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Mike Landwehr
11-23-2008, 01:55 PM
Early morning in July at the Maroon Bells. This is my first real attempt at HDR, and I realize that opinions of HDR photos vary widely, but I will appreciate any c/c offered. Especially interested in suggestions for improvement from those who have experience with HDR.

1D Mark II N
Sigma 12-24 mm on tripod at 20 mm
f/22
ISO 200
exposures - 1 2/3, - 2/3, + 1/3, +1 1/3
Photomatix

Chris Starbuck
11-23-2008, 02:31 PM
Mike,
Beautiful scene, well composed, nice light, and a good job on the HDR. I really like the FG rock & flowers - well balanced. Also your framing of the Bells with the mid-distance mountains. And of course that first touch of warm light on the Bells' peaks.

I have very little personal experience with HDR, but I know the process tends to reduce image contrast pretty significantly. That's actually the purpose of HDR, if you think about it: compressing the extreme range of contrast actually present in a scene into the limited range that can be displayed. So after doing the HDR merge, you generally need to add back some contrast to avoid having the image look rather flat. I did a local contrast enhancement (USM at 35/50/0). But that turned the shadowed side of the FG rock and it's reflection real muddy, so I masked that out. Then added a small S-curve to increase overall contrast. Finally masked out all but the sky on a levels adjustment layer (no adjustment - just takes up less space than a duplicate image layer) and set the blending mode to multiply at about 75% opacity to darken the sky. What do you think?

Mike Landwehr
11-23-2008, 04:49 PM
Chris,

Thanks for the kind words. And your tips are a treasure! I love the adjustments you made to the image. They really make the image pop! I've heard both the LCE and the sky-darkening tips before, but never implemented either into my arsenal. Now that I've seen what they can do, they will be permanent additions to my tool kit. I'm going to lightening the sky at the top edge, to make it more uniform, and may? use just a touch less LCE than you did (personal taste), but I really love your adjustments. Thanks for taking the time to help!

Mike

Robert Amoruso
11-23-2008, 08:17 PM
Thanks Chris, that is what I would have suggested.

Mike, Chris is correct that images can come out flat after tone-mapping and a local contrast enhancement would have been the first place I would have started. I think you did great for a first time HDR and the composition is just soooo good. first with the rock and flowers balancing the FG, the "V" of the water leading to the "V" of the mountains and then to the BG peaks and that touch of gold.