First HRD Attempt

[leeport]

This is my first attempt at an HDR image using Photomatix. I havent bought it yet so the water marks are present, but I think I am going to buy it. It seems to work well. I have no idea what settings to use and followed some sample setting I found online. But aside from some sensor dust, what do you think?

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa25/AlbatrosDV/post66.jpg

[SwingBopper]

Yeah it seems to work pretty well. Nice first attempt; but it looks tilted. Maybe rotate it to the left a degree or so?

[Robert_Lay]

I think that your colors and local contrast are interesting as a result of the HDR processing.

I think the "message" and the emotional impact of the picture are a little weak, but the composition is good, in spite of the tilted horizon. At least you tilted it far enough that we know you meant it.

Bravo!

[brecklundin]

Bob,

Always love reading your tips. Mind if I ask a question about this shot of the OP's? How could it be improved impact wise? I ask because as they say "...that is how we learn.." ;)

Would a slightly different crop be better? I figure since the horizon on the left seems to be a hill as the horizon on the right is level...here is what I was thinking:

http://www.brecklundin.com/POTN/Untitled-1.jpg

BTW to leeport: I really like the colors but hope it's ok to sort of go to school on your shot. ;) I myself havent had the nads to try HDR just yet. ;)

[SwingBopper]

I noticed the hill on the left; but I see the right horizon being slightly tilted, I think unintentionally. This vertical edit looks good too.

[brecklundin]

SwingBopper: What I think we are seeing is the natural slope of a hilly region. Should leeport have tried to perhaps align (as in parallel) that slope with the barbed wire fence? But if is done then the tree trunk is no longer vertical. The again that might be a better way to setup the shot, setup the horizon parallel to the fencing with the tree trunk slightly tilted as it looks like it naturally is relative to the fence and hillside/horizon? That was why I asked what might be done to bring everything into a more pleasing shot. Part of me is thinking a different alignment of the elements w/o making it seem too rigid or in other words removing the natural sense of the subject might be what Bob was getting at.

Here is a crop ofr the other side...looks to me as if the fence is more parallel to the slope of the hillside. Not sure if this is better or not just trying to look at it differently...

http://www.brecklundin.com/potn/untitled-1a.jpg

I still like the HDR effect in this shot. I did notice a bit of a halo along the top of the tree trunk when I looked closer.

[Robert_Lay]

Bob,

Always love reading your tips. Mind if I ask a question about this shot of the OP's? How could it be improved impact wise? I ask because as they say "...that is how we learn.." ;)

Would a slightly different crop be better? I figure since the horizon on the left seems to be a hill as the horizon on the right is level...here is what I was thinking:

BTW to leeport: I really like the colors but hope it's ok to sort of go to school on your shot. ;) I myself havent had the nads to try HDR just yet. ;)

First readings are often in error. Looking again at the "horizon" I see a TV or Cell tower on the horizon which seems to be vertical - so, the "horizon" might well be accurate as depicted in the OP.

Regarding the "emotional impact" and/or the "message", that is very subjective. Some are really turned on by a simple landscape and others have to have the grit of big city street life to catch their interest. My lack of interest in this image is just me - someone else may see it as the most charming scene found on the POTN this week. To catch my interest there almost always has to be a human figure somewhere in the scene, if only incidental. Lacking a human figure, there must be something very grand, like Half Dome or Bridal Veil Falls. In this scene, just a simple pocket torn from a pair of overalls and caught on the barbed wire would have added to the interest.

I use to follow a painter in acrylics who had a name for it. When she was finishing up a picture, the last thing she would put into the picture was what she called the "honey buns" - just a little fleck of highlight here or there to get the eye into that part of the picture.

[leeport]

Great tips! thanks for your opinions. I totally understand about the horizon. The horizon is that way because like Bob said the post and the tower in the background are vertical. I maybe went overboard with the HDR contrast, but this is my first attempt at it. I like the way the Photomatix software works and will buy it now that I have played around with it. Thanks again.

[MattMoore]

Redo this on a cloudy/overcast day and I guarantee it'll be 10x better...and trust me, I know a thing or two about decent HDR (http://mattmoore.zenfolio.com/p618376732).

