chemdoc Loc: West Coast

While California isn't a bastion of fall colors, we do sometimes get a bit. This is a shot taken on the Upper Sacramento river. The first shot is the original middle exposure and the second the HDR image using Photomatix.

The second pair of images used Photomatix to tonemap a single image rather than merging the usual three images.

Original image

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Hdr image

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Original image


Tonemapped image

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Loving that composition and scene up the river! Just gorgeous. Your HDR of the fisherman hasn't posted yet, so I'll be back :)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Wish I was there with my cameras, it is already over 80 here.

joe west Loc: Taylor, Michigan

great shots, not over cooked :P :thumbup:

waltchilds Loc: Central Florida

Nice shots and they are processed just right.

bdk Loc: Sanibel Fl.

excellent.

Armadillo Loc: Ventura, CA

Chemdoc,
Nice attempt to capture both water and sky in N. CA.

Image 1
This could have been helped with a CPL filter to gain more contrast between blue sky and white clouds. The CPL would also have helped adjust the reflections from the water surface. The canyon sides and rushing water are well exposed, but the sky is over exposed. This is an example where using the CPL and a three exposure with exposure compensation could have produced a well-balanced HDR photo.

Depending on the end result of your photograph (showing water movement, freezing water movement) you could have captured one RAW image and later split that into three additional images, each with exposure compensation, and then merging into a well-balanced final photo.

Image 2
The sky and canyon wall are well handled, not over processed but close. The rushing water is over exposed when looking at image 1.

Image 3
This has a nice exposure; it may have been improved in the shadows with a carefully crafted three-exposure HDR attempt. Perhaps a +/-1.6 Ev and carefully merging the three into one final image could have protected the water exposure and brought out a bit more detail in the shaded canyon wall.

Image 4
The Tone Mapping brought out details in the canyon walls and riverbed, but at the cost of blowing out the white water.
Had this image been captured in RAW you would have had enough exposure range to split the image into three more images, each with a 2-stop exposure compensation value applied. Then, you could have processed the three-EC images into one very well balanced HDR image. This would have allowed you to retain the good exposure in the shadows and protected the white water in the river. Compare the water between image 3 and 4.

Michael G

PS A former resident of Woodland, Corning, Winters, and Grass Valley

Ronsh Loc: Floresville,Tx.

very nice!

chemdoc Loc: West Coast

Thanks for the suggestions Michael. I am fairly new to both HDR and Photoshop so a lot of my attempts are trial and error. For the images of the river and sky I did use a polarizing filter and shot three images at 0,+2, and -2, all at F/8, but perhaps I hadn't rotated the filter to maximum polarization. The final result which I posted is a Photomatix blend of the three with small adjustments in exposure and temperature. All of the images were shot in raw but the final image was converted to jpeg for posting.

I am always interested in learning better methods to use HDR as it does produce some great results. I will add the three bracketed images here if you would like to take a look and see what I might have done differently to improve the overall result. Unfortunately, I will have to post them as jpegs. If you are interested in examining the original raw images I would be happy to send them to you.

Phil

Normal exposure

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2 stops underexposed

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2 stops overexposed

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A J Loc: New York, NY

Nice shots

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Gorgeous work

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Amazingly beautiful results 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