Well I went out and took some pics tonight and got these exposures:


First I fused the tones and wasn't happy with the outcome:


Then I tonemapped the fused images, and got this:


A little better...

But then I decided to try a tone compressed HDR and really like the outcome.


So what's your verdict?

 

Extremely cool pics.

 

Thanks, they were taken at about 9:10 pm, I'm surprised the sky was still bright-ish lol.

 

I like this one the best

 

Thanks. The more I look at it the more I prefer it too. I played with the saturation of the last one and now I feel its sort of.... BLAH lol.

 

Hello Oktain,

Beautiful photos, what camera do you use and what process did you use on the camera to obtain the result, and what program did you use for post processing?
I know, alot of questions.. reason I ask is because I been shooting HDR for a while few years, and looks like u got !


Over all i think you have the idea, and it looks good.
thanks for sharing.

 

It's a Cannon XS, 10.1 MP DSLR, no filter, (My CPL wouldn't let the auto focus do it's thing, and it was too dark for me to tell if it was actually in focus or not by eye) with my stock 18-55 lens, at an F-stop of 3.5 and various shutter speeds depending on the exposure. This was shot on a tripod of course.

I use Photomatix Pro, 64-bit edition (hooray for windows 7) and it's really a great program to use IMO. Don't ask me how much the program was though because "I don't remember" lol. I had tinkered with photomatix before but went a little "overboard" with the HDR look... and it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped.

i.e.
one nice thing about Photomatix now is you can "reduce ghosting" which if you clicked on that last pic I posted, you'll see ghosting in the little shrub to the left of my truck. Also great if people are walking through your photos.

Thanks for the compliment.

 

but i like the look of the last pic you posted.

 

lol thnx, I still have the original pics, I may try to do it again and reduce the ghosting in the foliage around my truck lol.

 

The outcome looks pretty good. I would try to do an HDR during the day. You would get a more "vibrant" look. I wish my computer didn't crap out again because I have a couple shots where I experimented with HDR that look decent.