Sun Kissed Mountain and Lake C&C

[benlonghair]

OP, do you know how to meter for HDR? The trees are still way under exposed.

Basically you should have metered for the highlights (so the highlights are 2 stops above 0 meter), then metered for the darkest part of the shadows (so the darkest portions were about 2 stops below 0 meter) then taken a shot at every full stop between the two.

 

[TJ K]

Yes I know how to meter for it. Some areas are dark because I do my own vignette with curves and a gradient filter in photoshop. I also played with some other things so yes the trees are under exposed, and I might mess with that in ps again but I'm going to fix the CA on the trees.

TJ

 

[benlonghair]

Ok. It just sounded like you took a bunch of random exposures in your first post.

This is a great shot for HDR. The clouds are amazing, the reflection is amazing, but the trees just don't work for me.

 

[TJ K]

Know what i meant is a took a bunch of exposures from properly exposed to a bit over and a bit under, only changing shutter speed so there is no variance in DOF or focus. It's about 6 or 8 images i can't quite remember. I'm redoing it right now in cs5 because i can't get rid of that CA for my life with the lens correction filters to reduce it or anything. So i'm going for a redo.

TJ

 

[benlonghair]

Know what i meant is a took a bunch of exposures from properly exposed to a bit over and a bit under,

I'm not trying to say you don't know what you're doing, but there's more to it than a bit over and a bit under.

The idea, as I understand it, is to spot meter the brightest part of the scene. You meter that to +2 stops. This way you get all the detail in the highlights. Then you meter the darkest area to -2 stops so you keep all your detail in shadows. Now you go ahead and take a shot at every full stop between those two meter readings.

 

[TJ K]

Yes my exposures actually go a little over and under +-2 with proper exposures in between. I might not have worded it properly but i took more exposures than most people normally do and they are the usual +2 -2 that everyone always says.

 

[TJ K]

Removed pic

 

[benlonghair]

I like the second one much more. Don't know if you could maybe lower the contrast on the trees without it washing out, but it is pretty HDRish.

 

[TJ K]

I tried a few things. But if i wanted a more realistic look then well i got a lot of CA and if i went super fake a lot of haloing around the trees and mountain. It's starting to grow on me, i like it i just wish i could eliminate that CA in the 1st but whatever.
TJ

 

[Robin Usagani]

I still like the 1st one. You can replace the red around the tree with dark green simialar to the tree on photoshop. Maybe just make the 1st one slightly lighter. Not sure why people like the 2nd one. Not really digging the halos.

 

[TJ K]

I still like the 1st one. You can replace the red around the tree with dark green simialar to the tree on photoshop. Maybe just make the 1st one slightly lighter. Not sure why people like the 2nd one. Not really digging the halos.

Same here.

edit** Ok i'm pretty sure i have it now with the epic clone stamp tool haha.

TJ

 

[TJ K]

Alright just posted the newly edited shot. It's the first one with the CA fixed and then the second shot has the buildings removed. Let me know which is best. Thanks

TJ

ps. sorry for double post : /