Inspired #5: HDR Pt3 - Portraits

Oct 19

Inspired #5: HDR Pt3 - Portraits

Posted at 1:34 AM on October 19th, 2008 by Alex

This post is part of an ongoing series at That INDIE Dude called “Inspired”. True creativity and originality demand true inspiration. The point of this series is to help readers find new and fresh areas of inspiration in their lives, so as to help them find their most creative and original selves.

HDR Photography: 62 Incredibly Expressive Portraits.

If you missed them, be sure to start out with the first two parts of the HDR series:

Part 3, is going to stray a little bit from the rest. I thought about doing HDR from all other sources around the ‘net, but then realized that one of my favorite online art communities, DeviantART, actually has MORE unbelievable HDR pics than Picasa and Flickr. So, for fear of boring everyone with just another 50 awesome pics from DeviantArt, I decided to focus this post on one of my favorite applications of HDR: Portraits!

While HDR is everywhere now-a-days, it seems to be over-run by a few general uses: buildings, landscapes (including water), and cars/shiny surfaces. These are all great, but it gets a little repetitive sometimes. One place, though, that I’ve been particularly interested in the application of HDR, is portrait photography. If we really can count on creative HDR use presenting an image with more expression than a regular photograph - why not apply it to the ultimate expressive-engine: the human face?

I’ve been messing around with HDR portrait photography for a while now, and I’m addicted. I have to say: it is DEFINITELY one of the hardest applications of HDR, but when it works out you get some of the most incredible portraits out there. So, without further ado, hit the jump below to see 62 INCREDIBLE HDR portraits found on Deviant Art.

There you have it! Stay tuned for next week — I’ll have some HDR tutorials headed your way.

As always, DON’T FORGET TO CLICK THE PICS! You’ll be taken to the photographer’s page on DeviantArt, where you can buy copies, browse more of their great work, and whatever else. These photographers are obviously pretty awesome — why not give them some support?

Did I miss anything? Feel free to leave your own HDR portrait favorites in the comments below!

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Tags: HDR, inspiration, photography, portraits

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008 at 1:34 am and is filed under design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Inspired #5: HDR Pt3 - Portraits”

Judith Says:
October 20th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
thanks dude!
I love the other portraits too! Especially the old guys, i think those people are made for HDR haha
Taylor Says:
October 21st, 2008 at 12:46 am
I may agree a little with Judith about older people in HDR. Maybe its the fact that thier faces really seem to just mesh with the highlighting it does (from the wrinkles and such on thier faces) .. it overall looks great.

I also am flattered you used that photo of me you turned into a HDR portrait up there

I am torn with HDR though. I guess for someone who has no idea what it is.. Some of the portraits you posted as examples i find very poor examples.. if thats what HDR is such as the blonde woman with the finger on her mouth.. where all they did was basically make the white of her eye so intensly bright it looks terrible.. then I don’t get it. I wasn’t sure what it was exactally for a while. Now I seen enough photos to know what good and real HDR is. I mean is that real HDR or just a random oversaturation of the Dodge tool in photoshop on her eye.. or like the BW close up of the guys face four photos down.. dosent look like anything was even done to the photo.

I just would like to know more about what HDR is and what process or things you do to acheive actual HDR looks.
Alex Says:
October 21st, 2008 at 1:07 am
Judith - Thanks Great stuff! And yeah… old dudes and HDR — priceless. They just have so many shadows to bring out in the midst of all those rinkles

Taylor - haha — most of my best pictures have you in them And…

AWESOME criticisms. I challenge you to look more closely, though (if you haven’t already). Like most digital photography, these are all MUCH higher res in their original versions than the puny space I was able to give their thumbnails on this page. Thus — take the reminder at the bottom to GO SEE THE FULL VERSIONS if you haven’t already!

I chose both of those pictures because I thought they had something VERY unique to add to the conversation, and with both, that special “something” is in the details. Get the full-res and I bet you’ll see why neither could be done with merely “saturation” or just a black and white filter. They both show dynamic ranges WAY beyond what normal photography can offer. In fact, those seemingly super-saturated whites of her eyes turn out to not be over saturated at all — you still see details in the highlights in the full-res. And with his black and white, you see shadow details unimaginable with a standard shot.

Perhaps you’ll still disagree — which is, of course, fine. The whole point of ANY art is that the artist is expressing his or her self — not necessarily to please everyone out there. I know YOU know that as well as anyone Your photography is AMAZING, yet some people just don’t “get” it. (*cough*… Fair Judges… *cough*). Don’t write HDR off as a viable form of photography though! (I’m not saying you are… that’s more for anyone else tempted to do so.) There is no “good and real” HDR standard to meet — only what the artist is attempting to express, which can change a million times before AND after the picture is taken

Unfortunately, the series is still going, and I haven’t gotten to my tutorial and specifics of HDR. BUT, I did leave a short description of what the technique does to photos in the first post in the series, so check that out for the basics: http://www.thatindiedude.com/2008/10/inspired-3-hdr-photos-flickr/ . Other than that description, stay tuned for the next post in the series for the in-depth on what is going on and the how-to

-A
alan Root Says:
October 25th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
You demonstrate quite well some of the more extraordinary capacities of HDR when cameras turn away from scenes and turn to the landscapes of human faces.
Adolf Says:
November 20th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I have a bit of a problem with HDR in general: some HDR photos (I’d say most of them) have no merit beyond a good HDR processing. There are some photos that don’t even have that! HDR is a wonderful technique, I really like the effects that can be achieved using it, but sometimes I wonder when I see an HDR photo, “would that still be a good photo without the HDR processing?” And sadly, most of the times the answer is “no”. For example, the buildings and shiny surface you mention. A lot of photos look just like a show-off of someone’s processing abilities, without an ounce of, let’s call it “traditional” photographic skills.

Wait… was that a rant? Damn… Anyway, you have a good selection here, thanks for sharing it!

Adolf

Oct 19