Singapore Night HDR

[linkahwai]

I visit Singapore last week, here are some of my night shot in HDR.
Visit my gallery at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/linkahwai/

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2

3

4

 

[mackie8]

very nice...... good job...

 

[eilsel85]

very nice photo !!!

 

[Rc311]

Very nice... esp the no. 2....

So ashame of mine after looking at yours. Would you mind to share the setting you take on the photo so I can give it a try next round? Hopefully can replicate something similar to yours.

Cheers!
RC

 

[linkahwai]

Thanks!
These pictures are compose of 15-17 single RAW, from -4EV to 3EV, 1/3 stop interval, then merge into HDR in Photmatix Pro. Then retouch in Photoshop (use layer to fix the overblown area; level; brightness/contrast; curve; saturation; hightlight/shadow), then noise reduction by Noiseware Professional.

 

[jadedsoul]

sorry can u elaborate more on retouching using layer to fix the 'overblown' layer?

 

[mushymellow]

Thanks!
These pictures are compose of 15-17 single RAW, from -4EV to 3EV, 1/3 stop interval, then merge into HDR in Photmatix Pro. Then retouch in Photoshop (use layer to fix the overblown area; level; brightness/contrast; curve; saturation; hightlight/shadow), then noise reduction by Noiseware Professional.

sounds chim to a noob like me :bsmilie but still, great pics! hope i can achieve this one day

 

[linkahwai]

sorry can u elaborate more on retouching using layer to fix the 'overblown' layer?

After tonemapping, sometime you will still find some overblown area, especially in the highlight area, e.g. street light in night HDR.

To fix this, open one of the RAW image and adjust the color, brightness, saturation.... until it look similar to the tonemapped picture.

In photoshop, apply this new layer (from RAW, I will call it layer 1) on your tonemapped image (your HDR), then mask the layer 1 and use the brush tool to brush the overblown area.

Then merge both layer and save. That's it

It is more or less similar to what was mentioned in stuckincustoms.com tutorial, perhap you can refer to his tutorial and it is clearer with the illustrated figure.

 

[candycaine]

The biggest issue I have with the photos is that the reflections in the water are very, very bright- almost unnaturally so.

 

[Tings]

woow!!! this is pretty nice!~! :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[linkahwai]

The biggest issue I have with the photos is that the reflections in the water are very, very bright- almost unnaturally so.

Yes, that's a very common issue in night HDR, I use layer to fix it.

 

[candycaine]

Yes, that's a very common issue in night HDR, I use layer to fix it.

I think you misinterpreted me, I'm saying that your photos suffer from garishly bright reflections, not night HDR photos in general.

 

[bayusuputra]

nice, but i feel that the pictures are too warm (a lot of gold color) and the "aurora borealis" in #4 next to maybank is somewhat distracting to me.. also the reflection in #2 looks quite unnatural..
but great effort i must say..:thumbsup:
like the 1st one!

 

[linkahwai]

I think you misinterpreted me, I'm saying that your photos suffer from garishly bright reflections, not night HDR photos in general.

ok, now i got what you mean, perhap i should further decrease the brightness of the reflection.

 

[linkahwai]

nice, but i feel that the pictures are too warm (a lot of gold color) and the "aurora borealis" in #4 next to maybank is somewhat distracting to me.. also the reflection in #2 looks quite unnatural..
but great effort i must say..:thumbsup:
like the 1st one!

thanks for comment. perhap you might prefer the more natural non-HDR version...

 

[candycaine]

ok, now i got what you mean, perhap i should further decrease the brightness of the reflection.

thanks for comment. perhap you might prefer the more natural non-HDR version...

From my experience, a non-HDR version, well there are 2 main types.

If you're talking about single exposure, then the full dynamic range of the scene can't be captured properly, in all honesty, because the lights on the buildings and the buildings itself required drastically different exposures, in which case, a single exposure would be lacking.

If you're talking about exposure blending, which increases the dynamic range of the photo using a different algorithm to HDR, then yes, I would prefer it- the results are often much more realistic.