Newbie HDR shot

[sriharic]

1. In which area is critique or feedback to be given?
- Newbie on DSLR/photography. Tried my hand at HDR (maybe aiming too high!). Wanted to learn more about composition, tone, settings.

2. What were you hoping to achieve with this image?
- Learn more about how to take HDR photos and how best to modify them.

3. Under what circumstance was the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
- The photo was taken on a somewhat cloudy day. The sun was out a bit but not fully. Photo taken using the stock lens of a Canon EOS 300D.

4. Thread-starter's personal thoughts about the image.
- Personally am very proud of the image. Never thought I could take a decent photo like this!

 

[sinned79]

i find it pretty quite alright. but if u change this to b/w i think the impact will be even better.

 

[Shahrie]

LOve it. I wouldn't change it in any other way. Maybe just playing around with the composition. Love the gothic colors.

 

[Override2Zion]

Is this image a real HDR created using varying exposures or is it a single image processed to look like a HDR image using softwares such as Dynamic Photo HDR?

There is heavy hints of noise in the sky and the trees in the background seem to lack in detail. On a cloudly sunny day, I don't suppose you need high ISO. If done correctly, there shouldn't be so much shadowed areas amongst the trees and within the window openings of the building.

 

[sabee]

The purpose of HDR is to allow you to stack the exposure for a higher dynamic range, that doesn't seem to be achieved here, it seems like the dynamic range was lowered rather than raised. There are some minor distractions like the tree in the bottom left that could benefit from a tigher crop. Noise is quite severe as well in the sky - if you were not using base ISO, try that next time. The overall feel is pretty good though.

Alot of people get sucked into HDR without really knowing what they're doing. From then on all their shots are in bursts of 3 My suggestion is that while you're still new to it, identify before taking the photo(s) which elements in the photo will benefit from HDR. For example in the day, the sky may be way too bright compared to the foreground, then you can check the required sky exposure and the required foreground exposure - this eventually becomes instintive. This will give you an idea of the disparity between the brightness of the 2 elements in the scene and how HDR will really assist you instead of throwing 3 photos at a software and getting a result you totally did not expect.

 

[rronnie]

not bad not bad!

 

[johnlim]

sriharic, this photo has the potential to look good if you can crop away the bottom portion. The perspective really look strange in that the top 3 curves/lines of the building are pointed upward, but the bottom one is downward. (u get what I mean?) Whereas cropping the bottom away makes it look more uniform.

I am not a fan of HDR, but I think B&W works equally well for this photo. There is a strong shape and texture here, the soft cloud(noise in the sky should be eliminated) really complement the rough texture of the building. It's nice! :thumbsup:

;

 

[leowyien]

How did you do the HDR? wad software?

 

[weimng]

Very eye catching, but looks somewhat flat (2D).

Try adding some depth by tweaking contrast or levels, not sure whether it will work for this photo.

V nice shot!

 

[charmaineyap]

love the contrast of the sky and the building. :thumbsup:

like some of the rest, I first noticed the noise on the top left, sky area too. so that might be an area you would like to take note of.

cheers,
Char

 

[shaoken]

Nice effect!

 

[sriharic]

Is this image a real HDR created using varying exposures or is it a single image processed to look like a HDR image using softwares such as Dynamic Photo HDR?

There is heavy hints of noise in the sky and the trees in the background seem to lack in detail. On a cloudly sunny day, I don't suppose you need high ISO. If done correctly, there shouldn't be so much shadowed areas amongst the trees and within the window openings of the building.

Yes, this is a real HDR created using varying exposures (-2, 0, +2). Actually I used ISO 200 for these shots. Maybe I should use ISO 100. Thanks for the tip

The purpose of HDR is to allow you to stack the exposure for a higher dynamic range, that doesn't seem to be achieved here, it seems like the dynamic range was lowered rather than raised. There are some minor distractions like the tree in the bottom left that could benefit from a tigher crop. Noise is quite severe as well in the sky - if you were not using base ISO, try that next time. The overall feel is pretty good though.

Alot of people get sucked into HDR without really knowing what they're doing. From then on all their shots are in bursts of 3 My suggestion is that while you're still new to it, identify before taking the photo(s) which elements in the photo will benefit from HDR. For example in the day, the sky may be way too bright compared to the foreground, then you can check the required sky exposure and the required foreground exposure - this eventually becomes instintive. This will give you an idea of the disparity between the brightness of the 2 elements in the scene and how HDR will really assist you instead of throwing 3 photos at a software and getting a result you totally did not expect.

How do I compare between what is the required sky exposure and required foreground exposure? In this case, that is somewhat what happened. My foreground was much darker compared to the sky....

sriharic, this photo has the potential to look good if you can crop away the bottom portion. The perspective really look strange in that the top 3 curves/lines of the building are pointed upward, but the bottom one is downward. (u get what I mean?) Whereas cropping the bottom away makes it look more uniform.

I am not a fan of HDR, but I think B&W works equally well for this photo. There is a strong shape and texture here, the soft cloud(noise in the sky should be eliminated) really complement the rough texture of the building. It's nice! :thumbsup:

;

Thanks. I get what you mean by the bottom curve but unfortunately I couldn't avoid it because the colosseum is REALLY huge and I couldn't go far enough (and I didn't have good wide angle lens) to get a good shot.

How did you do the HDR? wad software?

I used Photomatix pro.

love the contrast of the sky and the building. :thumbsup:

like some of the rest, I first noticed the noise on the top left, sky area too. so that might be an area you would like to take note of.

cheers,
Char

Thanks. Just wondering how I could reduce the noise level in the sky? I had a similar problem with another photo I had taken as well.