John,

Want to trade locations! Wow! I am envious of your close proximity to the cherry blossoms. Nice work!

Love the colours and overall night scene.

Al B

Sweet blossoms and even sweeter light! Unfortunately the path kind of draws me off into the corner, which isn't as exciting as the blossoms - a slight crop off the left edge just past that leftmost path light seems to help for me, just a thought.

Hey John,

Very sweet lighting in this. I really like how that was handled. I agree with Floris about a very slight crop on the left side. But still a very nice shot!

Jim

Me, too, but wow, that lighting and colors are wonderful!

Barry

May I ask a stupid question?

Is this an example of HDR? I ask because it seems that the colors and contrasts are very intense and dramatic, and I'm not sure how one would capture than in-camera.

If it's not, please enlighten this beginning student!

BTW - I also agree about the crop, and also that the picture is just fabulous. So jealous!

OK John, I see you are sucking up all the light at those cherry trees again

I 2nd the small crop, but it is a great show for sure. How were they - I see much more on the ground, but plenty in the trees?

Chip - I am 99% sure this is not a HDR image knowing John. Blending and contrast adjustments are more John's style

Believe it or not, this is an HDR. This is the type of lighting conditions where I am finding HDR is a useful tool. I will post after work a before HDR and a after HDR. The change is quite dramatic and I liked it, so I used it

I know, a shock to hear such words but I'm keeping an open mind on new techiques where they might actually work.

The rookie guessed right! Beginner's luck, that's what it was.

Maybe I need to add HDR to my long list of things I have to learn. If I can find the end of the list, that is.....

oh no Mr. Bill a HDR from John.

realkuhl wrote:
Believe it or not, this is an HDR. This is the type of lighting conditions where I am finding HDR is a useful tool. I will post after work a before HDR and a after HDR. The change is quite dramatic and I liked it, so I used it

I know, a shock to hear such words but I'm keeping an open mind on new techiques where they might actually work.

hmm.. it sure looks good for an HDR, I would've expected it to be blending as Phil did.. If you could share some more workflow details when you post the before and after that'd be great too!

You're doing a great job of capturing these Cherry blossoms between the snow/hail/rain/snail/snain/whatever as of late. You're also making me feel guilty for not getting my fotos out as well ;-)

Great capture and I like the color contrast and the star halos around the lights --what were you at? f/11?

Best,
D

Nice Lens Flares from lights = f22.0

Okay, here is a side by side comparison along with the settings I used in Photomatix "Tone Mapping" plug-in inside of Photoshop CS3:

Perhaps its the image size, but do tell me if your picture is suffering from diffraction when viewed at a normal print size or did you stitch in the light flares as well?

Either way... I like the picture a lot.

So you tone mapped and didn't combine multiple images. OK that isn't normal HDR, but tone mapping. Still it worked very well

Yes, I guess tone mapped isn't technically HDR, but in a way I think it is.....

Daniel, I'm using the 17-40 and it's pretty sweet but yes, anything about f/11 introduces image quality breakdown, but given the conditions, it seems that it would print pretty nice up to 14 x 21 which is about the largest I print any of my images.

Thanks again for the kind words.

Nicely done, John.

BTW, there may be some degradation of image due to diffraction at smaller f-stops, but I don't really find it much of an issue...To me, it's one of those over-analyzed variables of the digital age

This scene does seem like an excellent candidate for HDR, done with restraint, as you show, to enhance the atmosphere of the picture as a whole without destroying the tonal integration. Beautifully framed, too.

Nice! Makes me miss my home town!

Mark

Thanks again guys for the kind words ! This hit #12 and front page of Explore over at flickr.com....

Beautiful image with gorgeus light. Thanks for the technical details, too.
Ute