The scenes in each of these is great, but for me the HDR processing takes away from the beauty. The over processed looking sky, with the dark centers and light sides, just doesn't look real. I am guessing you used HDR because the shadows were too deep if the sky wasn't blowing out? If using layer masks is an issue, you still would have been better off just recovering the shadow detail in ACR. Especially the later versions of ACR allow one to really recover quit a bit of detail without destroying the shadow areas. And if you just wanted your shots to have that little extra punch to them, just increase the saturation a bit.
Anyway, just some thoughts for you as each of these scenes are so well composed, you want to get the best from each.
I agree with Jim on this one. These are some very beautiful scenes, but the HDR processing really distracts. It's a bit like viewing a wonderful scene out a window through a window screen. The processing gives some strange color casts, and halos. Since you have a bracketed series, I would consider doing a manual blend which will give a more more natural presentation.
Thanks for the comments. I must confess i like the "over processed look" i also appreciate many do not. This was a three exposure HDR (-2,0+2) blended with Photomatix. One thing i can agree is the sky and El Cap appear too warm.
I have taken the middle exposure alone, what do you think about this one? I do appreciate the feed back.
are you using lr4? did you shoot raw?
if using lr4 or acr
take the middle shot. Pull back highlights to -80, push shadows to 30-40, pull back blacks to -12, push the whits to 5, increase clarity to 20, increase vibrance to 15, and saturation to 5. adjust contrast between 5 and 20 for the desire effect. you may have to slide the exposure slider a little bit . If you exposed correctly and did not blow the highlights completely, this will give you a pretty good starting point. if that works, please post.
Oh yeah, the images are amazing, except for the rather obvious hdr processing.
I like the processing on the second image. Second view of first shot looks better, but too "cool" to my eyes. Maybe it's because I've finally calibrated my monitor and my eyes haven't adjusted yet. Third shot looks pretty good to me, with the exception of the church looking just a tad bit orange for me. But I realize this has to do with the lighting from the sun. Everything else in it looks great to me.
Really like the last two and your re-edit! The blue trees in the foreground were a bit odd to me. I hope to get out west to the parks at some point in my life!
I agree wil aal about the overprocessing. That said, I like #2 & #3 a bunch. #3 is my favorite, but it needs the stray branch cloned out in the top of the frame. Do that and you have next year's Christmas card!
Your Middle exposure of #1 looks better, though it looks like you had the polarizer set too strong so you got that darker blue area in the sky. Using a layer mask to get the snow on the ground not quite so blue would help that too.
But in the end, it's the look you like best that matters. But I know you must know that in general, most of us here do not care for the overly processed HDR look. So if you enjoy that it's great, but you should preface your thread with that comment, so that when we first view your shots, we know that your intention was towards a more vibrant HDR look. That way many of us can tailor our comments with that in mind.
