Loading Logs

bc_steve · Apr 5, 2013

Haven't had much time at all to take any pictures, but I had half an hour while I was getting some tires changed yesterday and I walked up to the forestry observatory (a little tower in between a bunch of the mills) and took this one. My boss and I have been learning about HDR so I made an HDR version to compare to what I would normally do. Until now I've written off HDR because I have seen way too many that have been overcooked to a crisp and I prefer things to look realistic. There is something funny going on with the trees in the HDR pic, I think because they must have been moving in the wind a bit. I assume it will be fix-able once I've learned a little more...

loading logs - normal version by Steve Dinicol, on Flickr

loading logs - HDR version by Steve Dinicol, on Flickr

oh this is a 2 shot photomerged panormama as well, for the normal one I just took the middle exposure and did it and for the HDR one I Hdr'd the two with the same settings and then put that into photomerge.

bc_steve · Apr 5, 2013

Here is the funny part I was talking about. It's only on the trees so I figure it must be because they weren't totally still (wind). I tried clicking the box about ghosting (I used Merge to HDR Pro in Photoshop CS6) but it changed the whole image. What's the best way to fix this?

amolitor · Apr 5, 2013

I don't understand why you're doing an HDR here. Is this just practice? The scene doesn't look like it has an excessive tonal range, and I am not seeing any recovered shadows or highlights in the HDR.. I guess there's a LITTLE more in the sky, maybe?

I think there's a potentially interesting photograph here, but it feels to me like the background is too cluttered, and you're too far away. Me, I'd get closer (either physically or with a longer lens) and lower, to get all that uninteresting industrial building crap hidden behind the logs. Make it be about the thing you want it to be about, right?

digital flower · Apr 5, 2013

I like them. Is that in Terrace, BC?

LouR · Apr 5, 2013

Skimming the internet, this seems to be pretty common. Almost like over-sharpening and the three or four articles and forums on which this problem was mentioned all said the same thing-do a final tweak with curves, levels or burning.

bc_steve · Apr 5, 2013

amolitor said:
I don't understand why you're doing an HDR here. Is this just practice? The scene doesn't look like it has an excessive tonal range, and I am not seeing any recovered shadows or highlights in the HDR.. I guess there's a LITTLE more in the sky, maybe?

I think there's a potentially interesting photograph here, but it feels to me like the background is too cluttered, and you're too far away. Me, I'd get closer (either physically or with a longer lens) and lower, to get all that uninteresting industrial building crap hidden behind the logs. Make it be about the thing you want it to be about, right?

Ya I've never really done much with HDR before and I was trying it to see if it would bring out some more detail, but I guess it doesn't look all that different. You're right about the buildings in the background. I can see it in my head taken from a lower perspective with that stuff blocked out by the logs and I like it better. Thanks for the advice.