Three 'firsts'

[ryme-intrinseca]

I would appreciate constructive criticism regarding this image of the London Eye. It is my first attempt at an HDR image, my first attempt at 'proper' night photography - unless you count pictures of the moon! - and the first time I have tried using noise reduction software.

I didn't have a tripod with me, so I braced myself against a wall and hoped for the best!

[Josh Bear]

Re: Three 'firsts'

Hi

congrats on getting out there at night in a great location. re the picture I love the colours they make for a very vibrant image. The composition is interesting with strong lead in lines, But, the image is lacking in sharpness. I am certain that this is down to the lack of a tripod.

with the tripod you could have captured the movement of the well keeping the steel lead in cables sharp.

Best Regards

josh

[ryme-intrinseca]

Re: Three 'firsts'

Hello, thanks for your comments. Yes, I'm sure having a tripod didn't help! Could it have been due to the noise reduction software too, do you think? I didn't intend to make it into a HDR image when I took it, so I processed the RAW file three times to get the different exposures. When I combined them, there was a lot of noise, so I applied a very strong filter to get rid of it. Could that have led to the softness?

EDIT: Here's the original, unedited image for comparison:

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Three 'firsts'

I prefer your original image! Because there seems to be more contrast, makes it sharper IMO! An interesting composition!

[rogleale]

Re: Three 'firsts'

Hi there,
I'm sure that you know that you will never get a very good hrd image by processing one raw file three times, but please don't be offended by this response. It will sometimes produce a reasonable result if the source is itself of a rather a restricted density range, but for this one of the London Eye, because of the averaging effect of the camera metering, the highlights will be greatly over exposed, and the shadows blocked out. Both areas beyond recovery.
At minimum, for a good result of what would be a striking image, in aperture priority mode, one exposure for the general reading, open up two stops for the shadows exposure, then close down four stops for the highlights.
There will be other recommendations of course, by people better qualified than me, and some of them would prefer to change the shutter speeds rather than the aperture, but I like to close the aperture down for the highlight shot because the highlights are often the eye drawing parts of the final image.
Hope you didn't mind my rabbiting,

Roger

[ryme-intrinseca]

Re: Three 'firsts'

No, I didn't mind your rabbiting at all. It's very helpful, thank you. I knew that for a HDR image, processing a single RAW file doesn't produce as good a result, but beyond that, my knowledge is quite limited - as I said, this is the first time I've tried to produce anything in HDR, and I'm always happy to learn / improve.

So, Jocelyn - maybe I should forget using Photomatix and do some general Photoshop work on the original instead - levels, unsharp mask, that kind of thing? Perhaps that would give me a better image overall?

Thanks again for your help, constructive comments / criticism is always welcome.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Three 'firsts'

I've never used Photomatix, so I depend mainly on Photoshop for editing! I use CS2, applying Levels adjustment to almost each image I work on, highlight & shadow and where necessary Contrast & Brightness, leaving Unsharp mask to last if required! I make use of Exposure adjustment at times! I really don't know anything about Photomatix, so can not comment on whether it is easier/quicker/better to use that Photoshop! I think each editing program has its own strengths & weaknesses! I occasionally use Paintshop, but find Photoshop slightly superior! I believe it helps to try out a number of things & find out which suits you personally!

[rogleale]

Re: Three 'firsts'

Good Morning,

THIS Is a really good tutorial on doing it using only Photoshop techniques, with one or two variations.

Roger

[Horacio]

Re: Three 'firsts'

It Really Looks Fantastic To Me. Very Steady Pulse Your Arms Behaved Like A Tripod Quite Well I Like De Compsition, The Colors And The High Dynamic Range That You Got. Very Nice Picture. Regards,

[ryme-intrinseca]

Re: Three 'firsts'

Thanks everyone. I have Photoshop 7 at the moment, I really should upgrade!

Photomatix is a program specifically designed to create HDR images, other editing features are limited. With the few HDR images I've tried, I've created and saved them in Photomatix, then edited them in Photoshop.