Fresh from the streets (Re-Shoot)

[Lok3sh]

So I went to the same location today with my tripod :) I got the framing pretty close to the last HDR, but this time I have all 3 of my exposures super sharp with no shake! So better than the older one from here http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=874869 ? Let me know what you guys think!

http://i48.tinypic.com/jud5af.jpg

There was crazy noise when I processed this image though :s no idea why! But noiseware cleaned that up a lot... There still is a little bit of crap in the sky because of the noise, but it was a tradeoff between sharpness and that weird stuff. I chose sharpness. Maybe in a while, Ill use noiseware to fix the sky and just replace the sky on this with the noise reduced sky.

EDIT : Sky fixed! Pic updated!

[FlyingPhotog]

Deeper DOF (near car to infinity in focus) would really make this feel like being there.

A little WB tweak would also help I think. As it is, it's awfully Sodium Vapor rich.

[Lok3sh]

Deeper DOF (near car to infinity in focus) would really make this feel like being there.

A little WB tweak would also help I think. As it is, it's awfully Sodium Vapor rich.

Well, I wanted to keep the aperture open as much as I could so I would not need a long exposure to get my +2EV... I was planing to keep it open all the way at f/1.8 :p But I ended up doing f/3 instead...
Could you explain to me how I would WB tweak it to improve it?

[FlyingPhotog]

So you were without tripod for this?

A WB adjustment would take out some of the "Fires of Hell" orange cast that's pretty prevalent as you've shown it here.

[Lok3sh]

So you were without tripod for this?

A WB adjustment would take out some of the "Fires of Hell" orange cast that's pretty prevalent as you've shown it here.

Lol Fires of Hell :p
And no I did have my tripod but It's not the best of tripods and I wanted to minimize shake as much as I could. I was semi supporting the camera because I had it attached to the tripod, and then turned to the side...
So how would I go about fixing the white balance here?

[FlyingPhotog]

Did you shoot your frames in RAW? What software are you using?

It can be a simple as moving the Color Temperature slider more towards the Blue end of the scale. You probably can't get your whites truly white but you could take the edge off the overall orange cast.

[Lok3sh]

Did you shoot your frames in RAW? What software are you using?

It can be a simple as moving the Color Temperature slider more towards the Blue end of the scale. You probably can't get your whites truly white but you could take the edge off the overall orange cast.

I shot in both RAW as well as JPEG. For the processing though, I just used the JPEG files because I am still not sure how to effectively process my RAW files. And I use Photomatix.

[FlyingPhotog]

IMO, you'd be better served to start with the RAW files. Get each one dialed in in terms of WB, levels and sharpening and them blend them.

RAW also gives you a bit more exposure lattitude.

[Lok3sh]

IMO, you'd be better served to start with the RAW files. Get each one dialed in in terms of WB, levels and sharpening and them blend them.

RAW also gives you a bit more exposure lattitude.

If only I knew how! There are so many settings that can be played with on the RAW... I hardly know how to use any of them :(

[Lok3sh]

What if I just de-saturate the image a little more when I process the HDR in Photomatix?

[FlyingPhotog]

If only I knew how! There are so many settings that can be played with on the RAW... I hardly know how to use any of them :(

I hear ya...

Have you considered Adobe Lightroom? Solid RAW converter married to a good filing system. Best part of Lightroom is the fact that your edits are "non destructive." IOW, the settings are stored in a separate file and only applied when you call up that image. Otherwise, the original remains untouched.

Pretty sure there is a Photomatix Plug In for Lightroom as well.
(I'm not a big HDR maker so I may be wrong on this...)

Adding: Yeah, pulling a little saturation out might help.

[Lok3sh]

I hear ya...

Have you considered Adobe Lightroom? Solid RAW converter married to a good filing system. Best part of Lightroom is the fact that your edits are "non destructive." IOW, the settings are stored in a separate file and only applied when you call up that image. Otherwise, the original remains untouched.

Pretty sure there is a Photomatix Plug In for Lightroom as well.
(I'm not a big HDR maker so I may be wrong on this...)

Adding: Yeah, pulling a little saturation out might help.

No I have never actually tried lightroom. Must give it a try sometime!
How would it end up looking if I just opened up the RAW files in PS, only changed the color temperature on all 3 and saved them out. Would they look close to the JPEGS except with a different color temperature?

[FlyingPhotog]

No I have never actually tried lightroom. Must give it a try sometime!
How would it end up looking if I just opened up the RAW files in PS, only changed the color temperature on all 3 and saved them out. Would they look close to the JPEGS except with a different color temperature?

Yup...

If you have the ability to open RAW files via PS, then you are working with ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) which is the basic engine under Lightroom. The difference being (as you say) that you have to save different versions in a different format instead of having the adjustments saved in side-car files as they are in Lightroom.

[Lok3sh]

Sounds like I should give lightroom a try... In the meantime, I have made some adjustments on Photoshop with the image, and have re-uploaded. How does it look now?
If it still looks bad, maybe I'll try turning the color temp down on all 3 exposures, and then re do the processing and see how that turns out...