HD Pictures

Yes folks 'seeing' and 'perception' are quite different things. And as for whether an image looks like a 'photograph' or a 'painting' I don't really care. What I'm interested in is what the image conveys.

As Joe has shown in many of his HDRs, subtle 'tweaking' works brilliantly in some circumstances to produce a 'photographic' image that is closer to that seen by the Mk.1 eyeball. I like the composition of your river side photo Joe, but I found the slight blurring created by the HDR rather uncomfortable to look at. I'm not blessed with brilliant eyesight, so it could just be me. Maybe at A3 print size and viewed from a few feet away things would be different for me.

Point taken regarding the 'hairy coo':D I'm not particularly impressed by it either and I only snapped it in the first place because Mrs W likes hairy coos.

Robert, to be honest I'm not daft about the sunrise - mainly because of the composition. To my eye anyway, there's no real focal point or anything to provide a suggestion of depth and space. I think if you'd managed to get down a bit lower and show the sun over roof tops it might have made a difference.

Point taken about the over-dark sky in my Gleann Lichd HDRd effort. I've just done a bit of dodging on it and the new version is below. Comments are very welcome!
I've also included the base level original for comparison.
The EXIF data is attached to the pics. The 'base' photo was shot at a 1/250th @f8 and the other two that made up the HDR composite were at 1/640th and 1/100th.

Great thread Robert. Thanks for starting it!

 

Morning all.
Dave. re the sunrise. It was another of those grabbed shots out the door in the early hours. I was almost on the extreme tele end of my lens to capture the area of sky. Point noted re composition. What attracted me to that particular area was the simularity with an Australian sunset with the tree and the need to isolate the area.
Wide angle would show loads of houses and way underexposed roofs.
I was not sure weather to crop out the tops of the chimney pots that are showing. Matter of chose really.
Robert

 

Dave
re Gleann Lichd HDRd effort. For me thats better.
Am I the only one seeing a lose of quality on the HDR pictures after posting?
I am seeing a lose of sparkle which in some ways degrades the images.

 

This is how i did this.

Firstly i put it through photomatix.Had the settings as default,then just upped the black to about 10%
Then in PS i adjusted the B&C.
Clone tool to get rid of the overhead cables.
Saved the image.
Duplicated the layer,opened the channel mixer,set it to monochrome and adjusted,from top to bottom
+200
-50
-50
I then merged the layers using multiply,then adjusted the opacity to what i felt looked right.
As i only wanted the sky altered,i erased the effect on the land with the history brush.
flatten image
Burn tool to increase depth and colour as and where required.
Save.
Grey grad to darken sky a bit more
history brush over mountains.
Save
Mist filter for the distance.
History brush.
Burn tool.
Save
Noise reduction...sky only.
Remove noise reduction on the land with the history brush.
Duplicate layer,
sharpen using the high pass filter.
flatten image.
Duplicate layer.
Layer-layer style-drop shadow.adjust to taste.
Image-canvas size.then typed my personal preferences in.
Flatten image.
Save for web.

this took about 10mins to do.If you your confused or this lot doesn't make sense,just....pm me or something.
Joe

 

Many thanks Joe!
Looks great.
Well done on spotting the two power cables - that was one of the jobs I was going to do but never got round to!
I've taken a copy of your list of processes and I'll try to replicate them. I'll PM if I get lost.

Thanks again.

 

Ive just put another version up....but its disappeared somewhere....

 

Dunno where the other went,if found,im sure a mod can delete it.
If you want to know how.get in touch.Cant be bothered writing it again.....Hangover

 

Joe. You deserve a hangover after that lot..
Many thanks for tutorial and great job.
Robert

 

Joe.

Your first effort works for me, it is now more balanced to my eyes:thumb:

 

OK guys.
Something a bit different.
The first picture of York Minster was taken by me a while ago with my old Fuji410.
The picture consists of 13 images, all auto stitched by some software package that self destructed after 30 days.
Using two of the same image in photomatix and kidding one image with a +2 EV I then did some HDR magic and came up with the second HDR image
Looking at it I reckon I could spend quite awhile in PS and make a half decent picture.
I have probable opened myself to masses of comments again.
Bring it on guys.
Truth is, a serious wide angle would be required to capture this image.
Ok here they are. first is 13 image jpeg


This second is HDR processed

 

I like that. There's something that says L S. Lowry to me.

 

WoW
Thanks Dave
At last I seem to getting somewhere,
Do you reckon a long session with PS will improve it
Fair bit of ghosting to remove.
Thanks
Robert

 

I'd try to reduce brightness in the upper part of the church. i just had a quick faff about in PSP and PS but it would take me ages to do what Joe probably does in minutes so I gave up!
What I did manage to do was crop the image - though I'm in two minds about if it is an improvement or not.The cropped version does (to my eye anyway) present the church door as a focal point (I think!!)

I still think it's a super pic - mainly due to the fact that it shouts 'Lowry' to me. It may take you a while, but I think you could turn it into something quite special.

My take on the composition >
(You might want to think about correcting the converging vertical on the left tower)

 

Why? I like the slanting tower (may be because in Italy half the towers are slanting for real, so it feels familiar, lol) it gives a sense of majestic perspective. I would make it even a tad more so, if possible. I would crop those sorts of scaffolding on the right, nothing else.
And actually I like the deper contrasts and warmer tones of the first pic best.

 

This is going to take a while.It was a nightmare to do,and still doesnt look right.:(

Clone tool on sky and foreground,save,lighten entire image,history brush on areas that are now too light.Save.
Noise reduction.History brush over where noise reduction wasnt required.
Burn tool on right side of church.
Save
Then i put it through photomatix.
Back in PS,adjust B&C,burn tool on windows,crop,desaturate slightly in Hue/saturate.
Save.
Duplicate layer.Hue/saturation.Check the colourise box,then select,from top to bottom,
47
25
0
Blend using multiply,flatten layer,duplicate layer,blend with screen.flatten layer,duplicate layer,screen,adjust the opacity to taste,flatten layer.
Before that lot,the sky looked fine,it'll now have a ****y blueybrown colour.History brush over sky.
Filter-render-lighting effects.
Select default,and Omni.
Direct the light on the left side of the church.
Noise reduction...Minimal!!!
Unsharp mask.
Save for web.

The foreground still looks a bit naff,but i think you get the idea.
Joe.