Venice II

Took me a while to get through all the shots from my September Venice trip. I've done up the last ones today and think that many of the Venice images take well to a "pseudo-HDR" style. I know that this might be a passing phase (as is the case with these things quite often).
Here are a few of those:
[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7366fc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7362fc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7382fc.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7427fc.jpg[/IMG]

As always C&C welcome,
Prieni

wont attempt to do a C&C - but that second one really appeals to me - the different textures of the stone and the old bricks and then the paving stones - that is stunning

With the first and last one the effect is certainly working but with the middle two the image lacks contrast I think the non toned map and lowered contrast version works better.

Certainly the second one is very nice besides the effect, very nicely composed.

No two for me as well, I really like all the different textures of the brick work.

Thanks guys!

Here's #2 in another version, here I used only the shadow/highlight function of PS to balance the pic:

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7362fca.jpg[/IMG]

So as you can see the first version does try to increase the local contrasts.

Prieni

Great pictures but I like No. 2 most and I think the sea shell shot is stunning. I prefer your first posting of No. 2 to the later version.
David

Interesting Prieni.
Most of the time the HDR pulls the Contrast down a lot.
I like the floor and ceiling of the second version and the walls of the HDR one... I can't decide now

ps. Prieni do you mind if I've a go with your photo?

They are all fantastic. I like them all!

One thing I find with these type of detail shots that it is really worthwhile to click through and see the full size version, the forum software's resize function is a bit lacking in some cases.

Yes lovely shots, Jack

Thanks again!

David: Yes, I also like how the sea shell shot turned out. Part of the appeal, I think, is that it is a fisheye shot. But the PP also pulls out a lot of detail in the individual shells.

Stefan: As far as I can see HDR/tonemapping usually does use the full range of contrast (by definition). On the other hand you are right, the local contrasts are therefore reduced. With the two versions one can always mix and match. If you like, have a go, I have no problem with that.

Tim: You're right, it often is quite useful to look at the bigger versions of posted shots. All in all I find the resize function pretty impressive and it does help the readability of the posts.

Prieni

i love the shell pic.

Prieni if you truly mix and match it, this is what you get.
[IMG]http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk244/Anvh/Untitled1.jpg[/IMG]

Since there are 3 versions now it would be interesting to know which one you like, to get more insight in this subjective matter.

Stefan,

not surprisingly I like the version I posted first the best. This is because I had two layers, the second posted version and another one, more over the top than the first one. Then I adjusted the opacity of the OTT one to my liking.

I'll endeavour to post the OTT version tonight.

Prieni

Well then, here are two further versions. First one up is the image as it came out of SilkyPix (i.e. a treated RAW interpretation):

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7362ori.jpg[/IMG]

That I put into Photoshop and produced the posted version #2 from above. Afterwards I got my old copy of Corel Photopaint fixed in Windows 7 (I like to think that it was my computer whizardry getting it to work again where most probably it healed itself when I updated the graphics tablet driver). In Photopaint there is the nice "local equalization" function that creates this version:

[IMG]http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t5/Prieni/_PRI7362leq.jpg[/IMG]

I then blended the two together (looking at the saturation it seems I used the layer mode soft light for the Photopaint result) to obtain the version posted first.

So all in all we have 5 versions of this shot (including Stefan's) and I do like all of them (and I'm a little bugged by the plastic bag behind the gate in all of them).

Prieni

Thank you Prieni, it certainly is quite extreme the effect.

You can of course clone out the plastic bag.