Sureal HDR attempts

[kalgra]

I have never really attempted to produce this type of HDR image and thought it might be fun. C&C welcome.


1.
Barn HDR by Kristian Algra, on Flickr


2.
Barn HDR Pano by Kristian Algra, on Flickr

 

[Gary A.]

#1 has my vote. Overcooked in a good way. Keep up working and crafting and pursuing your particular vision.

 

[Braineack]

i hate everything about #1, but I really like #2.

 

[Frank F.]

The first one works for me. You managed to balance the elements and process just to the point it seems still believable that this is a photo

 

[SquarePeg]

I like them both but I prefer the smooth look on the second one.

 

[407370]

Second one for me.
I actually think both could be pushed a bit further to really make the sky bend the imagination.

 

[jcdeboever]

I'm not sure about HDR, I guess they are well done and have an interesting look to them, so I will give you that. I suppose I should try doing a couple.

 

[kalgra]

Thanks everyone. I went into this already knowing that this type of HDR is usually a love or hate kind of thing for many people. For me HDR like this something I don't prefer but sometimes I see examples like this that are overcooked and they do seem to work. I do agree though that this kind of thing is a little cliche, overdone (often badly), and has become one of those things I correlate with black and white with selective color. It has a small niche and sometimes works but mostly I'm guessing is something often done by newer photographers.

For the most part i'm experimenting with it to understand it better as a tool to be used in some scenarios rather than a style I plan on sticking to. And with Halloween around the corner I was just in that mood.

Here is a question for some of you which is probably best posted in a separate thread. But... is there some trick to processing HDR Panos? I was able to get #2 to turn out after several attempts. I tried first processing each bracketed set into a single HDR image then merging all the HDR images to Pano in LR. However, LR wouldn't let me do this and said something about how the files could not be merged, almost like it didn't recognize the HDR file or something.

I then decided to merge all the individual bracketed shots into separate Panos then merged all the individual Panos into HDR using HDR effects Pro and that did work except for some reason the panos were not lining up properly and I was getting a really bad ghosting effect which I had to work really hard to get out. The remove ghosting option only partially worked. I was on a very sturdy tripod with shutter release cable when I took them so it was definitely the process of merging to pano first that caused the problem. I ever tried stacking the individual panos in PS then ran the auto align feature and sure enough PS couldn't do it. Each pano was slightly distorted a little differently in each image. I am quite certain that I chose the same merge to pano setting for each image.

Anyone that can recommend an HDR pano workflow that works well?

 

[Causapscal]

I like them both but I prefer the smooth look on the second one.

Like SquarePeg

It lacks a ghost for Halloween

 

[The Barbarian]

This isn't the way I do HDR, but I like what I see here. Actually, I think it's tougher to do a good job on overcooked image, and I admire people who can consistently do it well.

Yes, I like what you've done here.

 

[Frank F.]

I do not know about Lightroom.

I use a specialized software ... Photomatics ... to make single frame HDR and then cook them to pano in Kolor Autopano Giga or Photoshop

 

[NancyMoranG]

I like both but #2 a little better.