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Sunset Saturday Evening: To HDR, or Not To HDR?

I walked out of Whoa Nellie Deli on Saturday and I could see that he only clouds were sitting over the Sierra Nevada, not out over Mono Lake, so I headed for a canyon which would take me back towards the clouds.  Oddly, even though there were hundreds of photographers in the area, there was almost no one there!

Shooting straight towards the setting sun was going to create some major exposure challenges, so I started bracketing exposures to pick up more detail in the shadows and highlights.  The first thing I tried was Photomatix HDR software, in Tone Mapping mode.  What I often find using that mode is that it can produce weird light halos around objects, like over the mountain on the left.  The detail in the shadows is good, but it's a little blue-green in color, particularly on the left side.  So a reasonable compromise might be to layer the best single exposure of the sky over this result in Photoshop, and replace the wacky HDR sky, and do the same with in the shadow of the mountain.  

Maybe I'll try a simple average of the 5 exposures first.  That does extract more shadow and highlight detail, without creating weird colors or halos.  I often say that adjusting images in post-processing with the intention of producing a realistic image is like walking a tightrope: it's really easy to fall off before you reach the desired end point!  With the damaged color and sky, this result has fallen off, but it's hanging on by one hand.  I can either try to haul it back up by merging in more accurate photographic data in areas with problems, or I can start back at the beginning of the tightrope and try again with using a different technique.  I think I'll try the total redo first.

To see all three versions side by side, try this album view:
https://plus.google.com/photos/107459220492917008623/albums/5786200310326351313

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51 thoughts on “Sunset Saturday Evening: To HDR, or Not To HDR?”

  10. R. Brooke Fox
    Reply

    Thanks for sharing the nice image and the dilemma. Although I am regrettably very familiar with them, it is hard to see the problem areas you speak of at this image size. Perhaps you could show some larger images or crops. Anyway, what you show is very nice, I think.

  45. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    I have to agree +Kerry Smith.  If the process takes center stage and becomes more noticeable than the subject, the processing is a detriment, and what was the point of taking the photo with that subject in it at all?  The photographer could save a lot of time and simply take shots in their kitchen of spoons and forks all day that effectively deliver the message of mainly saying in the loudest possible way, "Look, I found HDR!"  

    There are so many options sliders in post-processing software, and anyone can grab one move them in an extreme direction and destroy the realism of a photo, the unique and special character of that irreplaceable moment, in a fraction of a second.  It's far more challenging and rewarding to take the poor, flat, lifeless representation delivered by a digital camera and restore the life to it.

    I used Photomatix HDR software to create this, but it doesn't have the most obvious, distracting and annoying processing flaws of 99% of HDRs produced.  The subject takes center stage.  What a concept.

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