HDR ?

Why do my attempts at HDR not look HDR ..ish.
I am bracketing 3 shots, converting to .tiff (as I read this keeps more information than jpeg) and then running it through Photomatix pro.




It doesn't seem to look much different to the original though.

First off, what is that UFO on the right? I thought it was on my screen at first

HDR isn't always worth it. If you have good even lighting then just a little curve adjustment and maybe tone mapping can do everything you want.

Because you are doing it right?

But wearing my cynic's hat, I ask: Because you are doing it wrong?

A natural looking HDR shot is a rare bird indeed. Many people over-sharpen and over-saturate their photographs, and by the same token, many people tend to exaggerate the HDR effect. You haven't. Thank you for your restraint.

G

Well it does a bit.

Either that or you've used nicely-balanced fill-in flash with a guide number of about 100,000.

But I prefer the restrained look too. I occasionally like impressionism, but in small doses, and in a kind of "hmm", sort of way.

________
PS... I'm curious as to why some of the sensor spots look like they have ghosts down and to the right a little.

What is the goal? You want it to look fake?

Use the sliders for white and black point. Move them to the right - and it will change dramatically.

Also - use a higher lightsmoothing to avoid the halo you have here.

For a fake look - use a high saturation and strong contrast setting.

It's an aeroplane full of tourists going back to Birmingham.

G

Correct, Alicante airport is about 20 kilometers directly behind the monument.
Actually, the more I look at it the more I like it this way.

Birmingham UK or Birmingham USA :

Not that Birmingham City Council knows the difference

Too right! Those Brummies are a mixed-up lot. They spend all their time on the Costa Packet, which is why they called the centre of their home town the Bullring. But their favourite food isn't paella, it's curry in a bucket, AKA balti.

G

Apart from dust on the sensor it looks ok to me - nice pic.

mmm, I cleaned the sensor after zooming in to look at the "ufo", which is actually 2 airplanes if you look closely where there was a difference in the time it took to bracket the 3 shots.

Are you bracketing shutter speed or aperture?

[quote="ChrisA"]PS... I'm curious as to why some of the sensor spots look like they have ghosts down and to the right a little.[/quote]Me too, but the way the 'ghosts' are bigger, would indicate a larger aperture, so f/8 and f/6.7 or something like that.

The sky looks odd just above the mountains, I'm guessing that it was pretty washed out here, and Photomatix has darkened it. And as Nimitz mentioned, there's a halo around the tower. So it does look like an HDR, just not so obviously as some.

Dan

I like it as is.Cant be doing with over done HDR.
Roy