My first HDR - in a village church

Carlh

Carlh

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Carl
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Im very pleased with these, dont mind C&C though as id love to do improvements.

The following photos are of the inside of Pulford Church, Pulford, Cheshire.

The reverend kindly allowed me to take unrestricted photographs. I was left to my own devices for 50 minutes. I took my time, no one was around, this was my greatest opportunity yet to do some practice in a VERY dark light situation. Flash was allowed, but I disabled it (Im still learning the controls of the camera and its effects on the final picture).

I performed most of the shots as HDR, brackets of 3 shots. I then used Photomatrix to HDR under a couple of presets it already has. Im blown away by the app (im on trial version) and will most likely buy it.

Things I learnt when doing this shoot:
My tripod is crap. It did only cost me £20, but its crap.
Flimsy, vibration but it was ok for doing 3 bracket shots at a time.

Lens was fine. I used the kit len, 18-55mm and had it on 18mm most of the time. F numbers ranged from 6-16 as I practiced the shots. The EXIF info should still be in the images so you can examine those if you like.

I did notice, while processing some of the images, that I bracketed too high and should have went down a step first, theres some noise in some of the pictures :(

One thing I intend to do, is run Magic Lantern when the new version is on general release as it performs a HDR on every exposure possible so images should look really amazing.

Ok. Here goes :)

1..
IMG_7676_7_8_tonemapped.jpg


2..
IMG_7685_6_7-3_tonemapped.jpg


3..
IMG_7693_4_5_tonemapped_tonemapped.jpg


4..
IMG_7699_700_701_tonemapped.jpg


5..
IMG_7705_6_7_tonemapped.jpg


6..
IMG_7714_5_6-3_tonemapped.jpg
 
seem a bit oof to me...
 
i am struggling with manual focussing. im using the live view too, zoom in digitally, refocus, then take the pic. Either its the tripod or my eyes ! lol :confused:
 
Hi

Well No 6 is the one i like best

I was a bit confussed in the way you mention f stop did you set the camera on AV or SV if it was sv that may account for some of the OOF issue you mention.

The other thing i would suggest is you need to capture the stanied glass more as it is a little blown that make me wonder if the most exposed was off a little.

Photomatix is good i use that and the presets are good also.

Allan
 
thanks for the comments, yes ed, cloud formation was like that, was absolutely gorgeous at around 5:45 last night, couldnt get the whole church into frame as there were graves all around me.... :confused:

Allan - tips most appreciated mate. Yes, agree stain glass doesnt come out as well in the pics, though there are these too :)

IMG_7690.jpg



IMG_7682_3_4-2_tonemapped_tonemapped.jpg



This pic <again> but under B&W

IMG_7673_4_5-2_tonemapped.jpg
 
#1 Nice textures and colours, I like this one.
#2 Brings out the stonework and wood detail well but not so pleasing as #1.
#3 This is over-cooked HDR but still a pleasing pic.
#4 Did you use bracketing? You needed a greater range of exposures to reduce the glare coming from the window.
#5 Not keen on the composition of this one, my eye wanders.
#6 &#7 You have captured the pipe detail very well, the pic needs straightening and I prefer the colours of #6.
#8 Nice detail but not inspiring.
#9, #10 & #11 External views are difficult and I don't think you've got it here, they take more effort to capture well than the interesting inside bits.

I like the mono conversion of the last.
I think you did well for a first attempt, especially having made a special arrangement with the vicar ... bit like a real photoshoot!
 
cheers gramps ! :)

i'll make note of these constructive comments for next time, I really do appreciate the feed back, good or bad :)

Ive emailed the reverend that I'll be leaving a CD with the images for him, but also if there are any events, like christmas choir practice, im up for doing a shoot :) they get to keep the pics, I get to practice :)

agree with the bracketing, the light was a bit much on the windows, but its so hard to judge whether the right bracketing is chosen, although i can see the bracketed images on the camera, i cant see them as HDR. Ive got the original RAWs so I might tinker with the bracketed images a little and re-merge.
 
Sounds like a good prospect for some useful practice and who knows, maybe some income :)
 
thanks gramps, dont know about some income, maybe further down the line when i have some "decent" photos :)

thanks beav, most appreciated, i enjoyed doing it, was good :)
 
Hi

This is not something i am very sure about but if you use photoshop and in sharpening i wonder if a bit more radius would just help with the soft focus i hope you don't mind you ticked the edit box all this has was radius 2.5 sharpen 120 not saying it's better just different


IMG_7673_4_5-2_tonemapped by border_all, on Flickr

This one used lab colour sharpen for lens blur then unsharp mask radius 1 and sharpen 100 for each

Again just a different take hope thats ok

IMG_7685_6_7-3_tonemapped by border_all, on Flickr
 
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i like allen - course i dont mind :) just comparing, yours bring out a lot MORE detail - nice mod!

Im off to a waterfall this morning so im going to see about doing HDR long-exposures on it and I'll grab some normal photos too and post up later.
Have a good day you lot :)
 
I have to agree with Lynton, they dont look very sharp at all.
 
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