The Shambles in York... a reworked shot. (HDR Alert)

Ste Manns said:
I have Photomatix but so far I haven't been able to get an image to look at all like any of the HDR images you guys post. Part of my problem is the images I've been trying probably haven't been suited to it, I've only played with it up till now, but part of it is I don't know how to do the tone mapping part, I've experimented with the sliders this way and that, but to no avail the image usually just comes out looking a horrible mess.

I've promised myself a good research/tutorial session for the future but need to squeeze it into my already busy schedule :D any help and ideas you could post here would be more than gratefully received as you are clearly a HDR Master (y)

Of course, I wouldn't expect you to post all your HDR secrets, maybe a few pointers?
Click to expand...


Cheers :)

With regards to the HDR Tutorials, I'd recommend having a look at www.petecarr.net. I do believe Pete also posts on TP from time to time and has a tutorial on HDR.

With regards to Photomatix, being totally honest, I pull the sliders around until I get the result I want. Each image seems to be quite different. However, I'm more than happy to share the process flow and settings for this image.

Firstly, the image was taken using the AEB mode on the camera. The RAW's were converted in Lightroom to 16bit TIFS with the only change made being the files run through the "punch" preset.

Then I generated the HDR template in Photomatix from the 3 TIFS, run the Tone Mapper and applied the following settings.

Details Enhancer

Strength = 100
Colour Saturation = 89
Luminosity = 9
Micro Contrast = 10
Smoothing = HIGH (in Light Mode)

Tone Settings
White Point = 0.632
Black Point = 0.393
Gamma = 1.10

Colour Settings
Temperature = 3
Saturation Highlights = -8
Saturation Shadows = 3

Miscellaneous Settings
Micro Smoothing = 2
Highlights Smoothness = 0
Shadows Smoothness = 0
Shadows Clipping = 0

I then processed the image and saved it (remember it's colour at this point - I prefer to do my B/W conversions in CS3). Then loaded the TIF file into CS3. I adjusted the contrast a touch up by 20, run Unsharp mask at 100%, Radius 2, Threshold 1 (Of course this would all depend on your image size and level of sharpening required - This was on the full 3888 pixels wide image)

I then selected Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map.
Clicked on the white to black bar, selected Black to white in the presets and then slid the white slider on the bar left to around 98%. Ok'd it all and saved the image. It's worth noting that when you convert from TIF into JPEG, the image seems to go a touch darker (I'd love to understand that bit, heh)

These settings of course might not work on another image or may not give the same result but it's worth a go :)
 
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you lucky bugger last time i was there i nearly got trampled to death great photos.
 
lol :) cheers
 
Really excellent shot. Looking at the second I did think maybe overexposed but the more I look the more it appeals to me and really works.
 
Love the HDR - a blinder!
 
What a lovely shot. Stunning is the only word I can think of to describe it.
 
I'm someone who doesn't like HDR, in fact I reckon that most hdr images just need to be exposed correctly.

This for me works.

However it needs the center area in the sky toning done as it's very bright and draws the eye in too quickly, the foreground due to being hdr'ed is bright therefore in mho it needs to be toned down to allow the eye to slowly move around the image.

Top rate image, well done.
 
Love the shot, reminds me of that scene in the first Harry Potter film where they are shopping for an owl in "Diagon Alley".
 
Love em all :)
 
Thanks again guys, appreciate the CC's FFO.

...and yes it does remind me of Diagon Alley too :)
 
Awesome job. Hopefully I'll get back to the shambles again sometime to give this a go myself. When I went to try this last year, it started peeing down and didn't have a brolly with me so had to pack everything up. :`(
 
Indeed Paul, I have :)

Thanks John, I never get tired of York and wouldn't be surprised to end up there again soon enough.

I added you on Flickr, however my main gallery is my Smugmug one. That said, I'm going to get a pro flickr account as well :)
 
You need to post the new HDR on Flickr so I can comment :p

Edit: Ahh you did ;)
 
Ian I really like the first image and it has given me a little inspiration to go back to one of my images and try a black and white conversion of it and I’m pleased I did – thanks for posting and keep up the good work(y)

If you wish to comment I’ve posted my image in another thread called Castle Square Revisited.
 
Thanks for those comments on Flickr John :)

CYB, I'll have a nose now.
Ps. Cheers Les.
 
Hi Ian

Great shot and use of HDR - love the way this has brought the olde worlde feel to the buildings

I was there this week and coincidentally have taken a similar shot. (Yes, you've inspired me to have a play with HDR for the first time!)

One thing I noticed was that my 18-55 kit lens is showing some real distortion on the verticals

What lens id you use and did you apply any perspective correction in CS?

EDIT: Did you take the Bracketed Exposure shots in the camera or create them in DPP?

Thanks
 
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love the image it has a great feel to it and certainly one for the wall.
Dave
 
WOW! Love the first one... absolutely stunning! Absolutely faultless IMO. Compositions brilliant, not over cooked on the HDR either. And great image. (y)
 
Wow, thread revival :)
Thanks again guys.

Buck, as mentioned in reply to your PM, fortunately, there were no distorted verticals and I used the 18-55 also. The camera was very low down which may have helped. Created using 3 AEB shots +/-2 ev in camera and merged in Photomatix.

As the thread has come up again, here's a slight alteration I made at the request of another member.

4346015741_9e16775fb9.jpg


Larger version here
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/4346015741_010ca30acc_o.jpg
 
Cheers John :)
 
went there last yr and snapped away but didnt get anything as good as those - they are fab :)
 
Thanks Queenies (and others).

I was very lucky that the street wasn't crowded :)
 
Thanks Mick, and also to Nick. :)
 
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