We went today to the maple syrup festival at the Indiana State Dunes to see them make maple syrup. This is in the sugar shack where the volunteer is explaining how they boil it down to make the syrup.
There are several things I don't like about this, with the blown out windows being the worst, along with the noise. It was HDR from 3 images while using my tripod as a monopod. It was too crowded to set it up and do it right.
I do think it came out much better than my shot entered last year, but that was basic editing:
HDR from 3 images, tonemapped
Nik Efex tonal contrast
Nik Efex B&W
curves
levels
paint with black/white in soft light (seems to be more natural than dodge/burn)
crop
resize
sharpen
save for web
Oh no! The blown window is okay for photos like this. I recently took a flash photography course, and it was mentioned that photos like this that have the windows with extra highlights is okay becuse it is an interior shot and it adds a feeling of light being in there. Even professional and magazine interior architectural photos have windows that are very bright giving a feeling of light in the room.
I think this is great. I love the feel of the smoke coming from the stuff cooking. It makes it feel alive.
I think this is a cool shot but I do wonder what it would be like w/o the DHR smoothness. It almost seems surreal and you lose the quirky old feel of the process of making syrup.
There's a lot of stuff I love about this image: the mad off-centre composition, the motion, the blur around the mechanism, the detail, the light, the sense of accuracy, honesty in it. There's a slightly overdone smoothness that speaks of processing rather than of the image, and the real let-down for me: the vast acres of bland grey: I always find that an off-putting shade, speaking more of a desire to level out the tones throughout the image rather than communicating a sense of wonder at quality of light. Give me a sense of light and dark, give me s sense of texture, give me a sense of life; give me impact; but don't give me a histogram. It carries a sense of what you think you ought to do in processing, rather than of what you want to do. Be bolder!
The wide angle aspect of this gives this a lot of interest, in my opinion, as does the movement of the people. I think that's one aspect of HDR and/or merging images that I'd like to explore more (and will do so when I get my monopod) so I thank you for the idea! I particularly like that you can see the steam rising.
The highlights and details really jump out, the downside is the blurry figures. In this case, they seem to be a distraction and make it hard to appreciate all that is going on.
I don't know. Personally I like the older shot better. It's more mysterious without anyone else visible in the room. An old man works alone in a dark and damp room. The steam burns his skin if he gets too close but that sensation has long since departed. For years he slaved to create the vile sticky sweet gravy and he has grown to hate it. Curse this dark wet room. The steam soaks his face in a wet sticky film. He doesn't bother to wipe the tears from his face. What's the point, it will be soaked again soon enough.
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