HDR Sunsets

Vycor

Heres two I took this evening. I didn't bother fixing them so they looked, more realistic, pretty much because everytime I do a photo, i have to manually go in and remove the spots from a dirty sensor. My sensor cleaning kit arrives tomm so then i'll do more realistic looking ones.

Plus Im having trouble getting them to look good. Im using about 10 photos for each, should I try LESS photos maybe? Also, with the plugin in photoshop i manually hafta play with the exposure and thats where i always mess up.

Let me know what you think and if you can offer any advice/assistance for my future HDR's:

CatOne

10 shots?

I'd think 3 would be sufficient... with a couple stops latitude between each of them.

There's pretty major posterization in the top one around the sun, and the second one... meh.

HDR sunsets don't really do it for me, though. Personally i rarely find HDR to give that pleasing of a result.

Dogdots

I don't do HDR's...but I like #2. The sun seems to bright in the first photo which kinda distracts from the rest of the photo.

Vycor

The camera actually picked up the sun like that. It was setting and the rays were coming out, so i decided to try an HDR with that.

Dogdots

Vycor wrote:

The camera actually picked up the sun like that. It was setting and the rays were coming out, so i decided to try an HDR with that.

I like the rays

Vycor

Thanks, im learning still, but people keep saying they look more like paintings... so maybe i sould entitle these "Real Life Paintings"

Joe M

HDR can produce some incredible sunsets.

Some problems you may be having is too many photos. Personally I use 5 images at +-2 EV and that seems to be plenty. I really see no reason to have 10.

When you start taking photos at sunset or dawn you may end up with a photo or more that is too dark. I know with Photomatix this can cause problems in Details Enhancer. You can get excessive noise and very strange results. If you have photos in the set that seem completely black with no detail don't include them when you combine the images.

In your photos the water and shore lack detail. That may be because you are using too may photos and the software is having a hard time combining them.

Good luck and keep trying.

Vycor

I think your right Joe. Im using about 10 photos everytime. Im just afraid to miss anything.

The first HDR I ever did, I used I think 3-4 photos, and it came out amazing with the sunset. I was still learning so things were all dark and weird looking, but still amazing.

Moist of my HDR's now im taking 10 photos and its a pain sometimes.

I'll try the 3-4 method again like i started with and how most do it and see my results. I'll try the sunset from same spot today to see how i pickup the sand. I agree the sand lacks any detail, its plain and dark.