Keep, Redo Or Trash?

I'd clone the security camera out. Definitely keep!

I like it, but maybe take some of the red out ;)

I agree about the red, tone it down a bit. Like you, I'm not a big fan of HDRs, especially the really HDRy-type stuff. One thing I hate about most of them are the halos it puts around edges and the grey/dullness of the sky. But I say keep this one, but maybe tweak it a bit. I like the wide angle here, too, by the way.

id change only the sky, either some black night sky or a deep saturated blue sky, should be easy to change

somehow i like this distorted view, it works bc of the centered paramount building, the overhang is a balance to the left portion of the image, making a triangle composition, and those work nearly always

but who am i to judge .. lol

just my thougths :)

i don't care for it myself, it's over saturated and its glowing. this looks like a single jpg that you ran through a filter. and not a real hdr. hdr is not an effect it's a method. and because its a single image, the sky became dark and muddy, and the lights as well. if i were to do anything with this, i would make it black and white.


---Mike Savad

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I agree that there is a lot of red in the image :). I'll give toning it down a try. I also agree that the sky could look better... I took it just after sunset, and before blue hour, so the sky was mostly still white at the time. For some reason this one worked better than the ones taken when the sky was a deeper blue.

Thanks for the feedback Mike... I agree the colors are probably oversaturated and you are correct - this is a single image. I mostly used the HDR toning in photoshop to give is a crisper, semi 'surreal' look. I feel some images loan themselves to this kind of look. Perhaps I'll give it another go on the original image and reduce the saturation overall.

Two suggestions: 1st use a layer mask to ad sky that you like from any image. 2nd if you are using Photoshop HDR Pro you can turn the glow off...

For example this way over-top sky was originally 12pm blown out white:



btw...if you are shooting RAW, you can create several copies with different exposures and then merge in HDR Pro, but Pro usually picks it up and makes you manually set exposure during the merge...

I agree to keep and take the red down a notch.

Thanks Sooner! I could think of a lot of skies that would look better in my image- I really like your results! I'm using plain Photoshop CS but the HDR toning does allow you to control the intensity of the glow. I'm still learning a lot when it comes to post processing so this is great. I'll take another pass at it later tonight.

I love all the colors, yes the red too, really punches it up and makes it look almost electric. The only spot that looks a little "dead" is the roof overhang, can you make that a brighter color to match all the other saturated colors? Definitely a keeper! Makes me want to go to the city for some night shooting.

also just an fyi - don't call it HDR, it makes hdr kind of look bad, call it tonemapping. hdr is what i do, it uses many exposures, but many mix it up and think it's a filter only.

---Mike Savad

Very fair, Mike... I'll refer to it as tonemapping. I love your images btw - amazing work!

@Mike...feeling sensitive today LOL :)

Toby, you can subscribe to Adobe creative for $10 a month. You get to have the newest versions of Photoshop and Lightroom, and I so highly recommend for the price.

http://www.adobe.com/products/discount-software-coupons.html?sdid=KKQYH&kw=semgeneric&skwcid=AL!3085!3!56033548840!e!!g!!adobe%20creative&ef_id=VACfUAAAAHLjXA17:20140829154232:s

Here's another keep, redo or trash if anyone is interested:



On this image I fixed the sky glow and kept the colors toned down.

While I do some HDR photography I use the in camera feature. This is not to be confused with a filter!

My Pentax allows me to make three exposures and then layers them, in camera.

I keep the post processing to a minimum so that the photograph will look more natural.

Here is an example.



This one is an example of a “straight” long exposure, and then used post processing.



By the way, Toby, I like both your images.

@toby - your colors are far too harsh. single image hdrs don't work out because they don't have enough material to work with. its heavy on the shadow and there are highlights everywhere. it would do better without the treatment and do it as a black and white.

HDR with people is easy enough if you have the patience




these are all true HDR shots.


---Mike Savad

It's way overdone, IMO
I hate the halos, they make my brain cringe.

I'm not a fan of overdone HDRs, if you can't get rid of the halos, I'd say trash without a doubt.

The last picture you posted is more palatable.