often in lobbies and doctors waiting rooms, along with the big flat screen tv playing a generic morning show along with celebrity news magazines and people playing angry bird till their number is called.
Anything to avoid eye contact and conversation.
 

ITD

Subscriber
Joined
May 28, 2007
Messages
233
Location
UK
Format
Multi Format
runswithsizzers said:
Is exaggerating color in a photograph really any more weird, or manipulative, or artificial than sucking all the color out of life?
Click to expand...

interesting perspective, I never thought of it like that. Thanks.
 

guangong

Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2009
Messages
3,589
Format
Medium Format
Thanks, jtk, for the presentation. The results, like much of the overdone stuff done with photoshop, just looks rather tacky. This does not mean that someone sitting behind the computer couldn’t use this program with more subtlety.
 

eddie

Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2005
Messages
3,259
Location
Northern Vir
Format
Multi Format
It's hard to hate a tool. It's easier to hate what's done with it, and that can only be done on a case by case basis.
 

ic-racer

Member
Joined
Feb 25, 2007
Messages
16,629
Location
USA
Format
Multi Format
When did this become the computer graphics forum? I have been involved with computer graphics and digital image manipulation since the late 1980s, but today I'm looking for a film photography and darkroom forum....
 

Kodachromeguy

Subscriber
Joined
Nov 3, 2016
Messages
2,073
Location
Olympia, Washington
Format
Multi Format
ic-racer said:
When did this become the computer graphics forum? I have been involved with computer graphics and digital image manipulation since the late 1980s, but today I'm looking for a film photography and darkroom forum....
Click to expand...
So what is your point? Not interested in the topic, don't read it. Problem solved.
 

warden

Subscriber
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
3,097
Location
Philadelphia
Format
Medium Format

It's a good question, and yes I think amped-up HDR with artificial color rendition is more weird, manipulative, and artificial compared to black and white (which can also be overdone of course).

Robert Adams has said he creates black and white imagery because color comes at the cost of another kind of clarity. I agree with Adams, though I still do like color from time to time.
 

BAC1967

Subscriber
Joined
Oct 30, 2014
Messages
1,443
Location
Bothell, WA
Format
Medium Format
How is it different than dodging and burning a photo in the darkroom or using a gradation filter or adjusting colors on a print? Granted, it takes it to an extreme that would be nearly impossible to do in a darkroom, but isn't it just a natural progression of what film photographers have been doing for over a century? HDR can make bad pictures just as bad pictures can be made in the darkroom. In my opinion it's a tool that has been abused and overdone but some people seem to like that.
 

Mainecoonmaniac

Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2009
Messages
6,297
Format
Multi Format
No. Not really. I'm a film shooter and a avid photographer for close to 40 years. There always been gimmicks and tools photographers use to keep with fads. Remember Cokin filters with starburst and streaks? Things are really no different. It's just a tool. I do see the HDR app useful in some situations. I work assisting interior shots in the film days. The amount of gear and the number Polaroids pulled is insane. Using the HDR app will make it easier. There will be fewer lights to fill in dark areas and using rolls of ND to bring windows back into range of the film. Here's a great example from NY times.

The HDR app is useful if the photographer knows how to use it. But there's a lot of bad HDR out there.
 

Vaughn

Subscriber
Joined
Dec 13, 2006
Messages
10,190
Location
Humboldt Co.
Format
Large Format
Which version is the original?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn more…