Sepia Tone or Black and White HDR's

[revup67]

I'll start this one off with a photo taken with the 24-105 at a Historic Blacksmith Shop in Allaire Historic Town Wall, New Jersey.  Done in Photomatix using Fusion (not Tone Mapping) on 3 bracketed images then post processed in ACDSee Pro 5:


Historic Allaire Town - Wall, New Jersey by Revup67, on Flickr

[blaydese]

Very nice, I too use Photomatix  & ACDSee.

I feel as if the picture is tilted to the left, as if I'm going to fall over in the shot.  A little more gray in the shot would have given it a deeper effect, the trees outside look as if they are right against the windows and or painted in cardboard and pasted to the windows.  Lost some depth under the workbenches too, I would have like to seen what's on those benches, would have made me feel as if I can reach out and touch them.  The anvil on the left would have made for a great part of the picture, I would have brought that into the frame more. 

Great stuff, I've not done much with sepia in HDR, so bold step, I really like the shot, stone is by far the best thing to shoot in HDR in my opinion.  And this room has a lot of that.  Please post some other shots, color, black and white, grunge etc.  lets see what else can be done.

Peace!    

[willis]

Nice one, I'll continue line with B/W old-school boat.

[@!ex]

glowing sepia


The Light Seeps In by @!ex, on Flickr

[@!ex]

A classic view of the Salk Institute, CA.


March of Lines (AKA The Fountainhead) by @!ex, on Flickr

[dasgetier]

@!ex, your shots are absolutely awesome

[@!ex]

@!ex, your shots are absolutely awesome

Thanks!

Here is another...

Saint Louis cemetery #1, the oldest above ground cemetery in New Orleans.  Made Famous by the acid trip scene in the classic movie Easy Rider.  These above ground crypts can hold upwards of 200 bodies, and this cemetery is still active today, although many of the tombs lie in ruins.


Above Ground... by @!ex, on Flickr

[Haydn1971]

HDR is ideal for these "non colour" images - I often just cringe at the colour HDR images that I see

[blaydese]

 

Even in black and white, mine look like crap.   



peace.   

[wickidwombat]

Even in black and white, mine look like crap.   



peace.   

the main problem with your processing is you are destroying the contrast, you need to keep shadows and b&w relies heavily on contrast and shadows vs highlights

try adjusting your black point so you keep some shadow (you can have shadow that contains detail. (this helps improve the realism) also dont try to pull the shadows up to the same exposure as the highlights try increase the shadow detail so you can see in clearly but try keep it a little below the mid tones

also pull the highlights down a little helps to flatten the image but again if you do it too much the image looks to flat.

if your lenses are not naturally very contrasty it might benefit you to increase the overall contrast a bit too

shadows are just as important as light!

[blaydese]

Thanks wickidwombat,

I'll give it a try / more work.

I'm looking now for some shadow heavy shots I've taken, so I can play around with them.


I think my stock lens and using Photomatix is also a double whammy.


Peace!  

[wickidwombat]

so you are only processing within photomatix? nothing else?
you should at least have canons DPP available for some basic editing too

18-55? kit lens
stop it down to f8 to f11 and it should not be too bad

also try not to go crazy with the strength slider in photomatix between 70 and 80 is not too bad
over 80 is too much most of the time
increasing micro contrast can help reduce halo effects but really with blue sky i have never ever been happy with photomatix results. I also think photomatix does really wierd things to folliage
also people really dont look good after tone mapping the develop a zombie like look to them due the sickly cast their skin takes on.

[Heavyweight67]

The Jeweller...

[blaydese]

Heavyweight67,

Nice picture, thanks for share, very deep feeling, looks almost 3D.

 

so you are only processing within photomatix? nothing else?

Yup, well ACDSee Pro to rotate, and apply Lomo effect or Olton effect,
or some minor color changes, but really Photomatix is it.

you should at least have canons DPP available for some basic editing too

What's that, got a link?  Is it free?  I'm a poor guy, so no "Adobe expensive Shop" for me.
 

18-55? kit lens?

18-135 lens

stop it down to f8 to f11 and it should not be too bad

Okay, woooosh!  Right over my head,
I'm a super super noob / novice at this,
how do I do that?  A youtube video is
best for me.  I'm a hands on learner.   

also try not to go crazy with the strength slider in photomatix between 70 and 80 is not too bad
over 80 is too much most of the time

LOL!  Yeah, I've learned that, so now I decide to either go as "natural a look" as possible, or go stright to grunge.   

increasing micro contrast can help reduce halo effects but really with blue sky i have never ever been happy with photomatix results.

Yeah, Okinawa is all blue skies, and I've learned that one too, ... 

I also think photomatix does really wierd things to folliage  also people really dont look good after tone mapping the develop a zombie like look to them due the sickly cast their skin takes on.

Ha ha ha ...    yup, so true !


Thanks for the tips.

I want an L lens so freaking bad !  What's the cheapest L lens that'd be best for landscape?



Peace! 

[wickidwombat]

DPP is free it comes with your canon camera its digital photo proffesional its on the disc that came with your camera.

ok i'm guessing you might be shooting wide open on your lens all the time which is why your shots always look especially soft this lens is soft wide open but respectable when stopped down

stopping down means changing your F stop so instead of shooting at f3.5 or f 5.6 try change your aperture to f8 or f11 in aperture priority mode (AV)

this will also give you more depth of field (more stuff in fiocus and sharp) for your landscape shots
the trade off here is either the shutter speed needs to slow down or iso increase so if you use a tripod and set iso 100 in AV and use Auto exposure bracketing with the timer the camera will automatically take 3 shots and it will calculate the shutter speeds and do that automatically since your camera probably only does 3 shot AEB set your range to 2 stops so it will take 0EV -2EV and +2 EV

hope that helps