Golden island landscape

[infinite012]

I'm trying to get Photomatix to cooperate, but I'm still pretty hit or miss with the tone mapping. I can say that I'm not a fan of HDR, but this image would otherwise look very bland had it not been run through Photomatix.

http://subdomain.dirtysamurai.com/pictures/111808IMG_0491_hdr.jpg

The picture was taken with my Rebel XT and 18-55 (non-IS) kit lens. 3 exposures: +/-1, 0 EV.

Let me know what you think.

[kevindar]

Michael, I have never used that software. I will tell you the tone maping here does not work for me at all. Is there a Magenta shift in the forground or is that the real color? all detail is shadow is lost in the fore ground. the image looks like a severe case of highlight/shadow adjustment. there are halos around the mountain. the sky is somewhat interesting, but the foreground is not. there has been general color shift also. I will be interested in seeing what one of the exposures looked like without the adjustments.

[-Douglas-]

I agree, looks like something I would produce :)

[infinite012]

Here is the unprocessed (resized only) +1 EV exposure:

http://subdomain.dirtysamurai.com/pictures/111808IMG_0493.jpg

I definitely need someone to hold my hand through the HDR tone mapping.

[kevindar]

as far as exposure correction goes, this is as far as I would take it.

[-Douglas-]

I also did a quick retouch and the noticed you don't have "image editing" set to OK, so
I won't post them untill it's OK !

[infinite012]

That's strange. I fixed it for you :)

Image editing OK!

[-Douglas-]

That's strange. I fixed it for you

:cool: :lol:

[-Douglas-]

I just used that Scott Kelby trick with the Shadow/Highlight tool:
http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp49/dougle/POTN/testHDR/do_over.jpg

here's the settings:

http://i396.photobucket.com/albums/pp49/dougle/POTN/testHDR/do_oversample.jpg

I think I over-blown the water though :)

[JJD.Photography]

The clouds look natural, but something is definitely not right from the horizon on down. The dark shadows at the bottom & trees close to the horizon is part of the problem.
Keep practicing with the tone mapping, you will see improvement ;)

[canonloader]

I think it came out real nice. Not sure about the red shift comment, I don't see it. Those weeds have red stems, that's how they are. The shadows are still kind of dark though and the only way to fix that is set up the AEB to +1, 0, -1, then use Exposure compensation to slide it to the positive side by 1. Or, take more images with a wider spread.