The house that Australia built

Still cracking away at HDR, still not entirely happy with the results :-)
When I do multiple exposure HDRs there always seems to be a resulting 'softness' and loss of quality to the image. I don't know it it's my setup, my processing, or just an inherent side-effect of HDR, but it always seems to be there (you can view it large to see what I mean).

Taken a few weeks ago. I only got around to processing it now for the Canberra group 'Parliament House' theme thread.

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Comments

zseike says:

still comes out well - really well! love the sky colour and your perspective - from the war memorial or mt. ainslie?
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Teon. says:

Thanks zseike, this one's from the War Memorial, at the top of the steps.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

aaardvaark says:

Hmmm. It's a very nice shot, but I think I know what you mean. I really really don't like most HDR, however there are exceptions that keep making me stop with open mouth and (to myself!) go awwwww! The particular thing that most irritates me is the halos or remnant halos - in yours you can see the unnatural lightening of the trees and hills as you move further below the horizon.

Subjectively that could appear as "softness". But more likely is the fact that by definition, HDR is lowering the overall contrast. While it aims to preserve local contrast, it has to lower overall contrast to achieve anything. Maybe this is what your eye is rebelling against? If you mean softness as in a lens-type softness, I can't say I notice this effect.

None of this is meant as critical criticism, just ruminations on your observation.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

slack12 says:

Nice one. I usully import the Photomatix JPEG into iPhoto (although I guess any photo procesing program should work), push the "enhance" button, which almost always adjusts the contrast nicely, and then slide the sharpen button to high. Seems to work to my liking.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

ZaksterNT says:

You may also get a bit of softness where there are very slight variances in each shot, whether it be from breeze, pressure on the shutter button, etc. While the software can align the shots for you reasonably well, it's usually not perfect.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

~Prescott says:

Teon, nice composition as you mentioned on Xenedis's shot to "make the lake disappear" :)
Great colours and tones, I like the impact the motion of the cars brings to the shot.
Did you use a tripod for this shot? I assume you did from the way the car lights look. Even a slight breeze can cause slight movements in the tripod. Are you still using photoshop for HDR?
Overall the HDR process does tend to add softness, I'll often sharpen it up a little in photoshop afterwards.

--
Seen in a discussion of Canberra ACT Australia. (?)
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

.mark says:

Nice shot :)

Were you using the shutter button or a cable release for these shots? Even when using a tripod I've found that the camera needs between a 5 - 10 second (depending on tripod footing) self timer to be completely steady after hitting the shutter release.

One other alternative is aligning and cropping the images yourself beforehand
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

apurdam (Andrew) says:

Looks sharp enough to my aging eyes!
I agree with aardvark that an issue I have with HDR is them "not looking natural" - skies particularly end up a contrived colour. I find that a bit in this pic, but there are so many other really good things that I like in it.
The pic abounds in rhythm and movement.
The repetition in the streetlights, the cats-eyes (on the left), the plantings, the front of parliament house; the lines in the flagpole, Reconciliation place (or whatever it's called); and the movement of the cars (I especially like the ones hurrying along the bottom of the pic - the multi-exposure works well here).
I'm surprised the flag looks so good for multi-exposure, or did you blot out two of the shots due to movement?
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Jirrupin says:

i've been doing some prelim experiments just with PS in HDR merging and noticed an improvement when using cable release might be worth trying locking the mirror as well - but I'm not sure if that's possible for the multiple exposures

great image though!
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

pierre pouliquin says:

The perspective is amazing (among other things)

--
Seen in Canberra ACT Australia (?)
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

David Cosgrove says:

It is a very nice looking image - though I do see what you mean about some softness here and there.

As already noted above, an element of softness does tend to be hard to avoid whenever techniques are used that rely on combining several shots into one...

Was the sky actually that orange - or is there also some sort of filtering involved as well?
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

TIO... says:

Excellent!!! You have a very nice photo Stream!!!!

TIO
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

semireality says:

It's really nice! Great photo.
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Darny says:

1. Always try to use a tripod, timer or remote release
2. Always shoot in raw, import as TIFF, save tone mapped result as TIFF
3. Unsharp mask!

also, if you shoot in raw, you can create your HDR from a single raw. This way, you only need to keep the cam still for one shot instead of multiple shots.

--
Seen on your photo stream. (?)
Posted 37 months ago. ( permalink )

Michael Y. Wang says:

great perspective! nice sunset tinge!!

Best wishes for you my friend,
This warm message come from a place where winter's frozen hand had never reached.
Love, success, peace, friendship, harmony distilled to this brief greeting. Happy New Year, my friend!

Posted 36 months ago. ( permalink )

Extra Medium says:

Canberra!!!!! I miss it there. I miss the city centre
Posted 35 months ago. ( permalink )

piedbutcher says:

Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Parliament House, Canberra, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.
Posted 19 months ago. ( permalink )

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