look up!

[ArkhamAsylum]

hi guys, here is my first try on HDR processing. I would like to receive critique from you!

1. Critique Request:
- HDR processing, is the tone mapping good enough, smoothness of mapping?
- Please also critique the composition, placement of subjects, leading lines, etc.
- Overall feel of the image, improvement points, etc ...

2. What I wanted to Capture:
- The photo was taken at Sembawang Park near the shipyard at sunset.
- I'm always fascinated by the clouds, sun and basically the sky.
- My goal is to make it not to look an HDR but to preserve the whole scene.
- I wanted to let viewers saw what I saw, that you can be fascinated by just looking up!

3. What I feel about this Picture:
- The picture looks fine smaller, but with a larger image (or maybe print), I feel that the smoothness of the mapping needs to be improved.

Thanks in advance!!!

Taken with D80, 18mm, bracket +/1EV, CPL, no tripod.

Here is the larger image for comparison.

 

[pplneedthelord]

i think the picture might look better in landscape.

 

[ArkhamAsylum]

i think the picture might look better in landscape.

hi! thanks! actually i also noted that i was taking landscape photos in portrait, hehe, kind of breaking the rules on this one

 

[calebk]

Assuming you sort of remember how the scene looks like, and your objective is to create the most realistic HDR (i.e. preserving the scene), then you will have to play with your tonemapping settings until you find a point where you are satisfied, and where the scene looks close to what you remember.

I think for a first try, it's not too bad. On the whole, it looks quite realistic. The only part that I found a little unnatural (not sure if this was how it looked in real life) was the right portion of yellow sky. May I ask if you did any shadow or highlight clipping during the tone mapping, and perhaps for a list of your tone mapping settings?