Backlit

[navydoc]

A shot of one of the contractors backhoes this morning at one of my projects. The sun was finally burning through the fog/overcast and I was facing toward the light.

[wolfden]

hmmmmm, seems like a lot of CA, especially around the backhoe - purple/blue on the rocks - seems like the backhoe is 1/2 in focus and 1/2 out of focus.

[navydoc]

Thanks for the comments. I think the issue of focus here is a matter of DOF. I was pretty close to the backhoe and shot at 17mm and f2.8. I used that aperature to give me a fast shutter speed to shoot handheld (1/500th) and iso of 100 to keep noise to a minimum.

Would those settings contribute to the CA? It isn't apparent on the individual images but does show up on the merged/tonemapped image.

Sometimes it seems my hdr processing takes 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Just when I think my workflow is producing good consistant results, I suddenly find myself struggeling to create anything worthwhile.

[wolfden]

I'm not sure what causes CA, but I find that with HDR, you have to treat each and every picture as a new process. The process that worked perfect on the pic last time you did it doesn't mean it will with future ones. The HDR processing loves to bring out the flaws tho.

You do good with your work from what I see, we all run into ones that just flop. Chalk it up and keep going.

[kirkt]

There maybe some slight fringing on the underside of the ROPS, but the blue cast that is present throughout the image is the result of Photomatix. You probably want to neutralize the cast in post, and paint some of the neutralized areas back into the comp - or use the best single exposure for the rocks, for example, and paint that image into your comp. The image is blurry because of handholding and misregistration. Add some sharpening and see if that helps. Here is a shot at some PP. I used a curve to neutralize the blue and painted in that adjustment to the lower half of the image. I also added some sharpening and a slight curve to even things out.

I converted to sRGB for this post - I think your image above has no profiled embedded.

Kirk

[navydoc]

Wolfden...Thanks for the comments and encouragement.

KirkT...Thanks too for the suggestions and pp...especially for removing the blue cast. I did apply sharpening (lots actually) but because of the DOF, the bucket on the backhoe is still soft at full viewing size. The image above was saved in sRGB using the "save for web..." screen. Saving images in this way strips the image of the exif data as well.

It would also probably help me if I checked out my glasses soon. :D