Norway Express (+ HDR Trial Results)

[johntwo]

I don't normally resort to a full HDR treatment but it seemed to work for this one.

[Denis]

I like seeing yours and Ryewolf's beautiful mono shots of Locomotives, but that John,adds a bit of something else to a colour image that does it proud.

[Hatter]

Looks good, John - the treatment has brought out the strong reds on the train and blues in the sky.

Is this a "real" HDR or just a single shot processed as HDR?

 

[johntwo]

Thanks Denis, thanks Gareth.

Two images made from a single exposure Gareth.  I use an App. called SNS Home for the occasional exposure that would benefit from some tone mapping but it is capable of producing this sort of image as well.  These days with some careful exposure, I mostly manage using the PS Shadows/Highlights tool.

[Hatter]

15 minutes ago, johntwo said:

These days with some careful exposure, I mostly manage using the PS Shadows/Highlights tool.

Yes.  I must admit I mostly just use the Lightroom Highlights & Shadows sliders on single exposures.  I've got Photomatix and Aurora HDR but I find that for "real" HDR with multiple exposures, the Lightroom 'merge to HDR' function gives the most realistic-looking results.

[johntwo]

That's why I chose SNS.  I trialed three different Apps that were popular at the time - Oloneo, Photomatix and SNS HDR.   Oloneo didn't handle the Shadows well.  Photmatix was a bit light overall and a bit over saturated (greens and yellows) but I'm sure some tweaking in P.S would have produced a perfectly acceptable result because all of the detail was there.  SNS produced the goods straight out of the box with a very natural looking image.  In case anybody is interested, I have posted the results below .  The test used three images all made from the original; one to correct the highlights, one to correct the shadows and a neutral image before being combined.

1. Original Image

2. Oloneo result.

3. Photomatix Result

4. SNS Result.

 

[FUJI]

I like the train especially because it reminds me very much of the pictures in those heavy cardboard books for infants.... bright, clear and colourful....

Perhaps you should have a go at an....ALPHABET.... picture series done in exactly the same style ?

 

Not sure where you’ll find a Zebra though

FUJI

[Denis]

I seem to prefer the SNS HDR image from all three. OK, it is an enhanced image too, but to my eyes it looks the most 'natural' for want of a better word, out of all three

[johntwo]

 Thanks Fuj, thanks Denis. Missed these.  At the time I bought it, the SNS app. was by far the least expensive of the three but unlike Photomatix, it won't easily produce the extreme HDR effect that became briefly popular a while back.  I use it occasionally for correcting the tonal range of an image.