I love it! Clouds seem to really pop with this HDR technique and combined with that sureal quality makes me want to see (and take) more... the other night I browsed through the entire Flick HDR pool.... keep up the good work Dave!

stunning

Hi David,

this shot is incredible! – I like the surrealistic touch of it, it makes me think of pure Science Fiction and on the other hand it looks so real that it could be true! The absence of human actors makes it even more threatening and the lifting ramp strongly reminds me of “War of the worlds”.

How much time does it take to produce such results?

I agree - it's very spooky and the machinery feels alive. How many images are you overlaying in the HDR?

Honestly, I can say that I liked the first HDR photo you posted two days ago better than this one or the previous one. While I understand that HDR composites images taken at different exposures, I think this technique is utilized at its best when photographers try to bring out color variation that is otherwise impossible. While there is something very surreal about being able to see all areas of picture (with no area underexposed or overexposed), the HDR effect is much more surreal when it is also applied to dramatic color variations.

Benno: this one took about two hours.

Patrick: five for this shot, but I'm just starting work on another (though I'm not convinced it's going to work) that has nine. Basically, I'm exposing for the shadow detail first, then taking subsequent shots at one stop apart until I've correctly exposed the highlights.

Its certainly a very interesting technique. The main reason I like these images is that usually for an image to look unrealistic one has to remove certain qualities ( i.e. de-focused, de-colored, etc.. ). However, these images appear unrealistic because they are overrealistic. Its almost like there is too much information to cope with.

Hopefully you'll get quicker at post-processing as with these brilliant results I can imagine that you are going to be experimenting with this technique for much of the year.

[ I've recently been experimenting with lens blur to create model village style images, the next experimenting I'm going to try is definately HDR. ]

Dave, thanks for sharing the information on Photomatix with us. It is really amazing. I've been testing it all afternoon and hope to post a few pictures later in the week.

No need to apologize. Vive la difference! Leave the nitpicking *realism* to those who only imagine pleasure in austerity and constraint. Your enthusiasm is to the benefit of all your fans. When you're having a good time it's reflected in your work. This is great stuff.

I think I like them in the order you've posted so far, but the first two (especially) are simply amazing! This one is merely wonderful!

I almost dropped my laptop (excitedly passing it to my wife) when I viewed Friday's image. It was SO riveting--obviously a photograph but reminiscent of a fine illustration and, like infrared, totally ethereal and stimulating. Just the look I've been chasing and longing for better tools to help. You've nailed it right off the bat. Bastard!

I didn't comment on the first image (or the second), as I was too busy running to the Photomatix site to download the whole package and play around. I am both grateful for your wonderful examples over the ensuing couple of days, and pissed at myself for not discovering this software on my own.

These are SO good, David. Seriously. Now you've got me as excited as you to see what comes next from your experimentation.

P.S.

I think they got the wrong size replacement tanks. How do they intend on stuffing those big ones into such a small receptacle on the gas lamp? ;-)

David: What version of Photomatix are you using, the basic version or the Pro version?

These pictures look amazing. My favorite one so far has been the first under the pier picture.

The effect is neat, but the colours on this one freak me out.

What I like more about this HDR technique it's the fact that the composition gain an almost 3D feel. The objects gain a different life and the viewer is constantly discovering new and small details. Great work as always. :-)

hi I realy love the pics on this page and I recently open my own blog and if any one would like to look at it http://wisconsinpics.blogspot.com

I realy like this pic

These HDR images are just Stunning. STUNNING! I've already bookmarked the website and will download the trial version so that I can mess around with it myself. The colors are so otherwordly it isn't even funny. Bravo! By the way, Photomatix should be giving you a cut on all of the business you are bringing them!

It's chromasia in the land of CGI. Looking good, with great flat colors, as if it were a watercolored B&W print.

Love the colour, angle, composition and everything else about this image. You are very talented - I will be bookmarking your blog for sure! cheers

While it's a very neat process, I like when you said you will use this to enhance future images rather than what you did to this image. Not feelin it.

Colors are wonderful.

Wow, this is surreal. I'm baffled.

Wow, I really like this one. The purple of the gas cylinder is almost irredescent.

What I'd like to know is why does it take 2 or 3 hours to process a single image. I thought that was the idea of Photomatix. What part of the process is so involved? And what sort of lighting situation can you find where the dynamic range is a full NINE stops? That's going to be quite an image...

Keep the experimenting up. I have no idea how you manage all this with a full time job and 5 children and a wife. I assume you never watch TV for a start.

I love it. I love that green!

IM a huge fan of these HDR images. I took a digital photography class in college and a guy was trying to do some of these. His really were pretty terrible but they did show me that there was some pretty interesting things that can be done with them. I hear allot of arguing about the extent post-processing can be used and still call it photography. But I think that is rediculous. You have created a visually stimulating image with a camera and to me that is Photography. Its what I love about it. keep it up dave.

Sorry for a long first post coming up. What might have been a paragraph seems now to be a bit of an essay, but I don't see how to shorten it much while still being reasonably confident of being clear. Anyway ...

I'm not so sure that these HDR images are more unrealistic than other types of photos.

