HDR Waterfalls

It should be no surprise that I took some bracket shots of the waterfalls from the other day. I'm not so happy with the HDR shots as I was with the normal shots, which for me is a little strange, but I think the blame goes on me, I rushed the shots. Note to self, and other photographers, don't go to a shoot with someone who's not a photographer, you'll end up feeling rushed even if they're in the car chatting happily on the phone oblivious to your shooting.

The shot is a 3 shot HDR (High Dynamic Range) shot, that's all the rage right now. In the camera it was supposed to have EVs (exposure value) -2 (under exposed, so a darker shot revealing detail in the brighter parts of the picture), 0 (what the camera thought was the correct exposure for the shot), and +2 (over exposed to bring out detail in the shadows). Using CHDK I was using DNG files (Adobe's answer to manufacturer specific RAWs). I merged them together in Photomatix Pro, by far my favorite HDR program that I've tried. It's at this point where I realized I wasn't happy. Coming out of Photomatix the greens were more of a blue green, and the water was showing off the fact that I have dead pixels on the camera, which from what I understand isn't all that uncommon, but I forgot to tell CHDK to remap around them. So the dead pixels were noticeable.

So if I didn't like the shot, why am I posting it? Well after some time in Topaz Adjust (my new favorite photo fixer) and Topaz Detail I was able to control the alien looking foliage, clean up the water a bit, and bring out the the fact the sun was just starting to hit the falls (top left corner). Hope you like it, and feel free to leave a comment.

HDR Falls