River Feale - A Few Questions

Ballyman

Hi

I have a few questions on the the photo of the river feale below. River is in Listowel, Co Kerry by the way.

I used a grad filter to try and hold onto the sky. I think succeeded for the most part except just over the centre of the bridge where it's slightly blown although it doesn't look as blown in the colour version. I did however loose all the detail in the tree because of this and the top of the tree is now basically a silhoutte. How can I avoid this in the future or is PS the only way to avoid it? I did use a really cheap screw on grad. I'm waiting delivery of a cokin system so I can't wait to get out with that and see how I get on.

There weren't any real autumnal colours in the photo so thats why I decided to convert it to BW/Sepia as it was a little dull. Does this conversion work?

I'm trying to get to the stage where I can tell if my own photos are actually any good. It's a little more difficult than I thought as I look at my own through tinted glasses but when I looki back at some of them a few weeks later I wonder what was I thinking holding onto some of them

I like this one but is it actually worth liking or is the delete button the only option for it? I'm trying to be more ruthless and dumping stuff thats borderline rubbish immediately rather than coming back to it again next month and realising then!

nilhg

Not the most suitable situation for a grad IMHO, you would probably have been better off to have taken some bracketed exposures and blended them in PS or a specialist HDR programme.

I like the composition though.

Borderfox

I think you would use heavier grad but imo I would bracket and blend to either an Average or HDR to get the best look. I has good potential and if you shot it in RAW send it over to me and I will stick it in Photomatix and show you what it would look like from different exposurese fromt the one RAW (technically not right but best scenario if shot already)

Its a beautiful loaction and a good shot give the conditions. I shot Trim Castle in a similar situation (bright sun in my direction) they are in this album if you want to have a look http://pix.ie/keithjack/album/326184

Ballyman

Whats the difference between HDR and just blending 2 or 3 images together? Or is there any difference?

Borderfox

HDR is much more advanced than a simple average of two or three shots, both have their own looks too.

Ballyman

Hi Keith

I just had a look at that photomatix software. Looks pretty impressive. Can I send across the RAW file to you to see what can be done with it? I'd like to see a working example of my own photo before I buy it.

Cheers.

Borderfox

Yeah no problems, I will pm my email address.

superflyninja

im not getting the photomatix software to produce great results to be honest...anyoen knwo of a good processing method for it?


I like the composition of the shot by the way....looks idylic.

Borderfox

Take three-five bracketed shots and put them in photomatix, generate HDR then when it appears on screen go to tone mapping in the same menu and have a look at the new image and if its ok the click ok.. Hows that?

superflyninja

Borderfox wrote: »

Take three-five bracketed shots and put them in photomatix, generate HDR then when it appears on screen go to tone mapping in the same menu and have a look at the new image and if its ok the click ok.. Hows that?

done that but the results are most unimpressive

Mr. Grieves

superflyninja wrote: »

im not getting the photomatix software to produce great results to be honest...anyoen knwo of a good processing method for it?

I find setting the light smoothing to high gives the best results. You don't get that crazy HDR look, but something more realistic. The image produced will be kinda drab and flat though, so afterwards I always bring it back to Lightroom to get it looking the way I want it. I often find I need to lower the saturation in some of the channels too.