Is HDR Dead? The TRUTH the Pros Know.

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[@kenalexander8714]

Excellent demo of HDR Jim. It's come a long way from the early HDR days. Final result is beautiful.

[@JimNix]

thank you so much Ken!

[@John-Shutterlyphotos]

HDR is definitely not dead. I shoot my own RE listings and I always give the seller/owner the choice between flambient and HDR photos as I show them samples. I only had 1 out of 27 listings asking for flambient over HDR in the last year. My HDR is very natural and I use a RE preset on Luminar Neo. By the way, love the end result of you photo, so pleasing to eye and natural. Great job, Jim!

[@JimNix]

Glad to hear you are having good success with HDR and thanks for watching!

[@John-Shutterlyphotos]

@@JimNix I think next year I am only going to offer HDR, it's been popular and much easier to do than Flambient.

[@JimNix]

@@John-Shutterlyphotos yeah makes sense and your customers are obviously interested

[@williamschone9358]

Excellent example of the bracket process without over doing it! I regularly do an single exposure HDR merge on many of my landscapes & then add it as a layer, backing off the intensity of the HDR layer. I would love to see Luminar a a “layer flattening” function to layer properties, but a simple export to tiff & edit that is a decent workaround. However, as you so we’ll illustrate with this video I need to get in the habit of shooting more brackets. Great video, thank you Jim.

[@JimNix]

thanks William, I appreciate it and yes blending in a new layer is a good option too and for sure I am hopeful they add more layer controls in the future, as we really need it

[@RonaldBrown59]

My HDR journey is similar to yours, I was super excited about HDR when I first discovered Trey Ratcliff online. And created a lot of over the top images with it. And gradually started to move away from it, at least he over the top stuff. But I still continued to shoot brackets. I even shoot a lot brackets with my drones. And the software tools are so much better in 2023, than they were in 2009 era. Great video Jim, and thanks for sharing.

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching Ron!

[@Theexplorographer]

It is amazing how much our photography journeys are similar. Started the same year, same HDR experience. There are really only 3 instances where I will use HDR these days. Abandoned locations where texture, interior/exterior lighting is super dynamic, and real estate photography. The 3rd instance is when I want to capture ever bit of light in a scene there is, and I feel that I want to be creative with my post processing. You just cannot beat 32bit HDR for light balancing. So yeah, totally agree with this video and I think if you shy away from HDR because of the stigma attached to it then you really are missing out. Neo makes it so easy now to get natural looking images with all the controllability you could ever need in your image processing. This is definitely a "need to be said" video!

[@JimNix]

thanks my friend, funny how our paths have been somewhat parallel in this regard - and hope you are well!

[@Theexplorographer]

You too brother. Would love to see you again some time. If you ever wanna do some waterfallin'. (spring is best) We do have a guest bedroom/bath. @@JimNix

[@JimNix]

@@Theexplorographer yeah that would be awesome and I do love waterfalls - I appreciate the offer!

[@DevilTyphoon]

Hi Jim! I alway appreciate all of your videos, I often make the mistake of forcing the red and blue spots to disappear, but your speech got me thinking. Photos are more natural and it is normal that there are areas of the photo that are very shadowed and very bright!

[@JimNix]

thanks much and yes I try to leave at least a dose of reality in my edits LOL and not going for a perfectly lit scene is one way I like to do it - thank you!

[@spidersj12]

I shoot 3 bracket sets all the time. The thing that bothers me most about bracketed shots is moving vehicles or birds. Deciduous trees after the leaves have fallen are also problem in wind with 3 bracketed shots. If there's sufficient light i shoot-2EV, 0EV, +2EV, with a shutter speed of 1/500 of a second at 0EV, that way there should be no blurring at +2EV with the accordingly slower shutter speed. This is what i shoot handheld and on atripod, at lower light levels at sunrise sunset, blue hour i have to either increase my ISO or lower the shutter speed and shooting on a tripod is best. We had a pretty page in my town for almost two hours in the wee hours of the morning. No HDR shots but i for get a few 30 second exposures but there was no way to focus at distance when everything is dark out there, even manually I couldn't guarantee anything was in focus. I'll have to check the results tonight.

