Lake Almanor in N. California

JimMcClain · Jul 16, 2015

It has been several years since I've visited this part of the county I live in. I went in search of the sun setting over the largest lake in Feather River Country. Lake Almanor is a man-made lake, created in 1914 and displaced many Native Americans and flooded buildings and forest land to create electric power. It has become a popular recreation area.

My drive was about 36 miles to the lake and then I drove up and down the East Shore looking for someplace to make pictures. It was not the best choice, apparently, because nearly ever lake access road is now private and chained off. The few publicly accessible boat ramps provided the worst view of the area.

Since sunset was approaching fast, I settled on an area that was created just for visitors to stop and take pictures. I've seen several on Google Images and I worried my photos would look the same. I was pleased that they aren't.

These 2 were a self-test. I'd only done one HDR photo before and that was to try out the new feature in Lightroom CC 2015. This is only my second one. I am also posting a developed photo from the same group of shots that make up the HDR. I tried to replicate what I created with the HDR.

Tell me which one you like best and why. Constructive criticism is welcome. "I don't like #n" is not constructive.

See if you can tell which is HDR and which isn't. If you know my photography, you already know I don't go for realism, I go for what my vision is - I don't do documentary photography.

Thanks,

Jim

tirediron · Jul 16, 2015

I like #1 better simply because it appeals to me more; I can't be any more constructive than that. I assume it's the HDR as I see what appear to be merge artifacts in the sky, but regardless the overall tones and look appeal more to me than #2, 'though it's a nice image as well.

BrickHouse · Jul 16, 2015

#1 has more detail in the shadow of the large tree at right. I'd put money on that being the HDR. I also see some halo'ing where the needles have blue sky behind them. I love the purple color band that was brought out of the sky of #1 and the gold of the sun coming through the trees, but #2 just feels more natural and not quite so 'fantasy'. Lovely shots!

scooter2044 · Jul 16, 2015

Loving the second one! I'm a nature girl, so it's reality for me, even with the enhancements. First one is nice but can't picture myself in that one.

Jasii · Jul 17, 2015

First one is more vibrant defo screams for attention,

like the 2nd one more because it is kinda more subdued, realistic hence, has a stronger appeal for me.
Jasii

Gary A. · Jul 17, 2015

Both are very nice Jim ... for me it is a hard choice. I prefer #2 as it looks more natural. But, (the big but), the land mass across the lake in #2 is veiled by a yellow band which looks a bit like smog ... but I don't think this would bother most people.

JimMcClain · Jul 17, 2015

Thanks for all the comments, I appreciate it. The first picture above is a single frame of an 8-image set. The second photo is the LR PhotoMerge HDR of the 8 shots. Surprised, hu?

What's even more surprising to me is that while I also like #2 better for its more natural colors, which I like about LR's HDR, there are a lot of artifacts, halos and other bad stuff. I think it could be because of several factors. The wind blew only occasionally, but it was enough that the LR HDR couldn't fix the ghosting even when set on high. When I look at the full-rez image, the problems are far more apparent in #2. Quite awful, in fact. Another problem might be that there was a dying tree that had some yellow/orange needles that looked pretty bad. I don't know how to fix that or if I made it worse in processing.

The first photo did show the haze around the distant mountains (the taller one is Mt. Lassen, a volcano). But the haze is also in the second, but maybe the HDR process cleared it up some (I didn't adjust the Haze tool with either pic).

I think I'll play around with the HDR process again and see if I can fix the problems. Of course, I can see more of these issues in the full-rez images than you can see in the sized-for-the-web pictures. I like them too, but neither is ready for prime time yet.

Have any of you worked with the Lightroom HDR feature yet? Have you found problems or been dissatisfied with your results?

Thanks again,

Jim