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It's been a while since I posted some photos here and I have been going through some of my old photos and have pulled out a few and re-did the PP on them. These particular one's were HDR treatments.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, comments & suggestions on these....so feel free to critique away

Image 01: Warrnambool Sunset


Image 02: HMAS Castlemaine (Williamstown, Victoria)


Image 03: Myer Music Bowl (Melbourne)


Image 04: Williamstown Sailing Club (Melbourne)


Cheers,
Dave

Dave, it is great to see you posting again!

#1...I love the skies...your clouds and the rays of light are spectacular, however the rocks in the foreground could be 'cooked' less, it is always tough to find the right balance....I wonder if anyone knows if you can apply HDR on a gradient??

#2 The detail that the treatment brings out is great. However the flatness it produces gives it a surreal, CGI look, very fitting of the image

#3 watch out for that halo

#4 its a bit bright for my liking...maybe pull it back a bit

Keep it up buddy!

The first 3 are the strongest for me.

I agree with Cameron about the rays of sunlight in the sky in #1. That really enhances the shot.
I don't mind the look of the rocks. I guess you could easily mask it to the horizon line if you wanted to leave the sky as is and play with the foreground some more.

I think #1 could be a great image if you pull it back a bit.
I like #2, does not feel overdone.

I like #1 (the composition and sunrays are awesome) but it appears a little too (fake) blue for me (e.g. in the rocks, the clouds, the sea) and there is that over crunchiness to the rocks.

#2 is nice but doesn't do anything particularly much for me

#3 is very cool (I'm not exactly sure it needed HDR?) and that white banding underneath the sail is too much

I don't think #4 needed HDR at all - a straight up shot might have looked better without the surreal colours and wierd blue city skyline

Dave,

I think #2 is a very powerful image. It displays the ship in a manner that bestows an air of pride upon her.

Hi All,
Thank you for taking the time to offer some great feedback. It isn't until you get other people's views sometimes that you then see things in a different light.

I decided to re-process images 1, 3 & 4 (I didn't think no. 2 needed any changes) following some of the suggestions posted.
I'm still not 100% sure of the re-processing and may tinker a little more but I think these are starting to move in a better direction now.

I'd be interested and grateful to hear any and all thoughts on these 2nd versions.

Image 01:
I decided to give this a more dark and moody look (considering it is a sunset with the storm clouds coming across etc.
I also added less sharpening to the foreground (so the rocks don't look like they're from Mars )


Image 03:
For this image I decided to continue the HDR treatment (as the originals either had a severely blown out sky or very dark music bowl), but tried to keep it looking more realistic - and not so "metallic-looking".
I'd really like to re-visit this site and do a re-shoot (there may be a Melbourne Meet in this ?!?!?)


Image 04:
I re-edited the HDR version, playing with contrast, brightness and colour levels to remove the blue colour cast.


Thanks again for your constructive critiques...

Dave

I think these are improvements Dave. #4 is much better to my eye, as is #3, nice without the halo.
Some may say that 31 is a bit dark but it now seems more interesting to me......just can't figure out why.

I like reworks #2 and #3 they really have become less surreal and overcooked. As for the rework #1...this is a very diferrent, I feel the skies have been over exaggerated, bu the rocks are really nice