First attempt at HDR - The Vesuvio

[Giovanni]

After three or four unsatisfactory attempts I got to finally get a decent one, there sure is a long way to progress to satisfactory but I am glad I found another reason to enjoy photography further.

Thanks for watching


Giovanni

 

[Darcy Grizzle]

Wow that is an amazing first attempt ;0. Makes you wanna be in that room, this is very nice Giovanni

 

[AlanLichty]

I usually cringe when I see HDR in the title but this is done in a context where it's necessary to see such a scene and not overcooked. This is a well executed result.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Nicely executed.

 

[Zeph]

What a view, and those tiles are beautiful and you set-up the shot perfectly.
If it was my image I would introduce some very minor shadows in the room corners, also the center reflection looks a bit odd, but natural. And the nit's nit is the slightly visible wood beam outside at the top of the arch.
Thanks for the view.

 

[JimFox]

Hi Giovanni, like Alan I think I cringe a bit when I see the title of HDR because through the years we have seen so many bad HDR photos. But you did a really good job here. I like how it's lit and the background through the arch looks natural.

 

[Giovanni]

Hello everybody and thank you for your comments. So, the situation is like two more arches on the sides of the one you see, I tried to open the blinds but light was not even and creating spots on the front wall so I closed them again, to mitigate the light spot on the tiles I tried to use a GND but it looked really bad, I have a set of ND and GND on my bullet list but far to come. I bracketed 9 shots to balance the bright landscape out of the window with the inner ambient light, have been trying with less shots but always missing something, also did attempts with a polarizer to try get a more saturated sky but no much of an effect with the sun behind me which is what I wanted because the front window faces North and in the earlier or later hours the Sun would be on a side creating uneven light conditions in the room.
As far as distracting elements such as the shade showing top of the arch or the box containing it, well, not that good at retouching and also like things to show how they really are and that's why I was too a little scared of the HDR but I gotta say when the purpose is to just balance shadows and highlights it doesn't look too bad.

Grazie

 

[Mike Mancil]

Excellent HDR, which is any HDR that looks natural. Well done.

 

[Joe Colozzo]

HDR can look horrible, but you killed this one. If you didn't say HDR i wouldn't have thought it! Great Image!!!