Too Much HDR???

I've been trying HDR on subjects I think make for good HDR?

Appreciate if you'd give me your critique. Most of what I've seen is that HDR doesn't work so well for most particularly if it's over done?

Here's my effort. Five shots with 1 stop interval -2 through 2. Thanks for your time and input.

The location is a small village in Switzerland called Bremgarten, very old place medieval in fact.

#1
Attachment 79585

#2
Attachment 79586

#3
Attachment 79587

#4
Attachment 79588

#5
Attachment 79589

#2 and #4 are my preferred

It's all a matter of taste. Some want their hdr to look realistic and others prefer the artistic look.
These look more like paintings than photographs to me.
I like them as an artistic endeavor,(hoping that's what you wanted).
I do not like the clownish, oversaturated ones.

It's shots like these that got me interested in hdr in the first place. I particularly like #2 &3.

Some really beautiful scenes with excellent colors!

I would say that you should back off on the tonemapping a little bit to lessen the halos, etc. #1 - look at the halo on the tree on the far right and the reddish 'halo' on the steeple near it. The overhang in #3 has a definite halo in the sky.

Also, I think most need straightening and all would benefit from wide angle lens distortion correction.

I like the 'ghosting' effect of the two people from the multiple images on #5.

TF

Thanks for the input, I'll make the suggested corrections. As for the straightening yea I had a bit of trouble there, most is due to lens distortion which I'll try and fix.

Thanks again.

I like the shots, but they are just a smidgen too HDR for my tastes. I'm the one that prefers a natural looking HDR. In these the sky looks sort of dark and gloomy, but the scene looks very bright. Did I understand you correctly saying these are 2 exposures 4 stops apart?

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Originally Posted by Anbesol

I like the shots, but they are just a smidgen too HDR for my tastes. I'm the one that prefers a natural looking HDR. In these the sky looks sort of dark and gloomy, but the scene looks very bright. Did I understand you correctly saying these are 2 exposures 4 stops apart?

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Hi Anbesol and thanks. I took five shots from -2, -1 0, 1, 2.

Here is one I just amended to take some of the surreal out, what do you think, I replaced the sky?

Peter

Attachment 79595

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shootme

Hi Anbesol and thanks. I took five shots from -2, -1 0, 1, 2.

Here is one I just amended to take some of the surreal out, what do you think, I replaced the sky?

Peter

Attachment 79595

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I like this sooo much better.... btw.... where are the people?

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Originally Posted by PhilF

I like this sooo much better.... btw.... where are the people?

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Thanks Phil. It was Sunday 7pm and shops / bars closed so the streets were for the most part deserted, except for tourists like me.

Excellent, Id look at that and think its just an awesome exposure. The light part of the tower seems just a tiny tiny bit out of place with brightness, but its a very minor nitpick. Great work!

I really like these....:)
HDR put to good use.
They feel like old fashioned hand painted B&W.
Keeping the haloing under control is key.
A PP PIA that's worth the effort.
The greens seem to be a bit oversaturated in a few of them.

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Originally Posted by snoid

I really like these....:)
HDR put to good use.
They feel like old fashioned hand painted B&W.
Keeping the haloing under control is key.
A PP PIA that's worth the effort.
The greens seem to be a bit oversaturated in a few of them.

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Thanks Snoid, yea I had a bit of trouble with the greens in trying to bring them back a bit. Thanks for the input good catch.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by shootme

Hi Anbesol and thanks. I took five shots from -2, -1 0, 1, 2.

Here is one I just amended to take some of the surreal out, what do you think, I replaced the sky?

Peter

Attachment 79595

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this is my preferred style of hdr.....a nice difference from a high quality pic, but still retains a sense of realism w/o looking like a painting. i need to study up on hdr.....i have yet to try it.

I like them the way you did them. You don't want to grunge all the time, but sometimes it is really beautiful, and I like these. And I agree this grunging is what got me into tone mapping in the first place. These days I am trying to tone it down a bit, but mostly because I tone map from a single raw file for simplicity and you usually get unnacceptable noise amplification if you over-grunge it.

Beautiful images !!! really enjoyed them!

can we see more toned down versions ?

OK, thanks everyone for your comments.

Here are the other shots which I toned down.

Attachment 79629

Attachment 79630

Attachment 79631

Attachment 79632

To be honest I dislike HDR and have yet to be convinced by it. However your second shot is the best of the bunch, imo, and the subsequent edit of it is even better again. There is a nice atmosphere to it and it was good to get the empty street.

I have to agree with Tom. It is a matter of taste. The biggest issue I have is the blown out parts in the sky I thought the whole purpose of an HDR was to cure that.

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Originally Posted by Greg McCary

I have to agree with Tom. It is a matter of taste. The biggest issue I have is the blown out parts in the sky I thought the whole purpose of an HDR was to cure that.

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Thanks guys.

Greg, the sky was probably me, too much contrast adjustment on the clouds. For the most part I seem to always put too much contrast to my shots, I need a level of restraint..:)

I like contrast maybe layer it is PS and tone it down some or maybe use the healing brush to fix it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Greg McCary

I like contrast maybe layer it is PS and tone it down some or maybe use the healing brush to fix it.

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Thanks for the tip. I'll try.

Shootme, out of everything posted so far, the second shot in the original set is still my favorite, it appears to almost have an "orton effect" quality about it. The rest are cool, but come across more as illustrations than photos (to me).

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Originally Posted by jetrim

Shootme, out of everything posted so far, the second shot in the original set is still my favorite, it appears to almost have an "orton effect" quality about it. The rest are cool, but come across more as illustrations than photos (to me).

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My thoughts exactly, it's also my favourite. Thanks for your input and to everyone else too. Cheers.