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HDR Photography -- Before and After
Need opinions. Over cooked?
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Sep 9, 2017 23:49:40   #
mallen1330 Loc: Chicago western suburbs
 
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Botanic Garden. Hand-held three exposure bracket, blended using Photomatix "natural"
preset, then "popped up" a bit with Topaz Adjust and a tad color saturation leaning toward green in PaintShop pro.

I've been using this same workflow for most of my exterior photos in my real estate photo work. No complaints so far, but am interested in a more "expert" opinion.

You can see more from this day's shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allenteam/albums/72157688643132335

Before -- SOOC image
Before -- SOOC image...
(Download)

After -- processed as described
After -- processed as described...
(Download)

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Sep 10, 2017 00:29:00   #
pixbyjnjphotos Loc: Apache Junction,AZ
 
mallen1330 wrote:
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Botanic Garden. Hand-held three exposure bracket, blended using Photomatix "natural"
preset, then "popped up" a bit with Topaz Adjust and a tad color saturation leaning toward green in PaintShop pro.

I've been using this same workflow for most of my exterior photos in my real estate photo work. No complaints so far, but am interested in a more "expert" opinion.

You can see more from this day's shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allenteam/albums/72157688643132335
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Bota... (show quote)


I wouldn't claim to be an expert. I have only been doing digital photography since the days of the Kodak D280 and I am still learning. You use about the same workflow as I do. I love Paintshop Pro with Topaz and NIK plugins and I use Photomatix. Occasionally use Aftershot Pro 3 for RAW files. My humble opinion of your image is it is definitely not overcooked. It is just the way I like my images to look, eye catching with good natural colors accentuated just a bit with detail and contrast. I am impressed. Have a GREAT DAY!

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Sep 10, 2017 06:55:02   #
Delderby Loc: Derby UK
 
mallen1330 wrote:
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Botanic Garden. Hand-held three exposure bracket, blended using Photomatix "natural"
preset, then "popped up" a bit with Topaz Adjust and a tad color saturation leaning toward green in PaintShop pro.

I've been using this same workflow for most of my exterior photos in my real estate photo work. No complaints so far, but am interested in a more "expert" opinion.

You can see more from this day's shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allenteam/albums/72157688643132335
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Bota... (show quote)


This won't be expert opinion either - but, in the original, the shadows under the trees by the water look cool and inviting. So I guess i would have to say overcooked a bit?

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Sep 10, 2017 06:55:10   #
WayneT Loc: Paris, TN
 
Not really that bad at all. If I had only seen the second picture I wouldn't have given it a second thought. I like the way you lightened up the forground, gives the shot a lot of depth. You have s slight halo effect around the trees on the left against the sky.

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Sep 10, 2017 07:20:19   #
cameraf4 Loc: Delaware
 
Personally, I like the detail it brought out in the building. But I notice the tree branches out over the water look "unnatural". Think you may have baked it a tad too much.

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Sep 10, 2017 08:03:00   #
elliott937 Loc: St. Louis
 
Having done a bit of HDR, and loving every moment in that arena, I've thought about what really happens when someone, anyone 'over cooks it'. I like your term. Well, for all these years, I've wondered when our work moves from the world of Photography to the world of Art. Or perhaps a capture could reside in both. While not all HDR could be said to be seen by the naked eye, perhaps it could be said that it would be seen by the Creative Eye, an eye of how we'd like to see it. And that is where the world of Art Photography may reside. I think your capture belongs there. Job well done.

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Sep 10, 2017 08:25:32   #
rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona
 
The trees sure have a nice healthy glow, or halo, to them.
--Bob
mallen1330 wrote:
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Botanic Garden. Hand-held three exposure bracket, blended using Photomatix "natural"
preset, then "popped up" a bit with Topaz Adjust and a tad color saturation leaning toward green in PaintShop pro.

I've been using this same workflow for most of my exterior photos in my real estate photo work. No complaints so far, but am interested in a more "expert" opinion.

