Urquhart Castle HDR (Single Exposure)

[theague]

Thoughts/Comments on the processing of this single exposure image. Processed from -4 to +4 exposure values.

This is Urquhart Castle along Loch Ness in Scotland.
http://suited.zenfolio.com/img/v6/p370380967-5.jpg (http://suited.zenfolio.com/p996764560/h161390a7#h161390a7)

[Avi]

wow...beautiful...
but for a sec I thought they are 2 different images...horizon divides the scene exactly in two parts...

thanks for sharing

Avi

[theghost]

looks like two seperate pictures one using the shy HDR the bottom using a normal pic then adding the sky masks layers flatten image etc
looks quite dramatic

[theague]

How would you crop it then to make it look better? It is one photo, processed for different exposures and then combined in Photomatix. Didn't use any masks, layers or flattening.

Thanks for the comments so far from both of you.

[frleal70]

I think it looks great. My taste as far as HDR is concerned, is more towards the extreme (almost surreal) tonemapping that a lot of purist despise.

This shot is well done. The composition is great, and the colors in the foreground are nice. If I changed anything, it would be to add a layer to make the color pop in the hills/mountains in the background.

Nice work.

[theague]

I'm not sure what adding a layer to make the color pop in the hills/mountains really means. How would one do that?

[BearLeeAlive]

It looks good Kody, but I too saw 2 different photos at first. Maybe a wee crop off the top to give it better balance, it seems kinda top heavy (I know, weird way of putting it).

[sevillafox]

It looks good Kody, but I too saw 2 different photos at first. Maybe a wee crop off the top to give it better balance, it seems kinda top heavy (I know, weird way of putting it).


I'd agree that it needs a crop... but I think I'd crop of the bottom if it were me.

And, the mountains do need a little something...they are a bit dark but maybe taking some of the brigt off the bottom with a crop would make them look better.

Or, I could be completely full of it. :lol:

[-Douglas-]

I'd like to see the colors pop a little more as well or maybe make it look like some of the other pics on your site, cool!

[canonloader]

I saw two pics too, which made me look at it longer. I wouldn't change a thing, maybe lighten the far shore a bit, but not crop it.

[theague]

Thanks for all the comments everyone. I will see what I can do about the far shore. As many of us in here know, HDR is a noisy process so I am not sure how well the hills/trees area is going to look when it's lightened.

[frleal70]

There's a tutorial on Flickr on how to make the color pop. Just go to flickr and search for color pop tutorial.

[theague]

thanks frleal70.

[theague]

This any better?

http://suited.zenfolio.com/img/v6/p769297039-5.jpg

[frleal70]

Looks great. The color pop in the foreground is obvious. Nice work. What I was initially proposing though, was to increase the color/contrast in the mountains/hills in the background so the picture blended. You could run a shadow/highlight adjustment in Photoshop, add a layer mask, and only apply the effect to the mountains/hills (or whatever they are :) )

[theague]

K. I'll try that next. lol

[Serrator]

Wonderful location and composition. My son happens to be in Scotland today...Edinburgh area. Our son and a college buddy decided they wanted to see some castles so they saved their the money and off they went.

Anyway, one thought to your image is that one thing that is a giveaway to tonemapped imagery is having the foreground area (the grass lawn in this case) being much brighter than the background/sky. Normally the sky will be the brightest thing in a scene like this, but for a more surreal look than it is anything goes. Regardless a nice image!