restaurant HDR

[Neilmac50]

A HDR of a rather fancy restaurant called 'Waterkloof' high up in the hills above Gordons Bay, Cape Province, South Africa.Five shots first put through Lightroom for lens correction and sharpening saved as a Tiff then imported into Photomatix,processed then imported back into Lightroom for some manual distortion correction then processed within Lightoom using Color EFX Pro.Thanks for looking, Neil.

[Donald]

That's an impressive bit of work.

There seem to be what look like smudges around the cross bars on that window at the extreme right. Don't know if that is as a result of the tonemapping.

[darknight]

wow, that was a lot of work, looks a lovely place to eat, but i notice as donald says the blurring, also on the middle window and top left, i just wonder wether all that pp was needed?, maybe a little bit of straitening of the image too.
but as i said a lovely image, would like to go there for lunch now

[dubaiphil]

Nice, Neil. Do you have a 14-24? Presumably not as you used the 24-70mm at 24mm, but I think a 14-24 would make a better fist of the distortion, as the 24-70's at its weakest there. Those verticals aren't quite doing it for me, and the smudging around the window frames too. Do you have PTGui? Maybe shooting at 35mm + and stitching the files would help, as the distortion in the top right for the light shade wouldn't be so stretched with a stitch at a longer focal length.

[kdoc856]

Nice, Neil. Do you have a 14-24? Presumably not as you used the 24-70mm at 24mm, but I think a 14-24 would make a better fist of the distortion, as the 24-70's at its weakest there. Those verticals aren't quite doing it for me, and the smudging around the window frames too. Do you have PTGui? Maybe shooting at 35mm + and stitching the files would help, as the distortion in the top right for the light shade wouldn't be so stretched with a stitch at a longer focal length.

Phil,

What does this refer to exactly (looking for a little personal edification here)

[dubaiphil]

In the Nikkor range you have a few pro options at 24mm

24mm f1.4
14-24mm f2.8
24-70mm f2.8
24mm PC-E tilt shift
16-35mm f4
17-35mm f2.8

Probably the best for this work would be the 24mm PC-E. However the 14-24mm outperforms the 24-70mm at 24mm and I would rank that as 1st equal (for the added versatility of being able to go a little wider in this setting) for performance with the PC-E or maybe slightly better.

The manual distortion correction doesn't seem to have worked well in this instance. Look around the verticals in the image - picture frames (hopefully vertical!), window frames etc.

If you stitch an image using PTGui you can manually override the stitching done by the software by adding verticals. For example you would link the pixels on the bottom right and top right of a picture frame and define the line between the two as a true vertical - you'd then get much better distortion correction.

[kdoc856]

Thanks, mate. I'll look into PTGui

[kdoc856]

Neil,

Perspective control and correction is something I'm not particularly good at yet, but quite interested in. I don't mean to change the focus of your thread, but I'm wondering whether Phil uses a pano head, or a nodal plate to do his panos?

[Mike Buckley]

Ditto to all of the above, both the strengths and the weaknesses of the image.

[dubaiphil]

Neil,

Perspective control and correction is something I'm not particularly good at yet, but quite interested in. I don't mean to change the focus of your thread, but I'm wondering whether Phil uses a pano head, or a nodal plate to do his panos?

I've got a nodal ninja - this shot possibly doesn't need it, definitely not if the table and chairs weren't so close on the bottom right - you could get away with a regular tripod head

[ggt]

I like the interior design alot!

The only thing that bothers me about the shot is that the two white table cloths in the center seem to morph into each other. I can't tell where the closer chair ends and the further one begins. But that is the kind of thing that would only bother me.

I like the whole composition and lighting alot!

[Harpo]

Five shots first put through Lightroom for lens correction and sharpening saved as a Tiff then imported into Photomatix,processed then imported back into Lightroom for some manual distortion correction then processed within Lightoom using Color EFX Pro.Thanks for looking, Neil.

Please clarify something for me. When processing first in Lightroom/Aperture in RAW, then saving in TIFF to import to another program (photoshop, photomatix, etc) when you import it back to the initial program (LR/Ap) is it still in Tiff, or can it be reconverted back to RAW?

[Neilmac50]

This was a quick handheld shot so no tripod used,I noticed the 'smudge' marks on all the set of photos I took on this occasion and wondered what had caused them as I have not come across this problem before.I don't own the 14-24mm lens yet but thanks for that insight as to it performing better at 24mm than my 24-70mm Nikkor.