[Matt Charlton]

We visited Whitby a few weeks ago and on our trip up to the Abbey we had really poor light and an overcast, bright sky. With the gaps in the walls and holes where the windows should have been, it was really difficult to meter and get the light right.

I decided to auto bracket and get three shots to combine and try out HDR for the first time when I got back home. I think its turned out pretty well

I had several dust bunnies in the pic - more than 10, I was quite shocked. I've only had the camera since late Feb and it was B-stock refurb - I'm guessing that it came from the factory with the dust included (thanks canon).

I've cleaned the sensor tonight and gotten it to a stage I'm happy with using pec pads and eclipse.

Anyway, enough waffle....the photo - complete with dust bunnies and snakes cloned out.



I know that HDR isn't everyone's cup of tea but I think it suits the shot really well and allowed me to create a decent photo from poor conditions.

In terms of technical details:
shot with a 30d with Sigma 10-20mm attached at f/11, shutter speed of 1/250 at ISO 100.

[P-E]

I like it Matt

[Dabhand16]

This has got real impact Matt The composition, colours and sky combine to draw you into the image. Super processing too - you expect us to belive it was your first attempt? Very well done

I'm not familier with the layout of this location, and there may well be good reason for the way you have positioned the Abbey, but it goes out of shot on the right, and there is a large area of nothing on the left. I suspect you were on the shorter end of the lens, so The question has to be why not either zoom in a little, or bring the camera to the right a bit to reduce the empty area on the left and put the largest part close to the third? I'm wondering if although the picture works really well as it is, could it have been even better?

[Charlotte]

Super shot Fab sky, lovely detail in the building ...

... although I can't help feeling that the hdr has equalised the tones too much, resulting in a lack of perspective within the building itself, i.e. it looks flat whereas I should be able to see some shading + variation in tones where the walls join at right-angles, however I have to look very hard to determine the structure + shape of the building, because all the tones in the building fall into the mid-tone range, i.e. there are no highlights + very little shadow.

Also, I would rotate it anti-clockwise to level the ground.

The composition looks unbalanced to me, because you have dead space on the LHS but have cut off part of the structure on the RHS.

I do like the image Matt, but I just feel it's lost some of the impact which a wide-angle should have given this shot.

It looks like you might have done some correcting of converging verticals, resulting in more of a telephoto effect on the building, i.e. compressing of perspective, instead of the dramatic effect a wide-angle should have had here.

Still, a lovely image

[Dabhand16]

Hey, Charlotte - interesting you get the same feel with this image as you did with my one of York Minster with the same lens

I see the image a little differently to you - I think the Abbey is on a hill. If you look at the bottom of the LHS of the building against the bottom edge of your browser window, the level looks OK. I can detect some CV, but you know how I look at these at the moment!

I think we are agreed on the building being a little too central and that it is an excellent picture.

[Charlotte]

Yes Graham, that's what made me think that maybe Matt had done the same procedure (to correct CV) here + got the same resulting 2D look However, I see some CV on the RHS here, so I don't think that's the answer after all ... back to the theory of hdr giving that effect, p'raps

[Dabhand16]

Originally Posted by Charlotte

back to the theory of hdr giving that effect, p'raps

When you start knocking them out you will be able to tell us.

[Charlotte]

TBH Graham, I don't plan to any time soon : (1) I've only got trial versions + not keen on posting "branded" images (2) Too much else lined up to do

Does anyone else see what I mean or see it the way I do??

[Matt Charlton]

Looking at the exif, I was actually at 16mm.

Thank you very much for the comments, its nice to get some good, decent constructive criticism that actually helps for a change

It really was my first attempt at HDR

I've not made any adjustments to the perspective of the image other than changing it's size to 800x533 once I'd finished processing to upload it to the web.

I combined the three RAW files in Photomatix, fiddled around with the sliders until I felt it looked okay, exported it to photoshop, adjusted the levels, curves, boosted contrast maybe a touch, performed a high pass filter on hard light to sharpen and then resized and saved as a jpg.

My framing wasn't quite right with it, I agree, it was more of a lets see how good this looks as a hdr - I shot it on purpose. I'm not planning on becoming a HDR addict, I think it just allows a bit of leeway in difficult circumstances such as this.

I'll post up a jpg of what the scene was like on that day so you can see how much detail in the sky the HDR has brought out.

Thanks again,

Matt

[namllihs]

Good shot Matt, my initial thought on seeing this shot was that you should crop tighter on the LHS, but after looking at it a few times, I'm not as sure, maybe leave it as is.
I like what you have done with the HDR, it sits well with the subject.
I must say I have seen a great improvement in your photography over the past few months, you are thinking about the shot,what settings you will use and how you will present the shot well before you press the shutter button and this shows in the quality of your images of late.
Keep it up.

[Boofers]

Don't worry about your sensor, I clean mine the same way and they are a lot tougher then who ever would like you to believe. I keep in a plastic baggie the biggest puffer I could find and blow out more often because I change lens sometimes like running bunnies. There are quite a few people here who are interested in HDR, I have seen some very good effects that I am trying to learn,,,am about ready to PM the person who influenced me like this and pry out some info,,,,your picture looks good as for being in a dark casting. When ever I have my tripod out I always shoot a range of HDR exposures. Have a cup of tea and thanks for sharing a landscape HDR,,which I think are the hardest to do..

[Dave]

Wonderful shot Matt. The HDR has managed to bring some extra drama to the shot & it also makes a good starting point for trying a Mono from it also :-