My 1st attempt

I'm contemplating purchasing Photomatix for portrait play. This is my 1st attempt at heavy hdr for the "fun" factor portraits.

I used Lightroom to make the -2, +2 exposures and then put it through Photomatix. The output I put back into Lightroom and tweaked it to my taste.

Any feedback would be appreciated, thanks for looking!

#1- Hard contrast, saturation:

Music too loud? lol

Love his expression!

I kind of like the B+W, but I absolutely HATE both color versions.

turkleten wrote in post #10356077
Music too loud? lol

We went to a quarry for a demonstration and they had a firetruck blasting it's horn. He wasn't amused by the noise.

Lantz wrote in post #10357475
Love his expression!

Thank you, I agree.

TheBurningCrown wrote in post #10357549
I kind of like the B+W, but I absolutely HATE both color versions.

Hate is a strong word. Glad I through the B+W in.

The expression on the little guy is priceless.
Might have been an idea to clone out the red whatever in bottom left....might be tough...or even duplicate it on his right side.
Chet - I would have liked to seen the properly processed non HDR version - the colours above are just too much for me for such a great capture with such a strong statement.

Here is the pre-processed picture. The red on the lower left is the wagon he is sitting in. The parents wanted a whimsical cartoon style effect full of vivid colors, and the processed Photomatix effect is what I came up with.

I think it can work well if its desaturated some. The "halos" are very pronounced. Keep it going though i love his expression.

Chet wrote in post #10359486
Here is the pre-processed picture. The red on the lower left is the wagon he is sitting in. The parents wanted a whimsical cartoon style effect full of vivid colors, and the processed Photomatix effect is what I came up with.

Thanks Chet.
If I was the parent I would really go for this natural well-exposed shot - I love it.
As alternative, you could always try a few "filter" effects in Photoshop or layer the HDR shot over the original and lower the opacity. Then again if that's what they want - client is always right.

Chet wrote in post #10358784
Hate is a strong word. Glad I through the B+W in.

I know that hate is a strong word. That's why I used it . The color versions to me, are far too busy and oversaturated. It just takes to much away from what the viewer should be focusing on: his expression.

The B+W version helps correct that.

cool.. effect for the shot..

I like the change from the original to the hdr. It gives you options for how to use the image. Great work. A real hdr does show things to the extreme. Some images are busy and some won't be. At a beach you do not get to control a day at the beach.

I love that first pic. Baby Chet. So cool.

The original looks okay. The rest look horrible.

MDJAK wrote in post #15904470
I love that first pic. Baby Chet. So cool.

You're too kind

Numenorean wrote in post #15904507
The original looks okay. The rest look horrible.

k