Urban Scapes

dlplumer

Went downtown today to shoot some Urban HDR shots. Let me know what you think



Urban Art



Tucson Chicago Store



Restored

kwork

Great collection

Awais Yaqub

These are great Dan

dlplumer

kwork wrote:

Great collection

Thanks very much Kevin.

dlplumer

Awais Yaqub wrote:

These are great Dan

Appreciate that Awais.

coscorrosa

Really like #2 and #3. The composition in #2 is fantastic.

One slight nit-pick with the second and that's the motion of the painter's hand which I think would be fine with a single long exposure, but the HDR artificats are pretty obvious (HDR is great, and I use it all the time, but one thing that it really doesn't do well is handle slight movements, large movements aren't as a big of a deal, as it ends up looking like a normal long exposure type blur).

dlplumer

coscorrosa wrote:

Really like #2 and #3. The composition in #2 is fantastic.

One slight nit-pick with the second and that's the motion of the painter's hand which I think would be fine with a single long exposure, but the HDR artificats are pretty obvious (HDR is great, and I use it all the time, but one thing that it really doesn't do well is handle slight movements, large movements aren't as a big of a deal, as it ends up looking like a normal long exposure type blur).

Thanks Ron, and I appreciate your coaching.

CWSkopec

Very nicely done, Dan!!

I like that this set isn't so obviously manipulated and "over-done." What software are you using to do your HDR work?

dlplumer

CWSkopec wrote:

Very nicely done, Dan!!

I like that this set isn't so obviously manipulated and "over-done." What software are you using to do your HDR work?

Thanks a lot Chris. I'm using Photomatix for the Tone Mapping and then Aperture for PP.

Dan

jeffmeyers

Dan,

Yes, I too like the fact that the HDR is not obvious. Sometimes that works; sometimes it doesn't.

A couple of comments. I like #2 the best. Too bad the painter is a bit blurred, but maybe it highlights his work.

#1 - the shadow in the middle is a bit distracting

#3 - just perfect. Love it.

#4 - the composition is a bit off for me. Maybe it's the fact that the top of the bldg is cut off. Not sure.

Thanks for posting! Always feel free to rip into any of mine I post!

kdog

dlplumer wrote:

Went downtown today to shoot some Urban HDR shots. Let me know what you think

What do I think? I think I need to go out and shoot more HDRs.
Very inspiring. Love 'em all, but agree that the comp in the last one doesn't quite work for me. Super job otherwise.

dlplumer

jeffmeyers wrote:

Dan,

Yes, I too like the fact that the HDR is not obvious. Sometimes that works; sometimes it doesn't.

A couple of comments. I like #2 the best. Too bad the painter is a bit blurred, but maybe it highlights his work.

#1 - the shadow in the middle is a bit distracting

#3 - just perfect. Love it.

#4 - the composition is a bit off for me. Maybe it's the fact that the top of the bldg is cut off. Not sure.

Thanks for posting! Always feel free to rip into any of mine I post!

Thank you very much Jeff for taking the time to provide me with good critical feedback. Very much appreciated.

dlplumer

kdog wrote:

What do I think? I think I need to go out and shoot more HDRs.
Very inspiring. Love 'em all, but agree that the comp in the last one doesn't quite work for me. Super job otherwise.

Thanks Joel. I'm really enjoying the HDR wagon right now. It can produce incredibly dynamic photos with awesome flexibility in PP, and it is easy to use. Lately I've been taking 3 exposures from -1 to +1 which seems to work really well for me. The one thing that I still have not solved is the banding artifacts that show up on pure blue sky. I can minimize these, but it is a balancing act.

Dan

kdog

dlplumer wrote:

The one thing that I still have not solved is the banding artifacts that show up on pure blue sky.

Can you post an example of what you're talking about? Is there some I'm seeing in the "Restored" shot? Also, what's your workflow like. Are you shooting raw, or jpg? If raw, are you opening the HDRs in Photomatix, or converting them before you open them? Or feel free to ignore all this if I'm being too nosy.

Edit: reason I ask is that I've not seen the banding issues. The only funny sky issue I've had was that "glow" around the joshua tree on that one shot with the moon I posted.

dlplumer

kdog wrote:

Can you post an example of what you're talking about? Is there some I'm seeing in the "Restored" shot? Also, what's your workflow like. Are you shooting raw, or jpg? If raw, are you opening the HDRs in Photomatix, or converting them before you open them? Or feel free to ignore all this if I'm being too nosy.

Edit: reason I ask is that I've not seen the banding issues. The only funny sky issue I've had was that "glow" around the joshua tree on that one shot with the moon I posted.

I shoot in RAW only. I import into Aperture. Then, I put 3 exposures into Photomatix, make some adjustments and save, import back into Aperture, and make final adjustments.

If you look at the sky in #2 you can see some banding.

kdog

Just for fun, why don't you try opening the raw files directly in Photomatix? It works, and that's what I do. It's true that the documentation specifically recommends doing it the way you're doing. But it might be worth doing it the other way just to see if you get the same issues. Like I say, I haven't gotten any banding that I've noticed by letting Photomatix work directly with the RAWs.

dlplumer

kdog wrote:

Just for fun, why don't you try opening the raw files directly in Photomatix? It works, and that's what I do. It's true that the documentation specifically recommends doing it the way you're doing. But it might be worth doing it the other way just to see if you get the same issues. Like I say, I haven't gotten any banding that I've noticed by letting Photomatix work directly with the RAWs.

I'll try it. Thanks Joel