December 1 - First Winter Snow Storm

[Kristen Westlake]

Photomatrix HDR
Panoramic Stitch - 3 vertical images
1/8 sec, f/22, ISO 100, Nikkor 18 - 200 mm lens @ 26mm
Nikon D2X
Gitzo tripod
This was our first big snow of the season and wow, did we get a lot of the beautiful powder! I am new to HDR and have been loving photomatrix. Three images at +1, 0 , and -1 and tone mapping.
http://www.wisconsinphotos.com/gallery/seasons/bin/images/large/Carvers_Rock_4433HDR.jpg

[Chris Starbuck]

Kristin,
Beautiful scene, and I think you've handled the HDR very well. There are still some overexposed areas in the snow, but they're mostly unobtrusive; I might darken the bright area among the trees at the left thirds point. I like the warm colors in the tree trunks and stream bed, and your composition of the horseshoe bend in the stream is really nice. I think I would remove the bit of red fence at the upper left; the rest of the scene looks entirely natural, and this one little human element - especially at the frame edge - doesn't seem to fit.

[Robert Amoruso]

Kristen,

I am interested in knowing your progression of workflow as it is HDR and stitched. Do you stitch each exposure first (-1, 0 +1) and then do the HDR. Or HDR each exposure and then stitch the individual HDR frames together.

Nicely composed image and the HDR worked well for the dappled light. Nice work.

[Kristen Westlake]

HI Robert,

Great question as I was not sure how I wanted to best handle the technique. I have found that to do the HDR work first and then stitch the images has worked best for me, which is what I did here in this image

[Kristen Westlake]

Thanks Chris,

and I agree with you, esp about removing the red bridge. In some cases it would add to the image, but in this case since the image is so natural and wild, the human element almost seems "invasive". I am working with the image and will re-post probably tomorrow.. thank you kindly for your great feedback!