You can see more from this day's shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allenteam/albums/72157688643132335
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Bota... (show quote)

Reply
 
 
Sep 10, 2017 08:42:47   #
melueth Loc: Central Florida
 
I love working with HDR and have a similar workflow to yours here, although i'm certainly no expert. My biggest issue with outdoor shots is the shadowing that can occur due to wind. You're leaves show this to some extent. I'm wondering if you could correct for this more than you did in Photomatix . . . also, i'll just add that i think the sky does look a little overcooked. There's more haloing there than i would accept for myself, plus noise. I think it's a lovely capture, but these are my observations per your question.
ML

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Sep 10, 2017 08:48:55   #
CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City
 
Mike - Photomatrix and Topaz Adjust are pretty much the same thing, well at least for the HDR Collection in Adjust. I use one or the other, not both, when I consider an images for HDR processing. In terms of punchy colors, you might consider starting with Canon's picture style "landscape" and / or upping the saturation setting in your camera or workflow before proceeding on other edits. For scenes like the Conservatory, you might also start with the White Balance set to Sunlight.

These are just alternative processing ideas. I visited your album where the only area to improve is avoiding the grungy "dirt" in many of your skies. Without access to your images and the tools in your workflow, I'm not sure which setting / step is adding this change to your images. Possibly a noise clean-up at the end would resolve or maybe selecting the "smooth" setting in Adjust rather than "grunge" if that's applicable to your work. See the sky throughout the upper left of image "IMG_2987_8_9" and others.

When I bought Photomatrix a few years ago, maybe at v3, I bought the "pro" version and ongoing updates are free. I don't see a "natural" preset on the v5.1 version I now have installed. Over the years I've noted an increase in the availability of presets that are more "natural" in the results. I also tend to use Adjust more often than Photomatrix. Why? I'm not sure. If I looked at recent HDR images, I think Photomatrix handles darker indoor scenes better. But overall, HDR processing is applied to maybe 10% of my images, probably even less if I really did the math.

The v5.1 Photomatrix also has a Color Saturation slider, maybe the other versions did too. Here again is an option to simplify your process, if applicable, to your desired results.

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Sep 10, 2017 09:46:40   #
mallen1330 Loc: Chicago western suburbs
 
Thanks to all for the comments. This helps a lot.

Some notes: The Photomatix "natural" preset is in version 6.0. It is one of their "Fusion" or blending functions -- not tone mapping. I find that most of their tone mapping options do result in "over cooked" results. In some cases I use a tone mapped image as a layer in PaintShop Pro so I can adjust how much to blend in to the non-tone mapped image.

I do the same with Topaz Adjust: apply to a separate layer and blend in -- usually 50% or so with the top image.

I find that the PaintShop color saturation function provides more control (than Topaz) and lets me, again, apply to a separate layer to blend in percentage wise.

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Sep 10, 2017 10:01:35   #
kaerophil Loc: Oxford, CT
 
Look fine to me...not overcooked. I also do a lot of hand held, three exposures and process with Photomatix.

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Sep 10, 2017 10:58:31   #
jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ
 
mallen1330 wrote:
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Botanic Garden. Hand-held three exposure bracket, blended using Photomatix "natural"
preset, then "popped up" a bit with Topaz Adjust and a tad color saturation leaning toward green in PaintShop pro.

I've been using this same workflow for most of my exterior photos in my real estate photo work. No complaints so far, but am interested in a more "expert" opinion.

You can see more from this day's shots here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/allenteam/albums/72157688643132335
This is one of several shots from the Chicago Bota... (show quote)


Yes, it's overcooked. Go easier on the sliders. It's usually best just to NOT move any sliders when finished and then just adjust the shadow area a little bit after you've finished merging. I'm sure you wouldn't have asked this question if you didn't thing it was overcooked in your own opinion. It is. The idea it to make an image look 100% natural but bring up the shadows and tone down the highlights that might otherwise be blown out.

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Sep 10, 2017 23:07:58   #
nikonbrain Loc: Crystal River Florida
 
Yes not natural, HDRI to Me be natural but not out of the realm of impossible, I really think overall I am not sure but a heavy reduction in saturation might be all it needs and opening the shadows in ACR of the original images I believe I could have done the same thing in CS6. Without a HDRI program . The forground did improve a lot . You could open the original image and apply a linear tone curve put your HDRI on a top layer use the opacity slider and blend the 2 images . Might look quite convincing.

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Sep 12, 2017 21:49:01   #
10MPlayer Loc: California
 
On my monitor the 1st one looks natural. The second one is oversaturated.

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Sep 18, 2017 22:18:38   #
LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field
 
There are halos around the trees and lots of artifacts as well.

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