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Sydney's Queen Victoria Building - HDR's...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 9:39 pm
by Remorhaz
I'm very interested to hear what people think about the following images so please be forthcoming...

I've been trying to express a more creative side to my photography and to that end I've spent an hour on two different days during the past week or so exploring the inside of the Queen Victoria Building to find some interesting scenes and angles to shoot and to create some more arty and interesting looks.

I'd also been learning some new High Dynamic Range processing techniques. These tended more towards the surreal fantasy look (unlike my usual HDR's which aim to be more photographic) and as such these are not necessarily meant to portray a realistic view of the scene but rather to give a more ethereal glow to the vision - one which I think works with the very colourful, vibrant and textural interior of this old world building.

All the HDR images were created by merging multiple (3) different exposures of the same scene to create the final image and look.

The individual frames are taken at 0, -2 and +2EV and as they were all shot indoors in low light I had to both increase my sensor sensitivity (ISO) as well as use a very low shutter speed (especially for the overexposed +2EV frames). In these conditions getting a nice sharp shot is made much more difficult and shooting them handheld even more so. I took my new Benro carbon fibre monopod with me to stabilise the shots which I used for pretty much every image and this has worked exceedingly well to get the sets of three sharp images to use.

The first image was actually taken at the end of my previous trip to the building and it was the post processing of this image which inspired me to go back and take some more images expressly so I could process some more in a similar vein.

"A Grand Slice of Time"
Image
D90 + Sigma 8-16mm @ 8mm, 1/25 sec at f/8, ISO 1600

A sweeping view of the large main dome on the top floor taken from near floor level.

"Imperial Dome"
Image
D90 + Sigma 8-16mm @ 8mm, 1/20 sec at f/8, ISO 500

A view down the main entrance escalators off George Street with the backlit stained glass windows.

"Up or Down"
Image
D90 + Sigma 8-16mm @ 8mm, 1/10 sec at f/8, ISO 1000

These highly reflective mirrored glass escalators inside are a new addition to the building and make for some interesting reflections.

"Reflections"
Image
D90 + Sigma 8-16mm @ 8mm, 1/25 sec at f/8, ISO 800

Re: Sydney's Queen Victoria Building - HDR's...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 05, 2010 9:43 pm
by Big V
1 and 3 are outstanding!

Re: Sydney's Queen Victoria Building - HDR's...

PostPosted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:13 am
by bigsarg7
wow, love the 3rd shot, it captured my attention, loved the escalator leading my eyes. I loved the way you've captured an every day place so magnificently. Well done!! :up:

Re: Sydney's Queen Victoria Building - HDR's...

PostPosted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 11:38 am
by aim54x
Looks great, but not my prefered HDR. Keep them coming, I may grow fond of this look yet

Re: Sydney's Queen Victoria Building - HDR's...

PostPosted: Fri Aug 06, 2010 2:41 pm
by surenj
I really love the perspective in the staricase..

You need to work on getting rid of those halos. They interfere too much and takes away from these great pictures.

Have a look at davehillphoto.com (earlier works) for examples of halo free HDR. No one knows how he does it. :wink: If you find out, please let me know.

Also check out Jill Greenburg.

Re: Sydney's Queen Victoria Building - HDR's...

PostPosted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 5:07 pm
by ozimax
I think these are exceptional, especially 2 & 3. Well done.

Re: Sydney's Queen Victoria Building - HDR's...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 10:11 am
by DebT
really lovely - I just can't go past the stunning color in #3
DebT

Re: Sydney's Queen Victoria Building - HDR's...

PostPosted: Sun Aug 08, 2010 7:51 pm
by zafra52
I prefer number 3, as well.