Feel free to rip me apart ...

[tevo]

I swear I feel like I'm in some sort of alternate reality on this site sometimes.

Unless the shadow was intentional, I don't get how this is a "nice shot". I also don't get what HDR added to this shot, really. Perhaps a bit more variety in the woodtones, but I'm not seeing much. It all seems pretty well within the range of what a single explosure can capture, particularly since the subject is being nuked by a shop light.

There's also a matter of composition... it's a fine "inventory shot", but there's nothing interesting about the shot compositionally. It's a pic of a wood train. Useful? Perhaps. Exciting? Not really.

Don't get me wrong, the train itself is very cool, I just think the picture itself isn't great.

From a purely technical perspective, if you want to do an HDR, just turn off that shop light and go through the range of exposures on your tripod and you should be fine. If you don't want to do an HDR, get a better light source, or at least try bouncing it somewhere so as to minimize those shadows.

From a more artistic perspective, try some interesting angles and perspectives, play with your DOF, etc.

And these. The shadow is slowly starting to bug me the more I look at it

 

[itBurns]

And these. The shadow is slowly starting to bug me the more I look at it

Trust me .. bugs me too ^_^

It was a first attempt. Haha

 

[tevo]

And these. The shadow is slowly starting to bug me the more I look at it

Trust me .. bugs me too ^_^

It was a first attempt. Haha

It wasnt half bad for a first attempt! You could probably remove the shadow in post... but idk if its worth the effort

I spent around an hour earlier trying to revive some underexposed photos I had taken.. the composition on them was BEAUTIFUL (imo) but they were too dark to save... I was saddened.

 

[Bynx]

Simple setup. Chuck it up to experience and try it again.

 

[Bynx]

This is an interesting thread. The neat looking wooden train is supposed to be the main subject. However, the main subject is the HDR treatment. But there are two main problems -- your lighting angle and the poor tone mapping causing the nice clean wall to look very dirty. That's from the highlight smoothing slider. If you move it you will notice that gray dirty look will disappear. I'm looking forward to seeing the train again, with the main focus on the nice details in the construction.

 

[itBurns]

This is an interesting thread. The neat looking wooden train is supposed to be the main subject. However, the main subject is the HDR treatment. But there are two main problems -- your lighting angle and the poor tone mapping causing the nice clean wall to look very dirty. That's from the highlight smoothing slider. If you move it you will notice that gray dirty look will disappear. I'm looking forward to seeing the train again, with the main focus on the nice details in the construction.

Since this thread has gotten some interest, I'll be sure to take a variety of photo's of the train again, and will post my version of the HDR up, and will also post the originals so you guys can create your own if you'd like. I think I'll do this later today.

 

[Compaq]

w00t, new 5h00t0ut!