Friends

[DGMPhotography]

Hi guys,

This is another shot from this past weekend on a farm camping trip. This is a combination of 3 exposures, so slightly HDR but not fully because as you can see there are areas of the tractor that are not well exposed but I'm okay with that because I like the end result. What do you think?

Thanks!

 

[sleist]

I thought one of the points of HDR is to avoid this kind result by exposing for both the shadows and the highlights.
I think you might have been better served by the use of fill flash. Still too much loss of shadow detail as well as blown sky.

 

[DGMPhotography]

That's why I'm not considering this an HDR picture....

 

[sleist]

That's why I'm not considering this an HDR picture....

Regardless, it's still too dark to see what you find appealing. A little shadow recovery helps it some (in my opinion).
It is a nice effect, it's just too underexposed to get a good sense of it.
I would also try a desaturated version as opposed to a complete monochrome.

 

[DGMPhotography]

I don't want it looking that unrealistic. I only just barely did SOME HDR to get the look that I wanted. But I like yours also, thanks for the input!

 

[amolitor]

Just enough HDR to make the faces look over-dodged and odd looking.

This would be more effective if you did any of the following:

- allow the light to fall as it did, and render the people more as silhouettes
- apply a little more processing to make the light look more naturalistic throughout - open up the tractor shadows as well, to match the faces
- go full on HDR and crush the directionality of light as sleist did (or similar)

Make a stylistic choice and follow through. The current image just looks wrong. You don't want to commit to a direction, but you do want to make everyone's face show up.

 

[Derrel]

The original looks drastically under-exposed. It just looks simply "bad". Three out of three people are telling you the image needs to be lighter, but you profess to like it the way it is. I can deal with that. I LOVE that old Ford tractor!!! I have actually driven an old Ford tractor, as well as some old Massey-Harris and Massey-Ferguson and John Deer tractors of that vintage...there's something about those old, small gas-powered tractors that really has a genuinely "American" feel...and the old hay wagon with wooden bed and those same old wheels!!! ...brings back memories of my youth.

 

[DGMPhotography]

Thanks guys for the input. Here is a less extreme compromise I've come up with. What do you think?

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Thanks guys for the input. Here is a less extreme compromise I've come up with. What do you think?

Still very very underexposed where it matters, the subjects and their faces. 2 stops or more. You may want to look into monitor calibration if that photo looks exposed correctly on your monitor.

 

[DGMPhotography]

No, it looks underexposed in the preview for some reason but when you look at the image full size, it looks good!

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

No, it looks underexposed in the preview for some reason but when you look at the image full size, it looks good!

Not really...

 

[Designer]

Even in full size, the faces of the people are barely recognizable.

 

[DGMPhotography]

Ha, okay. Either you guys have sucky monitors, I have an inverse monitor, or somebody is blind because it definitely looks good on my end. Oh well.

 

[sleist]

Just look at the histogram. You're all highlights and darks (both blown) with very few midtones.
When was the last time you calibrated your monitor?

I imagine if you tried to print this it would look very different from what you see on your screen - provided the lab didn't attempt to fix it for you first.