First HDRs, C&C appreciated.

MisterMcCruff

Hi all,

I was inspired by Trey Ratcliffe's work (http://www.stuckincustoms.com) and had my first serious go at HDR using Photomatix yesterday and would really appreciate some C&C.

This one was 3 x 2EV bracketed RAWs, processed twice in Photomatix and blended in CS3, then processed the original 0EV Raw in ACR for the duck and swan and blended them into the HDR image.

It looked great while i was editing it on my mac but looking at it on a PC now, it looks a bit overcooked.



This one, again was from 3 bracketed RAWs, processed in Photomatix, tonemapped and imported into CS3.
Two higher contrast layers were added, one gradient masked toward the top and the other towards the bottom.
Another medium opacity layer was created from the top half of the image and flipped to enhance the reflection in the water and blended in.
Flattened, sharpened, denoised using Imagenomic Noiseware Pro, resized and converted to 8bit jpeg for uploading.



I'm beginning the feel the HDR love

eoren1

I think you did a great job with these! I prefer the 1st photo with the foreground element. Impressed that you were able to maintain the ripples in the water without introducing stray ones. Looks like you kept the saturation in check and, on my laptop screen, I can't see any 'tell-tale' halos around the trees.
Good job! Look forward to seeing more of these.
E

JustPlainMe

I don't know how to do HDR, but the first image is definitely not overcooked. It has such a depth of detail and the colors are stunning. Great shot.

Vycor

They look good, i can't even tell they are HDR... but thats because when I do HDR i blow em out so they look artsy (thats what i like)... but these look good. Looks like 1 raw image just fixed up.

MisterMcCruff

Thank you for your comments.
They are truly appreciated and any criticisms/tips will be happily received.

I've been fairly anti-HDR for a while but producing shots that can give a good (if slightly embellished and enhanced) representation of what the human eye can see, and capture more of a moment and the emotion it inspires is something I've always been interested in.

I've always found that, especially in terms of landscape or travel photography in the past, my shots have lacked the sense of 'being there and seeing it for yourself' and have just been good 'snapshots'.

Despite these not being particularly engaging or exciting shots, I hope that using this technique in the future will give some more life and pop to some of my more interesting images.

I definitely think there's a place for the intense HDR shots that go above and beyond and give that intense and 'artsy' feel to a photograph and it's something I may experiment with in the future but it's not what gets me excited at the moment.

If all goes to plan, I'll be moving from the UK to LA for 3 months next September with my wonderfully talented girlfriend for her to write some music with some new writers and producers etc.
We'll then be moving on from place to place through the Cook Islands to New Zealand, Borneo, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, India and back across Europe so I'm hoping my travel photography will come on leaps and bounds.

Chris.

ront

I think they are great HDR photos Chris!! You obviously know your way around photoshop very well! I have just recently started experimenting with HDR photos. I to am trying to use it as a method to help the viewer see what my eyes saw. I try not to overcook them. I have a friend that keeps telling me that he will not try it as he is wanting to get the scene correct out of the camera. I agree with getting the scene correct, but the camera is just plain not capable of seeing what our eyes can see. It is like he is telling me that I am cheating.
Anyway, great picturess!!

Ron