Jackson Memorial HDR

[the phelp]

This is the first HDR I've shared with the class. Please let me know what you think! (besides the obvious mask error at the top-left corner of the marker :confused:) Thanks!

[Laramie]

I like the color. Looks great to me.

[ddave]

Good effort and I like it. Definitely not overdone and definitely not "buried" :)

[the phelp]

Thanks, guys!

[tonydee]

There's quite a lot of distortion. The tree behind the stone isn't visually separate from it, and appears almost like something growing off the stone. The sky isn't too bad considering the lighting... not quite natural but clearly unlikely to have been done without HDR. The excessive white of the building suits the subject matter. All up, pretty good.

Cheers, Tony

[the phelp]

Thanks, Tony. I see what you mean about the tree behind the stone - it blends in a lot. I might try dodging the back of the stone to get more differentiation, or maybe cloning the tree out. That bit of really blue sky right above the house and the guy (a police officer, actually) talking on the phone in front of the house might need to be addressed too.

[griptape]

Overall, I like it very much. My only complaint would be that I would like the head stone to be clearer/brighter.

[rammy]

The stone looks good, agree about the tree out the back. The left side isn't engaging for me. There is nothing there of interest IMHO. Ok, there is some sky but it's blown with little detail. What does the same angle from the other side look like?

[the phelp]

I've made some revisions based on all your comments. The first is the original file revised to bring out more detail on the stone. The second is a whole new start using a higher-key version of the original RAW file, with a focus on getting the stone to stand out and differentiated from the tree behind it.

Rammy, the alternate view seemed pretty blah at the time, with grey skies and a nearbuy tree line, but I should've take a shot or two just to see how it came out. In the second revised version, I added a gradient to darken at an angle from the top left towards the middle, to try to make the left side a tonal mirror image of the right to help balance the overall image, and emphasize the way the treeline and clouds point to the marker.

Thanks again for all the comments!

Original with sides of marker brigtened, folowed by totally redone version...

[ddave]

I still like the first initial post, it gives me the mood :)

[Shooter_Mutter]

I agree with ddave.. I like the first one!

[the phelp]

Thanks!

[Carerra]

needs a slight tilt to the right, i think