Antigua Musicians (HDR-ish)

[Brian G]

Hi. My name is Brian, and I like HDR . . . .

I like other types of photography too, but more stylized looks is where my mouse always wants to go when I'm editing . . . it has a mind of its' own.

When in Antigua, Guatemala, I took (5) exposure brackets of this scene, using my GH2 + 14-45 lens. When I came to processing, I found that the movement of the people, from frame to frame, was just too much to remove using Deghosting tools, or similar methods, without winding up with obvious halos or smoothed outlines around the performers.

Instead, I produced a base "HDR-lite" image from one exposure, and subsequently did further enhancement in Photoshop including Topaz Adjust & Topaz Details. I'm increasingly finding this type of workflow a viable path to stylized looks, whether the base image is the product of merging multiple exposures, or not. And it's a heckuva lot of fun!

Brian

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Antigua Musicians by Blueshound250, on Flickr

 

[tdekany]

That is a great picture!

 

[Hyubie]

It's a painting! :smile: Love the effects of "HDR-ish" in this image.

 

[RevBob]

Beautiful shot of one of my favorite cities. Had a bit of excitement there lately when Fuego erupted.

 

[Brian G]

Thanks for the kind comments!

Brian

 

[Luckypenguin]

I look at some HDR images and sometimes wonder if it was really necessary to use multiple exposures, given how much dynamic range can be squeezed out of a single frame. Nik Color Efex also has a filter (called Tonal Contrast) that can be applied to create a similar effect but at a strength of your choosing.

Great pic, BTW.

 

[zapatista]

Wow, Antigua is such a magical town...thanks for the image. How are things with the eruption (Volcan de Agua)?

 

[Brian G]

I look at some HDR images and sometimes wonder if it was really necessary to use multiple exposures, given how much dynamic range can be squeezed out of a single frame. Nik Color Efex also has a filter (called Tonal Contrast) that can be applied to create a similar effect but at a strength of your choosing.

Great pic, BTW.

What attracts me to stylized images & processing isn't so much the capture of very wide exposure ranges, although that contributes I suppose. It's the way the processing can render details, making them very obvious (microcontrast). You can argue that this detail is overly accentuated, no doubt it can be. But now when I look at things, really look and think about what I'm seeing, I feel that we're seeing those details by eye, but we tend to find them more remarkable when they're pulled to the forefront slightly in a 2D image.

The processing also tends to have a flattening effect, where shadows & highlights are brought more toward the mid-tones. I sometimes like the "digital art" or "painterly" aspect of this flattening of the tonal range, but there are many times when I'm pulling the black point up, to regain needed contrast.

It's all subjective. There are lots of pics where heavy stylizing just doesn't work well, that are better served by a more natural look.

This could be a great discussion, all by itself.

I haven't tried Nik's software, but it sounds interesting. I'm trying not to get invested in too many competing but similar plugins.

Cheers
Brian

 

[JudyM]

Antigua is just a lovely place.
I like your processing very much. It's not a technique to be used for every image, but I think it works very well here.
I believe I have a photo on film of that same building from when I was there in 1999. Thanks for the post.

 

[aragorn1980]

Beautiful colours!Congratulations for your work!