lower pierce reservoir

[silverfyre]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
composition, post-processing

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
capture sunset using hdr

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
sunset with medium clouds

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
i think i managed to capture the pavilion with enough details and contrast, however the sky and water looked a bit dull and colorless....

[posted one earlier but think i attached the wrong link, i.e. the thumbnail version]

 

[Eworms]

it may look more special if the setting sun or if the moon can be seen in the picture... i guess if you have openly declared that it's a HDR, you should go all the way to HDR it?

 

[silverfyre]

eworms, thanks for the input ...

i am still pretty new at hdr , so hoping to know what do you mean by going to hdr it all the way?

cheers,

 

[zac08]

eworms, thanks for the input ...

i am still pretty new at hdr , so hoping to know what do you mean by going to hdr it all the way?

cheers,

Simple. HDR really means High Dynamic Range.

You'd need to get the under-exposed portions up to the correct levels as well. Right now, your scene is largely under-exposed. You'll need to take more than 3 pics at different exposure settings. E.g. One to correct expose the highlights, one for the midtones and one for the shadow areas.

Then blend them in to get a properly exposed pic which is almost impossible straight out of the camera as a single picture.

Next, what are you trying to portray here? It feels more like a snapshot rather than to have any thoughts about the composition as the orange bouys on the left kinda spoils the pic. Either clone them out or re-compose to get them out of the scene.

 

[night86mare]

1) there seems to be a halo underneath the pavillion's roof. could be pp, could be hdr process, go easier on the strength, should solve this.

2) give the pavillion more space to breathe - just a smudge more from what is present right now will do.

3) your reflection is brighter than the sky.

4) there seems to be a general patchiness in terms of lighting throughout the scene - usually a by-product of pushing the picture too hard.

 

[silverfyre]

zac, night86mare,

Thanks much for the feedbacks and comments.

Zac: initially meant to frame the pic as a silhoutte of the pavillion against the orange sky.. but afterwards decide to try to turn it to hdr (disastrously).

Night86mare: will try some other settings on the hdr and pp processing.

Any kind souls: Is there any guidelines against posting the same photo with different post processing in this forum for further discussion or should i wait for one more week?

 

[night86mare]

no problem, if it is same photo, just post edited version.

 

[Eworms]

you can search online to see how "properly" done HDR looks like.

For example in your picture, the pavillion will look much brighter (artificially brighter).So will the vegetations. More dreamy? More fantasy-like? How to explain?

eworms, thanks for the input ...

i am still pretty new at hdr , so hoping to know what do you mean by going to hdr it all the way?

cheers,

 

[silverfyre]

Hi,

attempted to be more liberal with the settings...
quite difficult to make nice hdr post processing :S

looks quite different now....

 

[slth123]

hmm...a different feel...better if there's a few bats fly around

I prefer your 1st pic, maybe you can use longer exposure to smooth out the water.

 

[mimik07]

IMO i feel that this is overdone compared to the 1st version. :think:

Now the halo that nightmare mentioned seems to be all over the pavillion.

Hi,

attempted to be more liberal with the settings...
quite difficult to make nice hdr post processing :S

looks quite different now....

 

[Eworms]

i would rather hang the second picture on the wall...It's HDR anyway

 

[martellkr]

haha yea the second one's a little overkill... imo.

 

[silverfyre]

Thanks all for your comments...

Just got back from overseas trip so haven't been able to reply to this thread...

will work on learning how to get rid of the halos.... any tips and comments are still welcomed...=D