[karin.vienna]

HDR, 3 exposures: 1/10, 1/20, 1/5, merged with Photomatix
Camera: Canon EOS 400D, lens Sigma 10 - 20 mm
Aperture: f14
All comments and suggestions are welcome
Cheers, Karin

[Pavel]

Hello Karin - nice to see you posting with us and thanks for dropping in from the other busy places.
I love the drama of the sky in this photo (Photomatix is good for that), yet the field has nice natural colours. So do the trees and hedges. There is a good harmony between the field and the sky. You have also been sensitive to the need to preserve some shadows and your photo does not have that shadowless, flat look that turns me off on many HDR photos. The title is very suitable - the feel is that something is about to happen.

I generally like the composition, including giving most of the space to the sky, even though I probably would have prefered to see some interesting foreground. Some of the best photos I saw with the ultrawides position lens low to the ground and point slightly downward. This captures some details of flowers or rocks or some other interesting subject in the foreground and yet you could still keep the horizon where it is.

The photo looks less than sharp, even though the other reviewers on the other site thought it was sharp. It could be that on this site there is not the same restriction on image size (although tougher restriction on the file size). It could be that you have just downsized the downsized JPEG you have already ceated. I would suggest that when posting here, you keep the image size largish (1500 pixels or so on the long side) and that you downsize directly from CS3 to JPEG. Your HDR is betrayed by the halos along the horizon and scisors-like outline. I do not know Photomatix well enough and I do not know how you control it, but if you can, I would. The lack of sharpness and the artefacts of HDR are the elements in this photo that I like the least. I would give this 2TUs.

Pavel.

I will be gone to Gaspe with Gary for about 10 days and then I am going with Angela to Portugal (Porto and surrounds) and so I will not see your comments probably until mid September. I hope to see more of you then. Pavel

[EnglishBob]

Great shot, very dramatic sky, really like the sheets of rain falling in the left of the image.

As Dreamingpixels states, I do feel I would like to see a stronger base for the image, something more in the foreground, though of course not being there when it was shot I have no clue to what your situation was.

[Don Schaeffer]

The clouds near the horizon are almost two sharp. They look like they were added later (although I'm certain they were not). Otherwise this is a great HDR shot.

[Keith Alan]

I like it very much.
The halos aren't too distracting--you have to look for them.

Don--it's been my experience that Photomatix HDRs nearly always look like excessive sharpening was applied even when none was used at all.

[Zig]

+1 to all comments: I'm willing this to work! I like that "minimalist" approach on the foreground so as to accentuate the sky, but feel that if the road/path were a little more central, it'd have more gravitas.
I know, Photomatix is both brill and maddening, innit! I find that the "sharpening" effect can be lessened a bit by reducing the dynamic range between shots, and even by a little judicious layering-in of some diffusion?

[tompatterson]

Great photo. Very simple shot but looks great.

[Keith Alan]

Zig makes some good points--using a narrower bracket like 0.7EV was often the key to getting the best results when I played with Photomatix.

I also agree with his composition comments, although I love this photo just as it is.

[Pippin Says]

Love the picture. It draws me in and makes me feel like I'm there. I am enjoying the post relating to processing. You guys are teaching me a lot. Thank you.

[shuttertalk]

I love the dramatic colours in the sky contrasted with the sunlit golden field on this one. Good eye!

Part of me sort of wishes that the camera position were a few feet to the left - the road could have been a great leading line into the horizon (although probably somewhat cliche-ish).