Betty, I like pushing the limits to the extreme too on HDR. I'll have to find a few of the photos I have saved to try and do something similar to show you what I like.
Julie The kindness one does for an animal may not change the world. BUT, it will change the world for that one animal.
Charlie, nice results. I agree, grungy isn't needed. Mainly, no overly dark shadows or too bright highlights, with nice midtones & appropriate color. And, of course, feature details without halos. I'd be happy if I could achieve all that.
Looks like you are getting a lot from your hdr software.
Beautiful treatment Chas. I'm so envious that you have the Mojave right out your front door. Nothing like spring in the high desert. Have you ever been to Death Valley? Being from the midwest I thought that the desert was sand and cacti ... I remember driving with my cousin and his wife from California to Vegas and asking them how long before we get to the desert. They looked at each other and then told me we were in the desert. lol I told them I thought the desert was sand and cacti, that's when they explained to me about the high desert. My next trip out to Vegas my cousin was going to take me to Death Valley but he moved before we could go. After seeing some of Peter Lick's photos of Death Valley I'm really sorry that we didn't get there!
Julie The kindness one does for an animal may not change the world. BUT, it will change the world for that one animal.
I have two favorites that I turned into HDR so here is one from my CA visit early this year.
Before
After (I have sent this off for a canvas wrap so I'm anxiously waiting its arrival!!!!)
Jen Clark Canon 7D/50D, 5D Mark II, Lenses: 16-35m 2.8L, 85m 1.2L, 85m 1.8, 50m 1.8 II, 70-200 2.8 IS II, 1.4 extender Currently working with CS5/LR3/Aperture 2 http://imagesbyjeniferclark.com ...Images by Jenifer Clark...
Here is another I did of some of the football players the other day. These are just the seniors for this one school. I will do a tighter cropping when I'm ready to print.
Before
After
Jen Clark Canon 7D/50D, 5D Mark II, Lenses: 16-35m 2.8L, 85m 1.2L, 85m 1.8, 50m 1.8 II, 70-200 2.8 IS II, 1.4 extender Currently working with CS5/LR3/Aperture 2 http://imagesbyjeniferclark.com ...Images by Jenifer Clark...
Jen, real nice results for both. I especially like the SF shot, as I lived at the other end of the bridge in Sausalito for a while & crossed that bridge frequently. If you don't mind the question, are you using photomatrix or the hdr feature of CS5? I'm going to guess photomatrix. TIA Betty
I use both photomatix and topaz adjust. Start with photomatix and then move to topaz to the refinements and look that I want.
Jen Clark Canon 7D/50D, 5D Mark II, Lenses: 16-35m 2.8L, 85m 1.2L, 85m 1.8, 50m 1.8 II, 70-200 2.8 IS II, 1.4 extender Currently working with CS5/LR3/Aperture 2 http://imagesbyjeniferclark.com ...Images by Jenifer Clark...