B&W Winter Sun rays

[Leebert]

I've been pushing my boundaries a touch and taking some HDR landscapes. Don't class myself as an absolute beginner but I don't think I am that proficient in either HDR or landscapes. When I look at HDR photos, I generally prefer them to look natural but I have pushed this shot further than I normally would and wondered what peoples thoughts were?

Comments welcome. Many thanks for looking.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/CfqRUQ]Rays of winter Sun by Lee Francis, on Flickr[/URL]

 

[Mountains&Waves]

To be honest Lee, I'm not sure that it works. It is certainly striking, well composed and so on, but perhaps works best as a digital art piece rather than a landscape photograph.

 

[Giblets]

I do like the rays. Was it taken in colour and changed to BW in PP? If so would like to see the colour version.

 

[BillN_33]

Lee .... looks an interesting image but I'd look at re-processing

IMHO, the blown whites have gone really past it to "silver" and the blacks are not dramatic enough

Happy New Year

 

[Carlh]

HDR is fine, just maybe the processing of that HDR that has let down what looks like a good image.

I walked away from Photomatix and its competitors as they were just too much for me - making everything I took, look like a LSD induced hallucination. I went through a process of overdoing my processing and have toned it down a lot. Looking back at my HDR images, they look ugly and have not stood the test of time at all - though initially they looked "amazing" to me, it wore off.

The way I now process them is a few simple steps, I tend to load them up into a stack, flatten them (aligned first of course) then save them as a TIFF and throw the TIFF back into Camera Raw, from where I then have a massive amount of stops of exposure to play with (if I choose to dodge and burn), giving it a realistic look but controlling how much "HDR"'ness I want to show in the image.

I think if you were to re-process that, it be a right belter - especially in colour

 

[Kodiak Qc]

the blown whites have gone really past it to "silver"

Correct!
I would suggest you give some attention to the bottom of the scene as well.
I would be very interested to see the RAW!

 

[Mark Johnson]

Looks like an atom bomb has gone off.

Cloudscape rather than a land one.

I would like to see the colour version as I think this is a little stark.

However its a well caught photo, and we all have our opinions on presentation, and applaud your try.

Hny

Mj

 

[sirch]

I like the fact that the rays are all around the centre. gives it a kind of symmetry but I do have to agree with the others about the blown whites, I really like the concept though and think you have something good to work with there.

 

[Leebert]

To be honest Lee, I'm not sure that it works. It is certainly striking, well composed and so on, but perhaps works best as a digital art piece rather than a landscape photograph.

I do like the rays. Was it taken in colour and changed to BW in PP? If so would like to see the colour version.

Lee .... looks an interesting image but I'd look at re-processing

IMHO, the blown whites have gone really past it to "silver" and the blacks are not dramatic enough

Happy New Year

HDR is fine, just maybe the processing of that HDR that has let down what looks like a good image.

I walked away from Photomatix and its competitors as they were just too much for me - making everything I took, look like a LSD induced hallucination. I went through a process of overdoing my processing and have toned it down a lot. Looking back at my HDR images, they look ugly and have not stood the test of time at all - though initially they looked "amazing" to me, it wore off.

The way I now process them is a few simple steps, I tend to load them up into a stack, flatten them (aligned first of course) then save them as a TIFF and throw the TIFF back into Camera Raw, from where I then have a massive amount of stops of exposure to play with (if I choose to dodge and burn), giving it a realistic look but controlling how much "HDR"'ness I want to show in the image.

I think if you were to re-process that, it be a right belter - especially in colour

Correct!
I would suggest you give some attention to the bottom of the scene as well.
I would be very interested to see the RAW!

Looks like an atom bomb has gone off.

Cloudscape rather than a land one.

I would like to see the colour version as I think this is a little stark.

However its a well caught photo, and we all have our opinions on presentation, and applaud your try.

Hny

Mj

I like the fact that the rays are all around the centre. gives it a kind of symmetry but I do have to agree with the others about the blown whites, I really like the concept though and think you have something good to work with there.

Thank you for all your comments. It is much appreciated.

The image was a modified Photomatix blend of 5 bracketed shots at 1EV apart. It was shot in colour but there wasn't much colour in it so I opted for a mono conversion. Other adjustments were performed in LR5.
I do prefer a more natural look HDR shot and have re-processed it taking on board comments and with that thinking in mind. There seems to be something missing from the re-processed version that I have done but can't quite put my finger on it. The darker area in the bottom left is drawing my eye but any processing in that area that I tried looked to obvious so I left it. I have cropped it slightly to centralise the Sun rays and remove some of the land.

Here is the original 0EV image:
[URL=https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/gallery/photos/winter-sun-rays-original-0ev.12469/] Winter Sun rays original 0EV by Leebert on Talk Photography[/URL]

Here is the reprocessed colour version:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/CitCdC]Winter Sun rays colour by Lee Francis, on Flickr[/URL]

 

[Carlh]

I like both of the re-works undecided as I do like the dropped horizon in the 2nd, but I do like the "expanse" in that first one, showing lots of area. I do like these - SO much better than the original post at the top - cracking shots

 

[viv1969]

IMO your reworked colour version is spot on.
Very striking.