Thanks for the comments. I'm surprised this did so well, as I thought I'd ruined a great scene with which others would have certainly done better.
Busy days with a newborn, and in-laws visiting, so I missed the brilliant sun that had turned this into a magnificent scene. With darkness creeping in I had to once again turn to the only tool I seem to use these days, HDR. I hate it.
giantmike, once you mentioned the sky it bugged the hell out of me. Weird tones. Almost dirty. I need a cleaner edit of this for sure.
blindjustice, I agree about the letterbox. I just feel a 3:1 ratio looks naked without a bit of filling out (at least here on DPC).
Much thanks for the comments.
Statistics
Place: 18 out of 161 Avg (all users): 6.5391 Avg (commenters): 7.9286 Avg (participants): 6.4394 Avg (non-participants): 6.6452 Views since voting: 872 Views during voting: 269 Votes: 128 Comments: 15 Favorites: 0
Something else I do with hdr sometimes (mentioning because of your sky hate) in advanced challenges is... say for this image. Edit it for the vineyards in photomatix. When you're done with that then open it up in Photoshop or whatever you might use. Copy one of the original exposures into a layer and mask it so that it only shows the sky. I very rarely have the whole image photomatix'd.
But great finish.
I'm not sure the giant golden harvest feel of the shot is helped by the letterboxing. The colors, sky, and rolling tilt, and theme create an effect that is a cross between an American primitive painting and a modern Tuscan sunset.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
