Bad HDR shot of the day

Interesting how both of us have a different feeling about the same image.

Though I will have to play with the Duck's image and really see if I
agree or not.

 

Oops!! I sent too fast.
I did not mean over processing the background, but merely decreasing
some of the haze. For me the background haze is annoying.

 

I will try to keep your sensitivity in mind when commenting on your
images. If I fail to do so, please accept my advance apologies.

 

I have only a limited supply of commas, and tend to hoard them.

 

I will try not to pout.

 

The undulating road. I like that one very much. I swear that has been used
in more than a few motion pictures.

 

One of the areas of over processing with HDR which can be avoided, is
the "Halo" effect in areas of strong contrast and edges. This can be
very disturbing especially around leaves, tree branches, and horizon
boundaries.
With HDR, I think it is a case of using the right SW, and making the
appropriate adjustments with moderation. This is another one of those
times when more is not better.

 

You can also use one of the original images to cut down the halo effect.
Just put it on top of the HDR image and use a combination of blending,
opacity and masking. Then, do your sharpening on the luminosity channel
in LAB mode.

 

If it's done well, and not explicitly stated in the caption,
how would you know... ?

Perhaps you're seeing it all the time.

BugBear

 

I suspect it's a 6x3 panorama (sometimes called a matrix panorama),
shot to get super high resolution, possibly intended for large scale printing.

BugBear

 

....but then, after seeing that image, one has to wonder why bother.

There are scenes which provide great visual impact when presented as
massive mosaics, either in print or display. GigaPan is a great tool
for this type of thing.
< http://gigapan.org/gigapans/fullscreen/10850/ >

There are scenes which can be artistically interpreted using HDR.
< http://www.photo-hdr.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/132.jpg >

There might even be scenes where both techniques can be used together
to interesting effect, but this was not one of them.

 

Indeed. I was just answering the question posed.

BugBear

 

If only the brightness levels didn't vary from one part of the image
to the next.

Regards,

Eric Stevens

 

Do gradient filters also not have a place in photojournalism?

I ask because they also map higher contrast to lower contrast ...

-Wolfgang

 

Ok! Ok! All the tools available to any photographer are fair for any
photographic purpose.

That said a gradient filter used in circumstances the photographer
believes he/she is going to need it, seems far more appropriate for a
press/sports/photojournalist than an HDR capture, let's say at a press
conference, sports event, or conflict photojournalism in the field.

....but who knows I guess sometimes HDR might even work well even then,
if you can get everybody to stop moving for the 3 to 7 exposures.

 

It's not the tools that are evil. It's how you use them ...

Hey, they did conflict photojournalism with plates and minute
long exposures ... showing battlefields and after-action
shots (some of them staged)

-Wolfgang

 

Yup! This one is much better.

 

That's a good one but, where is the bottom half?
Regards,

Eric Stevens

 

Nice one.
HDR shots work best on things that fall apart, brings in a lot of
detail.

DanP