SuKai Loc: California

Processed from single shots through Photomatix. These were some from my the first attempts at this.

Onions


Harley Shop in Utah


This one is a gold mine and I brought the color saturation way down to give it a black and white with just a touch of color.


Near Pismo in CA

conkerwood

#1 Really interesting topic, well balanced with good colouration but very soft and the whites are blown. Were the original/s blown or did that happen during the processing?

#2 I like the composition of this one but the whites in the snow have blown so there is little detail left. (Again did that happen in the original/s or in the processing) You need to boost the contrast as the colours have become a little washed out.

#3 I think that of the three this is the most interesting pic, I would absolutely love to spend a few hours photographing this place. I like what you have done in terms of processing, the HDR works well and reducing the saturation has added to the sense of a really tough environment to exist in. The major problem with the pic unfortunately is the DOF as only the building on the right and the hills behind on the right are in focus, the rest is very soft. Some sharpening may help but I would only sharpen the buildings and not the foreground and the hills. Also consider cropping on the left at the start of the roofline of the left building. This will move the wagon away from being dead centre, much gives a much better balance.

#4 Fantastic POV and has the potential to be a good pic but to be honest there are a number of problems which mean this is probably a reshoot rather than a fix up. Firstly, intense light blow out on the left which has produced all sorts of purple/magenta chromatic issues in the trees, on the guy on the left and the railings. Don't think the purple lens flare works. Horizon is clearly sloping down to the right quite a lot but the verticals are not far out on the house so there is some perspective distortion going on. All distortions fixable in PP. But its depth of field that is the major issue. Only the sand in the foreground is in focus. Be interested to know what settings you used. Keep at it. Really keen to see more of your stuff.

Peter

ShooterOR

Peter basically nailed it regarding the DOF.

Generally, a landscape is the strongest when it has foreground, middle ground, and back ground interest. So when (and I'm hoping you do) you reshoot this, I would try to find something in the foreground and get low to include it.

On the highlights: When they are blown, there's nothing to recover. There's the tendency when bracketing for HDR to downplay the importance of exposure. If you are currently shooting 3, you might try going to 5, or even seven. Then before combining, pick the critical areas where you want detail (from shadow to highlights) and select only those images that cover the tonal range you are shooting for. Just my two pennies.... Good Luck and let's see more

SuKai Loc: California

Thanks Shooter and Conkerwood for the advice. I see exactly what you are saying. I took the pictures of Pismo and the Harley shop before I even knew what HDR was and they were single shots. Now that I have the idea for bracketed shots when I get back that way I would love to re-do these.

The gold mine and onions were done after I got Photomatix but relativity soon after. I seem to have troubles with the white blowing out and I need to figure out what I am doing wrong with the camera so I can fix it, maybe change my ISO, I will have to experiment. One thing I know is I just can't see my screen on the camera when the sun gets on it and it's then hard to focus. I don't know if there is some kind of gadget to shade that but if there is I would like it. Now I know why old time photographers used the black sheet to block out the light. :lol:

I may go re-visit the Gold Mine again, since its fairly close to our area and try to set things up better. One problem I had with it is I was doing it hand held because I had to shoot over a barbed wire fence. (I was just waiting for some old bag man to come out with his shotgun...LOL) I have some others from that day I can look at and see if there is a more suitable shot to try.

Again thanks for the feedback.

ShooterOR

If you check the histogram after taking a shot, blown highlights will show as clipping the right side of the histogram. You can then adjust the exposure and re-shoot-- so that they are moved to the left. Of course, you still have to make sure your shadows are not clipped on the left. This is what HDR allows you to do when one shot won't do both: by shooting 3-5 shots, the highlights will be underexposed, saving the highlight detail and the shadows will be overexposed, saving detail in the shadows. The software allows you to combine them, effectively stretching the ability of digital to handle a greater tonal range. I understand this part-- but I'm not the best practitioner of the craft. ;-) I'm willing to answer anything I can-- and when I don't know, I'm ok saying that. Good Luck. It's a lot of fun, imo.