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Do these look like HDR?

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Kevin G.

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Hi there,

I've just started to experiment with, I guess you could say, HDR-like images. HDR, when it looks like HDR, is not something I'm too keen on, but I've been trying using one RAW file and making 3-5 exposures, using some tone mapping and a bunch of other post processing adjustments to try and increase the dynamic range without making the skys look bizarre or making a flat image.

I took these this morning, just when the sun was filtering through some clouds from the right. 45 minutes later, it was completely overcast and we were getting slow flurries.
Comments welcome,
Kevin

Font Hill in Doylestown, PA





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pBase...
http://www.pbase.com/keving54
 
To me, the most dominant shadow, that of the left side of the building, is a little too light. I ran a S-curve for contrast enhancement, and I selected the left side of the building, and ran a gamma curve, to get a deeper shadow (hope you don't mind).

In all, I think it's a very pleasing image.


Kevin G. said:
Comments welcome,
Kevin

Font Hill in Doylestown, PA





--
pBase...
http://www.pbase.com/keving54
Click to expand...
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There is simply too much beauty in the world to photograph it all, but I'm trying.
 
Wich program you use? .. Photoshop plugin?

here is a sample of mine with Photomatix. The lens i used for that is 70-200L 2.8.. I love ur pics btw.. Not much cooked indeed..really nice

 
Great image of beautiful place! Perfect viewing anlge. Wondering where it is ?

'Glassware' was right with darkening the shadow. HDRs tend to leave greyish shadows.
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Dig-IT-All
 
Hello,

Thahks everyone. Basically the image started out looking a little more like what glasswave did - which I was trying to get away from. I wanted a little more detail in the shadows, not to say his version wasn't nice!

This is a place in Doylestown, PA - called Fonthill - originally built by Henry Mercer, an archeologist, as his home around 1910, it is now a museum which houses Maravian Tiles. This is a poured concrete structure and is quite impressive. I guess you could consider Mercer as a bit of a nut by todays standards.
Regards,
Kevin
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pBase...
http://www.pbase.com/keving54
 
Your second shot looks fine the way it is.

On the first shot... I agree with glasswave... that a deeper shadow enhances the shape of the building.

If you are using one raw file, you have one exposure. Stacking different interpretations of one raw file is essentially doing a very complicated curve... which is often needed.

The problem (well, one of many) with true HDR is that so many people do it poorly. Your complicated interpretation of a single raw file here looks better to me than many HDR attempts.

Images more often than not need some true black (or deep color) to have a perceived depth... given the limited density range of print. Displays (and transparencies) can look "deeper" than prints because of a greater range of brightnesses, but even in that case deeper tones usually enhance the image.

-gt
 
They look good the way they are. They do not look overdone like most HDR images.

Steve
 
Thru enhancement I feel that you added depth and a full view to be seen. The use of concrete on a structure like this will show age in different zones. You pulled that up in using your technique. #1 & #2 as you first show them I would stay with that technique and do some more from the other sides. Different angles of light and the full 360 of the building would be a nice presentation. Interesting building. Frankly it looks like a perfect exposure....Nice work!!!
--
OROGARD
http://picasaweb.google.com/orogard
 
Actually I didn't do anything at all to the second one. That is because his shadow area is much smaller and doesn't draw as much attention. I do feel that it could be darkened a little bit without losing detail in that area of the image. I didn't mean to assert that the photographer had fallen into the oft seductive trap of overdoing each HDR.

I noticed that many photographers pooh pooh hdr, because they are used to looking at images in a photographic perspective. When we look at it with our eye, our pupils adjust many times a second. That way, we can fill in shadow detail without losing the highlights. On the other hand, people of gotten used to feeling images from a photographic perspective. The idea of a dark silhouette against a properly expose sunset is now very common, even though at the time our eyes would've had adjusted revealing some detail in the foreground.

Finding balance and postprocessing is always difficult, and many of us have a tendency to overdo it, myself included. I don't really feel that this is the case with these images, but I do feel like the balance provided by the darker side of the building in the first one is very pleasing, because of this is my impulse to emphasize it a little more..
greentoe said:
Your second shot looks fine the way it is.

On the first shot... I agree with glasswave... that a deeper shadow
enhances the shape of the building.

If you are using one raw file, you have one exposure. Stacking
different interpretations of one raw file is essentially doing a very
complicated curve... which is often needed.

The problem (well, one of many) with true HDR is that so many people
do it poorly. Your complicated interpretation of a single raw file
here looks better to me than many HDR attempts.

Images more often than not need some true black (or deep color) to
have a perceived depth... given the limited density range of print.
Displays (and transparencies) can look "deeper" than prints because
of a greater range of brightnesses, but even in that case deeper
tones usually enhance the image.

-gt
Click to expand...
--

There is simply too much beauty in the world to photograph it all, but I'm trying.
 
Kevin,

These are both good photos but the first is excellent, IMO. It does not looked overdone, rather, it leaves a shadow looking like a shadow, but with plenty of detail just the same. The second photo, which is also good, shows the bare hint of HDR in the shadow area. But I'm not so sure I'd have ever noticed if it hadn't been mentioned. So from that point of view I guess the second works as well.

Anway, good work and thanks for sharing.

Larry
 
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