My first HDR...please take a look!!!

[Art]

Hi all, this is my first HDR pic,

Can you please critic composition & post production effect?

Thanks
Art

Original Exif
Maker=EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY
Model=KODAK V570 DUAL LENS DIGITAL CAMERA
Scene Capture Type=Standard
Exposure Mode=Auto Exposure
Shutter Speed Value=1/250 Second
Aperture Value=4.10
Flash=Off
ISO Speed Rating=ISO64

[Snowdust]

Hmmm, love the car and the compostion isn't bad for what it is, but I'm afraid I'm not seeing much of a HDR. The image seems blurry and OOF.

[Art]

thnaks for your comments, I see what you are saying, I am going to try it again
Art

[windrider86]

Hi Art,
Love that old car! Was the car moving when you took this? Can you tell me how many exposures you combined to make your hdr and at what exposures they were set at.
First thing I noticed was the flowers overhead that almost matched the color of the car. Wouldnt it be great to have more of them in the picture to accent the car?
Not so fond of so much street showing, fill that frame!
The car itself is a bit blurry so that makes it a tough subject right off the bat. Being an HDR look you are after, I'd like to see more details in the car. It's a fine line with this stuff and easy to go overboard so be careful when you are doing your tonemapping to not make it look all cartoony

[Art]

Hi Windrider86, to be honest I did not followed every single step of the instructions to do a HDR pic, but some tricks instead of.
1) the car was parked and I guess of I clone more flowers on the top, I could distriact from subject, don't you think so?
2) I used jpg instead of RAW (I did not have any)
3) I used the tone adjustment option to over and under expose the regular pic, so at the end I had three pics to merge in HDR
4) Once I had the HDR, I switched to 8 bit and played with the curve (BTW using that curve I had the opportunity to choose the cartoony or more realistic pic, in this case I decided for cortoony
5) I will post the same with a more realistic view

Hope this helps
Thanks for your critic
Art

[digirebelva]

Even with HDR, composition is still key.....as the others have said its soft so the effect is really minimal from what we can see

[Trader]

The soft focus is what bothers me the most with this image. I also am not sure if you can call this a true HDR. There are software applications that will produce a true HDR image and it is more than just taking one .jpg image and adjust the exposure.

[Art]

I agree, I will try it again
Thanks for your comments
Art

[Art]

Trader, as I mentioned to Windrider86, part of the process (selection of images was JPG) but the rest of the post production was in PP using HDR merge so, I am with you, it is not a pure HDR, but it has the process to merge.
Thanks Art

[bradzo66]

Originally Posted by Art

Trader, as I mentioned to Windrider86, part of the process (selection of images was JPG) but the rest of the post production was in PP using HDR merge so, I am with you, it is not a pure HDR, but it has the process to merge.
Thanks Art

Art I realise every man and his dog has had his say and theres not much left but have you tried just tonemapping your one single image , I have started to play with these myself and will sometimes just do this with a single jpeg and the results are quite good , although I tend to go for the overboard look and they end up looking like paintings - obviously this is adjustable and you can go wild or mild depending on yr tastes , just a thought hopefully it may help in some way ?? All the best