HDR - Overprocessed and understated?

[starman4000]

I've played with this quite a bit to bring out the masts that are off in the distance and reflections that are in the front. I've tried to tone down the highlights some, but it just seems to lose some of the effect to me when I go lower than this. I hope I've found a balance between bringing out the masts and the sky, but not losing what little reality is left in it. I'd welcome your thoughts....

[mseigafuse]

I am no HDR expert, but the results does not look overdone IMO. I like it

Mike

[dudley206098]

amazing shot and the processing seems to make it even better
would love to compare the orginial

[starman4000]

Originally Posted by dudley206098

amazing shot and the processing seems to make it even better
would love to compare the orginial

Thanks! Here's a link to the original....

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3624/...6bf5ed1a6d.jpg

[belladoja]

I looked at the original and this is amazing. Sometimes I don't think it really matters if it looks "natural" or not--but if it is a striking photo --like you produced--and you are very happy with it--then it is "right".
I personally love what you have done with this--it is pleasing to the eye and I want to look at it a long time.

[har06053@byui.edu]

Maybe a bit overprocessed?

[Murtasma]

I think you could have gotten better results if you manually did this image. What did you bracket this shot at? The boat in the foreground in the original is over exposed. If I were to do this image I would open the original image in photoshop then open the -2 image in photoshop and cut out the boat from the -2 and place it on a new layer on the original image. I would then blend it into the original image so it looked realistic. I like the sepia look to the image here and like the clouds in the processed image. I would probably bring the clouds over in the same manner as the boat over to the original image.

Then I would do some contrast and color tweaks to even things out and call it a day.

I've always found it difficult to find a way to do HDR at night with large black expanses like this. It tends to want to put detail in where there really shouldn't be detail. It gets confused because of the large amount of black in the scene I think.

[starman4000]

I bracketed at 2 stops. Thanks Murtasma! I'm still learning and that's a great idea. Sometimes the simple things whiz right by! I'll try it!