Taken at Island Bay. This Bay usually has 8-10 Fishing Boats tied down here, But this day all but this one were out to sea. Would have liked to capture a few more because they are all different colors and it would have given the photo a little more variety, But I am quite happy with the results never the less.
PP: Reduced to 16 Bit and Mapped. Cropped Then used Adjustment Layers for Levels, Curves, Hues and Sats, Photo Filter then converted to 8 Bit, Adjusted Hightlights and Shadows, a slight Color Correction Resized, Sharpened Added the frame and Saved for Web. Hope you Enjoy.
Statistics
Place: 116 out of 155 Avg (all users): 5.3418 Avg (commenters): 5.5000 Avg (participants): 5.1023 Avg (non-participants): 5.5370 Views since voting: 704 Views during voting: 426 Votes: 196 Comments: 8 Favorites: 0
Coming back to comment. I gave this a 6. Definitely not over processed, but I can see how some people who have the "must look like a cartoon" view of HDR may score it low. To be honest, I was hovering between 5 and 6 but that has NOTHING to do with the HDR effect, it's more the composition of the image that was pushing me towards a 5. It think this is where people seem to forget (that comment is directed more to what I have read in the forum, not you by the way!), it's not just about the HDR. I am not a big fan of the black border. I think it does not enhance this image at all, if you needed a border, I think white would have worked a bit better.
As far as the processing goes, you definitely managed to pull out some detail by using the HDR technique, but in the process, I think the cyan/blue channel seems to have been tweaked a bit too much as it appears to be somewhat unnatural. I think the midtones also could do with being toned down a bit, as it seems quite bright.
Overall, I do think you are suffering because it is not what the viewers here on DPC have come to expect from HDR, but also a little bit because of the compoition and general level processing. As I said, I did give it a six. I hope this is helpful.
What a great location. Does not appear to be HDR at first look, but I am also learning that HDR is a great tool for overcoming the problems inherent in midday sun photography.
Here's a non-traditional HDR, but it's nice how you got the details from the water at the foreground as well as on the mountains. Most amazing is how the mountain tops is "floating" above all scene. Well done!
I have given this a 5. The reason for the 5 are that as a photo it is pleasant with plenty of interest (believe me I gave many votes less than a 5 in this one!) Why I didn't vote higher is that while this shot may be an HDR processed one, it's not obvious that it was. In saying that I don't mean it has to be a fisher-price coloured over-the-top shot but. The extra range that I'd hope to see in a shot from the HDR is not evident in this for me. Not having seen the originals it's hard to say what you worked from so it may be obvious to you what the benefit of the HDR was but it doesn't come through that well in this shot for me.