Yarra Valley, Australia - late afternoon HDR

[98octane]

I tried my first ever HDRs this week using advice on this forum. This is my third attempt. The shot was taken in the Yarra Valley (Victoria, Australia)just before sunset with the sun breaching the clouds momentarily. Comments?

http://aussieexotics.com/drivers/albums/userpics/10105/Yarra_Valley,_Victoria_(17_Oct_09).jpg

[98octane]

I should say that the image was taken using the AEB function (-/+ 2 stops) on my Canon 400D. I processed it using Photomatix with final contrast/exposure/sharpening tweaks in Photoshop. I also copied in the sky from the -2 exposure since the HDR sky was too exaggerated and had some noticeable ghosting or halos. I also copied in the sheep since the sheep in the processed HDR where yellowish.

[Kevin]

Looks good to me, I often will mask in the sky from my minus exposure as well as moving people or animals. I think maybe you could increase the saturation and contrast in the sky some to bring out the intensity, would give more drama to the composition IMO. But I think you did a great job for your first HDR's

[98octane]

Thanks Kevin. I noticed that your HDRs have excellent clarity and very little noise. How do you achieve this? This HDR has considerable noise and is much softer than single exposures taken at the same time. All shots were taken on a tripod using a self-timer so I don't think it's a camera-shake problem.

[polarbare]

The softness is at least partly due to movement. The sheep, trees & grass were probably all moving at least a little between the shots.

For an early attempt I think you have a good idea of what works.

[msclman99]

very nice.

i am curious, where can i learn to copy the sky/sheep like you did? i am not familiar w/ pp yet. just learned the basics of the curve tool last week.

[tmcman]

Nice expression of a beautiful sight.

[98octane]

very nice.

i am curious, where can i learn to copy the sky/sheep like you did? i am not familiar w/ pp yet. just learned the basics of the curve tool last week.

The way I do it is as follows:

1. Create the HDR and open in Photoshop.

2. Open the single exposure containing the subject you want to mask in (eg. sky/sheep) - I'll call this the background.

3. Copy the HDR and paste it as a new layer on top of the background. Temporarily make this new HDR layer 50% opacity and move the HDR layer into position so it perfectly matches the features of the background. Once in position, change back to 100% opacity.

4. Apply a "masking layer" to the HDR layer (i.e. its the button with a circle inside a rectangle that you will find in the "Layers" tab.).

5. Use the paintbrush tool on the masking layer to paint in the bits you want to show through the HDR layer. If you use black paintbrush, the background layer will show wherever you paint - e.g. paint the sky portion of the masking layer and the sky of your single exposure background will show through. If you use the white paintbrush, then the white painted part of the HDR layer will reappear over the background layer.

6. Make sure the edges of the masked portion are accurate - you want seamlesss transitions between the masked and un-masked portions.

7. Merge the layers and export the image.

That's just my way - can be very time consuming to get it 100% right. Happy to hear other suggestions.

[98octane]

By the way, I took this panorama in the conventional way. I prefer it to the HDR.

http://aussieexotics.com/drivers/albums/userpics/10105/Yarra_Valley_panorama,_Victoria_(17_Oct_09).jpg

[Jon Foster]

I like both shots.

Jon.

[msclman99]

thanks for that reply. and i agree with jon, i like both shots.

[tmcman]

The field is properly bright in the second, clouds not as strong.
But the bright field wins for me.