Noob with a camera!

[Crimson13]

Original Standard Exposure:


HDR Composite of Bracketed Exposures (-2,0,+2)


A little background, I'm really quite new to photography in general, having only used a point and shoot (reasonably poorly) in the past, I've picked up a Canon T2i EOS 550D and still only have the stock kit lense.

I'm learning a lot as I play with it and this is my 2nd attempt at an HDR image. I've been shooting Raw, fully Manual from the get-go to avoid gaining bad habits (on the advice of a friend).

I used Lightroom to export the series to Photomatix Pro and did the post work there, the original HDR generated was way overblown and I spent most of my time trying to tone it down. I'd love some criticism on the final result (and the original too!).

[skokkin]

Hi there,

In my opinion the original is probably already a little over exposed, and the HDR looks how i'd expext the standard shot to be properly exposed.

But as I said, that is my opinion, and i'm still only learning too!!

[zona5101]

i think you pushed the saturation too hard in the original. the green support spans and the spill of the red light detract from the original and don't get any better in the hdr version. Sky turned out nice and so did the areas where you didn't have a saturation issue.

[Crimson13]

Thanks guys, as I said, I'm new to this, all feedback is helpful. I suppose i also should have mentioned that i'm severely colour-blind >.< not much that can be done with that though.

[BigFuzzy]

The one thing I would add is to be careful of "halos" around your objects which are a result of HDR. When one sees 'halos' in an HDR is commonly viewed as a poorly processed HDR.

Doing searches both here and on google will give you an idea on what HDR halos are and how to avoid them.

I know you're new, but I think it's an important issue as halos (either from HDR or other forms of processing) will immediately tell a more experienced photographer/graphic artist that major photo manipulation has taken place.

Keep it up!

[Crimson13]

Originally Posted by BigFuzzy

The one thing I would add is to be careful of "halos" around your objects which are a result of HDR. When one sees 'halos' in an HDR is commonly viewed as a poorly processed HDR.

Doing searches both here and on google will give you an idea on what HDR halos are and how to avoid them.

I know you're new, but I think it's an important issue as halos (either from HDR or other forms of processing) will immediately tell a more experienced photographer/graphic artist that major photo manipulation has taken place.

Keep it up!

Thanks!
Yes, I've noticed the halos and I've been looking up ways to minimize them. I can't see myself using HDR techniques incredibly often, but i'd like to get them cleaner