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Well who says HDR has to be dune using diff exposures or using a single RAW file and save it at diffrent EV's, that just sounds like too much work for me

I was out shooting today and took some shots of the sunset, and i wasn't really happy with what the camera captured, so i decided to tweak it till i was i saw what i saw.

Here is the original shot, quite boring if you ask me barley any colors no textures..blaah



So what i did is that i saved me RAW file as a 16 TIF file, and opened it in Photomatix, toned map it just a bit to give it a bit more of texture and enhance a few colors.

Then i saved as a 16bit TIF and moved into photoshop. Now here is where the fun starts!

-High pass filter to get those textures out a bit, or more then just a bit used something like 3 or 4 cant recall.
-Added a digital ND grad filter (Digital ND filter) but i did it a bit diff, i used blue instead of black.
-Added a digital polarizing filter (mostly at the top of the image, decreased the opacity on the bottom (here is an example of how to do it)
-Then i added a new gradient to give the image some warmth, because it was truly warm outside and i had that feeling going through my body so why not?!
-Then i cloned out the top of the pole, didn't really like it, it just cut of the image horribly!
-Dodge and burned a bit, to decrease increase shadows
-Played around with the shadows and highlight layer mask
-Adjusted the saturation a bit, increased, it and increased the contrast
-Adjusted the colors using selective coloring (not fully satisfied with the over exposed middle part tho)
-Forgot to mention the crop and the straightening

and here is what i go



What do you think?

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Looks really good. Have you ever tried histogram adjustments when editing? Sometimes that can add drama or extra dimension.

Nope i never tried that? Can you do that in photoshop? Do you mean RGB curves?

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again, you get halos in your images.. especialy you cand see them around the wheels.. that's because the strenght of your tone mapping in photomatix... not really nice...

cheers,
HNV

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The so called "halo's" in this shot are not halos, its the reflection from the ocean on the bike's wheel and if you want to call them halo's sure, but if you look at the original shot you will see that there is clear reflection on the fron wheel of the bike, this is one of those images that i can say that it doesn't contains halo's....

please point out where all these halos are? Because i have the image on my PC, at the wide open biggest possible size to fit the screen and i cant really spot any....

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I don't use Photoshop, but someone here should know how to change a histogram and see the effect on color, contrast, saturation etc. It can (with some images) really make the image jump out at you.

It has to be curves, if its that i knw how to do it

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That is really impressive. I got loads of dull photos with no real kick. This could change that. I will have to try this.

there are halos.. for example, take a closer look at the rims position and the angle from wich the camera took the shoot... it's imposible to be reflections from the rims (in the lower side)... take a closer look at the wheel from the right.. compare it to the original shot and you'll see that's actually a bit thinner than the one in the original shot (the sillhouette, at least).

here's one explaining about tone mapping in photomatix. http://youtube.com/watch?v=VLeWhFP136c

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There is some slight halo effects around the spokes and rims but I don't think it detracts from the overall image. If I had too fault it I'd say it was over-saturated, but that's more an opinion than fact. I like it.

Zorro

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Alex, to me, this is not the most exciting final image. Why?
I love the sky and don't mind the bikes being just silhouettes against it. So what I'd try is get the most drama from the sky/clouds/sun but leave the bicycles as black as they are.
What do you think?

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It can't be curves, because I have that, and levels, and all that other stuff. It probably will be in Histograms somewhere.