HDRI in Photomatix Pro from 4 exposures, merged and tone mapped, exported to PS7 as a 16-bit TIFF
"correct" sky exposure loaded up, copied, pasted as an overlay in "lighten" mode to cut down on sky density, faded to suit.
Empty overlay mask layer created, black gradient laid down and faded in foreground to burn foreground, local dodging and burning on leaves lower right and log.
Hue/Sat and Color balance used to bring up the blue, red, and yellow and balance them, subtle differences.
All layers merged, Gothic Glow version created, overlaid on merged composite and faded to 40%.
All layers merged again, copy BG layer, USM on the copy to crisp up the glow.
Resize, USM to finalize sharpness, border, save for web. WAY too much detail in this for 150 Kb, had to save at quality 60 :-(
Entire process took about 15 minutes. We have a heavily overcast day, threatening rain, and it's not the ideal time for HDRI work, so I sought out a location that was backlit and had lots of foreground dynamics. We'll see how it goes :-)
Statistics
Place: 20 out of 84 Avg (all users): 6.5387 Avg (commenters): 8.0625 Avg (participants): 6.2955 Avg (non-participants): 6.5810 Views since voting: 2997 Views during voting: 691 Votes: 297 Comments: 27 Favorites: 4 (view)
I was looking through the first HDR challenge, and came across this beauty. You are still the master. I think this was the best in the challenge. I found it quite interesting to read how you had taken the proper sky exposure and applied it manually. Thanks for sharing your steps.
Wow! The perfect study in HDR! And thank you so much for sharing exactly how you did it! I'm so inspired to practice this technique and see if I could ever in a million years achieve photos with this depth of colors and light!
Lovely study Robert that remains in the real world without excessive sharpenning and ultra color shits. i love it. Congratulations on your top 20 finish.
Use of Light:1
Focus:2
Composition:2
Creativity:1
Achieves Challenge:2
Nice effort on this HDR challenge. I love the oak leaves in the foreground. I can see the whole image - darker areas are well illuminated and the sky (although not a beautiful one!) shows off well without being blown out.
I scored this a 7. I love the colors, the detail. HOwever wider shot to include more of the tree and the foreground would have scored this higher from me. I am left wondering what is up at the top of that tree. A little more detail in the shadows would be nice if possible. Overall well shot and meets the challenge well.
I like the foreground leaves and their splash of color contrasted with the grey tones. The tree seems too centered and the bush breaks up the leading line of the fallen tree. It would have been nice to see on past the midground elements to the water and beyond. Just my .02. Good job with the HDR.
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