Today has been terrible to try to go out and shoot. The winds (30-40 mph) have just been continuous and trying to find a sheltered area was fruitless. The winds are supposed to die down overnight so I went out this evening to scout out some areas for wildflower close-ups in the morning. I took along my 30D with a 70-200 f/2.8 lens just in case I came across something interesting. As I was walking along one of my favorite wildflower haunts, I got to thinking about the Photomatix software that I downloaded a week or so ago. I decided it was time to give HDR a whirl.
I set up the AEB for +/-2 stops and took three images taking advantage of the backlighting.
1/2000 sec @ f/11; ISO 400; 0 EV
1/8000 sec @ f/11; ISO 400; -2 EV
1/500 sec @ f/11; ISO 400; +2 EV
FL was 70mm.
I combined the three images in Photomatix to create an HDR image which I then tone-mapped; imported into Lightroom where I touched it up a bit including adding more saturation to the blues in the sky; and finished it off in PS4 with some sharpening and noise reduction.
Actually I ended up doing several HDR images tonight but I like the mood in this one. But I am really flying totally by the seat of my pants. This is my first attempt with Photomatix. Any and all feedback will be appreciated.
Ed, I like it-I think because it's HDR I am expecting vivid colors and this delivers, the composition is really appealing to me. I love images of trees with dramatic skies! The only thing I would try to fix is the URC there is a bit of posterization(at least it looks like it on my PC)Photomatrix is an awesome program and I look forward to more of your HDR images!!
Ed, I also like the vivid colors here. I recently downloaded the photomatix demo and have played with it just a little (So much software, so little time:() I like the image and look forward to seeing more.