After a few days of practice

[w.ftw]

Hi, I would like to ask everyone to critique this photo. I have been shooting with my DSLR for about a week now and have learned a lot from you guys here.

I tried to make a HDR image in photomatix. I feel the photo is kind of muddy, I can't put my finger on why it turned out like this, the original images are not muddy like this but have crisp sharp colors. I have think that the composition could be better, I did not noticed this when I was taking the photo but the left hand of the building is cut off. I should have tried to get the rest of the building in it so there is a clear end to it on one side.

Any comments are welcome. Thanks!

Here are the original images
http://www.thephotoforum.com/photos/uploads/112640/IMG_1272_-_Version_2.jpg
http://www.thephotoforum.com/photos/uploads/112640/IMG_1273_-_Version_2.jpg
http://www.thephotoforum.com/photos/uploads/112640/IMG_1274_-_Version_2.jpg



Edit 2:

 

[GnipGnop]

It's night time. Where is the black?

 

[w.ftw]

It's night time. Where is the black?

Hmm, never though about it. Does that mean that I did not set the white balance right?

 

[GnipGnop]

Nope. Photomatix has a tendency of turning blacks to greys. Try another edit but try to keep some blacks and shadows in the photo.

 

[w.ftw]

Nope. Photomatix has a tendency of turning blacks to greys. Try another edit but try to keep some blacks and shadows in the photo.

I took your advice. I updated my first post with the edit. Please let me know what you think. I think it really made a huge difference, it really made the picture pop a lot. However I think the foreground is made a little too dark now. I will mess around more with the curves and other settings.

 

[JClishe]

You have moving subjects; IMO this scene isn't a great candidate for HDR.

 

[RyanSands]

HDR doesn't really sit well with me. Try a longer exposure time and use a tripod. You will get some really decent results and I think give you the look your after : ) without resulting to HDR.

 

[bazooka]

I think the first original link that you posted above is better than any of the HDR versions. Don't forget, if you shoot RAW, you have a LOT of leeway to make adjustments locally via curves, or using the brush tool in CS5 if you have that.

 

[DiskoJoe]

I think you adjusted the white points to high for this image. Keep tinkering with photomatix. However it typically works best with bracketed photos as opposed to a 1 shot hdr.