Mesa Morning (+ repost)

It's too processed I avoid HDR software like the plague so i cant help you with Photomatix, but basically the tone mapping sucked all the contrast out of the shot. Everything except the classic orange glow on the bottom of the arch and the sunstar (which looks real nice) should be considerably darker, so that the highlights stand out more. You've got 3 exposures--so hand blend them, im sure that will give you a good result.

I couldn't disagree more. We've all seen plenty of poorly processed HDR blends and this is not one of them. There's plenty of contrast present here. The foreground and the face of the arch could stand to be burned down just a bit, but otherwise you captured a classic shot rather well, IMO.

I'd have to say that most of the image is over exposed for my taste. It lacks drama and mood which you feel when the underside is illuminated in the early morning. The image feels and looks like mid-day. I would agree with Stan, darken everything/add contrast to everything but under the arch and the sunstar, which I would expect to be bright. Maybe take one of your darker exposures used in the HDR, and use it as a mask. As long as there is detail in the shadows, left of histogram, you could erase over this image and reveal the darker exposure more represetative of this time of day. Go slow, and the blend should work out fine and seamless.

Jared,

Let's make the score 2-2. I'm more with John in thinking that this is NOT one of those poorly processed HDR. Sure, contrast and selective burning could improve things a bit, but this does not look HDR in general. I think you've done well to capture the classic moment of Mesa Arch.

Lon

I'm going to split the tie & say that Photomatix did a much better job than I would have expected. It does not look like the classic HDR shot. While I hand blend, this is a good start. I do think the underside of the arch is just a bit overdone and the rocks could stand a bit more contrast, you have a great shot here that, with a few tweaks, will be a proud addition to your wall hangings. I hope to get out there some day to shoot the arch.

Thanks for your helpful feedback. At a previous visit to Mesa Arch I did my best with a single exposure, and found the background under the arch blown out while the arch and foreground was too dark (hence my experiment with Photomatix). I'm still learning about manual blending in PS but will give that a shot (95% of my edits are done in Lightroom). In the meantime, I'm attaching a modified version with slightly increased contrast, and exposure of most of the scene decreased by about 1/3. Does this help, hurt, or can you even notice a difference? Any further recommendations? Thanks!

Jared

On the repost, the foreground rocks don't look nearly so flat. That's an improvement for sure. I'd be tempted to keep going with it just a bit, especially on the rocks, both foreground and on the arch. If I got really picky, I'd say to desaturate the top left corner. The blue is a bit strong there as it's the only part of the sky with that deep tone. Not much - just a bit.

It's still a great shot!

This is a good example of how realist HDR can be...it's all in the processing. Recently I've been experimenting with ways to achieve a more natural result. Firstly I would recommend that you add contrast to this image in steps and as your image gets darker pull back any over saturated colors as you go.
Sometimes I reprocesses and blend in parts of the middle exposed tiff. Also if your highlights get to bright you can blend in that part of the underexposed image.

Although this is a familiar composition I think you had some interesting conditions to work in. Additionally, the processing looks clean here in that you have avoided many of the digital artifacts that are common with tone mapping (with the exception of some haloing / color fringing on the top of the arch). The one recommendation that I would have is to darken the shadows more in the canyon beyond the arch. This would bring back some of the contrast to the image.

Clouds are a nice addition. Rock maybe feels a bit overexposed. Second version much improved.

I have found that you can get a pretty realistic looking blend in Photomatix tone mapping. You just have to add back midtone contrast after the blend. Your repost is better, but I would start by selecting the midtones and increasing contrast with an S curve further still.

My biggest nit with both of these is that my eye expects the back side of the rock to be very dark when looking straight into the sun. If you bracketed such that one shot has shadow detail and one highlight detail, take a look at the shot in the middle of those two and try to keep that mood in the blend. When I'm blending, I prefer to just bring detail back into the shadows and highlights as opposed to turning everything into mid-tones.

All that aside, there's huge potential here. You caught a classic composition wonderfully, and the red glow on the underside of the arch is lovely.