Night HDR containers

[Silhouettes]

I made 3 exposures of this night scene, and tonemapped them with photomatix before processing the result from photomatix with the originals in photoshop. In photoshop I dodged and burned to try to improve the local contrasts, and worked with a few selections with curves. I also burned some to try to remove some of the haloing of the sky vs. trees- I know it isn't perfect..

Wish I had more wide-angle, but 17mm is my min. as yet. I imagine it would have looked more drastical in 10-14mm. ISO 400, 17mm, F:5,6 (255, 64 and 17 seconds. Wish I had done one more and longer exposure to cover the shades better). The reason I went with ISO 400 was to shorten the capture time as I had limited time available.

What do you think I should have done different when I was taking the picture, and what do you think about the post-processing?

[BabetteKD]

First, I have to say I enjoy any images that manage to capture star trails. You did that wonderfully. You also managed to make an HDR photo that didn't go overboard in the HDR. The colors are very beautiful and you dodged/burned like an expert.

That said, I think a different location would have made for a better image. Granted, the variety of textures you have is wonderful, but looking at it now, I'm not sure the location works. i'm saying "right now" because when I look again later, I'll probably change my mind and love it.

[tingeliM]

Way to go with the HDR! Definitely not one of those horrible overdone HDRs.

[PotatoEYE]

I'd back up a bit on the saturation and microcontrast/details as it looks a little too fuzzy in the grass, almost like ugly noise. For me it's definitely one of those a little bit overdone

[Silhouettes]

Thanks, I'll take that into consideration. Maybe I've dodged the grass a bit too much aswell. Will look into making a new HDR from the same exposures for comparison.

[Edsport]

I like it. Good job. If you want to go wider just take a few shots and stitch them using photoshop...

[Silhouettes]

I have done a new HDR of the same exposures from scratch. This time less dark and scratchy, a little more "glamour".. Tbh I liked the darker appearance of my first attempt. I may do this another time to enhance shadows and scratches more, and make a darker version of this last one.

Please let me know if you like this one more



EDIT: replaced image with thumbnail/link to image instead of the whole image, according to forum rules