Evaluate My Photos, Hdr, Look Alike

[Kan Win]

Used the “Bracketing” Option on my Olympus E-3 for the first time.

Shot in Raw+jpg, 5 shots.

The .jpg below is the third shot out 5 that I set the camera up on. Only Cropped the photo.

OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP. E-3

1/400s f/2.8 at 14.0mm iso400

After processing with “Photomatix”

This came out, cropped as well.

This is what Pbase told me

1/100s f/2.8 at 14.0mm iso400

Generated all 5 shots into 1 photo

What do you think?

Should I keep going this way or stay with just single shots?

Yours truly,

Kan Win

[Nordlys]

I like one with HDR process better.

But it seems to have lost the contrast a bit in the process especially the Chinese temple in the lower left hand side of the frame.

Did you really need that many shots to combine them into one?

And why the F2.8 for a landscape shot (and ISO400 for daylight shot?)?

BTW do you always get that "photomatix" watermark in every processed photo or are you trying it on a trial version and you have to pay for it to get rid of that?

Edited June 9, 2008 by Nordlys

[spellboundXY]

greetings kan win,

really nice shots you got there, the original and the processed one.

After processing with “Photomatix”,

it seems the clouds are more angry, adds more tension, for me it is very interesting and i like it.

but the temples lost a bit of something...like they seemed afraid of the angry clouds and hidden themselves.

maybe if i hadn't seen the original picture, i might have thought differently.

the clouds are really angry and wicked.

my thoughts.

peace.

Edited June 9, 2008 by spellboundXY

[The Vulcan]

The HDR process has certainly rescued what was a disastrous shot. Blown highlights and blocked up shadows.

As "nordlys" states though, the opening up of the shadows has caused a loss of definition; maybe you over-cooked it?

As I understand it, HDR is somewhat better applied on a more extreme example wherein the differential between shadows and highlights is beyond the cameras ability to contain all in a single acceptable shot. In this example, mere adjustment in the curves or "highlight/shadow" tool in photoshop would correct the image.

Having said that, HDR is certainly intriguing. I'm awaiting a suitable day/situation to see if I can get some satisfaction from its application.

A point worth noting is it appears that the best results are obtained by keeping a constant aperture and adjusting the shutter speeds when bracketing. I guess this is to keep a constant DOF when fusing the shots together.

p.s how did you download Photomatix - I can't get their website to open!