Speed Skater

Speed skating sculpture at Richmond Olympic Oval.
3 exposures, Photomatix, PS and Topaz.

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Nice processing and good background (neutral and DOF). I will give the Oval credit for the lighting
Was it possible to get in more of the base to make the image less square and to avoid the crop right at the bottom corner?

Thanks Spike. I had to crop as the background was not clean....garbage bins, signs on the wall etc. This is also why I had to add more blur to the background. I wanted to get more of the base however there was a barrier up fairly close to the sculpture as there was a soccer tournament being held there - could not get the correct angle. I may go back when the area is a little cleaner and take another pic. Or I'll take the original raw images and see if I can remove some of the unwanted objects (probably the right way to do it).

Cheers.

awesome shot, interesting because it doesn't seem to be HDR at all, which is not a bad thing at all. Reminds me of my predator sculpture that i have sitting on my book shelf right now

I really like this shot. The only nitpicky critique is that there is either some sensor dust on the background wall or something that looks like it which is distracting. I would clone it out even it's not. Otherwise, it's fantastic.

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feedback. I tried not to overcook it. The 3 exposures brought out some definition in the shadows and also introduced some nicer colors.

Nope not sensor dust.....it's an unfinished conrete building so I think it's the bolts through the wall that you see on the background (I hope so anyway). I can clone them out though and give a more uniform background.

i have done some additional sharpening here. Let me know if this works better than the original.

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