Marina in HDR

[Rick50]

I drove the 40 miles to take something last night hoping the clouds would break. The full moon was unfortunately behind the clouds. Well, the clouds didn't break so I too a few anyway. I used a 2 stop neutral density filter to slow down the shutter to get the calm water. That worked well. I also have now learned how to get rid of the grainy appearance to hdr. These are 3 shot images processed in Photomatix Pro. Canon 5D, MkIII and Tamron 24-70mm zoom.

 

[Parker219]

Id say these are very well done. I think you were able to pull a lot of details out, even with the low light.
Just in case some one says that they don't like the rocks in number 2, im saying that I DO like the rocks, and wish there was more of them actually.

If I had to nit pick, id say to clone out the red on the top of the building in picture 1.It is the only thing that color and draws my eye there.

Oh and after looking again, id say remove the pink lights out of the water on both. Just my opinion.

Again, I love this tone and glad to see a shot like this verse the typical bright sunset pic any day.

 

[EmmaBproductions]

Number 1

 

[Parker219]

^^ With c&c like that ^^ lol....Never mind.

 

[Parker219]

Lights

 

[Parker219]

Boats

 

[Parker219]

Water

 

[RobN185]

Both are good, and well worth the trip.

#2 on my monitor seems a little flat, I hope you don't mind, I have taken the liberty of applying a little pop.

 

[amolitor]

The first one is a picture of what, exactly? There seems to be a boat in the middle of the frame, is this about the boat? Then there's a ton of clutter around it, piles of other boats. Then there's some good sized buildings in the background which are also pretty interesting. And then there's the four bright lights. What am I supposed to be looking at, here? Several things want to dominate, but fail to. Without the large boat, I would buy this as a photograph of "the waterfront" as a whole. Which brings us to:

The second one, which is a nicely stacked set of elements. Rocks, water, boats, buildings. It's quite small on my screen, so I am unsure of what it really looks like, but it feels like it's more of a gestalt "this is the waterfront" which an interesting vertical feeling. Waterfronts are normally horizontal, but this one has the tall buildings behind, so I like what you're getting at visually, here.

The HDR doesn't really do anything for me. It seems to me to flatten some potentially beautiful light out to blandness. Technically it looks solid, though!

 

[Rick50]

Parker219: Yup, just love this time of day.
RobN185: Looks good, you did about the right amount.

Thanks for the feedback....

 

[Rick50]

The first one is a picture of what, exactly? There seems to be a boat in the middle of the frame, is this about the boat? Then there's a ton of clutter around it, piles of other boats. Then there's some good sized buildings in the background which are also pretty interesting. And then there's the four bright lights. What am I supposed to be looking at, here? Several things want to dominate, but fail to. Without the large boat, I would buy this as a photograph of "the waterfront" as a whole. Which brings us to:

I agree, the 1st one is a bit busy and your eye tends to dance around. Good observation. If I back out and see only the boats against the buildings it presents a little different view but I guess I'm stretching it...

 

[Mully]

I would say your efforts did not go without a reward...very nice tones and quality.

 

[rexbobcat]

The HDR doesn't really do anything for me. It seems to me to flatten some potentially beautiful light out to blandness. Technically it looks solid, though!

I don't mean to get all controversial on a Friday, but I think that has to do with the "photograph all of the dynamic range!" mentality, to where the photograph goes from being pleasantly contrasty to foggy and washed out, especially in the shadows. I mean, shadows are dark in reality, regardless of how my DR there is in the scene.

I do like the edit better though. It looks a lot less flat.

 

[FanBoy]

I also question the need of HDR in these photos. I think you'd get more "pop" by trying to shoot at a more appealing sunset and creating some dark shadows against the lights; it would create more mood to the photograph. There's simply too much blue/gray in these photos.

The ND filter turned out well, but watch excessive blur in the clouds, especially with bracketed photos.

I also have now learned how to get rid of the grainy appearance to hdr.

Could you please comment further? I'd like to know.

 

[Derrel]

Parker219....batting .300 in the bigs!!!!

I think these photos look too light...too bright...almost as if they were shot at maybe around 3:15 PM at night in the afternoon...ya know what I mean????