Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

[Bhuna]

My first morning out for a while and it didnt start well. Grabbed my photo bag, drove the wife to work, drove to Gloucester docks, paid for parking, opened the photo bag to remember that half my gear is in my photo rucksack still...the disadvantages of having a rucksack and smaller bag.

So home I go and give my kit a thorough overhaul - as its been redundant since my holiday due to a sprained knee.

Eventually I get back to Docks, paid for another set of parking and off I go for a little walk around.

Reason for visit - its local(ish) to me and the Tall Ships have made an appearance again as they are about to start some filming for the "Through the Looking Glass" film. Here are a couple of snaps (me playing with my ND10 too) and some others can be found at a quickly arranged page: CLICK HERE if anyone is interested.


Image 4: Canon 700D / 24-105 F4L / Focal 24mm / ISO 100 / F11 / 8 secs.


Image 5: Canon 700D / 24-105 F4L / Focal 47mm / ISO 100 / F18 / 1/100th sec.

Whilst there, I got chatting to another photographer who gave me a bit of advice about trying HDR to bring out the redness of the bricks in the warehouses etc, so if you frequent this site - thank you, here is my first attempt of HDR (of the one above):


Image 6: Canon 700D / 24-105 F4L / HDR

Just a view across the docks:


Image 8: Canon 700D / 24-105 F4L / HDR


Unfortunately the sails were folded away, but hoping to get chance to go along Monday, depending on work commitments to see if sails are out for the filming.

Any comments duly welcome.

[tesarver]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

Very nice Andy

Tom

[Bhuna]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

Thanks for looking Tom.

[Bill53]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

First one for me Andy though I would crop the bottom to remove the concrete.

Bill.

[Bhuna]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

Thanks Bill. Yes now you say, quite agree - chop off the concrete LOL - cant believe i missed it.

[EOS_User]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

Hi Andy; are these really 'HDR' or are they 'tone-mapped' from a single image?

[Bhuna]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

I believe HDR - I did Auto exposure +/ - 1 and 1/3rd and used DPP program, selected the three images and combined then set it to Art Vivid as that brought out the colours.

thats what the chap told me to do and called it HDR - truthfully - I dont know.

[EOS_User]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

Hj Andy; yes, that's basically what HDR is. In these cases I don't think there's enough of a tonal range to demand HDR. I think you can bring out far more detail, with a more natural look and feel from the single images. Try the shadows & highlights sliders, witb a contrast adjustment to re-balance...

[Bhuna]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

OK thanks, will have a mess about with that - i was just trying something new :)

[Tigger]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

I like the first two Andy but you need to loose the concrete on the first. In this case HDR isn't really working

[Cyberman]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

Looks like an interesting location.
Its a shame the backgrounds hid/cluttered so much of the detail of the tall ships.
For me the HDR has not worked in this case, I think as Lee said there may not have been enough tonal range. I did some images that ended up looking similar, AndyA from here helped me get them a bit better but ultimately the base images did not have enough range.

I think Lee's advice is good, try the highlight and clarity sliders etc. You'll hopefully get a better result.

If you want to a 'fake' HDR approach using the best image from your set give this a look...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp8ucLPBRIc

Its an interesting approach, I tried it and it does give interesting results on some images.

Sorry, seem to have gone on a bit! Hope that's all ok.

[tesarver]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

I do like his videos. Thanks for sharing this one Andy

Tom

[Bhuna]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

Thanks all for the tips. Will try to follow the video later. Cheers.

[rcarca]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

I like the photographs (subject to the aforementioned concrete!!!) but I don't think the HDR has really worked. I do think you need to try it and play with all the sliders. I often look at something and think the dynamic range is looking a bit too much for my poor camera so take a bunch of shots like you. Then I get home and play with LR and find the end result much more pleasing from just one of the images - shadows and black one way, highlights and white the other and you get a much more pleasing result. That said I am by no means anti-HDR - so much bull is spoken about it. It is a perfectly valid attempt to deal with the limitations of the sensor, and has its place artistically. So, just think that LR 5 could do a better job of conveying what you saw. Oh, and someone else said clarity - that as well!

Would be interested to see a re-work!!!

Richard

[Bhuna]

Re: Gloucester Docks - Tall Ships and HDR attempt

Thanks for looking and commenting Richard,

Here is a very quick rework following the video through word for word (so I still need to play a little with the settings, but I can see that it gets the same effect just from the one picture.