HDRI from 3 originals, one stop apart, in photomatix pro. Export to CS3.
Skew upper left corner left and upper right corner up to relieve left-side convergence and square the implied horizon.
Shadow/highlight to fine-tune the tone mapping.
Hue/sat to tone down the reds and yellows. This was causing the sky to lose the cloud warmth, so I backed away from it, made a sky mask, inverted it, and did the hue/sat again only on the landscape itself.
Slight vignette applied.
New layer in overlay mode, filled with neutral gray, "burning" with black brush on central bright areas of reflections in water.
Flattened entire image, saved as new file, duped BG, used "apply image" in soft light mode and faded, for more pop in the scene.
Resize, sharpen, border, save for web.
***********
This was very weak, watery light. The HDRI is not required for the actual tones of the scene, but when combined with the local area contrast increases it brings to the party, it made everything pop quite a bit more.
I'm hoping I don't get dinged by people who recognize this location, though it's a different view of it than I have entered before. It's a leftish pan of the same location where my famous skiff lives in the summer. But I don't actually have a lot of river locations that I can reach in a hurry here, and the weather has been VERY gloomy. There happened to be a break in the weather after a storm that lasted long enough for me to rush down here and get this shot. Within 5 minutes, the light was completely shut down again, and within 15 minutes it was raining solidly.
It's been along time since I've been as excited about an entry as I am about this one. I think it's absolutely beautiful, really powerful leading lines and almost-symmetry. The 13x19 print is spectacular, even at 720 pixels it can't really shine. I hope it does well. I'll be competing against much more dramatic rivers & waterfalls, I am sure, but there's an overall sense of combined serenity and power in this that I hope carries through.
*****
Wow, a ribbon... I didn't think 7.1 would make the cut. For comparison, here's an unaltered original from RAW; bear in mind that I have parameters set to low contrast, low saturation, low sharpness, so it looks duller than it really was. Nevertheless, it was a pretty flat scene before HDRI was brought to the party:
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 208 Avg (all users): 7.1408 Avg (commenters): 7.5217 Avg (participants): 6.9651 Avg (non-participants): 7.2667 Views since voting: 11728 Views during voting: 491 Votes: 206 Comments: 90 Favorites: 40 (view)
'bad' ... I DONT THINK SO .. !!!
i noticed this amazingly beautiful image in the thread about overprocessing .. i'm totally into it and dont see wot the big fuss is about .. if you like your photographs 'true to life' then go for it .. but no photograph mimics wot the eye can see anyway .. and if you like processing the heck out'v your photographs then go for it ..
i dont like it tho when ppl take that point of view into a challenge and vote you down .. i see that as a biased vote .. of course there's a very fine line between biased and just wot you like .. wotever .. it'd be nice tho if ppl just voted on whether the image appealed to them rather than trying to assess the processing that went on to get it ..
i'm particularly miffed at the moment about a couple of comments on something i have in the free study .. one made a comment that it was over tone-mapped .. which is totally insane .. i've actually put the original in with the challenge entry so ppl can see that its not far from the original except in colours and sharpening ..
got another one that said it wasnt 'real' .. dont know where they're coming from coz its very real ..
this is a stunning shot robert, and i just love your processing .. those clouds appear to be moving ... in fact the entire scene is .. moving in both senses of the word .. !!
love the warmth in the sky .. it looks like you've done a lucisart whyeth on it but you havent .. i've looked at your processing steps but cant see how you've got that contrasty/sharpening effect that a whyeth action gives .. its pretty difficult to explain the look i mean in words ..
anyway .. i did get a bit carried away in this comment ..
it happens ..
:)
ps .. often when you go check out the work of ppl who make these harsh comments you find that their portfolio is very ordinary .. not always of course .. :)
Thank-you for your thoughtful posts in this thread and for sharing the non-hdri image of this scene. It's truly inspiring to see what you made out of it, particularly with the comparison shot.
Bear- your pictures are phenomenal. Absolutely breathtaking. You have a great knack to not only find great landscapes, but to shoot the well, and edit them perfectly.
I like the lines in the photo and the nice use of triangles throughout the frame. Not a big fan of tone-mapping/HDR but that is more my personal taste. Still wonderful composition. Congrats on the placement and wonderful score.
I'd probably would have given youa 7 (if I voted) just on comp alone.
Well, done Robert. You certainly gave this scene an almost ethereal quality. You are a master of HDR. (I wonder if you're ever going to try your hand at Grunge? ;-Þ )
WOW !!!!!!!!! a most beautiful scene made so incredibly dramatic and stunning by your excellent processing ..
CONGRATULATIONS on your ribbon .. this looks pretty good (understatement!!) .. on your profile page .. :)
One of a handful of 10's from me, Robert. Congrats! Just a stunning image!
edit: I take it back - I just went and checked and this was the only ten I gave out - and rightly so, IMO.
Great shot Robert. I don't think you have any reason to not like the Tonemapping on the image. So many times we recreate what we saw when we pushed the shutter only to be told that it looks fake. If we weren't there to witness the photo being taken, then how can we make such an assumption. I love the clouds in this image as they have such a powerful presence that really makes the scene. Congratulations on the yellow ribbon and the fine, fine score.
This was one that I really liked. The sky is gorgeous and the perspective is very interesting. I love the reflection in the water and the highlights in the brush. Congrats on your ribbon!
The sky really makes this shot. You have framed and presented this perfectly. I'll bet it looks even more impressive when not subject to the dpc size limits.
Must be a Bear Music photo, at least a Bear Music title. Well, not sure if you know but I am not a fan of HDR. I love the sky in this, so dramatic, but overprocessed for my tastes. But I am in the minority in this thinking around here, so I am sure this is doing really well. 7 from me.
Herring River, Clearing Storm
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