Title • get the message

As I look back through the stuff I've posted over the last few months I'm generally happy with it, but it is all getting a bit safe: landscapes, portraits of the kids, things I've found on the beach, and so on. And I guess that isn't a problem, but I do think it's probably past the time when I should try something a bit different.

This one, for example, is probably something I wouldn't have normally bothered with but I thought I'd see what I could make of it. My initial idea was to produce a straightforward HDR from three hand-held originals, but the originals weren't aligned, and the automatic alignment (within Photomatix) failed. I was about to give up on it but thought I'd see what I could do with it.

If you take a look at the original (linked below), you'll see that the colours are quite different in this version. This was achieved in Lab Color mode (the subject of my next tutorial) by altering the ‘a’ and ‘b’ curves. Anyway, as this is a bit different from the stuff I've been posting recently I would be interested to hear what you think of it.

And if you're interested, one of the original three images (top) and the tone-mapped HDR (below) can be seen here:

.../iblog/archives/get_the_message.php

And finally, this is one that's much better with the black theme.