Need help with composition and and criticisms


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mrcharmingorian:) ur edited pic is miles ahead of ur original pic:) still i believe a well composed original pic deserves more credit than a tinkered pic,in the comfort of our homes or studios;)well composed original pic shows the passion of a photographer,that includes patience,attitude,physical fitness,alertness,etc:think:

Hi,

I think it is very hard for one to judge one's work. A lot of times, it takes a hell lot of criticisms before one will know what does the majority look for with their eyes. However, at this point, i'm a very very beginner who still need all of your points of view to gain better indepth of a secular well-composed, natural, wow picture.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to give me your comments. I appreciate it.
 

mrcharmingorian:) ur edited pic is miles ahead of ur original pic:) still i believe a well composed original pic deserves more credit than a tinkered pic,in the comfort of our homes or studios;)well composed original pic shows the passion of a photographer,that includes patience,attitude,physical fitness,alertness,etc:think:

Hi,

I think it is very hard for one to judge one's work. A lot of times, it takes a hell lot of criticisms before one will know what does the majority look for with their eyes. However, at this point, i'm a very very beginner who still need all of your points of view to gain better indepth of a secular well-composed, natural, wow picture.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to give me your comments. I appreciate it.
 

mrcharmingorian:) ur edited pic is miles ahead of ur original pic:) still i believe a well composed original pic deserves more credit than a tinkered pic,in the comfort of our homes or studios;)well composed original pic shows the passion of a photographer,that includes patience,attitude,physical fitness,alertness,etc:think:

Hi, hahha....u dun have to be so polite as to call me Mister. hahahaa....

I think it is very hard for one to judge one's work. A lot of times, it takes a hell lot of criticisms before one will know what does the majority look for with their eyes. However, at this point, i'm a very very beginner who still need all of your points of view to gain better indepth of a secular well-composed, natural, wow picture.

Hey, thanks for taking the time to give me your comments. I appreciate it.
 

which hdr program did you use?

i have pmed you my email address - trust you not to spread it around, these days i do feel that i would get a lot of hatemail.

the 0 ev exposure has the outside scene overexposed.

hi again,
I'm using photoshop CS2 automate to HDR.

I've sent u a private message. I will send u the photos tonight. Thanks! U are a great help!!
 

ok bro - i have gotten what is going on after looking more closely at the pictures - your camera metered those scenes as -2, 0 and +2?

the unedited photo that you posted up earlier, from the 3 files you sent me, seem to be the -2 ev one,apparently. this is why hdr cannot resolve your exposure problem to even it out nicely; and also why you will get the extreme cartoonish effect presented due to the need for excessive highlight recovery.

one thing you need to take note in photography is that when taking photographs in digital format, the SHADOW details are much easier to recover than the highlight detail, i.e. if i get a -2 photograph which is underexposed, it is easier to save it compared to a +2 photograph. what happens to highlight detail is extreme posterisation, i.e. the details become posterlike and fragmented and jagged.. the image at that portion is degraded horribly and you cannot get back the details.

i was hoping that what you posted earlier was the 0 ev picture. that would have been correct, as a -2 ev photograph would surely expose for the OUTSIDE SCENE nicely. +2 ev photograph would expose for the door details nicely. combined in photomatix, for sure can get something swee swee out.

but it turns out it is the -2 ev picture.. in that case, the 0 ev photograph ends up exposing for the door details, and the +2 ev one is totally useless and redundant because everything, including the door is overexposed.. jsut that the door is less overexposed. so what happens is that even with hdr, you cannot get anything out - because the OUTSIDE SCENE details are totally gone. and yes, the best photograph you will get here from all methods available that i can think of with my limited ability is what you ahve done.. probably work on the -2 ev photograph.

hope you get what i mean.. sometimes we have to understand our camera metering system.. if in doubt, just whack the hdr from +3 to -3 with one stop in between , i.e. 7 exposure -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3. then review on camera screen. if it seems like the details we want are not present in any photograph.. then we need to take even more, then redo it again on the tripod.

from my experience, i think hdr is still ok from the range i have mentioned, which is why i just take it, beyond that the lighting is too extreme, better not to do hdr at all, it means that you cannot really do the picture unless you have elaborate lighting setups to light up the places you want naturally. hope you get what i mean, please feel free to clarify if you don't understand the perhaps jargon-filled post here.

to be fair, the metering is not yoru camera's fault. due to the majority-darker scene it tends to overexpose.. which is why the digital preview is there.. it gives you an advantage over film.. of course in the long run you will know better how to handle your camera's metering when it comes to certain scene, and you don't need to second guess. just shoot what exposures accordingly and underexpose according to metering deliberately.
 

ok bro - i have gotten what is going on after looking more closely at the pictures - your camera metered those scenes as -2, 0 and +2?

