HDR

An HDR shot I attempted because I wanted to capture something decent with this view, but the lighting of just a single exposure wasn’t right. The grassy area and trees in the foreground, which I ended up cropping out anyway, where just too dark and the clouds above me (also cropped) weren’t helping the overall balance.

Still, I was really stunned with the level of detail that I still managed to capture in the valley at the base of the mountains, and even the ridges in the slopes as well. I did more work than usual in post and with TopazAdjust to bring out some detail and take out some noise, and was very pleased.

Of course, it’s hard to get a feel for the image with this currently resolution, so click on it for a link over to Flickr and select the option to see it full size.

An HDR look at the same building in Ephraim, Door County that I shot a close-up of earlier in the year. A rustic and colorful structure that’s begging to be photographed in high dynamic range if there ever was one.

Photo: Looking down from the 20th floor at the Hyatt Maui Regency early in the morning.

Another HDR shot from our own little driving tour around the West Maui Mountains during the week of the Maui Photo Festival. The type of photo you really just can’t capture in a single exposure.

Here’s another HDR image I put together from the same short photo shoot as this one.

This image is obviously more lifelike, with the previous image having a more artful feel to it (courtesy of work done in Topaz Adjust).  It’s been exciting for me this last month or so as I’m learning more on the post production side, and enjoy having the flexibility to take similar shots and work them into completely different results.

I never thought it would be this easy to awaken the artist within, as Rick Sammon puts it.