[@JimNix]

Glad you are enjoying shooting and blending brackets and making photos. Thanks!

[@NeilMcAliece]

HDR is still a highly utilised tool in real estate photography and elsewhere. Like your examples it's just used as a tool to fix a problem rather than creating something that screams "HDR"

[@JimNix]

Totally agree.

[@davidchandler4788]

Hi Jim. I have started shooting brackets routinely as well. There are certainly more options available. You can choose to use HDR or not or some level of custom blending. This is really a nice shot and the video is very helpful.

[@JimNix]

thanks so much Dave and yeah it's nice to have the full bracket set if you want/need it but as you say you don't always have to use them all

[@STACYBURK]

I'm loving the new HDR feature in Lightroom. For the first time ever, I'm seeing the actual true colors of the sunsets that I'm actually seeing in real life. Of course, this requires an HDR tv or HDR phone. But most everyone has HDR monitors and phones nowadays.

[@JimNix]

yes for sure, very cool of LR to do that!

[@MCCC72-77]

Thanks Jim, for the advice on HDR. Your opinion justifies my continual use of bracketing, if for no other reason than to insure the best tone I can get for a given scene. I shoot 3-brackets, but need to try out your recommendation of using “0” for the lightest exposure as I’ve had some overexposure problems even with the blended image; not always, but enough where I need to make some changes, especially when I have no choice but to shoot a picture in less than optimal lighting conditions. Unfortunately, when you’re a “vacation” photographer like me, you don’t always get the best lighting where you’re at. Thanks again….

[@JimNix]

thanks much and yes I almost always shoot a darker set of brackets vs a perfectly centered one, and I like the results - I was often getting a big blown out mess for the bright exposure so shifting things to a darker set helped with that for sure - thanks!

[@paulmarbach6447]

This tutorial is intense and an excellent source of inspiration.

[@JimNix]

oh awesome, glad you enjoyed it, and thanks!

[@jean-benoitdestaercke3638]

I always forget this possibility of bracketing. In view of what it is possible to obtain as a result, it is a shame not to take advantage of it. I will try during my future photo outings (autumn colors will lend themselves well to this exercise). Thank you for this reminder and this convincing demonstration.

[@JimNix]

Thank you so much and I hope you have a lot fun out taking photos!

[@hepgeoff]

Another nice edit, Jim! Love the composition.

[@JimNix]

thank you Geoff!

[@pathfindercod4638]

I’ve been shooting bracket shots of EVERYTHING since I bought a new Nikon D700 like 20 years ago or whenever it was. I may not always merge them but I like having options when processing if I need them. Processed properly hdr is great. I sometimes get carried away with over doing it.

[@JimNix]

thanks for watching and yeah I sometimes get carried away a bit too!

[@Centauri27]

Very true--HDR got a bad rep due to the garish over-the-top images. Hopefully its reputation will change as more "subtle" HDR blends become the norm. Or perhaps we should just all move to the more generic term "bracketing". As always, I love your edits and your photographic style Jim!

[@JimNix]

thanks so much Carl, I appreciate it!

[@danielhauck7128]

Great job Jim, I'm new to bracketing. Love the image

[@JimNix]

thanks so much Daniel!

[@markflanagan521]

Enjoyed that one Jim, nice an easy understanding 👍

[@JimNix]

thanks so much Mark!

[@fatcatchet]

Not to HDR'SH at all in my opinion. Looks great. I use this for architecture and I try not to saturate so much because I want to make the home the focal point but for landscape it looks great. But the great thing about Aurora and Luminar Neo is you have the choice to go either way.

[@JimNix]

thanks much and yes makes sense about architecture/real estate, you def want it to look very natural, and agree we have the choice in landscapes to do what we like with the image - thanks!

[@joeandjan]

Very well presented Jim and once again thank you for passing down your knowledge and expertise in HDR as we all learn more and more on this subject :)

[@JimNix]

thank you for watching Joe!

[@ninthsunn]

like you, i was never a fan of hdr and to this day i haven’t shoot bracketing. but this is very encouraging compared to what it was, i might try it now that i’ve seen your video. great result! thanks for sharing.

[@JimNix]

thank you so much and hope you have fun with it!

