Bench

[Jay Sheinfield]

I took this image this morning at the St. Louis Botanical Gardens. I took three exposures, but only used two for HDR processing. HDR is very new to me yet, so I can use all feedback I can get.

After porcessing the image in NIK's HDR Efex, I added a bit of Nik's Diffusion and Tonal Contrast very sparingly. Then a warming filter for effect. Hope you like it......................On my screen there is a slight purple tint to the post, which is not present on my copy............:bugeyed:

[Steve Adkins]

Jay, I like this a lot. I'd also like to hear comments on the HDR processing, but to me... you brought out the details in the shadows and tamed the highlights in a very natural way. The overall effect is artistic (diffusion) with a pleasing vertical comp and mix of vines and wood.

[Dennis Bishop]

Nicely done, Jay. It's well-composed. The colorful leaves provide a good contrast with the grays. And you've done the HDR part well -- at least from my perspective. It looks very natural, and the tonal range is good. There's detail in the shadows, and the highlights aren't anywhere near clipped.

[denise ippolito]

Jay, I like the composition and you did a great job with the S&H bringing out detail in both. Some images in my opinion that have a great tonal range really need HDR and some images can be captured with only one exposure. I think the funky starts for some when they try to feed bracketed images into these programs without checking to see if they have captured info in both their whites and darks. Also HDR programs can produce a muddy look if not done properly kind-of like converting a B&W- you don't want everything to look flat and muddy. I like the natural look to this and sometimes overly detailed can be overly distracting.:S3:

[Arthur Morris]

I generally despise filtered light but the light is so soft here that I actually like it. The light gray beam on the right frame edge was a distraction for me (being lighter than the rest....) Thus the crop. I also pulled the curve up as the image look overall too dark to me.

[Arthur Morris]

In retrospect, I like the original COMP better. I would lighten the whole thing while darkening the one light board on the right frame edge :e3.

[Jay Sheinfield]

In retrospect, I like the original COMP better. I would lighten the whole thing while darkening the one light board on the right frame edge :e3.

I admit to being on the dark side a bit......................good ideas. Here's a go at it............ignore the pinkish tint, this stuff happens in uploading.

[Cheryl Slechta]

Jay, I like the lighter version on your repost. Nicely done:S3:

[Arthur Morris]

Fantastic job on the repost. The probelmatic board no longer drags the viewer's eye.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Fantastic job on the repost. The probelmatic board no longer drags the viewer's eye.

Thanks much :S3:.

[Judy Howle]

Nice job with the repost! I like the softness and the colors in the leaves contrast nicely with the neutral tones.

[Dennis Bishop]

I admit to being on the dark side a bit......................good ideas. Here's a go at it............ignore the pinkish tint, this stuff happens in uploading.

Jay, you remarked that you didn't use one of the exposures when you processed in HDR Efex. If it was the one with the highest exposure, it might be interesting to run all three exposures through HDR Efex, then pretty much follow the rest of the original processing and see what happens.

[Jay Sheinfield]

Jay, you remarked that you didn't use one of the exposures when you processed in HDR Efex. If it was the one with the highest exposure, it might be interesting to run all three exposures through HDR Efex, then pretty much follow the rest of the original processing and see what happens.

Dennis, I can't remember which I left out. I did process this a bit darker than the original HDR image. I did it for mood, wrong mood!:S3: