My first attempt at slow shutter speeds

tjones8611 · Nov 7, 2009

Went out to some local waterfalls this afternoon to practice slow shutter and HDR. What are your thoughts, given this is my first attempt? I tried to go light on the HDR, Ive already learned from the forum to not make it cartoonish

joeywpc · Nov 7, 2009

not a bad first effort, I like what you've done with 2 & 3 using subtle HDR. Good job. It does look a tiny little bit cartoonish but that's what HDR does.

TJ K · Nov 7, 2009

joeywpc said:
not a bad first effort, I like what you've done with 2 & 3 using subtle HDR. Good job. It does look a tiny little bit cartoonish but that's what HDR does.

HDR if done properly does not make it cartoonish it just allows for a perfect even exposure because the camera doesn't have the same dynamic range as your eyes. It's meant for harsh light situations.

pkirchner · Nov 7, 2009

good first attempt! you may want to warm it up a tad or desaturate the blue channel just a bit. :thumbup:

tjones8611 · Nov 7, 2009

That was my purpose for using HDR. The light was not constant along the river. The trees were making shaded areas and the ridge on the north side of the river kept some of the light out. The water was highly reflective, so I thought HDR would be good to balance at the exposure across the entire scene. The results wasnt what I was expecting, but it seemed to be better than just a single exposure.

RancerDS · Nov 7, 2009

Really liking the 2nd picture! It's almost like the surreal look to things during a solar eclipse. The range of colors is awesome.

Sn00bies · Nov 7, 2009

#2 is definitely my favorite, I like the color contrast in it between the turquoise and orange. On 1 and 3, however, they seem somewhat blurry. On 1, it doesn't look like you did any HDR work with it so either there was camera shake or windy conditions. On three though, it looks like blur and/or chromatic abberation ( my amateur opinion

) especially on the left side with the trees. I'm sure it's just blur, but reminds me of CA anyway. I would concentrate on reducing camera shake by either setting the timer to take the shot, or get a remote trigger. Or, if it was the fault of the wind, just try to time your shots when the wind has settled for a second. Also, it could be from misalignment during the HDR process, in which case you can choose to ( at least in Photomatix I know you can ) automatically align the images, or you can do it on your own by other means. Hope this helps. Overall I think this was a good first attempt.

tjones8611 · Nov 7, 2009

Correct, No HDR on 1. There was a little wind, but very mild. I think the focus issue was because of me focusing on the wrong area. I was focusing on the water upstring. I think they would haved been better if I would have focused on the leaves or trees that were closer to the camera. Not sure why I thought distant focusing would be best.

Sn00bies · Nov 7, 2009

Focus area is definitely another factor, I spaced that one

good call. It's weird though, in some parts of the picture it looks like camera shake/subject movement but then in another section of the same picture other branches don't reflect the same amount of movement that would happen from the camera moving. So perhaps the wind was playing with things a bit.