this is tweaking, i love post processing!

[Alex168]

Well who says HDR has to be dune using diff exposures or using a single RAW file and save it at diffrent EV's, that just sounds like too much work for me

I was out shooting today and took some shots of the sunset, and i wasn't really happy with what the camera captured, so i decided to tweak it till i was i saw what i saw.

Here is the original shot, quite boring if you ask me barley any colors no textures..blaah



So what i did is that i saved me RAW file as a 16 TIF file, and opened it in Photomatix, toned map it just a bit to give it a bit more of texture and enhance a few colors.

Then i saved as a 16bit TIF and moved into photoshop. Now here is where the fun starts!

-High pass filter to get those textures out a bit, or more then just a bit used something like 3 or 4 cant recall.
-Added a digital ND grad filter (Digital ND filter) but i did it a bit diff, i used blue instead of black.
-Added a digital polarizing filter (mostly at the top of the image, decreased the opacity on the bottom (here is an example of how to do it)
-Then i added a new gradient to give the image some warmth, because it was truly warm outside and i had that feeling going through my body so why not?!
-Then i cloned out the top of the pole, didn't really like it, it just cut of the image horribly!
-Dodge and burned a bit, to decrease increase shadows
-Played around with the shadows and highlight layer mask
-Adjusted the saturation a bit, increased, it and increased the contrast
-Adjusted the colors using selective coloring (not fully satisfied with the over exposed middle part tho)
-Forgot to mention the crop and the straightening

and here is what i go



What do you think?

[darrell]

Nice PP. It looks good. Nice colors...

[chrismar]

This is a well done HDR. Not too processed looking. Nice job.

[mdpix]

That is some pretty impressive tweaking!

[pilothaz]

Looks pretty slick there, but I think the one bringht splash guard looksa bit off. Otherwise nice job.. I am wanting to try out the HDR for myself.

[Alex168]

Originally Posted by chrismar

This is a well done HDR. Not too processed looking. Nice job.

Its not 100% HDR maybe that why :P i m not a big fan of that fake HDR stuff, so i try to keep it HDR look alike but still a bit tweaked

[Alex168]

Originally Posted by pilothaz

Looks pretty slick there, but I think the one bringht splash guard looksa bit off.

Would be nice if you want to be more specific maybe its the one on the way far out of the sky? because that one is kinda shitty, i could just clone it out

[timkoo]

wow, great processing/restoration

this is when raw really outshines jpeg.

[Alex168]

Well it wasnt really RAW it was TIF :P

but i think i could get similar results if using Jpeg, what i like about TIF or RAW files is that they give me a big room of margine compared to jpeg, when i work with jpeg i need to do servral small adjustments and be very catious about what i m doing because i hate noise, and if i get alot of viseable noise i m trashing the picture! no questions asked...

Side note: its alwasy easier to restor underexposded shots then overexposed, i cant even fix an overexposde shots its frekaing impossible, i have tired i just doesnt work!

thanks timkoo, for the comment

[pilothaz]

I was talking about the splash guards on the bicycles... lol

Also I wish I could shoot RAW on my SD 850 IS. If anyone can find a way that would be appreciated.