Mesa Arch HDR

[Roman Kurywczak]

I probably have 1000 or more images of Mesa Arch over the years so I am always trying new angles or ideas there. This was a rather unusual morning but oh, so full of promise!!! I decided to try a different angle when all of a sudden....the "god" rays broke through. Filters would not work.....so quickly swithed to HDR and took 3 exposures. In hindsight....i should have taken 5 or 7.....but I reprocessed the -2 image even darker to maintain the highlights as much as I could. I don't generally shoot HDR's for landscapes.....but it's always nice to have that tool in the bag and experiment.
4 images (1 extra reprocessed) at +2, 0, and -2.....with reprocessed at minus 3. All tripod mounted w/ bubble level in HS at 17mm and ISO 100 at f22. Processed in photomatix and CS5. Saved at 45 quality:eek: to fit.

[Bob Miller]

Hey Roman....beautiful image with lots to look at....I especially like the light in the foreground and the those God rays really take this image over the top. :cheers:

[Dave Mills]

Hi Roman, the range of subtle color in this is wonderful. A very different view of the arch(which I know you shot a 100 times) and I like the fact you experiment with different compositions. I have a bit of mixed feelings regarding the way the opening is shown. I'm debating on whether more of the arch should be seen since it is a minor part of the image or the emphasis taken off that area. The "god" rays and that area on the rt really makes the image for me...

[dankearl]

Roman, I think it is really nice for HDR.
I am also not a huge fan, but yours is not over the top and doesn't look contrived like a lot do.
I like the BG a lot, more than the FG. The light coming through the clouds and the colors.
I think a view a bit more to the right, with more BG would really be nice.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Roman, I like it as is. The diagonals, lines cand colors are are great.

[Nick Palmieri]

This is interesting. Love the rays and the sky. My initial thoughts were negative but after looking at this for a while I really like it, it's different and I love the glow form this angle. Nice PP...I think it would also work by just having the right half of the image in a vertical.

[Jay Gould]

It is a beautiful image, all of the elements work together, AND it is level - what more can you want?

:cheers:

[Robert Amoruso]

Superb Roman for all the reasons mentioned above.

[Susan Candelario]

Beautiful in every way, Roman! I love it. Very nice job!

[Harshad Barve]

God's rays make this winner Roman , top shot
TFS

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice scene Roman...love the textures and those rays of light. I'll be left-field here and state my thoughts. I started out with auto-HDR (photomatix) and quite liked the results it produced. Over the last 2 years I have changed my landscape workflow considerably. I don't use filters yet (should, but my bucks has gone into long glass! :eek3:). I do focus now on manual exposure blending. A lot of work, but much more 'natural' for my tastes.

The look you achieved in this image is certainly not as OTT as many others make their HDRs look, but for my tastes it still has that 'photomatix' look to it :Whoa!:. I have experimented with the new "fusion" function of the newer Photomatix and have achieved results much more in line with what I am looking to achieve with my landscape images.

Still - all my opinion - and I'm actually saying all this for discussion sake...you have forgotten more about landscape photography than I will probably ever learn :bg3::5. Just think you have done HDR in the past that has looked more like what you can achieve with filters. And it doesn't mean I don't like the image at all haha.
:e3

[Jay Gould]

Morkel, try Nik HDR Effects Pro on a 30 day trial. IMHO far superior to any other HDR product.