Thursday, October 14, 2010

HDR: Round 2

Looking back at those small previews on my last post, I was a surprised that the pictures didn't look all that different.  The changes are more subtle.  This time, I went a little farther with HDR shots and hopefully will demonstrate better what it can do for a photo.  Click on the images for a bigger view...


This is the original shot of an old tractor in a field.  I got a nice blue sky with the polarizer filter (not to mention some weird pattern effects in the windows that weren't visible with the naked eye), but the details in the shadows are pretty much lost.  Here's the HDR version...


Now, you can clearly see the inner shadow areas of the tractor, although the wheels on the left seem to have a bit of a blue cast to them.  It probably wouldn't hurt to do a bit of color desaturation on them. The sky is also a more even blue.

Then, I took it a wee bit farther...



This time those tires were REALLY blue, so I took my own advice and turned them back to grey.  One thing I noticed, is that I really start to get a lighter haloing effect where the skyline meets the trees, especially on the right side.  All in all, its looking less like a photograph and more like an illustration.  Another thing that you probably can't see in the preview is that the more the effect is applied, the noisier/grainier the sky gets.  Anyway, thanks to John, the owner of the tractor for allowing me to shoot it!



Next pic.  Before HDR...
 After...

I wondered if this one would present a problem with the moving water, since I am combining 3 shots for the HDR effect.  Overall, I was pleased, but I did go back and brought in some of the more natural looking water from the original shot in a few troublesome areas.  There still is a bit of lightening of the sky at the tree line. Not sure if I'm ok with it or not.  What I do like is that the colors really pop!



Ok, now hopefully when I hit "publish" on this Blog-thingy, all the shots won't look the same again!

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