First go at HDR

[Simon Clarkson]

HDR, is something I previously haven't liked! I generally find it either overdone or so unrealistic it doesn't look like a photograph..

Anyway I had a go at doing last night. I haven't done it properly as I took a single photograph from my database and produced 4-5 other copies of it at different exposures.

Anyway I merged the photo into one and here is the result...

Hithe Fort at Milford on Sea...



Regards

[davidc]

Interesting effect, did you use the "Painterly" preset on Photomatix perhaps?

Also, did you use multiple exposures for this or a single RAW file and generate multiple exposures from that? Reason I ask is it looks like there is a man in the centre of the frame who would normally be ghosted out if you used multiple exposures.

Good attempt but I think it's a bit TOO much even for my HDR-loving tastes! The sky for one looks unrealistic and although it's brought out detail in the shadows quite well it looks a bit more like a computer game backdrop than a photo for my tastes.

Nice viewpoint though

[Simon Clarkson]

It was done from one single photo which I made multiple exposures of. I did it in CS6 through bridge which has a Merge photos in HDR function.

[Simon Clarkson]

I guess HDR is a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it! That said HDR looks awesome when it's done properly and tastefully.

Regards

[Mike Farley]

Simon

I have to say that so far as HDR is concerned, I rarely see any images where the effect is not overblown. If you can see that it was done with HDR, then more likely than not it will be a fail so far as I am concerned. I like marmite, but not HDR!

[davidc]

Interesting - I like well done HDR and think it can seriously improve images that would otherwise be near impossible to get. I definitely don't think more often than not HDR = fail, but certainly agree that bad HDR looks VERY bad. I think an image with chronically overblown highlights or zero shadow detail = fail MUCH more often than an HDR effort for example.

Must stress this picture is not in the "VERY BAD" category (more the "not to taste" category) and admit I've nudged the discussion off your picture

Maybe this is one for a general topic showing good/bad examples...