Lights on the Pier

[Clusty]

Just got back from vacation at Hilton Head Island, SC... I took these two shots on a pier their.. they're an HDR image:








Anything else I can do? I had to clone out a little bit of lens flare on the green one.

[Saralonde]

I like the first one best. I think you composed this one fairly well with the light to the side, the lines on the wood point right to the light. There is a very beautiful sunset going on behind the red light which would make a nice picture in it's own right.
The green light's flare is still a little too bright.

[jiminyClickit]

Clusty,

Anything else I can see? It's always a matter of what attracts you, that determines what you photograph. If these are what you found most interesting on vacation, and took time to do an HDR edit, they must be important on some level. They are bright, and big, and plain. Contrast got away from you, either in shooting or edit. If you learned that what you shoot is as important as how it's shot, that's a good thing. If you enjoyed the editting, that's another plus. Other than that, I'd recommend trying many other subjects. Or keep shooting lights until the contrast is something you can control. Just keep shooting.

[Clusty]

Originally Posted by Saralonde

The green light's flare is still a little too bright.

Is there anyway to fix this? I tried a couple of things in Photoshop and I couldn't..

[clockdoc]

I have limited experience with HDR but one always needs to consider if the original scene contains the material need for HDR to work properly. Were these made from three or more properly exposed (wide rage of f/stops) images. Once you have lost detail in a highlight, it is impossible to create detail where there is none to begin with. If the exposure on the green light had been less, you may not have experienced the flare to the extent you have now. About the best you could do is to continue cloning to close the wide white gap in the green light and then see if you can tone dowm the remaining white to a shade of green. Good luck with it and let us see what you come up with.