Railroad tracks and my first HDR

[jhall]

Went out with the wife tonight looking for something to take pictures of and decided to take several exposures of this scene and see what I can do in Photomatix. I made two versions, my wife and I like the second better, but I know many don't like that look. These are my first HDR images, so C&C welcome!

Edited to add -
Canon T1i
18-55is Kit lens at 32mm
iso 100
1.3", 1/5, and 1/2 second exposures
f/16

Version 1 -

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii268/jhall0712/RRLarge.jpg

Version 2 -

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii268/jhall0712/RR_tonemappedLarge.jpg

[Otto MCR]

Personally, I like the first one more. The second one is just too saturated.

[glick]

x2 The second is too saturated for my taste.

[jhall]

I'll be honest, I kinda thought that too. But my wife went on and on about how cool it looked I finally began to think, yeah it must be cooler. lol. It's the rail that looks too saturated to me. The trees don't bother me that much.

[wolfden]

most definitely the first one

[Kilrov]

Second one is waaaaaay too saturated for my liking. Love the first =D

[Gary McDuffie]

Yes, the second one is high on saturation, but worse, it is too yellow, at least for my eyes. That's what throws it for me.

[jhall]

I played with it some more. I think this is more along the lines of the first picture but doesn't have the yellow tint to it. I think this is my favorite version of it. I like how it turned out.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii268/jhall0712/IMG_2379_7_8_tonemapped_filteredLar.jpg

[wolfden]

nice edit! looks better

[jhall]

Thanks!

[kirkt]

The hypersaturated version makes the rail bed ballast look like giant pop rocks.

[jhall]

Yeah it does. Its bad. I would take it down but I will leave as a reminder of what not to do. Lol

[Gary McDuffie]

I'm not on a calibrated monitor right now, but it looks much better to me.