Auerbacher Schloß

[ilchkai]

This is a HDR of the Auerbacher tower keep, between Darmstadt and Heidelberg, situated along the ancient Roman Strata Montana (Bergstraße)  in Germany. The tree, a pine, measures about 7m (23 ft), well over 300 years old, growing out of the curtain wall leading up to the tower in the background, its knarly roots burrowing through the medieval stone. If there is such a thing as a favourite tree - this is mine...



Comments welcome


EXIF:
Pentax ist*DL, Sigma 17mm-35mm EX DG @ 17mm
sec 1/125 @ f/22
iso eqiuvalent: 200
PS CS 2 HDR Treatment (no alterations, just blending of under and over exposed versions of the same image)

[eob]

Great picture, very reminiscent of oil paintings of Romantic Era. Perhaps, that's because of stark, dim colors and the accent on richly textured sky? One thing I would do: get rid of that small architectural element on the left edge of the frame (another tower?).

[habakuk]

Oh, I missed this one, or rather I forgot to come back after the first look... I immediately thought about one of these modern third person shooter game, or for the more pacifist people here, about a Myst age. It has this unnatural feeling, yet it's full of fascinating elements, colors and lighting effects. The little facade fragment on the far left side isn't really helping, and I'd probably give the leaning tower a little fix. The rest of the scene is really a very interesting mixture between technoid-cold and mystic-warm scene, and the tree seems to be there since time starts to run. I feel invited by the picture to sit down and listen to the tree and the stones, telling their stories of past fights, of love and hate, of sorrow and hope, of tragedy and wonders... and I would not be surprised if a dragon would fly by  past the tower...

cheers
®

[ilchkai]

thanks guys! i think....

this was my first venture into the HDR world and now i think i have slightly overdone it. might have to come back to this and redo it. i like the artificiality of it in a strange way, and then again not... really not too sure - have any of you dabbled in HDR?

[habakuk]

Nope. I just did some testing with multiple exposures from a single RAW file and then manually working them into a single shot to deal with really bright spots etc. Never felt like using tonemapping as of yet. However, I wouldn't say you overdid it here. It all boils down to what you wanted to achieve, and the least thing to say is that the shown picture IS interesting and appealing in a certain context.

cheers
®

[eob]

Overdone, underdone - that's a very subjective description. In my view, you use such a degree of processing as you deem appropriate to achieve an effect you are after. This image is neither overdone nor underdone. I think, you achieved an effect that is just right.

Like Roland, I only used two different versions of the same RAW file - one developed for shadows and the other for lights. Then, I combined both using layers and masks. Worked for me, although I would like to try a "proper" way combining two or more shots of the scene.

[habakuk]

I agree with eob on the overdone/underdone thing...  what I think really counts is if your intention translates into the viewers mind when he looks at the picture. That's what counts.

cheers
®

[eob]

By chance, I just found on Flickr a series of HDR photos that are very interesting. You may enjoy them as much as I did. Here's the address:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/viewpoint3000/tags/leica/.

[habakuk]

Waaahhh! I like kai's rendition of the scene above MUCH better. But I have to confess, I get a bit tired by all the photomatix and tonemapping stuff that is out currently. There are some scenes that really improve with this technology, but in most cases it's highly overdone for my liking.

While I do like the way tonemapping is adding the illusion of a third dimension to the textures, I hate the way it adds blobs of light and shadow to the scene in a seemingly erratic way. That is not the case for the shot above, but extremely visible on the shots on the flickr link you sent.

cheers
®

[eob]

Photomatix is just not mature enough yet for a general use, but, as you said, some scenes do improve with its use. Besides, the shortcommings of the Photomatix could be used to the advantage of some interesting special effects. That's exactly the case with pictures I referred to above. I think that the creator was completely aware of the artificiality of Photomatix effects and used them in a creative way. Well, at least I think so...

I downloaded the demo and played with it for one evening. I am not very impressed with the way it works. I think you could get much better results from manual combining of differently exposed images in Photoshop using layers and masks. Besides, Photomatix is so slow, that its automation doesn't save you any time over manual approach. But, certainly, it is something new and it's got some potential.

[habakuk]

I feel the whole HDR and tonemapping thing has the same problem as so many new features in cameras or photoshop... it's too easy to apply them, and neither the camera or photoshop tell you that you just used it to make a bad scene even uglier. It's seldom the technology/feature that is inherently bad - it's the way people use it.  HDR and tonemapping really can mean a great technology, but they can also be used to produce cheap trash.

cheers
®

[eob]

Absolutely right!