Phew that was a lot of work just reading that! Lol! 

I think I will be able to do all that once I get a tripid, but since I am only able to hold my camera right now I should stick to the 3 shots. 

I should be okay with just the 3 since the files I am using are RAW and not JPEG, right?

33 RAW files should give good results, especially if you can also use PS5's layers to mask problem areas where necessary. 

OOOOPS! 

33 RAW files will be required for 11 HDR photos 

OOOOPS! 

33 RAW files will be required for 11 HDR photos 

Hahahahaha!  I knew there was some piece of missing information in that post!  I am going to stick to the mutli-exposures for the HDR.  I don't want to hurt my brain just yet, especially with everything else I am trying to learn. 

Quote from: Chelie on February 20, 2012, 09:17:42 AM

Thats what I was thinking too!  I shot the 3 exposures, but was told by a friend that with that wide of a range in only 3 shots, my HDR will always come out "cartoonish" as he says.  He is shooting with a Nikon D3100 so I am guessing that camera has the feature to shoot 5 whereas we can only shoot 3?

I think that's either a case of 'sour grapes', or a failure to understand how HDR software works. Sour grapes because apparently the D3100 doesn't do braketing at all! I did a google, and discovered people noting this as quite an omission on such a camera. So it could be that he wants to believe that a bracketing of three is no good. (That way, he doesn't have to envy us... LOL!) The other reasons could be that he doesn't realise that the software blends different exposures based on the extremes that it's working with, interpolating other levels in between. If he thinks that the image will be made from only three actual levels, then he's going to imagine that it comes out patchy and cartoonish. It's also possible that he doesn't understand RAW, or doesn't have access to it or the software to manipulate it, so he doesn't realise the extent that you can skew the exposure after the event.

The bottom line is, the advice you'll get here is far superior (where's the tongue in cheek smiley LOL ?)

Thanks Andy!  I had no idea that you couldn't do that on the D3100!  You have no idea how happy it makes me that I chose Canon even more so now because I would have been FURIOUS if I wasn't able to do what I did yesterday, lol!!  I think that when it comes to camera-specific advice, I'll stick to fellow Canon users.  Of course with this fella, he doesn't exactly wait for you to ask for his opinion before he gives it. 

tekwiz - you have read right. If your scene that you are shooting is a grand total of 7 stops from the darks to the lights and you want all seven of those stops to be exposed correctly then you would need to bracket 7 shots but you would have to bracket them the way the scene dictated. In other words maybe it was 4 over, one normal, and just two under.

Now I only typed that out the way I did to tell you that it is the truth if you are shooting to properly expose a scene with bracketed shots.

Today we are mostly not trying to get perfect exposures across a 7 stop range as most people who really enjoy photos also understand that shadows happen and unless you are in some kind of controlled lighting area then you should not really have all 7 stops perfectly exposed.

What we are trying to do is stretch the dynamic range of our camera to show a nice representation of the tonalities that show up in a scene by enhancing that range of exposure.

To answer you Chelie and to be honest most of your HDR will do well with three bracketed shots. Five shots will help with a more complex scene but for anyone to tell you that you will get cartoon like images with three shots is just full of shit. You will get the same cartoon shots with five shots if the cartoon look is what you are after. If just spreading the DR is what you are after then again you will do well with three shots but truthfully you can do better with five in some, but no way every scene.

And for the record, I shot in manual and bracket all the time. Mostly three shots but in one of those really spread out scenes I will shoot as many shots as I feel I need to get it all.

tekwiz - you have read right. If your scene that you are shooting is a grand total of 7 stops from the darks to the lights and you want all seven of those stops to be exposed correctly then you would need to bracket 7 shots but you would have to bracket them the way the scene dictated. In other words maybe it was 4 over, one normal, and just two under.

Now I only typed that out the way I did to tell you that it is the truth if you are shooting to properly expose a scene with bracketed shots.

Today we are mostly not trying to get perfect exposures across a 7 stop range as most people who really enjoy photos also understand that shadows happen and unless you are in some kind of controlled lighting area then you should not really have all 7 stops perfectly exposed.

What we are trying to do is stretch the dynamic range of our camera to show a nice representation of the tonalities that show up in a scene by enhancing that range of exposure.

To answer you Chelie and to be honest most of your HDR will do well with three bracketed shots. Five shots will help with a more complex scene but for anyone to tell you that you will get cartoon like images with three shots is just full of shit. You will get the same cartoon shots with five shots if the cartoon look is what you are after. If just spreading the DR is what you are after then again you will do well with three shots but truthfully you can do better with five in some, but no way every scene.

And for the record, I shot in manual and bracket all the time. Mostly three shots but in one of those really spread out scenes I will shoot as many shots as I feel I need to get it all.

Thanks Skippy!!  I have a feeling my friend is taking advantange of the fact that I am new to this and he's trying to turn me into him.  This is something I do not want because honestly...I am not a particular fan of his photos, lol!

I really think I will look into ML now because I would love the option to do 5 shots after watching a tut that bgray linked me last night.  Even though those extra 2 shots might now always be needed, but its better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it, right?  My only fear is hurting my poor Cami.

..yes, I named my T2i Cami.  Lol!

yep it really is that easy.

I have the less expensive version of photomatix, it can only use up to five pics, most of the time I use three or four.  When I am taking bracketed shots for HDR, I first set my bracketing the extremes, as fas as it will let me.  I take my three shots, then I tone it done to about half of the extreme, take three more.  You'll have six shots total.  Two will be identical.  So basically you have five.  I just play around with using three, four or five shots.  Most of the time I cannot tell a difference between three and five shots. 
Something to keep in mind if you are bracketing your shots manually.  USE A TRIPOD!!!!  If not, you're shots won't line up and you'll have to do some extra editing like cropping.  I've taken three shots handheld, but only in really good light. 
Photomatix does a good job of lining up photos.