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HDR EXPERIMENT #2

The Presence of Trees

by Michael S. Glaser

 

I have always felt the living presence

of trees

the forest that calls to me as deeply

as I breathe,

as though the woods were marrow of my bone

as though

I myself were tree, a breathing, reaching

arc of the larger canopy

beside a brook bubbling to foam

like the one

deep in these woods,

that calls

that whispers home

I took another stab at HDR today .  The original photo is the last in the series.  I think I actually prefer the original, but am not entirely sure......
COMMENTS
Floridamolle said at 6:51 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
Such a beautiful tree you found to experiment with. A wonderful tabblo, with a beautiful poem too. GREAT JOB!!
Memotions said at 6:55 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
Thanks Anders. I have to place the blame on you for being my inspiration behind these experiments. I find it interesting....but am spending a lot of time fine-tuning.
Leftofcenter said at 6:58 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
the first one is pretty awesome too!
HunterProductions said at 7:01 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
How many exposures did you use for this?
Memotions said at 7:06 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
In the first one, I actually ended up using 5 different exposures. The second one is just three. I've found that I keep throwing in another exposure and tinkering with the opacity just to see how much it changes things. An intriguing pursuit for sure!
Mashpee_Paula said at 7:12 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
All are beautiful Patty~ well done! Thanks. :)
Experience said at 7:16 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
Un bel lavoro... brava.
Pkeener said at 8:24 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
Well, I usually like straight forward photography, but that first shot is very nice, patti.
Memotions said at 8:40 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
I know what you mean, Pam. I generally try to take the photo so that no enhancing is necessary. After diddling a bit, I realized that you could actually create an entirely different piece of art. Kind of fun for a change, but I think I prefer to spend time taking the shots instead of post production work in the "darkroom". However..It snowed today, so I had the perfect opportunity to try some more "creating".
LatentE said at 9:47 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
I'm not sure what you've done here. Did you use an HDR processing program or did you just layer the different exposures and try to manually build an HDR image?

Looking at the original, unprocessed exposure, it doesn't seem to need HDR handling. The first one has an interesting foggy look but it also has banding (the blocky pastel sky areas) that suggest something went wrong somewhere in the process. I'm guessing that the blur in the leaves and the water is because of the layering of multiple exposures of moving subjects rather than anything like the Orton effect.
Hollyridger said at 10:03 p.m. on Apr 6, 2007:
I think the first one is outstanding, well done, you! I know what you mean, it is very time consuming but I find it all very enjoyable.
HunterProductions said at 2:01 a.m. on Apr 7, 2007:
I agree with LatentE something did go wrong here with the exposures.......What program did you use to do the HDR process?......If you merged 5 different exposures using a tripod and did not change the f/stop then the process went wrong somewhere.
Memotions said at 7:16 a.m. on Apr 7, 2007:
Thanks LatentE and Hunter Productions. When I go over the tutorial again and your comments II have not got it quite right yet. I'm using Serif PhotoPlus and it does not work quite the same as Adobe Elements or Photoshop. I can see the banding now in that first one and it not because of movement, but more likely the effect of one of the layers that I used. I tried one layer using a hue effect after doing the screen and myltipy layers. Back to the drawing board! I must say that I really appreciate you folks having a close look at these and offering your critique. How else am I ever going to master it? I'm not getting a true HDR effect yet.
JoanW said at 11:29 a.m. on Apr 7, 2007:
Interesting experiment with HDR, but it seems difficult, or rather time consuming to master this post processing work. I do like the results though, maybe one day I will really study it and 'have a go'.
Zippywinds said at 1:53 p.m. on Apr 7, 2007:
great job with the effect of the tree and poem, love that tree :)
Memotions said at 3:54 p.m. on Apr 7, 2007:
The tree is a Muskoka Pine. It's not unusual to see them sprouting out of an outcropping of rock. Seems so peculiar to see a tree growing where you'd think it could not take root let alone find enough nutrients to sustain itself..
HunterProductions said at 4:42 p.m. on Apr 7, 2007:
HDR actually merges the separate images into a 32 bit floating point image and then when you tone map the image it converts it into a 8 bit or 16 bit image which you can work with, The 32 bit image is not editable on the current systems of today and the image will look extremely oversaturated until you tone map it or convert it to 8 bit or 16 bit and adjust it. try the Photomatix Pro program, just google it and you can download it for free to try and if you like it then you can buy it, The only Photoshops that do HDR are CS2 or CS3. Hope this helps you out and if you have any questions about the process there is a nice little tutorial that comes with the photomatix program that you can download in PDF format.
Goodluck H.P.
Margaretshoemaker said at 7:25 p.m. on Apr 8, 2007:
Very nice....
Veronicasuzio said at 11:16 a.m. on Apr 13, 2007:
I like the picture and I love the poem.
DEE-Trow said at 5:29 p.m. on Apr 23, 2007:
The middle is my favorite. Nice! Isn't HunterProductions wonderful? So helpful! If only I could understand what he is saying!
Hyhoa said at 8:04 a.m. on Apr 25, 2007:
Hello Patty, nice work and very poetic . I like the way you 've taken the photo, en diagonale, and the fade from the 1st picture Some music to share with you , and to accompany this lonely dried tree ! Help save the rainforest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxtJjFkEi20
Gerardfotografeert said at 4:37 p.m. on Jul 7, 2007:
Marvellous work with a mystic atmosphere into the first photo. Nice poem to.
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