"Tunnel View", Yosemite NP

Took my kids up to Yosemite Saturday afternoon to play in the snow. On the way home, I stopped for a few photos at Tunnel View. This is 3 images, bracketed about one stop apart, merged in CS2 using "Merge To HDR"...

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Beautiful shot, love the sun on the mountain.

Really nice shot of the valley Hikin Mike. We were there and left Saturday. I tried the bracketing method with my 350D and CS2. The pictures came out flat and horrible. I can't figure out how to do this right. Yours look great!
I had seen you were going up around this time and kept looking for POTN members up there. I would have loved to meet you.

Thanks Michael and Julio!

Julio,

I've only done a few HDRs. I think this one is the best so far. You really have to get your shots off quickly, especially if there are clouds. I used the auto bracket function and the rapid shutter to get these...of course a tripod was used.

I'd love to meet up with fellow POTN members. I'm pretty easy to spot for now...I'm either using a walker or seated in a wheelchair!

Hiking Mike
I used the auto bracket settings and used a tripod. Shot three frames. Sometimes with 1 stop between each frame and sometimes with 2 stop differences.
I think I am going to start a thread on the Post Processing section of the forum and see what others say.
I knew you were in a walker, you had posted that before. I have admired your determination to continue going and doing despite your difficulty.

Good idea on the thread!

Hope to have some new knees in the next few months...

You`ve done a good enough job but as i have said before , i feel that HD on the CS2 takes away all the contrast and leaves you with a flat image.
What do you think?

Here is a little but of information about HDR from Luminous Landscape.

I like the photo, though I think the trees should be a little bit darker. The merge to HDR feature sometimes make a photo seem to lack enough contrast.

Thanks for the comments. It does look a bit flat. I re-processed it using two images and "manually blended" them together. I think it looks better now...

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Glad to see you posting again, Mike, but sad to hear you continue suffering with the knees.
My best wishes for improvement, no matter where it comes from. Now, to the thread. I have been less than pleased with HDR blended shots done by software, and happier with manually blending two shots. Both yours look good, but the second is the better of the two.

I also like the manually processed image better Mike. What work flow did you use.
Nice work.

nice shot Mike.

I think I should mention that using HDR in CS2 isn't just matter of merging a few images together and expecting CS2 to spit out the final result. the produced HDR is more equivalent to producing a high dynamic range high-quality digital negative which you then have to develop or tone map. (which is where the real skill comes in)

Second one, much better great shot!
KAC

I'm sure some of us need education in tone mapping. How did you you learn?

trial and error. there isn't really a great deal of guidance out there for producing good HDR's.
Photomatix has tone mapping as part of it's software and there's also has a tone mapping plug-in for CS2.