HDR usually looks fake because people are usually over doing it, as to show off that they are using HDR technique, it's a bit of a challenge to get it just right and not to overblow it.. I found out you can go for maximum details and not for that overblown halo effect around everything, but then noone knows it's HDR..colin wrote:.exr or .hdr would be nice - i agree.
on the other hand i have to disagree on what has been said - well, some at least.
because - lets not forget that an hdr image looks fake. windows ARE blown out to our eyes.
still - i think exr/hdr files would give us the opportunity to (for instance) decide at what point to convert to an 8bit, within our working-pipeline, by ourselves.
colin
And our eyes don't perform the same as digital photographs, when I take a picture pointing towards a window the exposure is overblown at the window similar to what happens in Octane, unless you use enough light inside with a flash, then you can lower the exposure and get the exterior properly lit up..
When you use your eyes you can see the blue sky outside, but the photo is showing it much brighter, so either a flash in the interior, (or mesh lights in octane), or use the HDR technique.. I think our eyes use the HDR technique in real time
You can also tonemap a single RAW EXR picture inside photoshop or photomatix when you take a single digital photo instead of three or more, but this is usually not recommended because there is less information there, so I am taking this analogy to Octane and I would guess that the tonemapping would be better if it was done inside octane so we get more control over shadows and bright areas, and also to save it to HDR later on ..
Anyways.. that's it, have to use everything you can get..