Posted by Chris Martin on September 1, 2008 at 11:51 AM
Hi Everyone,
It's been a couple years since I posted here (even had to re-register/subscribe). Unfortunately I have no good excuses except just general work/life, etc...
Anyway, I wanted to get some opinions on this image from the Ohio Pass road, which I captured in 2006 on a very snowy fall trip to the area, and recently re-discovered and processed. I processed the RAW file at different exposure compensations and used Photomatix to blend the exposures together. Does the HDR work for this image or does it look too unnatural? I'm thinking the foreground may be too light?
Any comments/critiques welcome and thanks for looking!
-Chris
Posted by Doug Andrews on September 1, 2008 at 12:24 PM
I see what you mean about the foreground. This has a lot of potential to be a specatacular image. I think it has just a hint of that strange flatness that can show up in HDR shots.
Posted by Don Grall on September 1, 2008 at 12:46 PM
I agree the foreground conifers should be quite a bit darker.
Posted by Rick Dunn on September 1, 2008 at 12:59 PM
Welcome back! Yep - I think if you can get the foreground conifers to look similar to those in the middle, you're well on your way.
Overall, the light is unnaturally uneven/patchy with several rough/noticeable exposure transitions - at the top of the middle conifers; the green aspen in the lower right; the HDRish aspen on the left, and those foreground conifers. I'd think that if you had one image processed for the sky and mountains, and another for the rest of the scene, you could have a very manageable blend to work towards.
Definitely worth the effort as it's a beautiful scene. This must have been the same weekend that a small group of us ended up with Maroon Bells all to ourselves due to the snow and road closure; a magical weekend for sure!
Posted by Paul Wegemann on September 1, 2008 at 3:26 PM
Really nice overall, Chris, but like the others have said, it needs work. Along with Rick's observations, I find the mountains to look strange, almost like they were pasted in from another image. A contrast boost might help there. This is certainly worthy of more work.
Posted by Kalin Wilson on September 2, 2008 at 12:52 PM
Good comments. This has a nice look with the dusting of snow and lingering clouds, worth the effort. Nice first cut with the HDR, HDR usually needs a little tweaking from what you can do in Photomatix but you're close!
Posted by Chris Martin on September 2, 2008 at 7:07 PM
Thanks for the comments so far! This is definitely a work in progress.
Here's my next attempt. I tried a few different HDR images using between 2 and 5 originals and still wasn't getting something I liked, so this time I tried just using the tone mapping feature on a single file. It turned out quite a bit darker, and more natural looking in my mind. I still see some of the uneven lighting of my previous post, but it's also showing up in the RAW file so I'm thinking that's just the way it was captured?
Discussion
6 repliesIt's been a couple years since I posted here (even had to re-register/subscribe). Unfortunately I have no good excuses except just general work/life, etc...
Anyway, I wanted to get some opinions on this image from the Ohio Pass road, which I captured in 2006 on a very snowy fall trip to the area, and recently re-discovered and processed. I processed the RAW file at different exposure compensations and used Photomatix to blend the exposures together. Does the HDR work for this image or does it look too unnatural? I'm thinking the foreground may be too light?
Any comments/critiques welcome and thanks for looking!
-Chris
Overall, the light is unnaturally uneven/patchy with several rough/noticeable exposure transitions - at the top of the middle conifers; the green aspen in the lower right; the HDRish aspen on the left, and those foreground conifers. I'd think that if you had one image processed for the sky and mountains, and another for the rest of the scene, you could have a very manageable blend to work towards.
Definitely worth the effort as it's a beautiful scene. This must have been the same weekend that a small group of us ended up with Maroon Bells all to ourselves due to the snow and road closure; a magical weekend for sure!
Here's my next attempt. I tried a few different HDR images using between 2 and 5 originals and still wasn't getting something I liked, so this time I tried just using the tone mapping feature on a single file. It turned out quite a bit darker, and more natural looking in my mind. I still see some of the uneven lighting of my previous post, but it's also showing up in the RAW file so I'm thinking that's just the way it was captured?
Thanks again for any comments!
-Chris