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Nice Zorro
Your 'not good image' seems to be too good for most of us !
Burn out is nice - the rays out from the clouds are my favourites, BUT I have not the chance to capture one yet !

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Nikon D7000 and a bunch of Nikkors

Zorro, I've edited your post to add the link. Just look at it. It's the kind of [url=link][img]image[/img][/url]-type...
But there are no larger pics ("all sizes") reachable from that flickr page. I don't understand that, as obviously you have linked to a large static version of the pic. How can that be

What astonishes me most with your latest creation are the subdued brownish colors all over the pic from sand to sea to clouds. I wonder how that looked in reality. You see it a good fit? For me as a detached observer, it's too brownish.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Here's a version of the same image using the "Tone Compressor" function of Photomatix. I was unsure of the "brown" tint myself but decided to stick with it. See what you think of the tonally compressed image (which isn't too far from how a single exposure looked, but without the blown-out highlights).



Zorro.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Ah, I can see. So it was really brownish all around.
I love the sun-rays in the HDRed version but would cut away much of the sea below. Something like this:

(c) Zorro2000

Btw: interesting that you got sharp/clear waves at the beach. Was this the result of stacking three exposures?

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I set the HDR options to remove ripples and you see the result.

Zorro.

edit - Sorry for the previous short reply Thomas. I'm having real problems with my laptop keyboard inserting text where it doesn't belong.

Anyway, yet again those three source images were taken hand-held so fast shutter speeds were the order of the day. I guess that's why the waves look sharp.

Zorro.

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Dust in the keyboard, hmmm? Or spilled some beer
Anyway: The sharpness of the waves in any single frame depends on the shutter-speed, but the sharpness of the combined/HDRed endresult is often disappointing as wind/waves have moved things from one place to the other.
So perhaps the "HDR options to remove ripples" did help. Where did you find it? I was sure to have seen it already but was unable to identify it again in PhotoMatix. That tip could be also useful for Bob, as he was too fighting with "motion-overlay".

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

After you select the images to be "HDR'ed" you'll get the option to either remove moving objects or ripples. There's two "strengths" available. I use the minimum strength usually. Maybe it has something to do with the particular version you are running. Always try to use the latest one.

BTW, your crop of my image looks quite a bit better than my own version. Thanks for that.

Zorro.

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http://zorrofox4.deviantart.com/



Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Ah there it is. Thanks for the tip. Bob, are you listening Try that one
Should I take the crop down on my account, Zorro? I referred to your account (see here).

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

It's cool Thomas. The shot isn't really a keeper anyway so it doesn't really matter what you do with it. Unless of course it makes you famous and/or stupendously rich, in which case I know where you live, lol.

Zorro.

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http://zorrofox4.deviantart.com/



Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Thanks Thomas (and Zorro). Yes, I have been lurking away on this topic and must give it a try (when I get time!).

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

So I jsut spent the last 2 hours reading all 15 pages of this post (don't let my boss find out I wasn't working ).

I recently purchased the 40D and I want to give HDR a try. What programs do I need? I have seen several prgrams discussed (CS3, photmatix,etc). If I just use Photomatix, will that be all that I need or will I need other programs as well (when using RAW from the 40D)?

Hi bt. If you're lucky and you start out with the right kind of source images Photomatix can come surprisingly close to delivering the finished article. However in most cases I'd say a reasonably good image editor will be necessary, even if only to crop the image. Photomatix is not an all-in-one solution and I personally think it's all the better for it. Photoshop's good obviously but also you could use Paint Shop Pro, ACDSee, whatever version Serif are on nowadays (lol) or even try The Gimp, it's free and very powerful.

Good luck to you.

Zorro.

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http://zorrofox4.deviantart.com/



Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

that photo, I could look at all day long, and never cease being delighted.
not sure what intrigues me more...the sky...the castle..the road...the colors...zorro, ya done good.

patti

Great thread, took me a few hours to rea dit but it was a good read

First of i would like to say that you guys are taking some great images out there.

I m just getting into HDR and i m defently an amature at PS. So i have a couple of questions.

Zorro, you where talking about changing the EV using PS on a original RAW file, so to increase the EV do i increase the Brightness as well as the contrast or how do i do it?

Now i took some images of the sunset last night/afternoon and started to play around with it in Photomatix, i used -2,0,+2 EV. But i had to change the EV on my camera manualy, as soon i got into Photomatix i started to mess around with all the sliders for a starter, trying to understand the purpose of each slider and the effect of it on the image. But i could get the typical "HDR" effect out, maybe i am going a bit to wild on the sliders, but which ones r the slider that you guys personaly use to create such lovly images?

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I'm guessing I was referring to processing RAW images. The exposure can be adjusted in any RAW converter. Use Capture NX and you'll be amazed how much latitude you actually have. I don't use PS for that, far too clumsy for me.

This is probably obvious but it's important to remember that you need to adjust the shutter speed up or down, not the aperture. That always ends in tears.

Zorro

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Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head