A Dam in Manila rendered in HDR

[meltimtiman]

A dam in the Philippines dating back to the early 19th century. 3 exposures processed in Photomatix

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mel,

Was there a reason for using "HDR" on this subject?
Presumably to get 'the effect'; possibly more accurately described as ultra tone mapped.

Compositionally, I feel as if I want to see more in the foreground and to the right, have you tried a panorama?

The image here has a good contrast range and is sharp.

Best regards,

[Peter Ryan]

Hi Mel,

I am with Dave here. You titled the image Dam in Manila but the dam is tucked away in the bottom right hand corner. I too would like to see more of the dam. Personally I find HDR rarely works in landscapes, the colours are all wrong. I have seen some good examples in architecture but rarely in landscapes. I do not think the dynamic range in this shot was so large it needed HDR.

[Colin Southern]

3 exposures processed in Photomatix

Hi Mel,

Unfortunately, ultra-tone-mapping is often confused with HDR. In this case, I too can't see any reason this couldn't have been fully captured by the dynamic range of a single exposure. In terms of tone-mapping, to be honest (and please don't be offended, because we see this a LOT from Photomatix), but the term "over-processed" is usually the term that first comes to mind when anyone presents something created with that program. It's not that the program is "bad" per sec (it's actually very good), but the secret is "a little goes a long way" when it comes to using it (and it tends to grossly over-saturate the colours by default).

[meltimtiman]

So sorry about that, gentlemen. Just one of those times when I fiddled with the camera's bracketing features. Anyway, this is the photo of the dam I was telling you about.