the unedited photo that you posted up earlier, from the 3 files you sent me, seem to be the -2 ev one,apparently. this is why hdr cannot resolve your exposure problem to even it out nicely; and also why you will get the extreme cartoonish effect presented due to the need for excessive highlight recovery.

one thing you need to take note in photography is that when taking photographs in digital format, the SHADOW details are much easier to recover than the highlight detail, i.e. if i get a -2 photograph which is underexposed, it is easier to save it compared to a +2 photograph. what happens to highlight detail is extreme posterisation, i.e. the details become posterlike and fragmented and jagged.. the image at that portion is degraded horribly and you cannot get back the details.

i was hoping that what you posted earlier was the 0 ev picture. that would have been correct, as a -2 ev photograph would surely expose for the OUTSIDE SCENE nicely. +2 ev photograph would expose for the door details nicely. combined in photomatix, for sure can get something swee swee out.

but it turns out it is the -2 ev picture.. in that case, the 0 ev photograph ends up exposing for the door details, and the +2 ev one is totally useless and redundant because everything, including the door is overexposed.. jsut that the door is less overexposed. so what happens is that even with hdr, you cannot get anything out - because the OUTSIDE SCENE details are totally gone. and yes, the best photograph you will get here from all methods available that i can think of with my limited ability is what you ahve done.. probably work on the -2 ev photograph.

hope you get what i mean.. sometimes we have to understand our camera metering system.. if in doubt, just whack the hdr from +3 to -3 with one stop in between , i.e. 7 exposure -3, -2, -1, 0, +1, +2, +3. then review on camera screen. if it seems like the details we want are not present in any photograph.. then we need to take even more, then redo it again on the tripod.

from my experience, i think hdr is still ok from the range i have mentioned, which is why i just take it, beyond that the lighting is too extreme, better not to do hdr at all, it means that you cannot really do the picture unless you have elaborate lighting setups to light up the places you want naturally. hope you get what i mean, please feel free to clarify if you don't understand the perhaps jargon-filled post here.

to be fair, the metering is not yoru camera's fault. due to the majority-darker scene it tends to overexpose.. which is why the digital preview is there.. it gives you an advantage over film.. of course in the long run you will know better how to handle your camera's metering when it comes to certain scene, and you don't need to second guess. just shoot what exposures accordingly and underexpose according to metering deliberately.

Wah!!.....What an insight from you! All along, i thought just wack from -2 , 0 to +2 and then let HDR software sort it out. Now i know. I mean, next time, i'll just wack all the 6 points and then go home and see what can be forned to HDR.

Oh, not to mention, you mentioned that it is easier to recover a darker shadow image than one that is washed out. However sometimes when u decrease the shadow level to reveal more, i get the occasional patchy incoherent colors on the pic which made it look as if the wall is feeling off from color. The color is no longer uniform.

So....it is very tricky indeed.

In conclusion, what u are saying to my 3 ics is this. If my +2 EV pic have not overexposed the church and can still see details, the 3 pics would have been good for HDR. Am i right?

ok, i'll try out my camera again to try to make it work...

Thanks a lot pal!
 

actually...i do like the 1st pic you posted. the composition looks fine to me. yes it does look like a painting..maybe thats why i like it ;p
 

Oh, not to mention, you mentioned that it is easier to recover a darker shadow image than one that is washed out. However sometimes when u decrease the shadow level to reveal more, i get the occasional patchy incoherent colors on the pic which made it look as if the wall is feeling off from color. The color is no longer uniform.

So....it is very tricky indeed.

In conclusion, what u are saying to my 3 ics is this. If my +2 EV pic have not overexposed the church and can still see details, the 3 pics would have been good for HDR. Am i right?

ok, i'll try out my camera again to try to make it work...

Thanks a lot pal!

extreme cases, but if it is slightly overexposed versus slightly underexposed, you are going to be able to save the latter than the former, when you make more such mistakes you will notice that :)

actually, no. if your -2ev had not *still* overexposed the outside scene/church, then the 3 pictures would probably have been good for hdr. this is more to do with understanding what sort of exposure you need to make a good hdr, rather htan just blindly following your camera's metering system. :)
 

actually...i do like the 1st pic you posted. the composition looks fine to me. yes it does look like a painting..maybe thats why i like it ;p

hey, good to hear u like my pic....
 

extreme cases, but if it is slightly overexposed versus slightly underexposed, you are going to be able to save the latter than the former, when you make more such mistakes you will notice that :)

actually, no. if your -2ev had not *still* overexposed the outside scene/church, then the 3 pictures would probably have been good for hdr. this is more to do with understanding what sort of exposure you need to make a good hdr, rather htan just blindly following your camera's metering system. :)

ok...i'll take note of your advise...Will try that again next time.

Thanks!
 

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