Post Your Best HDR Photo

[freelanceshots]

Blended 2 long exposure images together to get this one. I went out at 12 am'ish and left the lake to come back home at 5:30am.


[View:http://community.the-digital-picture...neric/utility/ Lake Maumelle by freelanceshots, on Flickr:550:0]

[William]

Gregg I used Photomatix for these images and applied some filters and adjustments in PS. Noise is typically a big problem with my HDR but my PS filters do a great job to smooth and sharpen the image. In fact the noise is eliminated and the images usually end up tack sharp. You need this when you shoot ISO 400 on a $100 tripod in low light. Boardwalks tend to move and vibrate quite a bit too.


I still over-process my images but something that helps to keep me grounded is to have the original image open as a reference. Oh, and a wife that walks passed and says "ooo..that looks fake!" (A spouse can be your most honest critic making for a valuable photography accessory [] )


I have tried BW Gregg but failed miserably, including an attempt during this shoot. I am very interested in BW and hope to eventually post some nice pictures when I have got my skills up to scratch.


It must have been cool shooting the Colosseum, I'd love to travel to some of these locations.


@ Bryan. Did you just mask along the horizon then place the two exposures top and bottom with a little bit of brush work on the mask to reveal some light or dark areas?

[freelanceshots]

Yes I did use 2 layers, sky on top and vegetation on the bottom. I then just went in with the large sized eraser brush with a soft edge and swiped it across the lower portion. The 2 images where not extremely different from each other so the effect is subtle and what I think looks more natural.


From what I've grasped from online reading is the image stacking solution would not be the suitable tool to use here because the sky was changing, boats flying by in the background with light trails, reflections in the water changing from the different sky situations with the clouds and the moon, and then the waves moving the plants in the water. This may not be my best scene photographed to date but its fun playing with the bulb setting.


The RC-6 remote is a nice little tool to use with the bulb feature as you have to have something to trigger it. I left mine at home on accident this night and had to drive all the way back to get it. I do this nonsense all the time where one time not long ago I had to turn around and drive 4 hours to get my rotator head for my 360 VR panoramas for an out of town job in the morning.


Also worth mentioning I did some painting with light here to help the vegetation to show up better. I carry a big rechargeable light around with me where I was using it for basic lighting needs but then I remembered to use it to help bring the dark foreground up and add some color. It was still dark out when I recorded this image and there was no other light besides the moon. I found out that the sweet spot for my longer exposure seems to be under 20 minutes where the longer ones got pretty grainy.


On a side note I'm pretty satisfied with DDP's handling of noise. When I got home and pulled up some of the longer exposures without the use of in camera noise reduction I was thinking there would be no way to use most of these images but with the RAW tools I was able to make a huge difference and not loose image detail.

[Fast Glass]

Here is a picture taken by my almost camera iliterate brother! He almost know's the basics of exposure and got lucky on this one.


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/13/1030.IMG_5F00_2341_5F00_DxO-reduced.JPG[/img]


John.

[William]

Not bad at all FastGlass, did you do the PP for him?


Gregg I remember I actually do have a HDR BW but it's not to the level I would like my HDR BW to be (but it's all I have so far). Please post your Best BW HDR shots, I'm keen to see what you or other people have achieved.









@ Bryan, good idea painting with light. I saw this technique in an old photograhpy book from the 60's where the author walked through a garden with a flashgun and illuminated things like statues and hedges. I tried it once on an old bridge and lit each pillar. It's pretty cool when you can walk through the image during long exposure without being captured on the sensor.

[Fast Glass]

Yes I did do the PP for him. Of course using DxO

[greggf]

William, I like the BW HDR above...good separation from the background. The subject almost looks like a ghost...very cool!!


Gregg

[BelGer]

<span class="postbody"]

Sorry for the big &copy; on the picture, but its nessecary on some forums I come... [img]/emoticons/emotion-6.gif[/img]


<span class="postbody"]


<span class="postbody"]@ Dennis, Looks a bit like the ENCI in Maastricht... correct ?


<span class="postbody"]


<span class="postbody"]Ger


<span class="postbody"]edit :


<span class="postbody"]( How do you get the "quote reply" in ?? )

[William]

[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x400/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/13/2548.Quote.jpg[/img]





This one had me for a while too.

[BryanKing]

Three exposure HDR. 1/15 sec, 1/60 sec, 1/4 sec @ F7.1 EF-S 10-22. 50D