My first attempt at HDR

[Killjoy]

This is my first real attempt at doing an HDR image.
I did do a tonemap of a single RAW image of the Rotunda at the Palace of Fine Arts, and a couple at Stow Lake as well. But again, those were tonemaps of single images.

These are my first attempt at doing it with multiple images.

Here's the first one. Not too impressive.


Then I played with this one a bit.


And again, I played with the same image, warming it up a bit and changing the color tone. Too much?


I attended a free HDR class last night. One of the many things I took away from it is that I need to use a smaller aperture when doing this as these were shot at f/4.

[Lilikoi the cat]

As far as images go and my opinion (everyone clicks on a new thread)...
The last one but take some of the blue out of the sky.I like the contrast, blacks and color but with the warmth of the grass the sky looks out of place.

[jcambray]

Really nice, especially for a first attempt. The third image definitely pops! I agree with Kevin that the sky looks a little overdone. For me, the purples in the sky don't work well with the warm grass. I really like the boat in #3 the best - beautiful wood tones!

[lvolkjr]

I think the the third one defines the "rule of thirds". I'll second the "it pops" comment by Joan.

On another note, remember I told you I had it on TV(shutter priority) instead of AV (aperture priority). All of my attempts of HDR's, suffice it to say, didn't come out.

[Killjoy]

Oddly enough Lowell, you are correct. (Not odd that you are correct, odd that I didn't have it in Av)
For some odd reason I shot at f/2.8, f/4, and f/5.6

I won't make that mistake again.

[Hikin' Mike]

Did you really need to do a HDR or did you just do that to try it out? It looks like you really didn't need to do the HDR route. They don't look too bad, the last one is a bit over the top for my tastes though. Maybe something in between? I do think there's too much foreground.

[Killjoy]

Thanks Mike. Yeah I did push the last one a bit too much I think.
But I threw it out there to see what people thought.

As for the HDR, yeah I think it needed it. It was either going to be a nice sky with a tree and boat that were too dark, or a nicely exposed tree and boat, and a blown out sky.

So you'd crop some of the bottom out of that image?

[Hikin' Mike]

I would crop some off of the bottom if it were my image. To me, the interesting stuff is the canoe, tree and the clouds.