HDR for Creative/Pictorial Effect

"Lecterns and Ladders"


This time, an HDR image from the same shoot as Open Door, but this time not with total dynamic range control in mind, more the aesthetic final effect.

You might like it or you might not, so I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

Absolutely love it - this shows exactly the sort of 'ideal' that I want to achieve (with some of my shots), which is to reveal what our eyes truly can perceive.Very nice technically, although I do think you should have made more effort in tidying up the church beforehand.

Its a great example of a photorealistic style for HDR, but the 'starburst' effects through the window go well with it too. Were they created in the HDR software also? And how many individual exposures?

Is this using Photomatix Pro 4? If so, is it the Tone Compressor or Details Enhancer? Anyway, thanks for showing this, nice work. Sorry for all the questions, but for someone starting out in HDR they'll all petinent. If anyone's interested I can put an example of mine also.

I would have much preferred it if you'd processed it just like the open door shot.

I like the HDR treatment here. Well done sir, thanks for posting!

I like both.
The open door was very true to life, what I would have seen when I was there. Where as this one has a little of that 'painting like' look. I guess if pushed, I think the two styles might work better the other way around, with the painting style used on the open door. The builders equipment fitting the realistic style. Mind you who am I to say builders kit should not be given an arty treatment!

As with all techniques both have their places and it all depends what the photographer is trying to put across in the image.

Thanks guys, all viewpoints duly noted.

This was Photomatix Pro 4.0.2 using details enhancer and the painterly option.

It's all a question I suppose of what we are trying to achieve. In this case the whole shoot inspired me totally and the processing was to try and evoke the way I thought about the whole concept of the disused chapels.

When I find a subject that does inspire it's fantastic to just absorb all my attention into shooting and processing the images. Sharing them is the icing on the cake.

John, I like your HDR treatment of both images, which is very effective and not overdone. However, the feature I find to be distracting is the unnatural distortion, presumably the result of having to use a wide-angle lens to capture the shots. In "Open Door" my eye is drawn to the bottom right, where the right-hand door is twisted around clockwise. Here in "Lecterns and Ladders", both the main arch and the roof beams being twisted over anticlockwise detract from an otherwise pleasing image. These are, of course, just my personal opinions, and this effect doesn't seem to have troubled other contributors.

Cheers.

Philip