HDR. Is something missing

jacsul · Jul 19, 2009

Took this today, I'm trying to get the knack of HDR. If anyone feels this image can be improved on please do so. This way I can get a grasp on what works best.
Thanks for looking.
Jack

swmocity · Jul 19, 2009

did u take 3 different exposures?

here are some edits

Baaaark · Jul 19, 2009

Your HDR looks natural. Like you're using it to just increase the range to make the photo look more realistic.

I'm not a big fan of the other three.

Big · Jul 19, 2009

Baaaark said:
Your HDR looks natural. Like you're using it to just increase the range to make the photo look more realistic.

I'm not a big fan of the other three.

I agree, they look like some edits I did with a Topaz adjust plug in for Photoshop...

jacsul · Jul 21, 2009

Yes, I shot @ +1.0, 0.0, -1.0 Merged it with PSP HDR merge and added a small amount of clarifer. How is it that some HDR images pop.

Thanks,

Jack

benlonghair · Jul 21, 2009

Honestly, the only thing I would change about it is the haze. And there's nothing you can do about that except re-shoot. That and the foreground's kinda boring.

rufus5150 · Jul 21, 2009

You would probably have better results by shooting a wider sample (-2, 0, +2). The scene itself doesn't have a lot of dynamic range to begin with, but had you shot it with a wider bracket, you'd have brought out the the contrast between the trees and the shadows on the trees caused by the clouds (which would be kinda cool, I think).

But, noting the position of the clouds vs. the shadows, this was shot in a lot of overhead sun, which is going to be hell HDR or not to eek a quality image that doesn't have a lot of flat lighting going on.

Also, in post, you could try boosting the black point a bit. It runs a small chance of mitigating some of the haze (not by any means guaranteed) and fortifying some of your saturation levels.

The most important thing to remember with HDR processing is you must start with a scene with (drumroll) some amount of appreciable Dynamic Range. The scene here is not ripe with a whole lot of highs and lows, thus the HDR processing isn't going to inject that into the image.