[drmdvl]

Colorado fall colors road trip
From Vail Colorado 9/24/14

[gary88]

Audi R8 - Cannes, France by garyhebding, on Flickr

[Icy J]

Originally Posted by gary88

Audi R8 - Cannes, France by garyhebding, on Flickr

How do you get that 'washed out' kind of effect? Been wondering for a long time...


The Coupé by - Icy J -, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Icy J

How do you get that 'washed out' kind of effect? Been wondering for a long time...

Lower Contrast and raise Exposure level.

[Itsed65]

Hawk over Christie siding by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Nice one Ed.

[IRide]

Messing around with HDR...still not sure how I feel about it.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by IRide

Messing around with HDR...still not sure how I feel about it.

Nice composition and sky.

HDR is all the rage still, so it's a skill to be developed, but I think it's harder to make an image look both realistic and interesting. Here, you've got a strong subject, a great sky and your telling a story with you bike. I'm not sure if HDR added anything. When you look at this ten-years from now, will you think to yourself, "Thank goodness I did that one in HDR."? If the answer is "yes", then you should keep doing this and get even better at it. (This is pretty darn good).

I like HDR when it allows me to expand dynamic range, but try to do it so that a non-photographer won't suspect that I did anything.

I hope you don't mind me writing out my reaction. No offense is meant. I'm just philosophizing about when to use HDR.

Dave

[Itsed65]

I'm with Dave on this one. It's pretty good as HDR goes, but it's a great subject and composition regardless. I think it would also make a pretty great monochrome with all the contrasts in the tower and the clouds.

[IRide]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Nice composition and sky.

HDR is all the rage still, so it's a skill to be developed, but I think it's harder to make an image look both realistic and interesting. Here, you've got a strong subject, a great sky and your telling a story with you bike. I'm not sure if HDR added anything. When you look at this ten-years from now, will you think to yourself, "Thank goodness I did that one in HDR."? If the answer is "yes", then you should keep doing this and get even better at it. (This is pretty darn good).

I like HDR when it allows me to expand dynamic range, but try to do it so that a non-photographer won't suspect that I did anything.

I hope you don't mind me writing out my reaction. No offense is meant. I'm just philosophizing about when to use HDR.

Dave

Point taken. I felt given the "alien" nature of this location a slightly different interpretation might work...or not. Thanks for the input.

[M_Six]

When I do HDR I take the HDR version and overlay a normally processed +/- 0EV image on it, then reduce the opacity to bring our the expanded dynamic range without revealing the "fake" looking parts of the the HDR image. So with your HDR image open in Photoshop, go to File then Place (or Place Embedded) and navigate to the non-HDR version. Once they're stacked, adjust opacity to suit. Sometimes you need to switch the order of the layers to get the best results.

Here's an example of HDR alone and HDR/normal merged.

HDR


HDR/Normal Merge

[ddk632]

A Sign From Apollo by ddk632, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by M_Six

When I do HDR I take the HDR version and overlay a normally processed +/- 0EV image on it, then reduce the opacity to bring our the expanded dynamic range without revealing the "fake" looking parts of the the HDR image. So with your HDR image open in Photoshop, go to File then Place (or Place Embedded) and navigate to the non-HDR version. Once they're stacked, adjust opacity to suit. Sometimes you need to switch the order of the layers to get the best results.

Here's an example of HDR alone and HDR/normal merged.

Very nice lesson Mark.

[dcstep]

Great Blue Heron Flies By by dcstep, on Flickr

[ddk632]

Another different edit style for me ...


Beyond the Sky by ddk632, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Nice one David. I see the heavy vignette. What else did you do?

[ddk632]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Nice one David. I see the heavy vignette. What else did you do?

Thanks, Dave.

Actually this one was an easy one:

Base shot with 6D+TS-E 17, CPL, and 3-stop soft GND;
ISO 50, 6.0s @ f/20

Editing all done in LR5

Basic:
- WB : As Shot (I am generally very happy with the 6D white balance)

Lightroom Color Preset : Old Polar
Lightroom Effect Preset : Vignette 2 (the heavy one)
Default sharpening (+25)
No change to default NR
Default lens profile correction

Then added radial filter around the majority of the tree and the sky behind it:
- Exposure: +1.84
- Highlights : +25
- Clarity : +41

Another radial filter (long horizontal oval) on the lower grass area to bring it out a bit:
- Exposure : +1.55
- Highlights : +55
- Shadows : -46
- Clarity : +65

So it's the heavy vignette coupled with the extra exposure in the center of the frame.

Here's a before and after, attached..
Also attached screenshot of where the radial filters are.

Note - the GND filter is the reason that in the original shot, the tree is noticeably darker than the grass.

[Itsed65]

We don't often get cool clouds out here

Alhambra Valley Autumn by lennycarl08, on Flickr

[dcstep]

Those are truly great clouds Ed.

[ddk632]

Monte Carlo Blue by ddk632, on Flickr

[Itsed65]

Originally Posted by dcstep

Those are truly great clouds Ed.

Thanks Dave. Clouds like that just scream for a B&W conversion to me.

[dcstep]

Originally Posted by Itsed65

Thanks Dave. Clouds like that just scream for a B&W conversion to me.

I agree in that case.