Money Alley

[manmathison]

I was walking around downtown Raleigh this afternoon and stumbled upon this money alley. I thought it was an interesting shot and I took some time to set up my tripod and shoot several exposures. I merged to HDR in CS4. I realize this could have been posted in the highly processed forum but I wanted a critique on the overall shot more than the processing. I also figure I can post it in the forum if need be.

My goal with the HDR was to get the high dynamic range but still have it look natural. Please let me know what you think and how this shot could be better. The exposure @ 1/50 is missing because there was a small shift in the image and I didn't want to get any blurring.

Canon XS
Canon EF28-135 @ 38mm
F/11.0
ISO 100
5 shutter speeds, 1/80, 1/30, 1/20, 1/13, 1/8

[Krusty79]

I've never heard of a "money alley" before. Is that a local thing? Can you grow money trees there?

I like the composition - I like the converging lines. The only thing that bugs me is the tree/bush in the background, as it's distracting. I know you couldn't do much about it, though.

It doesn't look like HDR. It looks like you took the shot in the middle of the day, so I know that wall on the right was probably very bright, thus the HDR.

[manmathison]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

I've never heard of a "money alley" before. Is that a local thing? Can you grow money trees there?

I like the composition - I like the converging lines. The only thing that bugs me is the tree/bush in the background, as it's distracting. I know you couldn't do much about it, though.

It doesn't look like HDR. It looks like you took the shot in the middle of the day, so I know that wall on the right was probably very bright, thus the HDR.

I have been playing around with HDR and I am realizing the times where it works better. In this shot I probably could have not done it but the wall would have been very bright and the blue of the sky wouldn't have been as rich. There is also a bit more depth at the rear of the alley than any of the well exposed shots I took.

I appreciate the feedback and hope anyone else who has any thoughts will let me know.