- This topic is empty.
Ballycopeland Windmill
-
A rare break in the clouds yesterday evening allowed me to get out with the camera just before sunset. Thought would head to Ballycopeland Windmill which is just outside Millisle, Co. Down. Sure enough I got some nice golden light just as the sun was dipping down past the horizon. I took several shots, including a few bracketed as I’ve been wanting to try out Photomatix for a while now. Any way, processed the three exposures ( -1 1/3, 0, +1 1/3) in Photomatix and then imported the processed tone mapped image into Lightroom for a few further tweaks. I have to confess I’m not a big fan of the OTT tone mapped/HDR look so I’ve really tried to keep this as natural as possible. Any way, feedback would be very much appreciated. Oh and please excuse the watermark, I’m just trialling the software but if it works out I will pay the licence fee :)
Looks good to me,
I wouldn’t have known it was HDR,
Pity about the cable and poles,
might be worth your while to clone them out.You have done really well to avoid the HDR look, but still use the software to enhance shadow and highlight detail. Personally I think that Photomatix HDR software is great – but you HAVE to bring the end file in to photoshop and do some contrast work for the final image if you want this type of result.
Lovely shot. Pity about the poles and wires (the bane of my life :lol: )
Nice shot and its been kept true and no over the top HDR.
Seen this little mill once and was well impressed but hard to get a good vantage point, I presume you had to scale the fence or get in off the road?
Nice side lighting on the millDee
Thanks for the replies, appreciate getting some feedback.
flynny and miki, I agree about the poles and wires. I did initially wonder if they balanced the image out slightly, but I think no matter what way you look at it power lines are never going to work well :? Will try and spend some time with the clone tool this evening!
Rossco, really pleased to hear I avoided making it look like an HDR. I avoided Photomatix for a long time because I was so used to seeing some of the crazy images on Flickr created using it and I really did think it was a gimmick. Now I’ve realised just how useful it is for creating an evenly exposed image, I did try using an ND Grad at time of shooting but because of how high the windmill sits above the horizon it just wasn’t working out. As you say though when the image was processed through Photomatix the saved image was very flat so it did take a bit of tweaking on the curves afterwards to bring out some contrast.
Deebo wrote:
Nice shot and its been kept true and no over the top HDR.
Seen this little mill once and was well impressed but hard to get a good vantage point, I presume you had to scale the fence or get in off the road?
Nice side lighting on the millDee
Thanks Dee. It is tricky to find an interesting shot, I’m pretty stumped as to how to get something a bit different. I parked in the small car park at the mill itself and then headed down the road slightly to a crossroads. From the crossroads you can get on to a flat bit of grass on the verge, just in front of the field. Thats were I shot from. I was tempted to hop the fence and shoot from within the field, but I just couldn’t bring myself to go hopping into a field. Mind you I’m sure it happens all the time :)
A very good example of HDR and what it’s supposed to be for (in my opinion). Nice composition too.
This is a really nice image to my eye.
The light and shadow on the mill is really nice.
I appreciate what’s been said about the wires etc but I wonder if you
might be right about the balance.
I suppose you won’t know ’til you try.I tend to agree with the other comments re HDR.
You have produced an image which dosen’t shout HDR.
In fact I would not have suggested it was used which I suppose is
probably the way it should be.Well done.
John.
Lovely shot. Perfect light.
I pass this sometimes on my way to my parents house in Ballyhalbert, and I’ve thought about taking the time to stop and snap it some time.Thanks for the comments. Think will consider paying the licence fee on Photomatix now, seems like it could prove useful and I don’t want to keep posting images with watermarks across them ;) Mind you I suppose half the battle is knowing when to use it, and when not to use it…!
Yep – nice image where apart from the watermark the Photomatix touch isn’t evident. Nice warm tones but the poles…they were there of course so it depends on what you want to represent in your images…a capture of a moment in time or an artistic, “unflawed” image.
If you are buying there’s a nice plugin that I found quite useful.
http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/lrplugin.html
It allows for a direct export to Photomatix then re-import once your finish. I used to have to save 3 images in a folder, run Photomatix then reimport manually but this is a joy.
Alan
Thats as nice a shot of this windmill as ive seen, not over processed in photomatix at all. Well done. Must get a shot of it myself.
For a different take on it check out Stephen Emersons startrails version http://www.trekearth.com/viewphotos.php?l=3&p=1097540 which i really liked.
Gary
Well done, this is HDR as it should be done. If the viewer doesn’t even think of HDR when they see it then you’ve done it properly. 10/10 for technique.
The composition is good too but it’s a pity about the wires, would you be tempted to try and remove them in Photoshop?
irishwonkafan wrote:
If you are buying there’s a nice plugin that I found quite useful.
http://www.hdrsoft.com/download/lrplugin.html
It allows for a direct export to Photomatix then re-import once your finish. I used to have to save 3 images in a folder, run Photomatix then reimport manually but this is a joy.
There is a Lightroom plugin bundled with the latest version of Photomatix that does just that. I’ve been using it for a month or two now and it works well (on a PC at least). It had a few glitches until I installed the latest version of Lightroom but it’s worked fine ever since.
Aedan
Thanks again for the comments.
Gary – I like that link you posted, there was me saying that its hard to come up with something different and of course there is someone with a totally different take on things ;) I remember reading an article on shooting star trail scenes before, but never tried it out before.
Aedan/Alan – Thanks for the heads up on the Lightroom plugin. I’ve just started a course part time at college, so I was able to buy Photomatix on educational discount which was quite handy (60% discount!). Tried out the Lightroom plugin already and I can see how handy it will be for saving time, no more exporting multiple exposures individually :)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
