Railay Bay - Thailand, revisited HDR

I'm off to Thailand again in under 4 weeks, and gave me inspiration to look through the photos from last June/July to see where I can improve on. May head down to Phi Phi again, and Railay bay was also very impressive.

Never been too fond of HDR. But thought I'd give it another crack. First tried it last month with an image, but preferred the original, but here's my 2nd attempt.

The scene was very beautiful, but the standard photo doesn't give it justice without bringing out the detail in the shadows and backlit mountain.

This is straight out of the HDR program, can see it's a bit dark up top of the peak, etc, but overall impressed with how simple it was to create 3 exposures off the one raw, -1 0 and +1 and tonemap them.

Exif: 1D III, 17-40 @ 17mm, F16, 8 seconds, ISO 50 + Cokin ND8 grad filter - which has caused that hyperbola shape of colour across the sky

Its very nice Warren and I really like the low angle. Have a great return trip.

Nice! REALLY NICE!

I like it. Doesn't look washed out like a lot of HDR images do.

You were spot on Wazza, the HDR does give it a bit of pop. nicely done and the HDR is subtle.

good work

excellent - I like it!

Looks good, its a much more balanced picture now colour wise, the detail overall is much better. really no comparison heaps better, well worth the extra time in PP.

top rate stuff as always Warren

nice image.

sugarzebra wrote in post #4667328
Its very nice Warren and I really like the low angle. Have a great return trip.

Cheers, was standing in 1 foot of warm water. Was only concerned for snakes, but didn't see any

DigiRebelXTI wrote in post #4667332
Nice! REALLY NICE!

Cheers

akiwi wrote in post #4667499
I like it. Doesn't look washed out like a lot of HDR images do.

Thanks Peter

FlexiPack wrote in post #4668217
You were spot on Wazza, the HDR does give it a bit of pop. nicely done and the HDR is subtle.

good work

Thanks, I like subtle, just what I was going for. I saw what 100% strength does.. Makes it go very contrasty/grey with the odd speckle of oversaturated colours

Don28 wrote in post #4668237
excellent - I like it!

Thanks

khall wrote in post #4669699
Looks good, its a much more balanced picture now colour wise, the detail overall is much better. really no comparison heaps better, well worth the extra time in PP.

thank you Ken

dgcorner wrote in post #4670301
top rate stuff as always Warren

Cheers John

kevindar wrote in post #4670629
nice image.

thanks again

Well looking at your result here you just might start liking HRD.

Impressive PP work, doesn't look like most HDRs which tend to be overdone. Nice improvement.

Re Anke's comment about being overdone.
In my view most of the HDR pictures posted look like they are part of a "Hollywood Epic" and way over the top. Not many have been processed in a genteel way as with the above posting.

nice.

As others have already said, very nice work. It doesn't look HDR and I think that's a good thing. I think a good HDR should look natural and this does the job. Keep it up.