Help with HDR

[xfloggingkylex]

Thank you very much for the compliments, and I am glad to see that it isn't a total failure.

Matt, I see what you are saying and I never thought to do it like that. I just bracket it and let this program merge them. I'll have to give your idea a try and see how that turns out.

I changed some of the settings on the program I use (FDRTools, it was 25 dollars with my 50% student discount so I figured why not) and I am MUCH happier with the results. This is with only a slight curves adjustment after the HDR program to darken things up slightly. No other work to the sky or anything.

if the quality looks worse, its because I used images that were scaled down so the HDR program wouldnt take so long to blend. I didnt want to wait around incase it didnt work.

 

[abraxas]

:thumbup: I really like the effect through the branches- looks way more natural.

 

[Chris of Arabia]

That's better, I don't feel like I'm having to stare into the image so hard to pick up the detail on the church.

>;o))

 

[xfloggingkylex]

Thank you for the compliments. I am still in the learning phase with this HDR program so I went through a recreated the image again. This time it looks so much more natural and I feel a ton better about it, it looks the way I imagined it would when taking the pictures.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

bump to see what people think of the new edit.

 

[grafiks]

I ran some shadow reduction, curved it slightly, cropped it a little off center and bumped up the contrast.

It is an awesome shot. The colors through the trees are incredible.