mcveed Loc: Kelowna, British Columbia (between trips)

glojo,
This thread has morphed into a discussion of HDR from the original idea of correcting an exposure problem. Happens all the time. Your two examples are of interest. The first one exhibits very little HDR effect and if it helped to compress the dynamic range of the scene into the dynamic range of the camera sensor - then well done! The second one, however, exhibits all of the negative (IMHO) effects of HDR. Notice the haloes around the tree and the shed roof, as well as the bushes in the foreground? Notice the exaggerated saturation in the foreground and the sky? If you like it - well fine. But it doesn't look natural to me.

glojo Loc: South Devon, England

Totally agree with your observations and I MUCH prefer the first or former as opposed to the latter.

BUT......

The second one with the DELIBERATE over exaggeration or various effects was a deliberate act, sadly these small pictures do not do enough credit to the real picture..

That sun that was still visible behind the bushes clearly had a burn out effect, but the rainbow effects in the water drops on those bird feeders were amazing... This second image is on a canvas a large canvas and looks like a painting. That is what I wanted and that is what I got, but it was a one off and I much prefer the subtle use of HDR that gets the picture to stand out in the way it can....

The first picture was taken in exactly the same way as the second but because I wanted that second one as a painting, then it needed just a little more colour, a little more zip. Obviously the definition was always there and it stands in its own right as a photograph without the tampering, no halos, no burning out.

Alongside this large picture\painting, I have a print of an award winning photograph of a huge rock in America that has a hole in the middle, a huge rock at the top of a mountain, the picture was taken at 5am with the sun just rising. My friend who took it won many, many prizes for that image and it sells very well in America but whenever we have friends round for dinner they always comment on the wonderful 'painting' of our garden!!! It's embarrassing because of the work my friend went to, just to get his image but I guess it is horses for courses and I look on that second one as a picture as opposed to the perfect photograph. My friends photograph I personally look on as a perfect photograph.

I have yet to see any picture\photograph compete with HDR regarding detail, although the cathedral shot was close.... Close enough for me to enquire but it lacked definition in the darker areas.

Note in my very first attempt in that shaded area where the white arrow is pointing, you can clearly pick out individual stones and yet that sky is still well defined!!

The second sunset one that should have REALLY dark shadowed areas still gives amazing detail although again this forum does not allow that type of definition...

This is the cropped area of that bird feeder and look at the flowers in that darkened area of the garden! In a 'normal' photograph would that area be a dark shadow?

Of course my 'painting' has those defects you rightly pointed out but they were thrown in when I went for the exaggerated look... The actual definition would still be there with a more conservative picture similar to the first image :)

I am an old dyed in the wool fogey, but this HDR m'larky has its place and for scenic views or landscapes it can be mind blowing when done well!

Look at the 360 degree landscape that was posted on this forum..

Hawknest Loc: South Georgia

i also shoot with a 60d. i'm not into pp ( cropping for the most part ). on your next shot of this nature try bumping your iso to 4,5, or 600, your f stop is good and use a faster ss i.e. 1/1000 or faster. this will saturate your colors. btw, noise is not a problem with any setting of iso 800 or less and could probably use iso 1000. hope this helps.

twowindsbear

Hawknest - I'm really confused. Please explain to me how making the camera more sensitive, and then reducing the exposure to the same degree of exposure will 'saturate your colors' as you say.