Scotney Castle

[danbrampton]

One of my first hdr attempts. The question is, is it any good?

[Donald]

Daniel

You haven't over-cooked the tone mapping. Personally, I am not so keen on seeing these 'over-cooked' images from those practicing HDR techniques.

But what I find most impressive about this is the extent to which you have got a 3D feel into it. When I first looked at it I saw the first floor windows of the house as, literally, sticking out from the wall of the house.

Other point for consideration is that, given you've shot it a very wide angle 918mm) you have distortion at both the left and right hand sides. The left-hand side doesn't seem such a distraction, but the dominant role of that round tower in the image makes its distortion very apparent. It's a case of deciding whether you live with this and justify on artistic grounds, or seek to correct it.

[FrankMi]

I find the subject quite fascinating! It looks like a dilapidated and a well maintained building in the same structure. As Donald says, the well maintained building appears to be almost popping out of the dilapidated one like a crustacean breaking out of its shell.

[kdoc856]

Daniel,

That is a superb effort. You took a very measured approach to your tone-mapping, and I know from personal experience that that can be a hard exercise in self-discipline (in not getting carried away). I personally alternate in truly enjoying and being modestly irritated by much of what is called HDR, due to the runaway tone-mapping. I think youv'e used the technique very well. I very much enjoy architectural images, but dont do a great deal of it because the distortions render me temporarily insane- so many comopromises. congrats on a nice job

Kevin

[Geoff F]

I agree that the HDR is subtle, Daniel, just the way I like it.

But my eyes were instantly drawn to the distortion, which Donald mentioned. If it was shot from a low angle I think it would be acceptable but from that angle, I think I would have a go at 'stretching and cropping' to try to force the verticals more upright.

[Fit]

I like the end result. Unlike several here- I tend to prefer the HDR images that are obvious, whether ultra-dramatic, fanciful whatever.
At first glance and my novice eye, I'd say "why bother with HDR" if you cannot tell. But to Donald's point, perhaps it is giving it depth that I (again, novice) didn't know to ascribe to HDR.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Daniel,

It is good, yes.

I like the composition, but as others; not the perspective distortion and for me, there is a bit of a halo peeping mainly around the round feature.

Had I shot it, I'd probably shoot to retain saturation in the sky, then bring up the mid-tones in PP, which at full framing and iso 100 shouldn't give any noise issues.

I did get a surprise seeing it from another angle when I googled it to see where it was (all that water).

Cheers,