Morning Meeting at the Fish Market

I'm toying around with more post processing my images using Photoshop, Photomatix and Lightroom. I just learned how to do a single-file HDR (tone-mapping 16-bit files, actually) and these are the results. It pulls out a lot more detail in the image, but it definitely prefers a low ISO, low noise image. This image had a lot of noise, but I still prefer the detail of it.

The softness you see in this image mostly comes from my lens, a LensBaby 2.0.

To get the full effect, you should view this image large on black.

I captured this shot early one morning at the fish market in Phan Thiet, Vietnam. The fish market is mostly run by woman, wearing the traditional Vietnamese hats, Non La, to protect themselves from the strong sun which is about to rise. The woman begin working before dawn, selling and trading the evenings catch. Meanwhile, their husbands are fishing at sea.

Part of the Vietnam Fishing Life set