First HDR Landscapes - C&C Please

4thirds_dude · Feb 10, 2009

These are my first attempts at a "real" HDR landscape shoot...done in Forest Hill, CA (near Auburn). I have a few concerns about them, but I'm curious to see what you all think! C&C please. Thanks!

1)

2)

3)

4)

skates94 · Feb 10, 2009

I really enjoy HDR images... #3 is definately my favorite. Love the bridge. Nice job.

DanCanon · Feb 10, 2009

I also like 3 the best, the other ones seem blow out in the clouds. Good work though.

ANDS! · Feb 10, 2009

Way too much contrast in that last one. Far too much. What program are you using?

teneighty23 · Feb 10, 2009

not my cup o tea, not sure if your going after the wow factor, what your eyes see is HDR to me. i have never tried HDR.

Great scenery though!

skiboarder72 · Feb 10, 2009

Sorry but I don't like these at all... they look incredibly fake, especially the clouds

Maybe try backing off the effect or changing some settings around? I'm not a big fan of HDR's to begin with though so don't feel bad

4thirds_dude · Feb 11, 2009

ANDS! said:
Way too much contrast in that last one. Far too much. What program are you using?

Originally made from 3 RAW (each) in Photomatix... then, because it came out kinda flat still, took it into CS2 and applied a tonal contrast filter @ about 20%.

I agree, I think they all really had too much contrast and the cloud blow outs did bother me...good news is, I can re-process differently and see if I can make it all a bit more subtle.

I'm considering reducing the tonal contrast about 50% from current settings and cloning over some of the cloud hot spots.

The last one was intentionally too sharp and contrast-y because there was some blurring on the lower left hand corner; all the shots for these HDRs were handheld, but rather than toss the series I figured I'd try to salvage it.

I appreciate the feedback! Now I know what I can do differently going forward for a more visually pleasing result. :wink:

:thumbup:

4thirds_dude · Feb 11, 2009

skiboarder72 said:
Sorry but I don't like these at all... they look incredibly fake, especially the clouds

Maybe try backing off the effect or changing some settings around? I'm not a big fan of HDR's to begin with though so don't feel bad

I tend to agree with your criticism of these... they are too fake. The point of HDR, as I interpret it, is to close the gap in dynamic range between your camera and your eye without making it look too fake. I don't think I've quite managed to do that here.

A couple of other HDR shots I've done have come out rather "fake" or "surreal" looking... anyone have the URL to a good tutorial to help me make these more believable?

4thirds_dude · Feb 11, 2009

Ok...so, while working my night shift, I sneaked away and did some thinking on how to resolve this issue of my shots looking fake. I re-processed one of the images from the TIFF out of Photomatix and this is what I came up with... I think it looks much more real, but still gets that nice HDR exposure.

Any feedback on the changes and/or more that need to be made? (And, yes, the sky is transplanted from a better exposed image, although the sun was coming from the same angle so I don't think it messes up the warm area in the valley)

(This is the new version of image 2 from above)
Thanks, everyone, for being patient with me while I fine tune my process/workflow. :mrgreen: :heart: