Marina Bay...in HDR

[blackreplica]

Hi everyone, first of all i'd like to say this is my first time posting pictures on this forum for you guys to see. I have just gotten involved in photography, mostly travel shots (i travel a lot in my line of work), buying my first DSLR about 3 months ago. and its been a real rollercoaster ride of fun ever since.

Just yesterday i finally bought myself a tripod: a Sirui R2205 with G20 ballhead and of course i thought, what better way to try it out, than at the esplanade/marina bay area,. First impressions are that in actual use its a very well built, lightweight, very stable platform at a really good price. Since i was shooting a commonly photographed area i also thought i would try to be a little different and attempt them in HDR. Thankfully the bracketed exposures came out nice and sharp and processed very nicely in Photomatix Pro. I am looking forward to using this tripod a lot more in the field.

Image pre and post HDR processing is done in ACDSee Pro. The first three were shot with 3 bracketed exposures at -2,0,+2 EV. And the last one was generated using a single exposure

Hope you guys enjoy the pics. C & C of course is most welcome

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[blackreplica]

Sorry if the initial pictures were a little big, i've resized them as per the guidelines on the sticky thread

 

[extreme536]

Wow! Nice pictures from a newbie. I'm a newbie in photography also. I like your pictures. Hope can join you sometime so I can learn how to shoot & post process like this.

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

Hi TS,

if you've started on your photography journey only 3 months ago, upon buying your DSLR, then I must congratulate you for a job well done so far.
It looks like you've grasped all that you've read or were taught. I would prefer the images to be slightly brighter though. Maybe an additional 1/2 stop or so. You removed all the exif data when you saved the jpg, so i can't see the settings.

Next it to work on your composition, which is kinda hard to teach, but maybe by looking at many 'wow' landscape photos something in the brain will click. I'm still on that journey of discovery.

 

[blackreplica]

Thanks for the kind comments so far...yes its been just a few months since i started but i've been devouring lots of books, web discussions, and of course lots of shooting too. Its a fun journey but of course, still have lots and lots to learn.

Regarding the exposure, i've been having problems coming up with a 'reference' to tell me my photo is properly exposed actually. I have 2 PCs, and while the exposure on my calibrated laptop monitor (where i do all my editing) seems perfect (maybe just a tad underexposed but i like the way that feels), it tends to come out a fair bit more underexposed on my desktop (which is not calibrated). I'm tending to trust my laptop as accurate (which also seems to have more accurate colours and contrast) but i'm not sure if i'm doing the right thing here.

Sorry for not including the exif data..i didnt intentionally remove them, maybe photomatix deletes it when i generate a HDR from 3 separate images. Generally i was shooting in Aperture Priority, i would set the smallest aperture i could (but not going above f/13) to get a 10 sec shutter speed, which would allow a +2EV bracket shot at 30 sec (which is the maximum on my camera). ISO was 100 and metering on evaluative. I find that my 500D tends to overexpose my shots by about 2/3 to 1 stop so i have exposure compensation set at -1EV (so my bracket shots were -3,-1,+1 EV). All shots were on my 17-55 lens at 17mm

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

Thanks for the kind comments so far...yes its been just a few months since i started but i've been devouring lots of books, web discussions, and of course lots of shooting too. Its a fun journey but of course, still have lots and lots to learn.

Regarding the exposure, i've been having problems coming up with a 'reference' to tell me my photo is properly exposed actually. I have 2 PCs, and while the exposure on my calibrated laptop monitor (where i do all my editing) seems perfect (maybe just a tad underexposed but i like the way that feels), it tends to come out a fair bit more underexposed on my desktop (which is not calibrated). I'm tending to trust my laptop as accurate (which also seems to have more accurate colours and contrast) but i'm not sure if i'm doing the right thing here.

Sorry for not including the exif data..i didnt intentionally remove them, maybe photomatix deletes it when i generate a HDR from 3 separate images. Generally i was shooting in Aperture Priority, i would set the smallest aperture i could (but not going above f/13) to get a 10 sec shutter speed, which would allow a +2EV bracket shot at 30 sec (which is the maximum on my camera). ISO was 100 and metering on evaluative. I find that my 500D tends to overexpose my shots by about 2/3 to 1 stop so i have exposure compensation set at -1EV (so my bracket shots were -3,-1,+1 EV). All shots were on my 17-55 lens at 17mm

you can shoot longer than 30s with bulb mode and the stopwatch function on your mobile, etc.
For 1 more stop of light, you simply double the exposure time, and so on.

If the photo turns out the way you like it on your calibrated screen, that's the most important.

The reason why I said underexposed, because I could hardly make out the conrete bollards in #1, and the tree at the bottom-centre in #4 is a big black 'thing'.

 

[sfoto100]

nice pics.. :thumbsup:

 

[Reportage]

good post process workflow.

an impressive start.

on my screen your pictures are good to go.

 

[yc2005]

Sorry for not including the exif data..i didnt intentionally remove them, maybe photomatix deletes it when i generate a HDR from 3 separate images. Generally i was shooting in Aperture Priority, i would set the smallest aperture i could (but not going above f/13) to get a 10 sec shutter speed, which would allow a +2EV bracket shot at 30 sec (which is the maximum on my camera). ISO was 100 and metering on evaluative. I find that my 500D tends to overexpose my shots by about 2/3 to 1 stop so i have exposure compensation set at -1EV (so my bracket shots were -3,-1,+1 EV). All shots were on my 17-55 lens at 17mm

Yes i think 500D has the tendency to overexpose, so usually i shoot -1/3 to -2/3 depending on scenarios.

For longer exposure, use bulb mode. To clarify what zerocoolastra said, you dont need a stopwatch to help you keep time; there will be a timer on the screen

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

Yes i think 500D has the tendency to overexpose, so usually i shoot -1/3 to -2/3 depending on scenarios.