[@alangauld6079]

A nice edit. I use ND grads a lot(usually 3 or 4 stop) to control the light, just because they work better for moving subjects. But where contrast is really high, bracketing is the only way to go. While you say it's not about colour I did like how you used color harmony to bring out the sunrise colours here. Rich but believable. I do have the Neo HDR extension but I confess I prefer the old Aurora tool. In fact, nowadays I've started using the Nik collection HDR Efex tool because it gives me more control (and I already had the Nik collection for its other components)

[@JimNix]

thanks much and yes I have filters that I use at times as well - glad you liked these colors, I certainly enjoyed bringing them to life 😀and yes Aurora was great but I don't miss it simply because I have everything I need in Neo these days - and yes I used Nik HDR Efex years ago but just don't use DXO/Nik anymore, although they are great tools for sure

[@bobmartin2447]

Another very helpful video. Thanks!

[@JimNix]

thank you Bob!

[@leonfisher]

Just the right amount of pop.

[@JimNix]

thank you Leon!

[@tlg6339]

Though it is a bit more processing than I prefer, I can't deny it looks very good.

[@JimNix]

Cool thanks!

[@fenraven]

It's wonderful we live in a time when what we can do to photos is so deep and varied. I use all kinds of tools and effects to get what I want from a picture, and I experiment constantly. HDR is still in my bag of tricks, because in some situations, brackets are the perfect thing to shoot. "Light" is always my first consideration. I want interesting, magnificent light, and I'll do anything to get it. Heh.

[@JimNix]

I'm right there with you Theo!

[@keithj30]

Great example of hdr. The only issue I have is the boat seat is a bit overpowering

[@JimNix]

thanks and yep I could have toned that seat down a little

[@AaronCampbellPhoto]

Bad Tonemapping is what gave the “over-the-top” HDR look; not high dynamic range.

[@JimNix]

yes totally agreed, it was all called "HDR" generally but for sure the over the top tonemapping made it look terrible

[@emrg777]

Far from dead. Every modern phone image is a computational burst shot so it's entrenched... just managing your edit as you suggest is really the key if you don't want HDR vomit 😂

[@JimNix]

ha so true!

[@ghqservicesmiddlegeorgiadr9986]

Thanks, very nice.

[@JimNix]

thank you!

[@supergolfdude]

Lord knows I’ve gone back and deleted the HDR pics from my Flickr account! Funny how we thought these monstrosities were cool back then. 😬

[@JimNix]

LOL I have never deleted anything, and yeah I burned some pixels back then for sure! Maybe it will serve as a warning for anyone that looks at my old Flickr stuff LOL.

[@davidcross9394]

still using Aurora.

[@AaronCampbellPhoto]

I do as well. The HDR plugin in Luminar Neo isn’t as full-featured as Aurora (and I don’t want to pay more money for Luminar Neo plugins).

[@JimNix]

That's cool if it works for you. It was a great product, although I am totally happy using HDR Merge inside of Neo and finishing my edit there.

[@SparksJohnson]

I love your videos and this one struck a nerve - the good old HDR days. I have been with Skylum since the intro of Aurora HDR Pro 2016 and Tray's Ratcliff's early work. HDR changed my photoworld. With all of that said, I really perked up hearing how you braket the exposure. And, during you edit process I kept saying "bring out that building ... come on now, give me that building for some depth". At the end, there it was and you edit was beautiful. Your edit is inspiring but since you ask, I wanted to see even a tad more detail in the large shadow area. Can I ask ... what do you do with your photos? Put them up for CCO, stock, branding for clients, or just get tremendous inner piece at your creations? [ to name a few]. Great job and keep up the service to the community.

[@JimNix]

thanks so much and yeah there is a lot you can do with HDR images in terms of light, but as I said here I like to leave some shadow because it feels more real to me - and as for my images, I license them to companies, sell prints, etc but mostly just use them in educational content like these videos - thanks so much!

[@harrogatefan4976]

How do you get to see a blown out sky you say you press the j key but how do you do it in windows ?

[@JimNix]

I'm pretty sure the J key work son a PC too. Any blown out area will be covered in red, after pressing the J key.