Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Faced with a pile of big rusty ol' buckets to point a lens at my choice was to make a picture rather than a fota. I think there is a world of difference.
So I bracketed the shots and gave it a good bathe in HDR developing fluid. Pushed, made colorful, given excess depth not meant to look totally realistic just more attractive than a pile of scrap.
I lay it before the combined brains of the FYC faithful to dissect and give an opinion. Original shot is included if anyone feels the urge to take an image of a pile of rubbish and do something with it. Billy of course was blind stinking drunk so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Please edit and post it back here if so inclined.
Image is quite small as the internet connection to my cave is about as much use as smoke signals on a windy day so transmission of big files is not an option.

HDR Image

(Download)

Normal Fota

(Download)

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

(Download)

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Frank do not inform that bounder Bob that the red umbrella has surfaced once again!!! You know the problems I had with with him before and his light fingered habits.

Frank2013 Loc: San Antonio, TX. & Milwaukee, WI.

Bob who??? I just hope no one else on UHH is able to see this as I could not put up a red brolly warning.

SoHillGuy Loc: Washington

The HDR is reminiscent of Conkerwood's HDR work. Thanks for the reminder, as he did excellent HDR photos. Good for you Billy.

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

I take that as a great compliment cos I agree with you that Conkerwood did some great HDR and I learnt an awful lot from following his lead and taking advice from him. He is sorely missed around the place. One of the best.
Thank you for calling by my friend

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

This is a very interesting discussion, and a good example. Of course I love big piles of trash and will be posting quite a bit of it, as Monhegan has more trash than anyplace I know (a rocky island has no landfill, so everything that won't disintegrate on its own is left to become Iconic Garbage). First I'll say I do prefer the HDR to the straight photo. But...

Here's what I like about the HDR image: the color, even in the harsh sunlight, comes charging out to grab you. The detail is greatly enhanced, all that wonderful grungy stuff is there and you get this 3D sort of feel for it. The photographic "haze" that infests all images taken in overharsh light is compensated for.

Here's what I don't like about the HDR image: The soft (for lack of a better word) treatment of the stuff in the lower right area that isn't buckets makes this stuff confuse me. It doesn't fit with my expectation for detail.

Here's what I can't ever make my mind up about: the combining of images in HDR always confounds me with the reduction in natural contrast. I know instinctively that this is a shot taken in harsh light. Yet, the HDR processing has remedied the problem of harsh shadows to the point that it feels a little odd. This is not a criticism of this image so much as a question about HDR and psuedoHDR in general, and why I have a love/hate relationship with it. I did a bit of HDR for about a year, then went away, then started using processing of one image in things like NIK tonal contrast, or Aurora or Topaz and blending that plugin layer back into the original using layers and masks. I am sure my own troubled mind on it will continue to explore other avenues as well.

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

After years of playing with HDR min i have reached the conclusion that it has to be viewed and indeed judged if one wishes too as picture MAKING and so that's different from photography. HDR does reduce contrast and makes an image look flat at times. It takes work on the picture to remedy this which often results in an unnatural but not unpleasant look which is why I call it picture making.
I often use it very very selectively in a fota rather than produce an HDR image or blend it in as you suggest.
Once one gets ones head around the fact that HDR is not pure photography and break free of the shackles the word photograph induces one becomes free just to produce a pleasant picture.