Leura Cascade. NSW Australia

[munecito]

My forst attempt at HDR. I just did it to try and savage the original images. The story goes like this: I was in a hurry and I could swear I was bracketing. Shot about ten frames and packed and kept driving without checking. I wasn't bracketing and all the pics came overexposed so I tried to make it work at least for our personal album.

What do you guys think. Be brutally honest if you want. I have a very thick skin.



Cheers.

Will

[dionzero]

Nice job!!! TFS

[CaptainNH]

I think you've done a reasonable job given that you were starting with 10 identical over-exposed shots.

I know the spot well and it can be a nightmare to get properly exposed shots - bracketing was a fine idea.

As a result of your original shots being over-exposed, the water has remained blown out through the HDR process.

I'm not sure what process you went through to get this HDR, however, you ought to be able to adjust the exposures of the original shots before going HDR.

And don't worry, you're not the only one to have forgotten to press "set" when setting up the bracketing.

[munecito]

Thanks for your replies.

Hey Captain! I did adjust the exposure in some of the photos to get some differentiation to be able to create the HDR effect. It was about 5pm yesterday and we had a dinner to attend in Sydney at 6:45pm so not much time to set up properly or take care of the bracketing.

The problem with the original photos was that the water was so blown out that not even underexposing the shots before the conversion I could recover any detail which is a pity. Hopefully I'll be going back to that spot soon with more time in my hands and try some different stuff.

Cheers.

Will

[leonaashlee]

I think it's a nice job....it looks like a lovely place.

[thomasfolkeandersen]

Munecito, this is a shame about the overexposure when you have made your way to this location. Any chance you can go back or are you not near?

If you want the 'brutally honest' opinion I think the water is simply too blown out to make this shot work. You have lost a lot of detail in the water because of this and the high contrast of the very white (blown out) water overpowers the image.

This does look like a high contrast scene in the first place which is very difficult to control and HDR could have been the way to go had you gotten the exposures you wanted. The alternative is to shoot this in overcast weather.

In terms of composition I think you have done a fine job. The water flows nicely from top left to bottom right creating a nice dynamic diagonal through the frame.

The other thing is time constraint. It's dificult to get everything right (and to be creative) if you're pressed for time (as I'm sure you'd agree). I find scenes like this much better to shoot when you're on your own and in no hurry at all, so you can try various things.

All the best,
Thomas

[munecito]

Thanks Leona and Thomas for your replies.

Thomas I am about two hours away so it is possible to go back and try different things. I agree with you that the white just detracts from the shot and I just tried this "fix" because my wife wanted the picture to work and for her it is nice enough. For me not so much. LOL!

I am happy that you like my choice of crop.

Cheers.

Will

[dvetter]

Not bad, I can see the location you were shooting would have been difficult anyway. (Exposure wise, kinda hidden in the trees) Some of the cascades are overblown, but over all not a bad photo.