Looking for some criticism and whatever else you have!

[Steelcityslicker]

I was out for a walk today in the inclimate weather and came across a few points of intrest, so I thought that I would share!
1. - Feeding stable in disrepair
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2326/2409463252_8f9cd288ff.jpg

2. Outside of said stable. The color looked great on my laptop - not so much on my desktop. Looks very "yellow". . . .
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2050/2409462720_6c2bfaf176.jpg
Great day for shooting, with the exception of the rain. There were some nice overcast skies but still a lot of usable light. I grabbed some decent shots that I did not even bother with (post processing wise) because they could stand on their own. I am really intrigued by this HDR thing, so I thought I would show off what I have managed so far.

Here are a couple photos of a trip I took to Hamilton a month or so ago.
3.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2331/2409461656_72dfbdf7fb.jpg
4. A local Hamilton church - this seems to be a "favorite" of people who have had a gander at my portfolio.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2409462218_48ef032166.jpg

Now I know that HDR is not everybody's cup of tea, and I know that these may be a little too overprocessed for some, but give me a break - let me have some digital fun! I just converted from film!! If you dont like the process, please comment on the perspective, the lighting, focus, etc!!

Any comments are welcome, good bad whatever.

Thanks for looking!!

Greg

Scaled down to 500 x 333 for your viewing pleasure.....

[jorogume]

Well I'm pretty new to photography so I cannot give you a very technical opinion but I really like them, specially #2 and #4.

Can you tell me what kind of processing did you use for the Hamilton church besides HDR, I would love to learn how to do that.

[bill boehme]

Welcome to POTN. I think that your image have good composition, however, the horizon in #2 and #3 is too centered. I like the perspective of the shot on #4. And, disrepair is an understatement on #1.:) One part of your HDR process that I think is rather heavy handed is the tone curve adjustment, although it looks more like it might possibly be color burning after creating the tone mapped HDR image because the images have a somewhat splotchy appearance with some areas that are much too dark.

[mrmacca]

love 2 and 3 , great shots

[Steelcityslicker]

Welcome to POTN. I think that your image have good composition, however, the horizon in #2 and #3 is too centered. I like the perspective of the shot on #4. And, disrepair is an understatement on #1.:) One part of your HDR process that I think is rather heavy handed is the tone curve adjustment, although it looks more like it might possibly be color burning after creating the tone mapped HDR image because the images have a somewhat splotchy appearance with some areas that are much too dark.

I agree with bailing on the rule of thirds with most of my photos. Sometimes I am not a fan of abiding by that particular rule. I believe you are right though, after looking at the photos in question again, it was interesting enough to have included more of it in the photo.

I tend to go heavy on the "Micro contrast" in Photomatix. That might account for some of the splotchiness as you describe.

Jorogume, I normally use between 4 - 7 photos, shot in RAW mode. With most of my HDR stuff so far, I have adjusted the levels in Photoshop to "warm" the pictures up. Other than that, I just mess around with Photomatix and hope for the best! (Still new to digital processing and photography.)

Now, on my laptop, there are really no "dark areas" to be seen in the photos. Sure there are some darker spots, but not so dark that you cant make out all the detail. On my desktop though, the images look like garbage. I am wondering if that is what you guys are seeing here. The images are drastically different from one computer to the other! I wish that I could see what you are seeing!

Thanks for the comments / criticism guys. I will try and get some more of my stuff up and on here. Great website.

[bill boehme]

The display on most laptops are way too hot unless you have calibrated yours. Although having a hardware calibrator is really nice, it is not essential to get very decent color. Here is a link to the Color Problems (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=296149) sticky on the Raw, Post Processing, and Printing forum. There are some links to monitor calibration in the post in addition to numerous other tutorials on fixing color problems. Having a calibrated monitor is really an important part of having a color managed system. Otherwise, what you see on your monitor will probably not look like what others (who do have calibrated monitors) see on their monitors. Also, you will likely have a color disparity between your printer output and monitor.