EF-S 10-22mm @ Nobbys Head, Newcastle

Hi all,

Got out for walk last Saturday morning around Nobbys Head [located in Newcastle, Australia; you may recognise the name. The Pasha Bulker ran aground on Nobbys Beach around this time last year during a huge storm].

I took the 10-22mm and had a bit of fun with it ...

Any C&C welcome. EXIF should be intact.

#1 - An old exposed railway line from years ago leading up to the lighthouse ...

The non-HDR shots are definitely nicer. #1 is terrific!

I like the colors and texture of #1 and #5. I hate to say this, but there's some really bad halo-ing on the last two HDR photos that is quite noticable. Overall, your photos have a nice calm serene feeling with nice colors and some cool textures.

Thanks cedm - For some reason, I don't find I take too many shots with the camera angled like it is in #1. I just thought that in this case it suited.

Thanks Lidor7 - The "halo-ing" - I agree! I'm still playing around with Photomatix so am eager to learn. If you have any tips please advise! I actually find at times that the "Merge to HDR" function in Photoshop does a better job at merging the images than Photomatix. Of course, I then use Photomatix for the tonemapping.

I love #1 and #2. I think this just sealed the deal for me on the 10-22 being on the 'next lens to buy' list.

Jaysee&Dali wrote in post #6089840
Thanks Lidor7 - The "halo-ing" - I agree! I'm still playing around with Photomatix so am eager to learn. If you have any tips please advise! I actually find at times that the "Merge to HDR" function in Photoshop does a better job at merging the images than Photomatix. Of course, I then use Photomatix for the tonemapping.

I have pretty much no experience at all in doing HDR, but I understand the general concept. I guess I'm the sort of person who prefers to keep their photos fairly natural looking. To me, the purpose of HDR is to keep detail in shadows and prevent the highlights from blowing out.

90% of the time this occurs in landscape shots with a bright sky. The proper thing to do in my opinion is to take two shots: expose for the ground and expose for the sky. Set up two layers, mask one, and carefully remove the mask gradually where needed -- kind of like dodging and burning but with more dynamic range. Don't over do this sort of trick, though, the sky should generally always be brighter than the ground.

Don't believe anything I say, though. I've only tried my technique a couple times, and there are plenty of people who have used Photomatix with great success.