A bit overprocessed to me but looks great to me. The faded colors fit to the theme. Regards.

Realyy good, i like this kind of pictures very much - i think you processing HDR absolute perfect. Nice day

Railroad to Heaven

Something like this definitely suits the HDR treatment - it brings out the details so well.

The lines and angle make this shot for me - draws you right through the image. Great clouds too.

Beautiful HDR, beautifull everything! NIce :)

This is a very nice shot and its HDR treatment is very good too. I love this frozen atmosphere, with its blue/green grey sky, the dark and yellow vegetation, the graphic composition. When you look at desolate landscapes, such as wrecks, your shots don't make me sad : they are all so full of energy !

It's always stunning to me David the way HDR can capture so much detail at both ends of the scale, the difference against the metered shot you posted is huge. I think a lot of people, like me, will prefer the subtler way you've treated this picture. Did you have problems with the clouds moving over the 7 shot sequence ? Because if you dropped it in seperately did the fine detail of the trees create a big problem when masking ?

Justin: the sky was tone mapped too, and the only changes I made were minor; i.e. there were a couple of movement artefacts that I needed to get rid of. Other than that though this was a relatively straightforward image to process.

super traitement!

Nice texture.

Old wood and metal work really well with the HDR treatment. I didnt think it was over processed I like it very much.

Path to Oneness. Beautiful detail... the sky is especially striking. Don't know how you compose your shots, but I am always stunned by your attention to perspective and geometry. Carlos

Hey Dave,

Its been so long since I've done this, so here goes....

You use this HDR technique a lot, and it adds a surreal quality to the images. In this case, I like the subtly. I prefer it in fact, to the the image you posted a few days ago, of the church interior.

I've always been fond of the desaturated color palate. It conveys a feelings of bleakness, and if you aren't a bright person by nature, that studied lack of pretension (is use pretense lightly, i'm not sure its exactly the word i'm looking for) is soothing.

Compositionally i like the use of leading lines. Looking out into eternity adds to the restful nature of the photo. It also adds a bit of mystery. Where do the tracks lead? The subject itself taps into the cache of trains and brings to mind a bit of nostalgia, emphasized, I think, by the desaturated color palate.

I've been thinking about the idea of contrast in composition lately, and this photos use of it is interesting. In some ways, because of the use of HDR, there is less contrast over all in the dynamic range. HDR compresses the extreme ends, and this photo in particular has flat elements to its color.

on the other hand, you brought out contrast in color, in order to emphasize the texture of the tracks and railroad ties.

I noticed the HDR gradient effect, where in the texture of the tracks, it almost looks like a mask of clouds was added. That gives the photo as a whole a slightly dirty look, like it has been abused, which lends itself to the photo along side the overgrown nature of the scene.

Overall I see abandonment, nostalgia, and a touch of wanderlust all cast in a sense of heightened drama.

Very nice. :)

Very nice HDR , great post-traitement

The overall subtle treatment has complimented the scene perfectly.

As others have said I like the way the tracks lead the eye off into the unknown but I guess that was probably the point in the first place! I think only the foreground textures really give it away that it's an HDR image and this together with Craig's image today has showed that HDR has it's delicate side too, personally I like both ends of the spectrum-it just depends on the subject. So I think I'm trying to say I like it a lot ;O)

Glad you chaps had a good weekend, looking forward to seeing more from both of you in the coming days.

Love the composition ;-)

Not my kind of photography really. I think I'd rather go to an art gallery. If like me, you like photojournalism try www.digitaljournalist.org and see what photography was truly meant for.
I'm afraid manipulating algorithms on a computer is like the printer that makes Mona Lisa postcards.

Love this shot; once of those evocative images that seems to be a metaphor for so many things. One inevitable niggle; while I think the HDR treatment and muted colour make the shot, the cloudy/blotchy HDR patches on the rails and sleepers (particularly in the middle of the image) are IMHO awful. They're not too much of a distraction in this case, but in general these artefacts are the one thing I really loathe about HDR.

Just echoing my congrats on another great image... I'm normally not for the "HDR-y" HDR images, but this one definitely works!

Lovely composition and toning is just beautiful!!!

Nice HDR! I like the perspective made by railroads!

Dave: nice treatment of the image.. although the angle of the tracks does make me feel slightly off balance...

txc: going back to the old argument again..."manipulating algorithms on a computer " is merely the 21st century equivalent of fiddling about with chemicals in a darkroom - with the exception that nowadays almost anyone can do it. (I'm not saying that everyone should!)
If you don't like HDR, then fine, but don't just jump on the tired bandwagon of 'it's not real photography'

HDR suits this particular photo very well. Congrats!

Looks really good. I would have liked the image a bit more darker, but hey that is just me :-)

Well, reading between the lines (no pun) I think that its possible to edge HDR towards subtle / natural using Photomatix, and this kind of subject without WIND works really well. I liked this image so much, I think I took one myself ;-)..... The end result is a natural graphic, and something that has a feel of a post apocolyptic landscape about it. Its like a scene from a good computer game, and I half expect to hear a train a comin!!!! Very good image. And technically precision engineered.
Craig @ ID7

AMAAAAAZING!

(please, send anything for expose in esquisso-a4.blogspot.com

somehow this image feels very romantic to me. first glance looks like an illustration... i like it.

hi. the color are wonderfull. i like ur photogeraphy are learn alot of things. goog luck.

Good to see some material from the weekend! And glad your internet is working... ;)
A bit of a more natural look to an HDR in Photomatix, that is brave, but it looks like you have managed. Shouldn´t it be tilted a bit to the right though, or is it only me? A.

Really nice HDR! I've always wanted to try it myself, but hte results always come out halfbad. I bookmarked your gallery! Great job!

If you want, take a look at my photos :) mostly abstract and macro.
www.hamtoast.com/photos/hamtoast
or perhaps my photoblog
www.hamtoast.com

Thanks all.

Jason: thanks.

txc: saying that photography was "meant" for photojournalism is a bit of a sweeping over-generalisation don't you think? ;)

Mark: you're quite right and the version that's up now has modified to remove some of the more obvious issues you mentioned.

abel: if I'd set this one up by eye I would probably have levelled the tracks but I used a spirit level, so it is accurate :)

Dennis: you should take a look at my tutorials :D

hmm maybe im getting used to this but its hard for me to really like this i think the realism is lost and the stones are a bit too sketchy... but if thats the effect you are going for then great just my own personal preff..

I really like this type of picture and you are a source of inspiration.

This is great. I've tried this technique a couple of times, to little success.

This looks like a product of TopazAdjust, the detail, color shift, etc. Was this used in addition to the HDR process?

Ths is a wonderful HDR photo! The air looks so nice!

Classic HDR. Looks really nice. Top work.