Playing with HDR setting on my Z30

[KrisZ]

While perhaps not the most striking in the pictures below, but I find the HDR setting on my Blackberry Z30 quite interesting. The black may look washed out but the setting does bring out the shine.

Anyway, I though I'd share the pictures and my freshly washed car

Non HDR


HDR


Non HRD


HDR

 

[sciphi]

Looks shiny!

HDR looks like an ultra-realistic cartoon to me. It's not you, just HDR not meshing with my visual processing.

 

[beast3300]

What's a Blackberry?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Uhh... HDR has its place, but this isn't one of them. Way overdone.

If you want the blacks to show well, photograph the sunny side, not the side that's in the shadow.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

BlackBerry produces some great pics. My wife likes using my Z10 over her iPhone for pics.

 

[KrisZ]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Uhh... HDR has its place, but this isn't one of them. Way overdone.




I'm new to this HDR thing and yes I noticed that HDR fails badly in some situations. HDR sky, for example looks horrible IMO. I also took some pics inside the house and I think the HDR in that situation works much better. The light from the windows is not as overexposed while retaining the details inside the room. I'll post the pics later on.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

Does your phone do real HDR by taking three different exposures and combining them or does it just mess with the picture in processing?

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: KrisZ
I'm new to this HDR thing and yes I noticed that HDR fails badly in some situations.

Not sure what the settings are in your device as far as HDR goes. In cameras, you can set how heavy the HDR effect is going to be. Depending on the subject, some HDR may be fine, but a lot of HDR usually makes images look very fake. But again, it all depends on the effect that you're trying to achieve. Sometimes you just don't want a realistic looking image.

 

[KrisZ]

Here is a nice example. The HDR one on its own, it wound be hard to tell how it was taken. And the phone takes three pictures for the HDR effect.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Yup. This one looks alright.

You could achieve similar result by bringing out the shadows and dialing down the highlights in a photo editing program (see below - I used your non-HDR photo), alas, that's extra work of course.

Generally, scenes with a lot of contrast and strong spot light are tough to photograph. You'd probably get a better overall shot if you closed the shades.