Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk HDR's

here are a couple of shots for review. The first 2 are HDR phtos of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk at night using 5Dll and 24-105, and the other is a portrait of a 3 yr old using same camera and a recently calibrated Sigma 50 1.4(if your thinking about it, get this lens!!), at 1.4. Feedback is always welcome....Thanx, Gregg


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Nice shots! A few things:


The first image looks kinda muddy to me (as in lacking contrast), and maybe a little bit dark too. Nothing a couple easy tweaks shouldn't fix though ;) I really like the clouds in the background.


I personally would've cropped the second image a bit higher and right (part of the Ferris wheel is intersecting the edge of the frame and the immediate horizon is a bit close to mid-frame for me), and I think I might brighten up the sky/upper third of the image a bit. I think it's better in this regard then the first image though :)


The last image is great, I absolutely love it!

All three are really nice.


I'm actually going to the Santa Cruz boardwalk tomorrow. I'll take a bunch of pictures, but they won't turn out as nice as yours.


The f/1.4 looks great wide open. I don't see any vignetting. Did you corect for it?


My canon 50mm f/1.4 is actually pretty sharp wide open (away from the edges anyway). But the vignetting is pretty bad.

It is nice to get back to the real thing this forum was made for! I am bored reading all the rumor stuff on canon's new cameras'/releases/ect.


i love the 3rd shot...i will agree with lculpin, the first 2 might need some contrast adjustments and some tweeks.

Thanx for the feedback. After looking at the first 2, I agree with your assesments. It always takes a 2nd or 3rd eye to point out a few things. Much appreciated. The 3rd shot was a middle top crop(maybe 80%), so the little bit of vignetting was cropped out. The Sigma doesn't vignette that much, and I am amazed at how much better it is against my lod canon 50 1.4. It has quickly become my fav lens. Although, one of my customers let me borrow his 35 1.4 for the last couple of days, and I'm nothing short of impressed!! Very much like the sig 50 as far as color rendition and look. Once again, thanx for the invaluable input. Gregg