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View Full Version : Suburbia on Thin Ice


F8&Bthere
10-22-2009, 10:57 PM
Well, back to tweakin HDR...
JAS_Photo
10-22-2009, 11:00 PM
Very nice! Looks lile it's floating in the sky too.
casil403
10-22-2009, 11:01 PM
Neat image F8...love the colouring in it.
Mad Aussie
10-23-2009, 12:32 AM
Cool. Like it.

Is that really ice?? Looks more like water to me.
AntZ
10-23-2009, 07:10 AM
Cool HDR.
Bambi
10-23-2009, 08:54 AM
this is a great shot. Love the technique and the subject. It's one of those photos that you can look at over and over.
kat
10-23-2009, 09:01 AM
Very well done! I can't get my hdr to look like this!
F8&Bthere
10-23-2009, 09:43 AM
Very well done! I can't get my hdr to look like this!

I find that lighting is key for best HDR results. You want more subdued lighting. This was shot at sunset on a pretty cloudy day. When I've tried bracketing for HDR in midday sun I've mostly been disappointed in the result. This was 3 exposures, assembled in Photomatix, tweaked the settings to minimize noise and haloes in the sky, then brought it into PSE7 and ran Topaz denoise, then added a gaussian blur layer in overlay blend mode reduced to 20% opacity, then I applied smart sharpen to only the houses and the sign so as to not sharpen any remaining noise or create artifacts where I want smoothness. That's it.
kat
10-23-2009, 10:22 AM
I find that lighting is key for best HDR results. You want more subdued lighting. This was shot at sunset on a pretty cloudy day. When I've tried bracketing for HDR in midday sun I've mostly been disappointed in the result. This was 3 exposures, assembled in Photomatix, tweaked the settings to minimize noise and haloes in the sky, then brought it into PSE7 and ran Topaz denoise, then added a gaussian blur layer in overlay blend mode reduced to 20% opacity, then I applied smart sharpen to only the houses and the sign so as to not sharpen any remaining noise or create artifacts where I want smoothness. That's it.


That is it hey! :p

Nicely done! Yah..I try to avoid the midday shooting..just get too upset with the results now days...
Marko
10-23-2009, 11:54 AM
Oh this is VERY nice:highfive:! Nominated.

Just curious did you take a shot without the sign - although the sign works for me in this shot, it's totally stealing the show. I could EASILY see many (more) people wanting to put this on their wall if the sign were gone.
F8&Bthere
10-23-2009, 01:03 PM
Oh this is VERY nice:highfive:! Nominated.

Just curious did you take a shot without the sign - although the sign works for me in this shot, it's totally stealing the show. I could EASILY see many (more) people wanting to put this on their wall if the sign were gone.

Well to be honest I didn't think a shot of a row of houses reflecting in a lake was enough to stand on it's own. Nice, but nothing special...a shot anyone could take without any creative thought. The sign spoke to me in some way- thin ice warning, the reflection, the row of typical new development suburban homes- you'll think I'm nuts but it had a desperate housewives/weeds- "little boxes" theme song/what goes on behind closed doors in middle class america kinda feel to it TO ME, and then the name Suburbia on Thin Ice just kinda seemed to fit that vision.

P.S.- I almost wish I could get that "Little Boxes made of Ticky Tacky" song to play each time someone views the photo...haha...now I'm going to have it in my head again all day.
Marko
10-23-2009, 01:21 PM
Well to be honest I didn't think a shot of a row of houses reflecting in a lake was enough to stand on it's own. Nice, but nothing special...a shot anyone could take without any creative thought.

Maybe when you took the shot it was nothing special, but you worked it REAL nice :)
F8&Bthere
10-23-2009, 01:33 PM
Thanks! And although the sign is the element that gives the shot meaning (to me) you are right that it is too large in the frame. If I had a wider lens it might have been better. I had a 50-200 on zoomed all the way out as I recall. Could have stepped back but that would change the reflection perspective and made the houses smaller.

Good news is that this is a short walk from my home (not one of the nice lakeside ones in the photo, unfortunately, but ticky tacky nonetheless) and I could reproduce this fairly easily on any day with little wind and a decent sunset.... not always as easy as it sounds in the southern alberta foothills, well the wind part anyway.