Thank you very much for the suggestions. I purposely darken backgrounds, in addition to using gausian blur. Are my post-processing efforts wasted? I agree the HDR is the starting place.

You have a great eye. It is not common to see such stuff in Mid City. The sky is an attractive and soothing shade of blue and is a great background for the cross and the structure. Unfortunately, in south Louisiana, there is ALWAYS a structure in most backgrounds where any land above sea level is at a premium.

Excellent!

Thanks for the photo workout stuff. Some of those photos are stunning. I finally kinda' sorta' got the hang of Luminance HDR with only two subroutines... the infinite combinations that are obtainable through manipulation of mathematical derivatives boggle my simple mind.
The big snail is an example of a resultant photo with colors that are too saturated vs the trees and grass. I'm certain the problem is operator error.

Do you have a preferred app for HDR?

Come on down! Here is an open invitation: Visit New Orleans and I promise to show you. Here are sum' mo':

Sometimes the HDR gets nuts as in the archer's gold and the cypress trees' greens. Any Ideas?

The specific shades of blue and gold used in the sculpture (the piece is supposed to represent nuclear war) are precise. I'm amazed at the transition from three photos that are quite dark to something like the above piece reminiscent of stag's horns. The biggest problem I experience using Luminance HDR: Sometimes the saturation of the resultant photo is too rich.

It has been four months and the rehab following the total shoulder was not bad at all. Thanks to the nerve block, I did not take any pain meds. I had both shoulders repaired about ten years ago and at that time rehab was a BITCH. In about a week my right shoulder gets repaired.

Sorry... I am a CLUELESS neophyte.

Thanks for the links.

I really have no idea what I'm doing; however, it is fun. It makes sense, in certain situations, the more information you can "load," into the photo the "richer" the result.

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Thanks. I am posting a few additional shots that were stacked with Luminance.

Thanks. I am posting a few additional shots that were stacked with Luminance.

4:30 is the time when the sun falls below a building that is across the street from the fountain.

Thanks for the input. I need to post the HDRs from using Luminance. Overcooking is a lesson I seem to learn every day.

I'm kinda' sorta' learning to produce reasonable HDR at 4:30 in the evening. The HDR is composed of three different exposures and yields a rich result. This does not work for all photos.

My message is to everyone who replied.