When I look at a scene (in real life, not in a picture) which has a very wide range of brightness, I don't often see part of it as overexposed or underexposed. Of course my eye is unable to make out both shadow and highlight detail in a scene at the same instant, but I perceive both shadow detail and highlight detail because the eye moves rapidly around the scene, adapting (not quite instantaneously) to the local brightness as it moves. My mind constructs a "picture" which includes detail in all ranges of brightness, even though they eye can't physically produce all this information at the same time. As a result, in practice I experience a good range of brightness & darkness within shadow areas; and I experience a similar range of brightness and darkness (although it all "feels" brighter) in the lighter parts of the scene. You probably all know how this works, but I want to make sure we're starting from the same place.

(Of course there are exceptions where the range is truly extreme and my eye can't deal with the range quickly enough for this to work well. In such cases I perceive glare in light areas or deep shadow in dark areas. Another difficulty is where there is a bright light next to something dark, and I can't see detail in the dark are because it's just too close the light so the eye is always adapted to bright light while looking in that direction.)

[Up to this point, I'm pretty confident that I'm describing something which is well established. The rest is my own perception and speculation.]

When I look at a photo, often one of two things happens: either some part of the shadow loses detail which I would have been able to see in real life, had I been interested in looking; or part of the range of brightness (usually the darker parts) seems "compressed" compared to reality. I can acept that that's what happens in a picture - I'm certainly used to it! But that doesn't make it "realistic", it only makes it "normal".

I often like HDR images. (Of course there are some very unappealing examples around, but that's true of all types of images.) But I really noticed a difference today, looking at HDR pictures for the first time on my work computer screen which is 12", whereas my home screen is 24". I found the HDR images less appealing on a small screen.

I suspect the small size matters because I can see too much of the picture in detail "all at once". My eye doesn't need to move so far to move from one part of the image to another, so I now notice that relative brightness in different parts of the image is a bit odd. Too much of the image is simultaneously within the area in which my eye can actually make out significant detail at one instant.

I suspect that if I look at the HDR image at larger size (or more specifically, if the image subtends a greater angle of my field of vision) the relative brightness across the image is still odd (ie more uniform than the real scene) but I notice it less because my eye still has to move significantly to get significant amounts of information from different parts of the image. In real life the eye would naturally adapt to differing brightness in different parts of the scene, and I would not be conscious of that happening; and since I wasn't conscious that it happens with the real scene, I don't miss it when looking at the HDR image. But maybe this would only work if the image subtends a similar visual angle to the original scene.

Another great image, some days I cannot find the time to even look at Chromasia so how you manage to put up such consistently good work on a daily basis is beyond me. Have you ever looked at www.3amfromkyoto.com?, I think they must use the HDR technique quite a bit.

Couldn't stop thinking about it.

If my line of thinking (my previous post) is correct, then here are a couple of (subjectively) testable predictions:

- HDR images would seem most "natural" for wide-angle images viewed in such a way that they subtend a large visual angle (eg up close to a large print) so as to be experienced as wide-angle.

- So a HDR image with a telephoto perspective would probably tend to look odd, and

- Any HDR image woiuld tend to look odd (perhaps in a different way from the previous case) if viewed from sufficient distance to make it subtend a small angle of the visual field (eg small print, from a distance).

Of course you may not want it to look "natural"; but to be sure of creating the effect you want you might need to specify monitor pixel pitch and viewing distance!

DavidG, thank you for a discourse which would never have crossed my mind I found it very interesting for the most part, and probably accurate for the whole...:)

You might want to get out a bit more often, but I applaud your thought processes nonetheless :) LOL

I like the mix of very dull and very vibrant colours. Very interesting....

loving the HDR stuff. Really like the colours in this shot. I will def be getting this software. like the composition as well. nice one

HDR is an amazing aid to the imagination, just lets hope it doesnt render imagination a thing of the past. I love this image, the colour range is phonomenal.

I'm also loving these HDR images. Surreal looking maybe, but before this film or digital capture devices where never able to capture the full exposure and contrast range that the eye and mind perceived.

Isn't being happy what its all about? Being happy with a photo study or process usually means more images, more images of this type means the viewer is happy too! I guess we can soon expect a flood of these types of images in the photo blogging world, but please keep yours coming.

How long is it between exposures? The reason why I'm asking is that I would expect the clouds to be moving and am wondering how you handle that in registration. I personnally really enjoy the ethereal look of them.

Wow... as usual you've wowed me again. Will you be adding your HDR process workflow info anywhere for those interested?

These HDR images are unreal. The colors are almost painting-like.
These images remind me of the process used in the movie Sin City, not sure if you've seen it. Similar tones I guess.
Anyway, also with Allen- will you be adding your HDR information anywhere on the site?

Seems as if I have to give the HDR software a try :-) I like what you do here!

Hi Dave,

Amasing HDR shots. Did you try the HDR processing of Photoshop as well? If so which do you prefer and why?

Cheers.

Awesome! The HDR effect is really super great. Like the colour tone as well.

Wow! amazing picture. I love the coloring and the dark, bit threatening sky.

This picture proves once again that you are truly one of my favourites.

amazing! i realy love your images.

Thanks everyone.

As for DavidG's point: I suspect he's probably right. Taken in isolation, the various bits of an HDR image often don't look all that unusual, it's their combination that seems strange; i.e. a 'normal' photograph, or our 'normal' view of a scene is never evenly illuminated in this way. I think it's this even light across an image that makes them appear quite surreal.