(C&C) HDR-Attempt of the "Full House" Houses

[fms1day]

An HDR attempt from a single RAW image.

Many of you may remember these houses from the famous sitcom Full House in the 90s. It's located across from Alamo Square in San Francisco, CA.

I'm not sure if the composition of the shot is good or not (so any C&C on this would be greatly appreciated) but I wanted some feedback on the HDR comparison.

Original

HDR

 

[dcclark]

The original is a bit washed out, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some careful levels or curves. The HDR is clearly nicer, but I'm not sure why HDR was necessary in this case -- seems like a lot of extra work for you.

 

[fms1day]

The original is a bit washed out, but nothing that couldn't be fixed with some careful levels or curves. The HDR is clearly nicer, but I'm not sure why HDR was necessary in this case -- seems like a lot of extra work for you.

Yeah, I was using it as my first HDR-attempt from a single RAW image, so it was something I wanted to try out and see how it works and if it'll come out nice.

 

[Josh66]

I agree on both points - the HDR looks much better, and you could have done it without processing the same RAW three times.


(And, yes - they do look familiar...lol)

 

[fms1day]

With a single RAW file, would I be able to make the image similar to that HDR by just altering the highlights/shadows, colors, etc in photoshop?

 

[LaFoto]

The photo looks like creating three different files (three different exposure settings put to the file data later) and merging them with a programme that creates HDR-images for you wasn't really necessary. Simple PS processing, working on different layers, applying levels and curves, maybe a bit of saturation boosts for this or that colour, and a nice, soft USM (unsharp mask) would have created the same effect as was created here.

But for someone to first explore the area of HDR software, it is an easy way to test it all out: RAW files are, and the possibility to create different TIFF-files out of them (each with different exposure values), and testing merging and tone-mapping with an HDR programme.

So the result is good.
The path to get there was complicated (out of choice, for test reasons).
A simpler path would have brought about the same result.