My first real go at HDR

[R-NAGE Photography]

I'm not really a big fan of the HDR stuff, more art than photography.
That said I really want to know how its done and this was my fist shot.
I didnt try to go crazy with it either.
Please guys C&C very welcome!!!!!!!!!

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[Bitter Jeweler]

I am not big on car shots, but the HDR really brought out the clouds, didn't it.
Looks great to me.

[R-NAGE Photography]

I am not big on car shots, but the HDR really brought out the clouds, didn't it.
Looks great to me.

Not big on shooting cars either!!
My buddy called me up and I was bored!

Thanks for the feedback!!

[Invictus]

i think the biggest thing it brought out was the shadow underneath the car. sweet looking ride, i drive an R32 GTR (NISSAN NOT VW LOL!)

[GeneralBenson]

The car looks pretty underexposed to me, and the lighting on it is pretty boring and directionless. There are still a lot of blown out highlights in the sky, which I'm not a fan of. If you're going to do HDR, why not capture all the information. Pretty good for a first try though. A lot better than my first tries.

[adamwilliamking]

Yeah I agree that the background should not be OOF at all if you're doing HDR. The dynamic range of the car is nice but after that it all falls off to OOF.
Aperture 14+ would be my reccomendation.

[R-NAGE Photography]

Thanks guys!!
Deff gave me some new stuff to think about for the next time!

[R-NAGE Photography]

OK...so same car diff time of day. Same result or better?? Thoughts?

[point-&-shoot]

OK...so same car diff time of day. Same result or better?? Thoughts?

i like this one better. the only issue with both is that the clouds and sunset are so beautiful that it take my eyes away from the subject of the photo.

[Ajlista]

OK...so same car diff time of day. Same result or better?? Thoughts?

I know pretty much, 0, nothing about photography, I think it looks good, but the first thing i keep looking at is the sunset and clouds...
My comment may be completely stupidly wrong, But haha just what i thought
I liked them both though, especially the first one

[flyingember]

in the first one the car is under exposed. it's a white car that's not white

the second photo the subject is too dark. you've lost detail in the shadows of the subject and it's too dark at the expense of the background.

a portable speedlight adding some highlights to the back-lit cars in both cases would go a long way to make them better. either that, or use a longer shutter speed

as to the composition, they're dull. without a great exposure you don't have anything to draw you to the cars. your problem is the car isn't going anywhere in the photo. try turning the car and use an angle to make the car appear to be driving towards the viewer or compose so there's blank space on the side it's "driving" towards

edit: and the first one is a scene that using hdr makes your subject worse. don't. and the latter you missed the point of hdr which is to have your subject well exposed too.

[flameshots]

I agree with the above comments about the sunset. The one thing I might like to see would be to bring out the contrast in the wheels. On my monitor the blacks seem to be clipped around the wheels. A tighter crop could bring more attention to the car and away from the sunset. I wouldn't completely remove the sunset but cropping a little closer might help. JMHO

[KmH]

How many exposures are you using to make your HDR's, and what software are you using to combine the exposures?

It looks like you're not getting enough exposure in the dark portions of the scenes you are shooting, and to much of the highlights.

[AgentDrex]

Yeah, this doesn't look like HDR to me...the whites aren't white enough (more bright grey than white) and the blacks go into a black-hole of nothingness...

Nice composition though....

[Marc-Etienne]

I like your first picture because you didn't go crazy in a huge colors blast! Good job! I usually don't appreciate HDR at all, but yours are modest and sober