Another HDR attempt

[RMThompson]

C n C please!

 

[shorty6049]

hmm.... its interesting, i like the colors, I dont know if thats exactly considered HDR though... very artistic looking though!

 

[zioneffect564]

im going to have to agree with tony on this one.. i really like the colors though

 

[LaFoto]

C n C please!

This is not asking enough for Photo Critique so the thread had to move to the Landscape and Nature Gallery. (Photo_Critique_FAQs_here ).

This is more towards Graphic Arts than still being a photo, so it seems, and I find the colours very, very loud.
I am a sucker for colour photography and for intense colours --- but this goes a bit overboard, to my mind. But my mind is subjective, of course.

 

[abraxas]

Maybe a bit darker blue. Kinda-Monet maybe?

 

[RMThompson]

Well what defines HDR to everyone? That is a good question. Personally I like the HDR landscapes and city scapes, because they show off a range of colors and tones within the picture.

However, what defines High Dynamic Range? According to wikipedia:

"With the rising popularity of digital cameras and easy to use desktop software, the term "HDR" is now popularly used[1] to refer to the process of tone mapping together bracketed exposures of normal digital images, giving the end result a high, often exaggerated dynamic range; however, in this case neither the input nor the output qualify as "true" HDRI."

Which is what I did. While it might not have a wide range of lights and darks, like traditions HDR, the colors and intesity were definetly enhanced by the HDR, giving it the unworldly look I was going for. If I exposed for the water to look that dark, the pads were too dark as well, and if I exposed for the pads the water was too bright and ugly. So i thought, hey take three shots and combine them, to get what I want, and it actually worked.

Now is the picture particularly interesting? No, not really, but It's sort of a personal accomplishment for getting what I wanted, seeing it in my mind and then taking it that way.

Now as far as colors are concerned, I did NOT saturation to this at all. I had my Canon in "vivid green" mode, and used exposure compensation to take one 2 steps up and 2 steps down from "standard"... combined them in Photomatix for this.

So it's not true HDR? Oh well - it's still a useful tool and really deepened the colors that were there.