Late afternoon at Plum Island

[allanrube]

I take many of my bird shots at PI but there were few shorebirds Friday afternoon. This is an HDR from 5 images processed with Photomatix Pro.

D3X f4 iso 100 16-35 mm lens at 35 mm.

shutter speeds were 1/130, 1/60, 1/1125, 1/250, 1/500.

[Rachel Hollander]

Allan - the afternoon light is very nice and I like the color of the grasses. There is a fairly pronounced halo effect at the horizon line.

TFS,
Rachel

[allanrube]

Thanks for the positive comments.

As to the halo, that is a consequence of using Photomatix. Any suggestions on how to remove it once it is part of the tif?

[Brendan Dozier]

Nice wide open view, Alan, and like the light and color/texture of the grasses. Agree about halo, could just zoom in and manually clone it out. I might also try to pull out just a bit more color from the sky if possible. Clouds and pond in FG make a nice composition.

[Robert Amoruso]

Allan,

I can't say the FG is doing much for me. I suggest a crop into a pano to see if you like that. If those clouds on the left were present in the whole sky, that would ahve been killer.

Halo Effect Help: http://www.hdrsoft.com/support/faq_photomatix.html#halo

[Grady Weed]

Maybe it's just me, but I like the foreground, it adds character and an anchor for the scene as a whole. The small wet land breaks up the grasses. The dead tree branches are OK for me too. Love the sky. I've been to Plum Island only once, no birds in range. Lots of gawkers however.

[Andrew Aveley]

some interesting advice and agree more with pano crop .

[allanrube]

Thanks for the comments. I started to rework the image and decided to revamp it for a different look - later in the day. Let me know what you think.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Late to the party here, Allan. Nice-looking scene. The halo in the OP was mentioned, and it's not as prevalent in your repost.
The repost is just a tad too dark for me given the apparent time of day. Perhaps a luminosity somewhere between the 2 is best??

When I do use Photomatix these days I tend to always use the "Fusion" method as it creates less halos and yields a more natural-looking result. For best results manual blending is the way to go...and for even better ones using filters is the way to go.

[allanrube]

Never too late for me Morkel. How about if you had not seen the first two images - would the last one seem better then.

I will give fusion a try.