Bridges

[ctrollen]

Following the conclusion of this month's challenge, here are a few of my other contenders that didn't make the cut for my entry. Comments & critique welcomed - positively encouraged, in fact!

For the challenge, I decided to try some HDR for the very first time. My 750D will only do three auto-bracketed images at a time and being conservative, I just tried bracketing by a single exposure value.

Having my three images, I then used the HDR tool in DPP to merge and align into a single image. I played with various settings but generally favoured "Art Bold" which gave the best contrast. Further, I then decided to convert them to B&W, which I slightly preferred to the colour version

Here I've included the colour version of just the first one for comparison.


3748-Art bold by Chris Trollen, on Flickr


3748-Art bold mono by Chris Trollen, on Flickr


3772-Art bold mono by Chris Trollen, on Flickr


3817-Art bold mono by Chris Trollen, on Flickr

[Tigger]

Re: Bridges

the shot for me is the 3rd although all seem over ? and all the B&W's look like the black has been sucked out :)

[ctrollen]

Re: Bridges

Thanks Ian. I suspect I need more practice and more than just three bracketed images and what DPP can do with them to improve them further.

[Tigger]

Re: Bridges

Depending on the range 3 shots can be fine and looking at the sky it should be OK. Maybe its just asking a little too much for DPP - try downloading HDR Efex, its free :)

[ctrollen]

Re: Bridges

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

[ColytonJohn]

Re: Bridges

I'm with Ian here in thinking the monos lack contrast and HDR Efex will certainly help fix that (there are some mono presets but you may prefer to pass a single colour image to Silver Efex also part of the Nik/Google set). However, as much as I like No. 3 my preference is for the excellent composition of the last one as the bridge leads you along, up and around - definitely one to work on.

Cheers,
John

[Tigger]

Re: Bridges

if you like the first & third images put the brackets onto dropbox and I'll see what my program will do with the merge

[ctrollen]

Re: Bridges

Thanks for the feedback, chaps. I will sort out the bracketed images tomorrow.

The last one of these was my original choice for the challenge - until I changed my mind!

[tesarver]

Re: Bridges

3rd image is well composed, but it is lacking contrast as Ian pointed out

Tom

[ctrollen]

Re: Bridges

The original files, RAW and JPEG, for all three images should be available here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t3ml4gzhf...WLyF9hDpa?dl=0

I've posted them on this thread rather than via a PM in case anyone else feels like having a go

Let me know of you have any issues accessing them.

I can't try HDR Efex as I don't have PS/LR. I have, however, recently bought Affinity so will give that a go, once I've worked out how to actually use it!

[Tigger]

Re: Bridges

had a bit of a quick play with one image but didn't remove the sign :) odd on the downloads they look a bit blurred so the HDR isn't that sharp, also direct upload kicks the A*! out of the quality IMG_3772_AuroraHDR_HDR.jpg

[ctrollen]

Re: Bridges

Well, thanks for giving it a go! Are the single images blurred or just the HDR composite? They were taken hand-held so if they're not aligned properly perhaps that's the issue. The contrast and colours are definitely better with yours though.

For comparison, this is the image from which I created the mono, which is just using DPP's HDR & "Art Bold" setting:


3772-Art bold by Chris Trollen, on Flickr

[Tigger]

Re: Bridges

yes the single download images were blurred, perhaps it was just something that happened during the DB download, I really don't know - I normally wouldn't process it but as it was just to give you an idea HDR composite and what could be done.

[ctrollen]

Re: Bridges

Thanks very much for your help, it's much appreciated. I've just had a quick play with Affinity's HDR merge and fiddled with some presets and it's better but I need more practice as there's a lot more scope for further improvement, I think.


3772-Affinity Contrast by Chris Trollen, on Flickr

[Tigger]

Re: Bridges

that looks a lot better - something to try is making a copy image of the under shot and then reduce it by one stop - then merge 4 you'll get a better sky and more detail on the bridge, thats what I did