Fake HDR Tutorial
 

In this month's magazine there is an article on how to create a fake HDR effect in Elements including 'halo artefacts'. I can't understand why you would want to show these artefacts. Surely they show the limitations of HDR software and I imagine that in years to come software will be improved to the extent that they won't appear.

The halo is part of the HDR effect...Image a coloured photograph without the colour..its wouldt be right! The halo is to HDR like the color is to a coloured image!

I have tried my 1st HDR following this tutorial. Im not sure if I love or hate the effect to be fair. Its like the milky water debate. Love it or loathe it.

I'm not so sure about that. I've seen HDR images which have had the treatment applied very subtly and there haven't been haloes. I'm not sure what part of the processing causes the halo effect but you can see similar results if you oversharpen.

With the software I use the tool that increases or diminishes this 'halo' around edges is called 'light smoothing'. Personally I try and remove all these artefacts and 'HDR' effects while still retaining a high dynamic range. I want it to look naturalistic not artificial, if I could capture the full range in one exposure with my camera I'd try and do it. I think those unnatural and, to be frank, quite awful effects are what put people off this technique. I'm still experimenting with it though.

A quick search on Flickr will show some fantastic HDR images... and some godawful ones. I still can't understand why some people comment 'Fantastic picture' under the most horrendous, nausea-inducing images.

I still speak to photographers who say HDR is anathema to them but I think that is a blinkered view. This perception goes back to black and white versus colour, and film vs digital debates. Combining two exposures to get more dynamic range was done years ago by Gustave Le Gray in 1856 (apparently, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm mistaken) and was called combination printing, combining 2 negatives, one exposed for the sky, one for the ground. I'm being pedantic here but used carefully and with consideration it does work.

I know it's another topic but I get so frustrated if i can't get an image as I previsualised it therefore I'll use any means necessary to achieve it, if that means 'HDR' so be it.

When I have been experimenting (and Im still on the fence about HDR), its the final unsharp mask that gives the halo effect.