Overly Soft...?

Hi there. This is one of my first using more than three images. I took three exposures at +/- 3 EV and used ACR to expand to eleven images. The images became such:
-3: -5, -4, -3, -2
0: -1, 0, +1
+3: +2, +3, +4, +5
Combined in Photomatix 3.1 and edited lightly in Photoshop (curves, selective color, high pass for sharpening, converted to 8-bit & sRGB).

[EDIT: taken with Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L @ 40mm, f/4, exposures 1/640, 1/2500, 1/160]

I don't know, something about this just doesn't strike me. It might be that I just don't like the color of the Brooklyn Bridge, but I'm hesitant to blame it on the bridge. Can anybody provide insight? Does this photo bother anybody else?

Just a warning, the photo is a link to the flickr photo page in order to comply with flickr community guidelines. Not a shameless attempt to gather views

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

You don't like this? I'll take it.

Looks great to me

Doesn't it seem overly soft? I mean, at original size I can make out individual bricks on the bridge but still it just seems... I don't know, maybe misty? I'll definitely add more birds if I do any more editing

No, not really. You can see in the full size image, it has purple fringeing, some ghosting around the people, leaves blowing in the wind. All that stuff will make it look soft, but I have seen worse.

Did you use AEB and high speed burst to get the three images as fast as possible? And sometimes it doesn't matter how fast you can bang them off, the tripod wiggles from mirror slap or the wind on it.

Did use AEB, and the 1Ds Mark II has a fairly quick burst (though I didn't see a speed burst option like the 40D has, although I didn't have a manual or anything). I used Photomatix to align since I did not use a tripod for this shot.

Yeah, the 1Ds MkII shoots at 3 frames a second. There is also a personal function you can set AEB to shoot 2, 3, 5 or 7 frames. You should try that instead of making some up from the originals. Shoot 7 at one stop apart, should be enough. Wish I had a MkII.

I wish I had one too! Getting to use it for the day was very unexpected. I normally shoot on an XT, so this was like trading in my VW for a Ferrari for the day!

man, I'd be proud of that shot, especially hand held. Did you try just the 3 exposures before you decided to add the extras with ACR, to see how they would come out?

I like the shot. I would also have liked it with out the people. Either way works for me...

DognBone wrote in post #6794268
man, I'd be proud of that shot, especially hand held. Did you try just the 3 exposures before you decided to add the extras with ACR, to see how they would come out?

I did try just the three exposures. I don't have the two to compare, but I didn't like it at all with just three... Probably for many of the same reasons I am frustrated with this.

just look through this HDR forum for some of my stuff and you'll instantly feel better about yours..... hey was that Scott Kelby taking pics by the shore?

LOL, in the 1024x size it does look somewhat like Scott Kelby. The full size reveals him to be a different person! The funny thing is that there were two wedding parties shooting at the park at the same time. I didn't want to shoot them at all but they had the good locations and since they had to pay extra to shoot in the park I definitely didn't want to get in their way!

The thing that makes it look odd to me is the color cast on the people in the foreground; they look far too cool compared to the rest of the shot.

And the bottom 1/3rd needs some fill light (I mean the post-processing kind, of course) to balance it all out, otherwise the excellent contrast of the background overwhelms the foreground.

IMO.

EDIT: I did play with the photo a bit, so I think what I said above is correct but, of course, only for my vision of your photo.

As for soft, if you use a USM pass for 'local contrast' of 20/50/0 and set the opacity of the sharp layer <66%, I think you'll be pretty happy.

;}

Sharpening was great! I've never liked USM much but I did like this. I also added a fairly warm light to the bottom 1/3 as you suggested and liked it quite a bit too. Here's a before/after:

I think it looks great now!