My first HDR (PT Cruiser)

[videotape74]

I was messing around with my camera up at the cottage and thought I'd try an HDR of my car. It is 3 exposures (-1,0,+1). I then used Photoshop to merge the 3 exposures and did some adjustments.

This was shot with my Canon Rebel XS and 18-55mm IS lens.

C & C is welcome, thanks...

[JGennuso]

you did a great job. love the colors!

[videotape74]

thanks for the nice comments.

[lillygirl]

Lovely colors. I'm a fan of the PT Cruiser to start with. Also, btw, your driver front tire is low.

[zebthepilot]

A nice shot, nice colors, nice texture, fairly sharp not too overly HDRish. but I'll throw out one compositional note. (in most cases) anything that is capable of motion will look best in a photo if it's perceived to have room to move in the direction it would be natural for it to move.

what I'm trying to say is.. there is more space in the image behind the car than in front. if that space were in front of the car it would look more natural. Centering the car would look ok. but having it more toward the right and upper corner (instead of left and lower) would look so much better.

[kentuckyranger]

It's not bad but you made the mistake most make in HDR editing, unless you where going for the high contrast look.

I'm not a real big fan of using HDR to over compensate contrast but I have seen some Images where it works well.

HDR is made to take an Image and make it look as close to what the eye would have seen at the time the photo was taken.
Too many people think it's like the images you see on Flickr where the image is way over compensated, giving it that Silent Hill look.
It's not bad if that's the look you're going for but that's not what HDR editing was designed for.

Here's an HDR image of my car:


Here's another HDR image of my car where I used the HDR editing tools to take it to a different level:


As you can see in the first image, the car has vibrant color tones but it's not too contrasty.
In the second image I wanted to give it that edgy look so I took the contrast higher and increased the shadow intensity to really emphasize the dark edges.

HDR editing really gives the photographer allot of power over their images but with power comes control.
The best way I've noticed to do a successful HDR edit is that after you get the image where you think you want it, walk away for 5~10 min.
When you come back you'll be looking at it with fresh eyes because the brain has a lousy time with colors and contrast.

Hope this helps a little.
The image itself looks ok but I'd crop it a little different to allow for a sense of where the car is going, not whee it's been.