HDR Technique Tip 2

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• Well I think it looks stunning..although I am not a trained photographer..a little happy snapper..but I adore lovely photos; this works for me. Thank you for sharing. Love G x

• Agreed +Jeff Sullivan, +Joseph Johnson
  CROSBY, STILLS & NASH LYRICS
  Download "Wooden Ships" Ringtone
  "Wooden Ships"

  [Intro. (Electric Guitar)]

  [Stills:] If you smile at me I will understand
  'Cause that is something
  Everybody everywhere does in the same language
  [Crosby:] I can see by your coat, my friend you're from the other side
  There's just one thing I got to know
  Can you tell me please who won?
  [Stills:] Say can I have some of your purple berries?
  [Crosby:] Yes, I've been eating them
  For six or seven weeks now haven't got sick once
  [Stills:] Probably keep us both alive

  Wooden ships on the water very free and easy
  Easy, you know the way it's supposed to be
  Silver people on the shoreline let us be
  Talkin' 'bout very free and easy

  [Instrumental (Electric Guitar)]

  Horror grips us as we watch you die
  All we can do is echo your anguished cries
  Stare as all human feelings die
  We are leaving, you don't need us

  [Instrumental (Electric Guitar)]

  Aaaah ...
  Go take your sister then by the hand
  Lead her away from this foreign land
  Far away where we might laugh again
  We are leaving, you don't need us

  [Instrumental (Electric Guitar)]

  And it's a fair wind
  Blowin' warm out of the south over my shoulder
  Guess I'll set a course and go

  [Ending (Electric Guitar and Organ)]
  n

• Good point and info.  I tend to try to make my HDR shots looks as natural as possible.  I am not personally a fan of the surreal HDR images in general, but as you said, art is subjective to each person's individual tastes.  I have a friend that loves the "Vibrant" setting on her point and shoot.  It saturates the shot and makes her beach shots with skies and water really blue.  That's what she cares about even though her husband's skin looks super pink in all of those shots.  I don't tell her what's wrong with it though, I just smile and say nice shot.  What I don't really care for is when people criticize others saying what they are doing is wrong for things like that or because they used HDR or because they didn't do it exactly like that person would have.

• Good article Jeff. I've never understood people's problem with HDR. It's a tool like Photoshop exposure controls or a graduated neutral density filter. People can use tools for good or for evil, and as David said, good and evil are really in the eye of the beholder when it comes to art/photography.

• +David R Robinson  I agree, the debate gets a little old, and both sides, when it's all-or-nothing for or against, miss both potential benefits and potential drawbacks of what can be a useful tool/technique.  

  Before 2008 I was using exposure blending of one form or another for over 50% of my images because my cameras at the time had such poor dynamic range.  I went completely the other direction after buying the Canon 5D Mark II and dropped my exposure blending including HDR to 2-3% because I could do pretty well with single exposures most of the time (with a reasonable amount of post processing).

  Having occupied both sides of the fence, I don't really care any more what tool I use, they're all just tools.  I still want to get a realistic result, but i no longer have to avoid HDR because it has gotten much better.  And Lightroom has improved as well, and is better-integrated with Photomatix.   So the combination is better than either of the two separately.  Although my percentage of HDR-processed shots has crept back up, much of the time I can't tell in the end whether or not I used it. If I have to look at the file name to be sure one way of the other, I've succeeded, and how I got there is largely irrelevant.

• >> If I have to look at the file name to be sure one way of the other, I've succeeded, and how I got there is largely irrelevant.
  Definitely!

• Superb shot!

• Thank you for this great post.

• Bravo Maestro 
  Payen P Belgium