For longer exposure, use bulb mode. To clarify what zerocoolastra said, you dont need a stopwatch to help you keep time; there will be a timer on the screen

wah... 500D so advanced I need to upgrade!

 

[blackreplica]

good post process workflow.

an impressive start.

on my screen your pictures are good to go.

thanks reportage!

Argh..bulb mode...why didn't I think of that..LOL..thanks for that guys, finally I know what to do next time

with pic 4 I had trouble retrieving the shadow detail in the bottom tree during post processing without making the image look very very artificial. I'm thinkIng it might be a dynamic range limitation as I used only one raw exposure to generate the hdr. either that or my PP was just plain off....Maybe in future if using a single raw for hdr I can bump up the exposure compensation a little bit, hopefully that will work

 

[qwerty628]

Great shots!:thumbsup: Was just wondering, how does hdr help in night landscapes? I know it helps bring back clipped highlights and recover shadows but how does it improve night shots?

 

[Kit]

The best way to get a good exposure for night shots is to observe the ambient lighting and pay attention to the amount of light falling onto the buildings. If no light(or very little light) is falling on them, no amount of HDR can make the cut because your scene is just too contrasty.

That said, this series is a really commendable effort, expecially coming from someone who is relatively new. You did not make some of the more glaring errors which a lot of people make. Compositions are relatively well balanced. Lines are almost straight in most cases. Keep it up.:thumbsup:

 

[blackreplica]

qwerty, i like using HDR at night because of how it retrieves otherwise lost detail in the shadows whilst keeping the highlights from blowing...its like extending the dynamic range of your camera's sensor to better match the human eye's dynamic range. Depending how you post-process, you can also get very dramatic images, especially when you try HDR with an interesting sky. The downside is that its a lot of post processing work

Kit, thanks very much. I appreciate the nice things you had to say. I have to give a lot of credit to live view thanks to the 100% image on screen (as opposed to my 95% viewfinder) and the grid overlay which makes positioning the subject according to the rule of thirds and keeping the horizon level less hit-or-miss. Hopefully things will get even better with practice

 

[night86mare]

wah... 500D so advanced I need to upgrade!

er, 400d also has it.

i wish the other companies had thought of it......

 

[night86mare]

i have to agree with kit, for someone shooting the first time, there is a lot of attention paid to verticals, for one thing. there is also an attempt at composition, though it isn't the best sometimes..... though that could very well be due to equipment limitation (e.g. #2 is too tight, but the kit lens will capture something to that extent at 18mm with crop).

other than the exposure, which i have to agree is half a stop too dark, perhaps a stop would even be fine.. night photography has more leeway in terms of exposure if you ask me, as long as you don't end up with floating disembodied lights you should be relatively fine and different people will take different approaches. for the leaning-towards-brighter side you could take a look at thomas birke. i'm not a fan of his compositions, it seems that most people are more than just happy to comment and look because of his gear... but i do like his tones and results. something to think about.

actually, i'm not even certain if you need hdr to capture these. they don't look like they've gained much dynamic range, the difference from a non-hdr picture would probably be color shifts due to whatever program you use..... along with saturation.

more importantly though, a lot of these would look better with a brighter sky, not something pitch black. this has to do with timing more than anything else, twilight would be a better time to capture most of these.

that's all i have to say.......

 

[ovaltinemilo]

wow...very nice try...composition is really well balanced like some have commented... only feels a little underexposed...else, most are good...;p

 

[Numnumball]

Nice shots coming from a newbie..

 

[blackreplica]

i have to agree with kit, for someone shooting the first time, there is a lot of attention paid to verticals, for one thing. there is also an attempt at composition, though it isn't the best sometimes..... though that could very well be due to equipment limitation (e.g. #2 is too tight, but the kit lens will capture something to that extent at 18mm with crop).

other than the exposure, which i have to agree is half a stop too dark, perhaps a stop would even be fine.. night photography has more leeway in terms of exposure if you ask me, as long as you don't end up with floating disembodied lights you should be relatively fine and different people will take different approaches. for the leaning-towards-brighter side you could take a look at thomas birke. i'm not a fan of his compositions, it seems that most people are more than just happy to comment and look because of his gear... but i do like his tones and results. something to think about.

actually, i'm not even certain if you need hdr to capture these. they don't look like they've gained much dynamic range, the difference from a non-hdr picture would probably be color shifts due to whatever program you use..... along with saturation.

more importantly though, a lot of these would look better with a brighter sky, not something pitch black. this has to do with timing more than anything else, twilight would be a better time to capture most of these.

that's all i have to say.......

Appreciate the feedback guys...yes i was held back a little bit by my 17mm, particularly on pic 2. I just couldnt get enough in. What made it worse was that i even had to crop it a little because there is another building that sticks out to the left of the frame which i felt kind of unbalanced the composition. Of course, the noob that i am, i didnt really notice this until i got home and started processing. Oh well, at least i have a reason to go back

Also took a look at thomas birke (what equipment does he use that somehow makes him so popular?), you're right, even though i have a tendency to like a little underexposure, i am surprised that even with a few stops more exposure, it still looks so nice. Its definitely something i can learn from and adapt to. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how he obtains tones/exposures like those? A cooler white balance? His shots are nice and bright but not at the expense of (much) contrast, yet highlights are not blown out. How does one achieve this look? Is it me or does it seem that the dynamic range on film seems to be higher than digital

Getting up for a sunrise (or not doing something else during a sunset) is one of the most difficult things for me to do....but i guess i'll have to do it sometime if i want those stunning shots

 

[dlareg]

Hi,

Just want to ask where did you take this???

Can tell me the exact location??

Thanks

... very nice light trail

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