[brecklundin]

First readings are often in error. Looking again at the "horizon" I see a TV or Cell tower on the horizon which seems to be vertical - so, the "horizon" might well be accurate as depicted in the OP.

Thanks for the reply Bob... :D

I did notice the tower and when I fiddled with the OP's shot I just cloned it out...hehehehe...also I noticed the hillside on the left of the shot was parallel to the fence which to my eye looks better(?)

Regarding the "emotional impact" and/or the "message", that is very subjective. Some are really turned on by a simple landscape and others have to have the grit of big city street life to catch their interest. My lack of interest in this image is just me - someone else may see it as the most charming scene found on the POTN this week. To catch my interest there almost always has to be a human figure somewhere in the scene, if only incidental. Lacking a human figure, there must be something very grand, like Half Dome or Bridal Veil Falls. In this scene, just a simple pocket torn from a pair of overalls and caught on the barbed wire would have added to the interest.

I use to follow a painter in acrylics who had a name for it. When she was finishing up a picture, the last thing she would put into the picture was what she called the "honey buns" - just a little fleck of highlight here or there to get the eye into that part of the picture.

Thanks a lot for that insight. Often when I read a comment from folks about a shot they never really explain where/why a shot misses the mark for them. Because of that I am never sure if I either have no taste or just, well, crappy tastes....hehehehehe....I appreciate your expansion on the subjective nature of just that issue.

I come from a scientific field and often it's difficult for me to understand why some art is better than other works. I tend to grasp concepts yet I always try to find the "formula/equation and it's solution" before just letting myself react and go from there...that might be why explanations help me out.

[SwingBopper]

First readings are often in error. Looking again at the "horizon" I see a TV or Cell tower on the horizon which seems to be vertical - so, the "horizon" might well be accurate as depicted in the OP.

...


The tower is leaning slightly to the right.

[Robert_Lay]

Thanks for the reply Bob... :D

I did notice the tower and when I fiddled with the OP's shot I just cloned it out...hehehehe...also I noticed the hillside on the left of the shot was parallel to the fence which to my eye looks better(?)



Thanks a lot for that insight. Often when I read a comment from folks about a shot they never really explain where/why a shot misses the mark for them. Because of that I am never sure if I either have no taste or just, well, crappy tastes....hehehehehe....I appreciate your expansion on the subjective nature of just that issue.

I come from a scientific field and often it's difficult for me to understand why some art is better than other works. I tend to grasp concepts yet I always try to find the "formula/equation and it's solution" before just letting myself react and go from there...that might be why explanations help me out.
Tell me about it!

My background is BSEE, Purdue, 1953. Worked as a systems engineer and then as a software engineer.

[Bill Boehme]

This is my first attempt at an HDR image using Photomatix. I havent bought it yet so the water marks are present, but I think I am going to buy it. It seems to work well. I have no idea what settings to use and followed some sample setting I found online. But aside from some sensor dust, what do you think?

Well, having lived in Texas all my life, it has a charm for me that may not appeal to everyone as Robert stated in a previous post. However, it is a bit devoid of a strong attention grabber in the foreground. I think that it might help just a bit to get the full height of the fence post rather than just the top half.

I am fairly confident that the image has considerable tilt to it because of the topology of the land, I do not know of any regions that fit the profile of the gradually undulating prairie and also has as much slope as implied. Since it is clear from the image that the lens line-of-sight (LOS) is tilted downward, it means that vertical references such as the tower in the background should appear as diverging at the top -- the fact that it looks like it tilts ever so slightly towards the center at the top indicates to me that the camera body is rolled CCW about the LOS by a few degrees.

Regarding the HDR processing, I think that the color saturation in the foreground is excessive and the contrast flattening has caused the image to look more like an illustration rather that a photographed image which, to me, seems counter to one of the goals of HDR which is to take advantage of the full dynamic range available for the intended medium when displaying an image.

Tell me about it!

My background is BSEE, Purdue, 1953. Worked as a systems engineer and then as a software engineer.

I don't think that you had ever mentioned going over to the dark side before. :rolleyes: