The Painted Hills, OR

[job13_5]

Hey everyone,

Looking for advice and opinions on these three photos. My wife and I recently went to the painted hills here in Oregon and we took a bunch of photos.

The first one is a night HDR of three shots bracketed at 2-stop intervals.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/cardwelc/Nature/PH_Night_HDR_800l.jpg

The second is a 4 picture panoramic of the most recognizable set of hills. (I learned a lot about panoramics in these last two photos--especially about how important it is to keep the exposures even. Poor choices in that department led to a pretty uneven sky in this photo...I haven't gone through and really worked on smoothing out my edits on the sky yet...any advice (or threads) on how to do this well/evenly?)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/cardwelc/Nature/PHPano1_1024.jpg

This last one is a much larger pano from atop a canyon rim. I'm not sure how I feel about this one (color, brightness/contrast, etc.); interested in hearing a few opinions.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/cardwelc/Nature/PH_Hor_Pano2_HDR_1024.jpg

Any C&C is most welcome. This is my second month with my first SLR. It's been a real challenge making pictures turn out as interesting on the computer as they were in my head. I've been getting relatively few keepers, so I'll take any advice you'd like to give.

Thanks for the time!

[Jaymz]

Very nice, I was there a couple weeks ago. The first one is a tad over processed for my tastes. But I do wish mine looked that good. :)

[Lumin Miner]

Great shots there!!
The one thing I am learning about HDR is that, it is not to everyones taste.
If you were going for the 3D rendered look, you certainly achieved that. I do many like this and find them fascinating to look at.
However if you are trying to achieve something visually pleasing to all, I would strongly suggest to cut waaaay back on the tone mapping and perhaps boost the contrast to compensate...

I can really see these images, just on the edge of HDR but not noticably.
IMHO I like to use HDR to enhance but not over-take the actual photo. HDR is used best when you can't see it at work...

Like I was saying these are very impressive and I think they are great.

Good work, keep 'em coming!!


Mitch.

[jgrussell]

Very nice series.

[job13_5]

Great shots there!!
The one thing I am learning about HDR is that, it is not to everyones taste.
If you were going for the 3D rendered look, you certainly achieved that. I do many like this and find them fascinating to look at.
However if you are trying to achieve something visually pleasing to all, I would strongly suggest to cut waaaay back on the tone mapping and perhaps boost the contrast to compensate...

I can really see these images, just on the edge of HDR but not noticably.
IMHO I like to use HDR to enhance but not over-take the actual photo. HDR is used best when you can't see it at work...


Thanks for the feedback Mitch! I've heard the debate a bit b/w folks who like HDR and those that don't, but I'm not sure that I'm a good judge of what's overboard and what's more natural.

The first image below is one of the unedited stops for the night HDR. The second is the same image worked in Photoshop with auto-contrast and curves. I tried to tone down the editing, but I wonder if my eye keeps telling me to go deeper and deeper.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/cardwelc/Nature/IMG_3268.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v297/cardwelc/Nature/IMG_3268b.jpg

Is this better? Or is this still too over the top?

Thanks for the feedback!

[Flo]

I lik the first alot.