Early in the morning

[Nikoner]

Hi guys, here's another pic of mine.



It's a HDR made of 3 shots. All of them were taken at f/22, ISO 100. Exposure time: 1.6, 6, 25 seconds. Camera: D90 with the kit 18-105 mm lens at 18 mm.
What do you think about it?

[cyber3d]

Ahhh, very nice, very tastefully done, subtle. I like it.

[Nikoner]

Thank you! I'd love to hear more opinions though

[milosh]

One question: did you manually blend these or you used some software like Photomatix?
Almost the whole photo is underexposed. Regarding composition, I think that the right portion of the sea is not interesting enough, it doesn't contribute to the composition and should be cropped. I did a quick edit, cropped it and adjusted the levels a bit. If you want me to take it down please tell me, I will do so. Btw, this is just a quick, rough, edit. I feel that a lot more could be done with it with careful processing.

[Nikoner]

I used Photoshop CS5. I agree it's underexposed but if I increase the exposition then the sky becomes too bright (and in reality the sky was that dark). I like your edit although it crops a bit of that beautiful sky :P Thank you for your comment and critique!

[milosh]

Originally Posted by Nikoner

I used Photoshop CS5. I agree it's underexposed but if I increase the exposition then the sky becomes too bright (and in reality the sky was that dark). I like your edit although it crops a bit of that beautiful sky :P Thank you for your comment and critique!

You have to limit the effect of adjustments you make to certain parts of the photograph, and you usually do this by masking away the parts you don't want to affect.

[EOBeav]

Just a note that's sure to spark some debate: This is a blended shot, not really HDR. I like to keep the two separate just because they do two very different things.

Now about your photograph: Compositionally, I like it. When you see a scene like this very late in the evening, not everything is going to be bright, so sometimes your foreground needs to remain underexposed. It seems unnatural to do otherwise. Although you got some nice colors, these aren't the spectacular clouds and colors we're looking for when we go out for a shot like this. That's not your fault, just keep that in mind when you're out shooting.

[milosh]

We're going off topic with this, but as far as I know, HDRI is a set of techniques used to show a greater dynamic range in a single image, which includes both tone mapping and manual blending. I know that many photographers separate them, but many also use the HDR term for both, often refering to them as HDR and manual HDR. High dynamic range imaging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh yeah, I agree with your comment about the brightness, but unfortunately HDR is often used to make all elements of a scene appear unrealistically bright. I think a proper question at the beginning of each HDR critique thread is what the poster is going for, real or surreal.

[iluv2fly1]

I'm just a newbie, but you said lots of opinions so here is mine.

I really like it -although I agree that it is a bit dark. I'm not exactly an expert in photoshop, but if the sky is too bright, could you reduce the saturation a bit so that the sky doesn't look unrealistic while still brightening it?

I'm not sure whether it would be better or not, but I feel like I would like to see this photo taken from a few steps left to make the rocks and pier take up more of the photo since I don't really like the empty space at the right.

[Nikoner]

@milosh - I should've thought of that... Stupid me As for your second comment - I want my HDR to be realistic (and I think I've accomplished that).
@EOBeav - Thank you for your comment!
@iluv2fly1 - Thanks, I agree about the composition. Yesterday morning I went to the beach again but didn't have much luck with the weather. Here you can see what I did.