HDR toning CS5

Don't like it, sorry. blown highlights in clouds, and then there's the halo around the man.. excessive contrast and colour saturation. It's destructive, and while I can't see the hi-res versions, I'm willing to bet quality has suffered quite badly as it usually does with excessively tone mapped images.

What was wrong with the originals that made you want to do this?
 
Thanks for your input! Below is the original to one of the above.

Im trying to make the photo 'pop' a little more, commonly seen with HDR images I come across.

Any advice for a more subtle but effective way instead of using the HDR toning in cs5?

Thanks for your help!
 
I see absolutely no need to do what you've done. The original is far better. If they all look as clean as the one you've just posted above, then IMO you've ruined them by trying to tone map them. It looks awful. Why would you want a big halo around everything.. is that man radio-active, or have some kind of Marvelesque super power? :)

The original is clean, and better for it.
 
I love HDR and I think there is a place for really going for it. However, my understanding is that it is best used when there is large dynamic range in the picture such that in one exposure the camera is not capable of capturing it all. In your original picture, the exposure is decent and the range is not so great than there is loss of shadow or highlight detail. Thus it was prob best left alone.

I have recently discovered lightroom and found that some playing with the highlight/shadow sliders can really help pictures pop, especially if you shoot RAW where the highlight and shadow detail can be recoverede from a single exposure. I am not saying this is the 'right' way, but it works for me.

overall though, to really make HDR pics worth it, find a scene with massive dynamic range, take 3 or 5 pics at 1ev difference, use photomatix or PS to merge and then play around!
 
daugirdas said:
Really, don't "fix" something that isn't broken. HDR is never an answer for not so good images.
Click to expand...

In my opinion, the best HDR doesn't look like HDR. I think it is best used to cope with high contrast challenges, rather than as a special effect. (Disclaimer: I've been guilty of the SFX side of HDR)
 
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