My First Tone-Mapped Shot

musicaleCA · Jun 30, 2009

That I'm happy with and didn't chuck in the bin anyway. 8 exposures, merged and tone-mapped in Photomatix Pro (Ah, so much better than Photoshop in this regard). C&C on my processing would be appreciated. (There's a little ghosting of the clock hands, but that's to be expected.)

musicaleCA · Jul 1, 2009

Good morning. Bump for great justice?

Garbz · Jul 1, 2009

Well restrained on the settings. I was expecting it to look like I was tripping on some psychedelic drug.

Unfortunately it's the subject and composition which does nothing for me. I can't really tell what is supposed to be the subject, the sky or the clock.

musicaleCA · Jul 1, 2009

Hrm, was going for the clock, really. I would have gotten closer but there's a ton of construction (again??!!?!? What, is my tuition paying for a full-campus makeover?) around that area. :-/

And thanks; the psychedelic-drug effect is not something I want to get in my tone-mapped photos (well, I don't think...maybe it might work for a photo...somewhere down the line...probably not). :lol:

mitsugirly · Jul 8, 2009

To me, it looks like it's leaning???

KmH · Jul 8, 2009

Garbz said:
I was expecting it to look like I was tripping on some psychedelic drug.

Careful, some of us, from the Age of Aquarius, have fond memories of how tripping on some psychelic drug gave our artistic procilvities a boost during our misspent youth.

How do you think we ever came up with the idea of tie died t-shirts? :lol:

musicaleCA · Jul 8, 2009

mitsugirly said:
To me, it looks like it's leaning???

It's caused by the perspective. I really need to find a better spot to shoot that tower from. If only I could get on to the roof of one of the buildings nearby...

Dwig · Jul 8, 2009

Very nice.

I'm also in the "less is more" camp when it comes to tone mapping. I've rarely seen a heavily done image that works, artistically. This one is nice. I would prefer it if the perspective were corrected.

Moglex · Jul 9, 2009

Dwig said:
I'm also in the "less is more" camp when it comes to tone mapping. I've rarely seen a heavily done image that works, artistically.

I know this is just a matter of personal opinion but I find some 'heavy' HDR works but not when it's just 'reality+'.

The 'heavy' stuff needs to move into the realm of the surreal to stand a chance for me.

And the more of it we see the harder it is to come up with something 'fresh'.

Garbz · Jul 9, 2009

KmH said:
Careful, some of us, from the Age of Aquarius, have fond memories of how tripping on some psychelic drug gave our artistic procilvities a boost during our misspent youth.

How do you think we ever came up with the idea of tie died t-shirts?

I saw the effects of this drug. Something called Pink Floyd. You old timers and your music taste ours is so much better. "Hit me baby one more time"

Moglex · Jul 9, 2009

Garbz said:
I saw the effects of this drug. Something called Pink Floyd. You old timers and your music taste ours is so much better. "Hit me baby one more time"

I remember going into London on the train one day and seeing a very large, very pink, pig floating above battersea power station.

Which was odd as I did not remember having taken any of 'that' sort of drug for some years.

You can see the end result of their shoot here

(The pig actually looked a lot bigger from the train which was much closer than the camera position.)