Wintertime at tbe Beach

[GB1]

A quick HDR taken on Christmas Eve in Del Mar, California.

[hminx]

Great B&W material I think. I'm interested in your P.P. with this, did you apply some sort of detail enhancement process to it ?

[GB1]

Pete, it's a 5 image HDR, w/ 1 stop between each image, merged with Photomatix. I usually use their Normal preset and adjust here and there to ensure it's not unnatural looking.

Speaking of natural, this next image I shot the just afterward looks better to me (though I wish it had all the people walking the beach in the background). Comments? Maybe a good BW candidate too. [Can't get the site to show this one full size, so just click on to see]

[GB1]

Other lifeguard tower ..........

[hminx]

I think I also prefer the second image, the single person makes the beach look a little more desolate, and apart from the ladder touching the horizon, it's a better composition. There seems to be a phobia amongst photographers for shooting in this sort of harsh light, but although challenging, I think there are many opportunities such as this.

[armando_m]

Greg,
I like the composition of 2 and 3, give a bit more context than just the tower

I guess you liked the back light , but gives little volume from where you shot

Good post processing

[mattb]

I like the second and third more than the first too. The ladder shadow in the second is nice and really adds to the image. The sand texture in the third is also a nice addition.

These are very nice natural looking HRDs. The best kind IMO!

[Adamo]

I like the third one the best, although I feel like the man is to close to the tower and I wish the foot prints were not there. Great set!

[treehuggrr]

interesting! i think a wider shot would have been neat as well because we have no context with which to see the size of the tower. That said, I love it! i think the subject is really sweet and i haven't seen a tower like that before.

[GB1]

Pete, yeah, backlit subjects can be harsh. I think HDR is ideal for these though. However, I think the first post lightens the shadows too much and is unbelievable (and now that I reevaluate it, I think the tower's too centered too. Ahh.. I guess there's always # 2 and 3).

I've seen some wickedly great shots with backlit subjects. Not always sure how they do them, but frontal strobe lighting or a simple fill flash can work wonders (especially on model shoots), and sometimes there's enough haze in the air where you don't have a massive difference between fore and background lighting. And HDR, of course.

Armando, sunset might be better. I guess # 2 is especially short on volume, but at least # 3 seems like it reaped the benefit of the sun behind the clouds.

Mattb, Thanks,. I think the jury has returned on HDR, with 9/10 favoring more natural-looking HDRs vs. those really abstract-looking artistic creations. Funny though because a few of the shots I've gotten good feedback on are indeed highly-processed, some of them artistic HDR stuff. My friends comment that my normal shots look like something any photographer could do, but that the edited one have more artistic style. Hmm.

Matt (Adamo), I can easily move that guy and no one would ever know, do you think I should? Yeah, maybe it would have a more deserted feeling if the footprints weren't there. Thanks for taking a look.

TH, good pt on the context. I think I have a few with wider view,... will look and post one if I find one that's decent.

G