need some HDR help

[Mnaff]

it always seems that when i do an HDR the sky never retains the blue color that the photo should have. what should I be trying differently? and the highlights are probably getting blown out?

[VegasMike]

How many exposures are you using and what program?

[Mnaff]

i use three exposures -2, 0 and +2 and i've tried it in Photoshop CS4 and photmatix pro

[Pen]

to help with this i think you should post each of the three pictures u used to make up this hdr, and include the exif data from them.

[Mnaff]

pic number one



f/4.5
1/60s
ISO400
34mm
no flash
Aperture priority mode
E/V +/- 0



pic number 2



f/4.5
1/250s
ISO400
34mm
no flash
Aperture Priority mode
E/V -2(like -1.9)



Pic number 3



f/4.5
1/15s
ISO400
34mm
Flash did not fire
Aperture Priority mode
E/V +/-2 (again like +1.89)

[Mnaff]

i guess it wasn't as blue as I woulda thought/liked, but i would like to retain more blue than white. that's probably not that possible.

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

Were you using a tripod? If you were go a lower ISO, and Also try another time of day. say sunrise, late evening.

[Mnaff]

I was not using a tripod at the time, but it was late evening i think it started getting dark enough 15 minutes later that i couldn't take any more pics because of no tripod/exposure too long to hold still

i think sunrise might be a more appropriate time.

[sybren]

I would pre-process the darkest picture to show more blue, before merging them. Another program you may want to use is Hugin. It produces natural looking HDRs, and it can also help you align the photos.

[Murtasma]

I personally think having blue in this particular image would create to much competition of color with the trees. You have a good exposure with your normally exposed image. I think processing just that image and forgetting the HDR would be your best bet given the fact that you didn't use a tripod.

To obtain more blue in the sky from this particular image it's going to be difficult and probably will need to be done AFTER the tone mapping as been done. Depending on where the sun is in relation to this where the lens is pointing perhaps using a polarizer will help make those blues pop more.

Once again I prefer the white it keeps the attention where it should be.