Old Mission, San Juan Bautista

Trever1t · May 12, 2012

Just home from shooting ~100 HDR sets at the Old Mission, San Juan Bautista in the small town of the same name about an hour south of here.

Te Altar by Trever1t, on Flickr

This one seems to have a bit of noise...ISO 3200 for both these shots, it was pretty darn dark in there.

Mission Center by Trever1t, on Flickr

Trever1t · May 12, 2012

Cemetary by Trever1t, on Flickr

Untitled by Trever1t, on Flickr

C&C is desired. Shoot away.

Bynx · May 12, 2012

Really nice job Trever.

Trever1t · May 12, 2012

Really? First time out with the 17-35f2.8 since I bought it a year ago? Truly all I do is screw around with the sliders until it pleases me and then screw around with them again

Here's the last one I'll post tonight, I'm beat! Walking around all day, getting down and dirty on 150 year old church floors takes it's toll.

Settler's Cabin by Trever1t, on Flickr

Bynx · May 12, 2012

In the last shot if you move the Highlight Smoothing to the right until the sky looks normal. The dark area will fade to the lighter color.

vipgraphx · May 13, 2012

I like the perspective in image 4. Interesting how different churches are and the lighting. The Cathedral I just did has a lot of yellow where your's blue.

As far as the noise, how many brackets did you do? Looks like you maybe you did not have enough to get all the detail in the shadows. The other thing to help noise is make sure you have your photomatix box set to reduce noise on ALL under exposed images. The other thing in your camera make sure you have the NR turned on for long exposures. IF you have not had these few things done it should help you moving forward.

In photomatix what I have learned is in low light situations you need to use the shadow slider, shadow clipping. Also the luminance needs to be dropped down in and gamma can be pushed up to compinsate. The next is the lighting slider. The more to the right will help reduce noise in low light as well but it does alter your lighting source, Sometimes it looks cool though. I have done a lot of low light shots and these are all things that have helped me. NEVER use the photomatix presets. Knowing what the sliders do and how they function in different lighting situations will help with your processing. Few last things would be to use noise reduction software like noise ninja or topaz denoize and bring in your original exposures and mask in the noise areas.

One thing is many people do not use masking as much as they should and alter/adjust their original exposure to help the tonemapped version. When I process I always use the original files (MOST all of the time) to add in and take out detail. I do not want to come off snobby to anyone in this forum (because everyone who try's to do HDR deserves a pat on the back because it really is not as easy as many think) however photomatix takes you sometimes 50-80% where you need to be, photo shop and filters finish up the job but, there is truly another level of processing that one can do to really complete the image and thats where masking comes into play.
The sky as Bynx said could also easily be fixed by masking..Sometimes that Highlight Smoothing creates blown out spots or banding in certain situations if you crank it to far to the right. I have never used that Highlight Smoothing slider all the way to right and see it make such a huge difference that did not compromise somewhere else. It does help but at some point it does worse than good. There is a balance though... if you choose to use the Highlight Smoothing slider then adjust the white point slider and strength to help prevent those problem areas I just mentioned. Perhaps Bynx keeps those sliders down so it does not effect his processing as much. I like to keep my strength pumped up as much as possible when possible but, thats my style.

sorry to go on and on I just am here to offer as much help as I can. lend another eye. We all have different methods of processing so soak it all in like a sponge.....

Cheers and good night!!

Trever1t · May 13, 2012

Thanks VIP, I used my tripod about 5" off the deck and I gave it a bit of negative temp to accent the blues

5 frames each a stop apart, I never thought about NR in camera, DOH!!! Noise reduction in Photomatix is checked but yeah, silly me, long exposure at ISO 3200 and it never crossed my mind to use NR...next time, thank you!

I played with the shadow clipping slider but couldn't really see it's function other than just removing detail at a set point, making the shadow black? I never use a preset other than to check what effect/settings each has. I have maybe as many as 8 total hours use of the software so I really appreciate your insight and tips. Can you explain your masking technique a little? Last night I found I can select an are and replace it with an original exposure within the Photomatix software, never saw that before

I've been using CS5 for final edit, mostly cloning, crop and curves. I would love to take it to another level.

Trever1t · May 13, 2012

Side note/question! That new feature, "finishing touch" box is stuck up above the portion of my screen and I cannot drag it down to where I can use it...what can I do?

Trever1t · May 13, 2012

Yeah, that dialog box is up above the working area of my screen (Samsung) and I am unable to drag it down to usuable space.

Another from the rear wall of the mission.

Rear Wall by Trever1t, on Flickr

bigboi3 · May 13, 2012

Nice HDR's. I still have to visit that place. Especially moving back to San Jose a couple months ago.

Trever1t · May 13, 2012

Yeah, it's really nice now with the surrounding hills all green. In a few weeks it's gonna dry up to that summer golden brown, get going!

The_Traveler · May 13, 2012

HDRs that don't make me want to tear my eyes out.
Nice work.

(I like that area. I used to be a regular at the Gilroy Garlic Festival then would go on down the coast to Nepenthe. Did you ever go to Pt Lobos State Park, just below Carmel? Great scenery)