Car Dealership HDR C&C

These are ok, but I think they could have been better. 3 exposures combined in photoshop, then edited. They're not quite right, but I can't figure out why. Help?

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …40483547@N07/10​037782033/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …40483547@N07/10​037713386/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …40483547@N07/10​037685695/

Note: was asked to capture the exterior of the building as well as the interior of the showrooms, which I think I've done ok... I'm being nitpicky.

Interior is a bit overexposed in spots. HDR effect is subdued in 2 and 3, which is a good thing. Not so much for 1.

I would layer mask an exposed interior shot with the exposed exterior one instead of the HDR function.

That's actually what I ended up doing. Looks much better but took way more work.

2 is the best IMO. Best composition and exposure balance. Power line in 1 and 3 is distracting.

WB needs work for the interior shots - tweak so it matches and you can see the colors of the cars inside. A CP may have helped with the glass reflections too.

aw man I totally didn't think of using a CP filter!

You should also straighten your verticles as it looks like the building is leaning Robert. You picked a good time of day to do this although that has its challenges too.

You should try a different program for HDR. It's called Photomatix. I use it and like it much, much better than photoshops HDR processing. Check it out.

I've used photomatix in the past. photoshop does a fair job, I just can't figure out how the controls work properly yet.

I tried to straighten the verticals to a grid, but maybe I didn't get it quite right.

robertwsimpson wrote in post #16341255
I've used photomatix in the past. photoshop does a fair job, I just can't figure out how the controls work properly yet.

I tried to straighten the verticals to a grid, but maybe I didn't get it quite right.

I'm using CS5 - for straightenning I go to EDIT -> FREE TRANSFORM, and then I just drag one or more nodes until I get the look I want. I'm not using a grid at that point....more or less by eye.

The right side of the building looks just fine. It's the upper left corner that you want to drag and straighten. Also, I don't know if they'd spot this by I see some strong green fringing on that left edge near the roof on #2. You can remove that under LENS CORRECTION -> MANUAL -> Color Something (I'm trying to go by memory as I don't have the app with me now).

yeah I actually just overlayed the exposures and manually blended them. it came out much better, although it took way longer.

I want so badly to love HDR, but it just doesn't work for me.

There are some burned out spots inside. Maybe only shoot two exposures one for the interior and highlights and one to hold the shadows. I thought the entire reason for HDR is high dynamic range which means you should have detail in the highlights and shadows otherwise in my opinion what is the point?