My First HDR - C&C Please

[HughGuessWho]

My first request for C&C
and
My first HDR (worth sharing, anyway)
3 exposures +1/0/-1 EV
Aperture Priority
Model - Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XSi
Sigma 17-50mm f/2.8 EX DC OS HSM FLD
4 ND
ISO 100
ShutterSpeedValue - 1/2 seconds
ApertureValue - F 22.00
FocalLength - 30.00 mm

Any and all opinions, suggestions and comments are welcome and desired.

[TPF Sponsor]

[bs0604]

Great composition. I would clone out the branches at the top and extreme left.

[Bynx]

Not enough Highlight Smoothing. This is why the water and sky look so dirty.

[HughGuessWho]

Not enough Highlight Smoothing. This is why the water and sky look so dirty.

Thanks for the input.
Question; As a TPF Noob I have to ask; Is it acceptable to apply suggestions give to the picture and repost it for further C&C?

[vipgraphx]

I don't like the branch in the upper part of the picture. There is clearly ghosting in the clouds and what bynx said dirty blues and dirty white. Either move up smoothing, whites or luminance to the right. I would personally use a combination of all three for this image.

Trick for the sky using photo matix. Use your ghosting tool and select the entire sky. Click to preview as this will show you what it will look like. Go back to selection mode and if you are satisfied with the clouds continue if not right click in the selection and choose what exposure you want and preview again. This will take out that ghosting.

If you do not use this method in photomatix then is photo shop bring in one of your exposures and create a mask on your processed image and paint out the ghosting.

Hope that helps you.

Not bad composition however I would have taken this shot in landscape mode ......

[Rotanimod]

I like the shot. Yes you can post edits, best way for you to learn.

I think it feels generally underexposed. Moving some sliders in Photomatix will probably fix the issue. Or bumping the overall exposure could help too.

I like portrait orientation here because you have 1/3 of each element. Good image, processing could be better.

[Bynx]

I would have cropped the top just at the bottom part of those branches. It would create everything in thirds. 1/3 sky, 1/3 trees and 1/3 water. You can change your image and repost it for further CC. Keep doing it until it looks the best it can be.

[EchoingWhisper]

And not enough local contrast.

[EchoingWhisper]

Also, bad composition, really cluttered, might be better without HDR-ing.

[Bynx]

The HDR you did is the pics best feature.

[HughGuessWho]

Also, bad composition, really cluttered, might be better without HDR-ing.

Thank you, I welcome all critique, good and bad, but can you elaborate and not just say "bad composition" and "really cluttered"? I know there has been a lot of mention about the branches at the top. Cluttered though? I didn’t pose anything, it a natural scene. Again, not opposed to the critique, but I would like to learn from the critique.
Thanks nonetheless.

[HughGuessWho]

The HDR you did is the pics best feature.

Thank you Bynx,
I must say, I like your crop better. Actually, I left the branches in the shot intentionally in an attempt to “frame” the shot, but I see now how they were distracting. When I go flip back and forth between yours and mine it makes since. In my crop my eyes go directly to the branches at the top, whereas on yours my attention is immediately on the frosted water.
Thanks for the input and the help.

[EchoingWhisper]

The waterfalls looks nice, but the trees are really distracting, I tried to decrease the saturation of the trees and see if the distraction is gone, but it is still there.

[HughGuessWho]

The waterfalls looks nice, but the trees are really distracting, I tried to decrease the saturation of the trees and see if the distraction is gone, but it is still there.

You know, that was my very first thought, then, the more I looked at it, the more I started to like the colors in the trees. So, I think I may have just talked myself into liking it. I quess I need to learn to follow my initial instinct. Thats probably a typical noob mistake.
Thank you for your input.

[Bynx]

I dont follow the logic here. If you shoot a woodland scene with some flowing water, how can you find the trees a distraction? This is a scene of an area, not specifically a shot of water with some annoying trees. The colors of the trees go nicely with the texture of the flowing water. I think Echo must be smoking something funny.