My first two HDR's - C&C PLEASE!

SimpsonBrothers

Ok, here are my first two HDR's
Please critique!

hawkeye978

I assume you are going for a natural look in both of these.

The first looks good. No unnatural feeling in the sky and there's good contrast throughout. The contrast may be a touch strong in the rocks on the right but I think that's to a matter of taste.

The second has good detail but I think it needs to have a curves adjustment to increase the contrast. It seems a little flat.

My two cents....

SimpsonBrothers

Thank you

acowan

#1 looks good with exception of the rocks...they look soft/out of focus. The overall feel isn't overwhelmingly HDR, so thats good. Overall nice photo!

#2 is way over the top IMO. The small sign on the bridge would seem to be blown regardless of HDR treatment. Injecting more contrast would make this look better. (It also has a bit of an Orton effect or softness to it...I guess its from haloing(?)).

Sexy6Chick

^I agree about the rocks in #1, other than that awesome job.

Really like both of them, well done!

Jonnyyaya

Great Photos!! I like #1 the best I agree.

The Rocks jumped out at me also..

NorthernFocus

The first one is pretty cool. I agree with others the rocks in lower right are a bit bright. The second one is overdone IMO. Not enough contrast to look natural. Nice colors though.

limited60

IMO, doing an HDR, you can go in 2 directions....
1. Over the top and surreal looking--which has it's place
2. Minimally tone mapping to bring out the highlights the eye saw, that the camera didn't pick up.

I like the first one a lot, but like others have said, nearly everything in #2 is blurry and it feels unnaturally bright.
I love the content of the second picture a lot, but don't necessarily feel the same way about it as I do #1.

Was the second one done handheld?

SimpsonBrothers

limited60 wrote:

Was the second one done handheld?

No, 3 bracket exposure on a tripod aligned in Photomatix

Art Scott

I like both...bowthumbthumb...but #1 the most.....it is the subject.....as for #2 looking blurry......not on my monitordunno

Eclipsed

I like both of them. Number 2 is just a little flat for my taste but I like the dreamier look. It looks soft yet sharp at the same time.

The best way to get good at HDRs is to do a lot of them. You will develop your own style and will learn when it works and when it doesn't.