HDR - The underside of Scripps Pier

[kudoskid0511]

I made this HDR image from three exposures at 2 stop increments. I like it because the details in the underside of the pier, combined with the uniformity of the legs of the pier, keep drawing my eyes to the dead center of the image. However, I wish I had noticed that the foremost leg on the left side was different from the one on the right! Anyway, I appreciate all thoughts and comments on the image. This is the first shot I've posted for a critique!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudoskid0511/2231887652/" title="01/30/2008 by kudoskid0511, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2296/2231887652_d4d7bbbdf0.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="01/30/2008" /></a>

Three original photos are linked below:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudoskid0511/2233356565/">-2</a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudoskid0511/2233356505/">0</a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudoskid0511/2234144722/">+2</a>

[oriolhdz]

Hi kudoskid0511:
I'm not a guru of HDR and my attempts at doing it have not been that successful. You used the HDR and blend 3 exposures to get a nice exposed one. For me it does not have the feeling of the HDR images usually do with so outrageous colors, instead you achieved to retain detail in all parts of the photo. I like the composition and as you said, it draws your eyes all along the bridge till the end. The are members here, that are more confident and have more knowledge about HDR and I'm sure they will give you their opinion. For me it's a nice photo. Thanks for sharing it!

[Revald]

I definately agree with oriolhdz. The picture doesn't look fake as many HDR's can end up looking. I really enjoy the scene you have picked and I think you got away with the shot quite well. I can agree with you that it is a shame that one of the pillars have a grey patch, without that it would have been excellent in my humble opinion :-)

[windrider86]

Well done and agree whole heartedly that you did a wonderful job with your hdr. I am a fan of the effect but only if its used properly.
One thing you might want to consider is possibly cropping downt he sides a tad. The lines of the pier are prefct drwaing you to the end but to me anyway, there is just too much open space on either side and drwas your eyes away fromt he pier

[Murtasma]

Nice image you can barely tell it's an HDR at all which I like.

The colors don't add that much to the image have you considered coverting this to black and white or a version where the colors are even more muted to draw more attention to the geomerty of the bridge. I think cropping the sides down closer to the bridge could help. Perhaps one eye is higher then the other in my head but I think you could straighten the horizion a degree or two but it may just be me. I think the repeating parts are the most powerful part of your image and you should do what you can to draw the viewer even further into the image.

Nice work with the HDR def not overdone :)

[kudoskid0511]

Thanks for the comments everyone!

In my hands, HDR works more as a tool for getting nice exposures of difficult lighting situations than it does as a way to get surreal images.

@ Murtasma: Yeah I also thought that the horizon was a bit angled but couldn't tell for the life of me. I used the measure tool in Photoshop to actually draw along the line where the ocean meets the sky, and then rotated it clockwise 0.76 degrees. Result <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudoskid0511/2235344270/">here </a>.
I also converted it to black and white (via converting to Lab color, then to greyscale), but I feel like in that version, the shadows from the legs are a bit more distracting than I'd like. You can see it <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kudoskid0511/2235344212/">here</a>.

[peeperita]

it's a consensus.....i agree that you made good, light handed use of hdr....

although i am one who appreciates some of the artsy more out of the box exposures, hdr in my opinion a tool best used to overcome tricky highly contrasted scenes such as this one.....

nice work

peeper

[mikem12188]

Is it me or is it leaning just a tad to the left?

[Dr. WooD]

Is it me or is it leaning just a tad to the left?

I was thinking the same thing.

[RussHeath]

The use of HDR here is so subtle, I'm wondering if it was ever tonemapped? Or did you just use the "merge to HDR" in PS and then output a TIFF directly? If so, you may get a little more detail without becoming "too fake" by tonemapping with very minimal settings.

Nice eye for composition.

[inkista]

I like it, especially since I've taken photos standing in nearly the identical spot. The light can be really fierce and using HDR is a good choice here. I went for overexposing, since I was doing a handheld cubic pano.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inkista/811214598/" title="Under Scripps Pier by inkista, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1395/811214598_bad426002b.jpg" width="500" height="250" alt="Under Scripps Pier" /></a>

[RussHeath]

I really love your cubic panos Inkista. It actually looks like a different shot until you load it up into the SPi-V viewer. Cool! :)

[inkista]

Thanks! Yeah, the interactive view feels very different. It takes a bit of experience to read an equirectangular. But as you can see, the tonal range on a sunny day at Scripps makes it a really good candidate for HDR.

When I first learned about HDR it was because of all the cubic pano shooting I was doing--because with spherical coverage the sun is always going to be in the shot, HDR is a tool you really want to have. I've been lazy about using it, because the cubic coverage already requires 4-8 images, and then even with a simple AEB, you're multiplying that by 3. The nice part about doing HDR with cubic coverage, though, is that you don't have to worry about lining up the images for HDR. :)

Luckily, other cubic folks have figured out that HDR is turning into something of a pain, post-processing wise, and the fine open source programmers working on Hugin are building enfuse into Hugin (http://hugin.sourceforge.net/tutorials/enfuse-360/en.shtml) to automate and streamline the whole HDR/tonal mapping process.

Oh, and in case I ever think I know what I'm doing, I just remember that in all the times I've shot at UCSD and Scripps beach, it never once occurred to me to find the (http://138.23.124.165/mainFrame/collections/guides/adams/col_search_gal.lasso?-Search=Action&-token.TokenDirect=front&-Table=online&-MaxRecords=1&-Token.TokenDirect2=front&-SkipRecords=18&-Database=collections&-token.TokenURL=-MaxRecords%3d4%26-SkipRecords%3d16%26-Op%3dcn%26event_object_ID%3d%26-Op%3dcn%26object_title%3d%26-Op%3dcn%26keyword_location%3d%26object_ID%3dUCSD%2 6-Op%3dcn%26keyword_LCSH%3d%26-Op%3deq%26keyword_combined%3d%26-Op%3dcn%26agent_02_creator_lookup%3dAdams&-KeyField=id&-Op=cn&event_object_ID=&-Op=cn&object_title=&-Op=cn&keyword_location=&object_ID=UCSD&-Op=cn&keyword_LCSH=&-Op=eq&keyword_combined=&-Op=cn&agent_02_creator_lookup=Adams) shots (http://138.23.124.165/mainFrame/collections/guides/adams/col_search_gal.lasso?-Search=Action&-token.TokenDirect=front&-Table=online&-MaxRecords=1&-Token.TokenDirect2=front&-SkipRecords=20&-Database=collections&-token.TokenURL=-MaxRecords%3d4%26-SkipRecords%3d20%26-Op%3dcn%26event_object_ID%3d%26-Op%3dcn%26object_title%3d%26-Op%3dcn%26keyword_location%3d%26object_ID%3dUCSD%2 6-Op%3dcn%26keyword_LCSH%3d%26-Op%3deq%26keyword_combined%3d%26-Op%3dcn%26agent_02_creator_lookup%3dAdams&-KeyField=id&-Op=cn&event_object_ID=&-Op=cn&object_title=&-Op=cn&keyword_location=&object_ID=UCSD&-Op=cn&keyword_LCSH=&-Op=eq&keyword_combined=&-Op=cn&agent_02_creator_lookup=Adams) that (http://www.amazon.com/Framed-BIRDS-BEACH-Ansel-Picture/dp/B000Y15E88/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1202713231&sr=8-5) Ansel Adams did.