Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/01/07

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Subject: [Leica] HDR restraint
From: dbirkey at hcjb.org (Duane Birkey)
Date: Wed Jan 7 18:31:41 2009

I think the person who made the Blurb book on HDR needs to find a honest 
friend with a good eye....
 
It's really  DPFH....  Digital Photography from H.........
 
I've been doing the technique for over 5 years since I started shooting 
raw.....  If you can tell that it is was worked on in Photoshop in less than 
10 or 15 seconds....  IMHO.... you've failed... If you can tell in the first 
glance... it's a DPFH......
 
I'm looking for a photo that looks right to the eye.... but may have a bit 
more detail in the shadows.. or a bit more detail in the light areas than 
what the camera can capture....  most of the time it's a 1/2 stop here or 
perhaps a 1 stop... once in a while two stops on indoor stuff where I 
couldn't light it right..... 
 
The biggest fault is that people either try to incorporate too broad of 
range.... they either use too small of brush or too big of brush....  and 
they are in too much of a hurry....   I use a wacom tablet... and routinely 
spend 20 to 40 minutes on a given photo if there are complex shapes....  You 
need to working at 200% or more on the monitor... 
 
When I look at ken's mosque photo.... I  see the lighter line above the 
straight roof line of the mosque... that follows out to the left.... and 
then the darker line of clouds right above that....that mysteriously 
lightens up at the edge of the dome....  and below it above the smaller 
dome...  it just doesn't look right....  
 
On kingfisher 4... the top of the grain elevator is mysteriously dark as is 
the top of the shed....  the equipment/ground to the left is really dark 
while the pavement is lighter
 
I'm not real fond of pure blacks in clouds....
 
I can accept it as being artistic..... but it screams I've been 
manipulated....  and for me that takes away from the really nice composition 
that Ken started with in each of the photos
 
Duane Birkey
 
 
 
 
 
 
or they use too bilure 
 
 
do a lot of 

Replies: Reply from kcarney1 at cox.net (Ken Carney) ([Leica] HDR restraint)