First Pic for C&C

[mrich82]

I'm new and trying to learn. I recently purchased a Nikon D80 and will slowly but surely learn how to use it.

I couldn't get the exposure right on this picture with the camera settings. I tried some in aperture priority and some in shutter priority, that's about the extent of my camera settings knowledge right now. Anything I tried would make the sunset really nice with the tree really dark or the sunset not so nice and the tree would have nice details.

I ended up taking one of the RAW files and changing the exposure to make an HDR. I used Lightroom and Photomatix, both of which I'm also trying to learn. I think it came out alright.

Let me know what you think. I'll post the original later if people want to see it.

 

[Mgw189]

Its not really showing the HDR quality. You are going to have to get a lot lighter exposure for the picture. I would like to see the originals you took

 

[mrich82]

This is the orginal picture. Again, I used the RAW format to adjust exposure. I used 5 different pictures (-4, -2, 0, 2, 4) in Photomatix to get the image in the first post. And I cropped it a bit..

 

[Mgw189]

You will have better luck with taking multiple exposures. The raw image you captured just doesnt have enough detail in the dark areas to pull off an HDR.

 

[mrich82]

I wasn't really going for the HDR look.. I just wanted more detail in the foreground area. I think I got a little. Although I noticed I was paying more attention to how cool I could make the sky look in the tone mapping phase. Maybe this wasn't the best way to go about it.

Any other comments?

 

[Mgw189]

I wasn't really going for the HDR look, I just wanted more detail in the foreground area. I think I got a little. Maybe this wasn't the best way to go about it.

Any other comments?

LOL yeah I get that. The whole HDR that doesnt look HDR has been a hotly argued debate here the past few days in a thread that I started. HDR doesnt need to look like a cartoon in order to be an HDR.

Here are a few examples of HDRs I have been doing.

Flickr Photo Download: DSC04739_40_41_tonemapped-2

Flickr Photo Download: DSC00241_dark_light_tonemappedms

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3106/3082782021_5dd3589fdf_b.jpg

 

[mrich82]

Those are all done with seperate exposures from the camera? I think the fire truck one is close to the "cartoony" look, but the others are really nice. Maybe I'll try to do some HDR pictures on purpose next time, lol.

 

[jwsciontc]

i would brighten up the foreground a little, or completely blacken it. Cant really make an hdr out of this without 3 original pics

 

[Mgw189]

Those are all done with seperate exposures from the camera? I think the fire truck one is close to the "cartoony" look, but the others are really nice. Maybe I'll try to do some HDR pictures on purpose next time, lol.

The fire truck was actually an HDR from a single JPEG image. I ran it through Silkypix (raw program) and adjusted the exposure levels to create the over and under exposed images. That one is more cartoony looking on purpose. It was taken for the department I volunteer at.

The others were three exposures. One normal exposure one 2 stops down and one 2 stops up. You can use more than three exposures if you choose to.