More From Greece...

[Mike Lewis]

Sorted out some more favorites from our recent Greece trip:

1) One of the famous Mykonos windmills, miraculously without people swarming all over it:

2) A shot along the rugged edge of the caldera on Santorini:

3) A blue door that caught my fancy, the large dynamic range between the building side and the sunset made this an HDR shot form 3 exposures:

4) A sunset from the famous Santorini sunset site, Oia (also an HDR capture that looks more like what the eye saw at the time):

Thanks for looking; as always comments/criticisms welcome

ML

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Fabulous - Love the blues in the first and third - and that sunset is a bit special in #4

What are you using for your HDR?

 

[Mike Lewis]

Chris,

I am just using Photomatix 4 - easy to drive and not too pricey. I certainly don't always achieve the results I like, but I think that is more about the photographer than the software. And while Photomatix is very capable of producing the 'more obvious' style HDR manipulated look that many folks like, I personally find it also adept at the subtle result that simply strives to restore what I saw with my eye when I was shooting, which is the look I always go for if I am using HDR.

In any case, I highly recommend it. It also has a demo that lets you get a feel for what it can do.

ML

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Will give it a try - thx.

like you, I'm more interested in the subtle use, than the obvious HDR image - In fact, I'd like people to be unaware of it at first pass.

I like the effect in 3 and 4 in your series - very nicely done

 

[Mike Lewis]

Chris,

I agree about HDR. I always feel like I should mention that I used the technique; but I always love it if someone remarks later that 'I wouldn't have even realized that was an HDR image if you had not mentioned it' - that to me, is what I am after when I use the technique.

Let me know how you make out with Photomatix

ML

 

[Pete Askew]

That second shot is stunning Mike. And the last is great also. I find shot 3 just a touch too blue. Obviously I didn't see the original, but it looks like the white balance is a bit off to me.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Pete,

Thanks for the comments! You may have a point about the WB on #3 - I'll have to look at it again. it is easy when doing HDR to get so caught up in the rest of the issues involved with producing a shot that like that sometimes something like basic white balance can get tweaked inadvertently by the software and you miss it. In the case of this shot, given how wonderfully blue the door was, I might have missed the overly blue result.

Thanks so much for looking and for the excellent feedback

ML

 

[Hamish Gill]

I was just thinking I quite liked the blueness ...
I'm not sure it's accurate either, but I don't think it matters, it's a nice colour!

That is a good HDR, I didn't notice straight away! This is what HDR is for in my books
I'm not scares of over pp, I'm just not keen on over HDR effect you see a lot ... But i suspect that is though swing it a lot as much as anything else!