profpb Loc: Venice, Florida

These are all great!

twitcher32 Loc: North Carolina/Costa Rica

dramatic! and very good

mdeman Loc: Damascus, Maryland

Think you still need to bump up saturation slightly on hue and reduce brightness of highlights slightly. Nice work on interesting and challenging image.

twowindsbear

A Graduated ND filter used with your camera, when you shot the pic, most likely would have 'cured' the scene & saved you a bit of PP work, too.

Good shot - post more?

gordnanaimo Loc: Vancouver Island

Love it. If you shot in RAW you can add the ND filter in your primary adjusments. You can also punch it up with your secondary adjustments by adding the filter or a mask in photoshop. You have the beginings of a masterpiece

CAM1017 Loc: Chiloquin, Oregon

Maybe a little more work with your light and dark tones. Move the light tone slider a little more to the right. You may also be able to bring out more detail in the sky playing with contrast and the definition sliders. Its a really nice composition and worth spending some more time with it. :thumbup:

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

You have done a commendable job of fixing this in post, but the blown out sun is a problem. The ideal would have been to shoot this with a three stop graduated ND filter. That would darken the sky and prevent the centre from being blown.

lachmap Loc: Sydney Australia

Well done mate. Will have to have a look at that filter thingy.

jthomas Loc: Lancaster, PA

To me, Take 2 is beautiful left just as it is. Real nice pic.

OHenry Loc: St. Michaels, MD

Yes indeedy. The last one is perfect.

glojo Loc: South Devon, England

Question
To get the real beauty of the scene then is this what HDR can really come into its own? We see lots of 'overcooked' images but if we take 3 or maybe five exposures and merge them them would that avoid that awful burn out 'blob'?

-2,-1,0,+1,+2

Why ruin a beautiful view by using filters, why not use HDR and cover all the exposures?

mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

-2,-1,0,+1,+2

Why ruin a beautiful view by using filters, why not use HDR and cover all the exposures?[/quote]

Sure, you could probably do it with HDR, but look at all the unrealistic effects that HDR produces. I think the beautiful view would be ruined more by HDR than by a grad ND filter. Apply grad ND filters in post doesn't really work. Look at the centre of the last 'correction' of the original submission - it is still blown out with no detail, only now its grey instead of white. Once its blown - its blown.

twowindsbear

Tell me, glojo, because I've not done HDR yet. How would you do this - step by step?

I'm thinking - setup the camera on a tripod, set it to auto-bracket for the series. Make the shots. Go home, load those 5 shots into the program. 'Fiddle' with them until they look right. Make a test print & maybe 'fiddle' some more as needed.

Or, the way I have used a GND filter - fit the filter to the lens, rotate the filter for the desired effect, take the shot & be done.

glojo Loc: South Devon, England

First off I am the worse person to offer advice... I have only ever taken TWO HDR images and am attaching them to hopefully let you get a rough idea of what a complete amateur can do.

I managed to acquire a tripod for these shots as my thoughts are that the tripod is something that will make this easier, both these images are of our back garden.

The most important thing however is the software to carry out this HDR imagery. You need some type of HDR processing software.

Once you have the software then my research told me to make sure the aperture stayed the same through out the shots I took for the stacking. I put my camera into Aperture mode to make sure this stayed the same throughout the shots..

Why?

It is quite important to keep the depth of field consistent throughout the shooting, the easiest way to do this is to make sure the aperture remains constant.

How many shots..
Up to you, some folks will say three others will say more. My thoughts are that the 'film' cost NOTHING, the plus side is the more pictures we take, the greater the range of information we get, hence my recommendation for at least five exposures.

Those shots demonstrate a number of things...

Firstly the daylight shot is an EXCELLENT representation of the exact conditions on that specific day... The reason I took that picture of my garden is that VIVID cloud formation. It was eye stopping and deserved a picture. Using any type of filter.... Would that obscure, or block light?

This small picture does nothing to demonstrate the amazing detail that can be seen in my own copy of this image. Where that white arrow is pointing is in dark shadow but in my copy I can see individual stones in that shaded area of soil. Nowhere is over exposed, nowhere is under exposed to the degree we cannot see all the detail!

The second shot was of a spectacular sunset that we only see on rare occasions but this time I played very slightly with some HDR tweaks.. Not a lot and yes that sunset was spectacular.

Again the detail in my picture is amazing.. On that bird feeder you can see genuine rain drops (not that silly splashed water that so called photographers insist on plonking on to pictures of flowers!!)

The fine detail is amazing but that sunset is a real keeper and is in a place of prominence in our dining room.. It is on a large canvas and everyone that sees it comments on what an amazing painting!!

Hopefully folks who are more adept at this skill will correct my observations and tell us all how to improve our HDR shots...

yes there are lots of options but the more extravagant images are not my personal cup of tea.. For scenic shots then HDR offers tremendous scope and it is our own abilities that will hold us back.

glojo Loc: South Devon, England

:oops: :oops:
MANY, MANY apologies to the author of this thread...

I genuinely thought it was this person asking the question, hence my detailed reply....

If the OP wants my files deleted then PLEASE Mr Moderator remove them straight away :( :oops: :oops:

This will teach me to pay attention :oops: