I love it, the colors are amazing, you seem to be using FDRTools more than Photo Matix, any particular reason? The orange and blue play off of eachother nicely, great image!

DavidC: Photomatix is much better at producing surreal, "illustrative" images whereas FDRTools seems better suited to producing more photo-realistic results. At the moment I'm trying to find ways of producing images that get away from the "typical" HDR look so am tending to favour FDRTools. Both have their uses though.

I like it - and kinda want to check out FDR tools now that you've been touting it. Gonna download the trial tonight!

JVL: it's definitely worth trying out, but make sure you get the Advanced version as it has a much better method of producing HDR images than the Basic version.

Great Colors, Fantastic clouds once again. You mentioned, you were going to post your favorite on Monday. Is this image your favorite from the set of four?

Chris: no, this isn't my favourite. I'm really short of material to post this week (what with one thing and another) so am spacing them out a bit and will be putting up my favourite on Wednesday.

Stunning sky... I almost want to remove the red basket... beautiful!

Single image hdr's also give me that problem, with too much noise. It makes good sense since the data isn't available in the backet. This is lovely, notice the way the fisheye looses sharpness in the edges. Great tones David. Is it on purpose the clouds have a weak orange hue?

Kristian: the highlights were toned using the Curves tool, but they should look more yellow than orange. And yes, I really like the way the sharpness falls off at the edges.

I love the sharpness, sky, toning, colours and composition. Really nice.

Awesome image. I'm going to download FDRTools and try it on some auto-bracketed shots that I have. I'll post the output in the next 24 hrs. I love that wide angle distortion on the basket... it makes the mundane surreal. The color play is great.

Wonderful Wide Angle Picture

Man, these partial HDR shots are really nice. In this one combination of sky and red color of the basket is neat.

Love the processing on this - I often wonder how you get your shots so sharp and punchy, and when I have a go myself it never seems to work. Trial and error I guess :)

I've been drooling over the 5D MK II recently, something I certainly wont be able to afford but do you think you'll consider an upgrade?

I'really liked the last few images with their simple composition and their post-processing to create the final images. I always find that interesting and want to rush out and give it a try myself.

Great perspective and processing!

Very simple subject but nice done! Just great!

ou comment avec rien faire une grande photo!

Great colours, fantastic sky. Love the red basket in the foreground. Beautiful!

You are the king of color...another eye catching image.

You really have a way with discarded things on the beach, and I think it is a little to sad you can find all these things laying around, or do you bring them your self ;-)

Outstanding !
As usual !

Very very nice. The basket looks a bit too surreal. But the result is great to look at.

Hey Dave, did you create an advanced mask for the holes in the basket? It´s kinda hard to tell if you did or not. The beachfront and sky which can be seen through the small holes seems a little lighter so maybe skipped it this time?
The image is stunning as always. It would be interesting to see what the final result would have looked like if you hadn´t used HDR-technique for the foreground.

I love how do you bring to life any object you find on the beach :)
Saludos

the sweeping blue sky and the tiny, broken red bucket are such wonderful contrasts. this image is excellent.

Thanks everyone.

Jem: 'sharp and punchy' is mostly a combination of contrast adjustments (using Curves) and sharpening, using Smart Sharpen. Drop me an email if you want to talk more about it. As for the 5D: it's tempting, but I'm also tempted by the 1Ds Mark III - though can't really afford either at the moment.

Claus: I do occasionally move the things I find, but don't take them with me :-)

Martin: no, I didn't create a mask for the basket, even though the area behind it is marginally lighter. In this instance I didn't have the time and am not sure the gains would have been all that great.

Ahh, authentic Chromasia style after quite a while. Absolutely love the colours...

Oh, I have been so busy lately I haven't had a chance to stop by. Another great bucket... Im not sure if it really counts as a bucket though.... The stones look pretty sweet too.

Mixed or not, this is pretty cool! The colour contrast is phenomenal.

The colors work amazingly together and the contrast is lovely.

What a colors and stunning photo

Pretty amazing how you're able create an amazing image out of something uninteresting as a broken piece of plastic lying on a beach. It baffles me each and every time David!

dave

I've been staring at this one for a while. The area within the holes at the bottom of the 'bucket', below the horizon... shouldn't that area be darker to match the background?

steve

Steve: yes, and no. The areas were brighter (in all three shots that were used for the HDR) but perhaps not quite as bright as the HDR process has made them. I decided to leave it as it was, as I didn't think it detracted from the final image.

Greate Colours and greate Image.
The basket is very impressive.