My fist post of a HDR at -8 C in Stockholm

[abigpicture]

I am new to HDR and since seeing the great work on this forum it inspired me to give it a go. So here is my fist image that I feel confidant in posting and appreciate any CC you can give me.

It was shot handheld on a -8C gray snowy February day in Stockholm, with my new Canon 7D and 17-55mm lens. It is a 3 frames bracketed shot +-1 stop, post production work on Photomatix Pro and Aperture.

Still trying to find the balance between keeping it real while making it pop a bit.

[Levina de Ruijter]

Jon, I'm new to HDR as well and can't say if this is a good HDR, but I do know it's a great image. That bit of light is just beautiful.

[liorya]

This is just beautiful!

[Dep]

This is a wonderful shot.

[BMWRINO]

nicely done!

[abigpicture]

Thanks for all your kind words they have given me great confidence to do more HDR work and participate more in this forum.

[Gary McDuffie]

Like it! Congrats.

[dmccabe]

really nice composition and colors.

The one area around the mast and tree branches has some halo effects, the sky looks lighter than all the other areas, and it draws attention. Some careful burning can make those areas just a little darker to match the rest of the sky.

Overall, great shot.

[wolfden]

fantastic job, that photo is not an easy one to do with the cables and branches. Those are famous for causing unwanted effects.

[deletedpenguin]

Really nice! HDR's are generally overdone. Thankfully, this isn't. The colour pops off the white snow, with no typical HDR "cloudiness".

[Edbee]

My idea of what HDR should be. Excellent picture

[abigpicture]

Thanks again for your kind words.

dmccabe, I appreciate your suggestions and will work on this. I am still learning how to compensate for these types of problems with Photomatix.

I have found that HDR is a good technique to use on the sunny winters days we have been having in Sweden this year due to the high contrasts you can get.

[navydoc]

Very nice job indeed.

Haloing is probably the most annoying artifact found in hdr images and sometimes extremely difficult to remove.

[Joergen Geerds]

I think it could be a successful image if you would go back to the source file and render it traditionally from one file without your HDR software, I think the random brighter spots on the right don't help the image.

[abigpicture]

Thanks for your suggestion Joergen I will look at the source file again although my personal preference was the resulting HDR image, I like the way the colours and detailed of the wood came through something I was having trouble with in the single correctly exposed file. Having said that I am well aware this may be more due to my limitation / knowledge of the software I was using.

[FredH999]

Frankly, I think some images look just fine when they look more like illustrations than real photos.
Then the glow doesn't look out of place.

Nicely done.

Fred

[masterwillems]

Shot is nice :) but i'm mesmerized by your logo:confused:

[abigpicture]

Yes work is needed on my logo, still figuring out water marking.

[Picture North Carolina]

It could have been such a great image with a sort of "sketchy" look if it wasn't for that darn photomatix haloing. The viewer's eyes go right to those bright spots.

[rw2]

Wonderful!