North Head 29 July 2009 - sunset

[aim54x]

I have to say that I am not very happy with this series but I thought I would get it out here to get some feedback.

12 frame stitch pano made with 7 frame HDR brackets - Photomatix enhancer - there is a fair bit of halo-ing here any ideas as to how to remove?


Same as above but Photomatix auto


9 frame HDR bracket - Photomatix


9 frame HDR bracket - Photomatix

[Reschsmooth]

Apart from the haloing, I prefer the first to the second - it has much more impact.

The 3rd is diminished by the lookout and, in particular, the semi-transparent person.

The fourth is very good. Scrolling down, my window provided a crop which I think can work to enhance the image. At the top, where the orange clouds finish and from the bottom, just above where that little trunk is on the right hand side.

[CraigVTR]

Cameron
The pano was a tough one to stich together. There are a couple of things I notice;
the shots at each edge have a different focal point to the rest of the image, the focus is in on the foreground with out sufficient dof to keep the backgound in focus,
there is a section in the middle of both images which do not appear to align which is causing ghosting.

The first pano is better in terms of exposure, you have achieved great dynamic range and it does not look like a hdr.

I agree with the comment about three and four.

Nice effort.

[biggerry]

Looks like a nice lookout and nice sunset!

Regarding the Halo-ing I find adjusting the strength of the detail enhancer and the light smoothing can usually find a balance between the HDR look and reality (in your head anyway ). There also seems to be some misalignment in the layered images, I am not sure whether this is from the pano stitch or the HDR, I find this in many of my HDR's as well, from memory there are to two options to reduce mis-alignment, possible using the one 'to remove ripples' may have helped? from a HDR process point anyway.

Looking at the last 2 images it is amazing what a difference 5 mins (referring to exif) can make to the colour and intensity in the clouds. Image 3 with the railing and person has awesome sky which if applied to the 4th image would make it really nice and would be a definite winner! I reckon you were waiting for the others to take their shot before jumping in to the prime position at the railing?!

The last image was a good option to approach it with HDR in mind, however the pano does not benefit a huge amount from HDR treatment - levels and curves could have possibly produced a better result?

hope this helps.

[aim54x]

Thanks for all the comments guys. I didnt really like the output from the big pano...in any of the HDR options that I used and suspect that the section of ghosting in the middle are a result of the HDR treatment not aligning things properly. As for the different focal planes...DOH! I didnt even notice these faults

Yes Gerry I was waiting for the shot (#3) but #4 was worth the wait.

After all the work done for the HDR pano I dont see it being worth the trouble (all those 14-bit NEFs and then the HDR treatment before stitching....all proudly done on my MSI U100 )

[colin_12]

OK I agree with most of what has been said.
How well did your little machine handle the work load?
How far did you move from the first two shots down to the last two? I reckon that the first vantage point would be the best with the later colour if you get the opportunity to reshoot.

[aim54x]

OK I agree with most of what has been said.
How well did your little machine handle the work load?
How far did you move from the first two shots down to the last two? I reckon that the first vantage point would be the best with the later colour if you get the opportunity to reshoot.

Thanks Colin!

The baby MSI U100 did a pretty good job, I had it plugged into the wall and in the "turbo mode" (where the processor is overclocked by 24% which my benchmark testing - yep I was bored - shows performance goes up by 20%) and it took a little while but got it all done. Other than a small memory complaint (the 40GB partition for the C drive was filled at one point) it all ran smoothly.

The first two where shot at from the vantage point from the tip of North Head, the 2nd two were taken from the viewing platform a few hundred meters back down the track (ie closer to Manly).