JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I normally can't handle looking at over-cooked HDR images. But just for fun, I decided to purposely push one well into the over-cooked arena just to see what I could make it look like.

Image 1: Start with a totally boring image of a boat in San Francisco Bay that no one would spend more than 1 sec looking at.

Image 2: Go wild with HDR and see what unrestrained pushing can do to this boring image.

What I have discovered is that over-cooking when the goal is not to make it look realistic can produce very interesting results.

Now the challenge: Pick your own boring image and see what kind of exciting, over-cooked result you can come up with, and post it to this thread. I want to see some interesting, creative pushing. Produce something that makes one look at it a little longer.

Have fun!

Boring original

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RayE Loc: New Jersey

Over cooking has its place.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Photo 1 is a so what photo. The overcooking has "caramelized" it and like caramelized food photo 2 has flavor.

Chris F. Loc: San Francisco

👍👍

Steve E Loc: North Georgia

Sometime that is what it takes. I like it.

tuthdoc

Awesome

RWCRNC Loc: Pennsylvania

I like it. Well done!

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

That is overcooked. Usually HDR skies are the most obvious sign. But in this case foreground shadows too.

Overcooking may add more taste but it spoils the overall food.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

But this was intentionally over-cooked and over-the-top just to see what fun result I could obtain. And indeed, it turned into something fun, but certainly not realistic.

Normally, I hate the over-cooked look, and avoid it. If I use HDR, I use it very sparingly. But for this one time, I just wanted to see where I could push it and see how interesting I could transform a totally boring original image. In that, I think I succeeded. And I think it shows the extremes HDR processing can accomplish, even with a single image HDR as was this one.

And just maybe, others who have looked at this, just maybe have shifted their thoughts on what HDR can do to an image. And of course, you can achieve a surreal look, or totally ruin it, or even turn it into a cartoon like result. Anyway, it was meant to just be a fun exercise. Sounds like others must have felt the same way. I was pleased at how eye catching it was. And how the over-cooked sky had such a 3-D effect, and how the boat looked and so on.

But I can't help but wonder that if this was printed large and sold in some of those little sidewalk shops in San Francisco if it might not sell a quite few.

10MPlayer Loc: California

I think you took a blah image and made it interesting. Maybe try splitting the difference and you'll have something.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

I see your point and it is good to experiment and push the envelope. I often use over-sharpening or HDR for impact as well. I am just saying that it may have worked many years ago when it was new but the public has wised up quite a bit since. So I took to heart the survey below especially point #2 in the Unacceptable area and also the last point.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Not sure I fully agree with that table. I think people know the right answers to the quiz. But not sure they follow it closely. I see what is found acceptable for many cell phone images, and I see what they are willing to accept.

And speaking of cell phone images, I have found them to look quite decent when viewed in their normal small size. But that's not often the case where you look at them at a larger size. Especially when the cell phone uses its bag of tricks using multiple images to make one in low light conditions.

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

Amazingly eye-catching and beautiful
💙💚❤️💛🧡💜

joecichjr Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA

It's magnificent - and I think you do your results a disservice by saying "overcooked" 🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