New to HDR...wondering about clouds

[Argon52]

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgsflickr/2276363364/" title="St. E's HDR by D.G.Flickr, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2030/2276363364_82a6223fd5.jpg" width="500" height="332" alt="St. E's HDR" /></a>

I am still wondering as I play around with Photomatix and HDR in general about clouds. Especially in this pic, since I do not have a camera that brackets for me (Nikon D40), I have to do it manually. And in this case the plane trail shows up as three trails, because they were being blown across the sky. I know I could just use on RAW pic, but I don't think the end result is as good. Anyway, I would love any other constructive comments other then the clouds as well. i literally shoved all the photos into photomatix and then did no other adjustments in photoshop.

info of pic:
Nikon D40
F/Stop: f/4.5
ISO: 200
focal length: 18mm
flash: not fired

And other then these i could not find any other info from the Exif info from Bridge CS3, I wonder if that is because it is an HDR photo made up of 5 photos? Please let me know if there is more Exif data I could show and how to retrieve it? Thanks, and have a great day!

[Argon52]

I just noticed that the top edge of the photo is black, I wonder if I did a little bit of cropping and roating this photo after photomatix? Sorry I did not mention that, and I will try to fix that and repost it. oh wait it is a powerline.

[carl yeomans]

did you shoot in raw or jpeg?

[Argon52]

I shot in raw and then converted to jpeg to post on Flickr.

[Japaslavian]

What I like most about this image is that (for the building at least) I can't really tell that is has been processed as an HDR image. Most HDR images I see look very bizarre, and rather unpleasant, but this is slightly more subtle.
That is until I look at the sky, and all of the sudden it is like, "Whoa, definitely HDR."

There isn't really a way to prevent the repeating clouds when they are naturally moving, unless you can shoot all your exposures one-after-another fairly quickly.
Seeing as you do not have the convenience of automated bracketing it will be even more difficult. Just hope and pray for a still day I guess. I actually like the movement you captured with parts of the sky, especially the right side around the bell tower.

As for EXIF data, once you combine all the images into a single HDR, you lose all the original data that is not cohesive between each, obviously, because the shutter speed and most other things change between each shot. The only data that will be kept is that which is the same for every image used.

[RussHeath]

I agree with Japaslavian, the work on the building is excellent. The intense blue in the sky is lovely, but a bit of an HDR giveaway. The severe ghosting of your clouds is a dead giveaway.

Have you tried using the option in photomatix to "Attempt to reduce ghosting artifacts?" It comes up right after you select your pictures but before it tries to line them all up. You have to have "Alighn source images" checked. Then after you check "Attempt to reduce ghosting artifacts" check off "Moving objects/people" and set the detection to high for something with this much motion.

The processing will take a lot longer, but the software is pretty good at minimizing these things.

Your other option is to create one HDR from all three files, then a second from a single file and combine the two manually (building from the first, sky from the second). This would give you the intense blue sky, if you want, but no ghosting of the clouds.

Good luck and be sure to post back if you have success with your edits! :)

[Argon52]

Thanks! Yeah, I figured the EXIF data out after a while and a little common sense jumped into my head, heh. Thanks!

And about the ghosting option, no I did not use that aspect, I will try to see if that helps. Thanks!

[Digidave]

And about the ghosting option, no I did not use that aspect, I will try to see if that helps. Thanks!

I've been playing with this Photomatix for a little bit now, & I can tell you that it unfortunately won't help. Those clouds are a little extreme.:(

[Murtasma]

You can always manually combine several diffrent exposers into one image. Take a picture of the sky and expose it just for the sky then do one of the building. You really only need two exposers for this image. Open the sky image first in photoshop then open the building image. Place the building image on top of the sky image as a new layer now mask off the sky.

All done :)~

[Argon52]

Thanks yall!