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Canon Image Challenge | all galleries >> History (Best Of) >> Best of C*I*C >> Best of 2012 > Fifth - Railway Canal - HDR by Michael Kilpatrick
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14-JUL-2012 Michael Kilpatrick

Fifth - Railway Canal - HDR by Michael Kilpatrick

Just playing around with a 400x ND filter and a new HDR program (Bracketeer) that only costs $20 and seems to give good results much easier than any of the more expensive options. This is a combination of 5 bracketed shots. I'm not sure how the program extracts the exposure time, which was different for each of the five.
The intention is that the lines of the canal lead the eye to one of the rule of thirds points.


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Canon Image Challenge17-Jul-2012 14:52
That's a great looking HDR. I'm a fan of more of the natural looking ones. The trees blend in nicely with the sky and the shadows not overly bright.

-Techo
Michael Kilpatrick16-Jul-2012 01:27
Thanks Jim.
Canon Image Challenge15-Jul-2012 01:01
The end result is what counts, and I like this one. Great leading lines along with fine tones.
BTW, I use Dynamic Photo HDR most of the time, and SNS some of the time for my rare hdr.

Jim
Guest 15-Jul-2012 00:02
I am loving these HDR images, way to make a ditch look pretty.

Sierra
Michael Kilpatrick14-Jul-2012 23:37
OK. I hadn't noticed that. Pity, given that it's so cheap and so painless to use. Regards, Michael
Canon Image Challenge14-Jul-2012 23:26
It appears like Brackteer is a Mac only program. So much for that one. My wife has a iMac and we have a mini Mac we use for the TV but she will not let me install anything photo related on the iMac and I suspect the mini is too old. Bummer! Paul
Michael Kilpatrick14-Jul-2012 23:02
Thanks for the comments.
Paul, it does take the exposure time from the first of the exposures, as you suggested.
Traveller, it was taken on a tripod, which is always preferable, but in this case it was required because the ND filter caused such long exposures. The software has some ability to align images where there has been some camera movement and if I hadn't used the ND filter, it could have been done hand held. The Olympus can take up to 5 shots in auto-bracket mode and if set to high speed burst, it will just fire off the 5 shots in about half a second. With a wide angle lens, it isn't too difficult to hold the camera steady enough to get a useable set of images (especially with stabilisation turned on).
K, I only started using Bracketeer yesterday, but my impression is that it doesn't (and isn't intended to) produce the extreme type of image that people normally associate with HDR. I'm pleased with this shot, because the left side of the cutting was in quite deep shadow, as was the foreground. Like Paul, I have had limited success with Photomatix, or Photoshop Merge to HDR and this seems pretty easy.
Regards, Michael
Canon Image Challenge14-Jul-2012 14:58
Very nice photograph, Unlike Trav I like HDR but when they are much HDR-like - and this is an excellent example of such images. I's doubtless on topic, although I'd rather post it on leading lines challenge while compositional element is much stronger here then thirds, which play here rather a secondary role . After seing this wonderful photograph, I have uploaded that Bracketeer and played a bit with, but what I got was not even close to that what we see here.
K
Canon Image Challenge14-Jul-2012 14:01
I don't much like HDR, but this is terrific...5 bracketed shots? Shot on a Tripod, not handheld, right? I don't know how you technically get ever the 5 shots...lol

Traveller
Canon Image Challenge14-Jul-2012 13:08
I wonder if the program either averaged the exposure times or if it picked up on either the first or last image in the stack. I may look into the Bracketeer program you mentioned because so far i'm not 100 percent sold on Photo-Matrix. I have seen many excellent results with it from other photographers including single exposure raw's but mine have been marginal. Paul