Golden Age of Travelby
CaptainJackComment by snaffles: Greetings from the Critique Club!
Basically this is a very nice shot of a lovely old train, though I find the angle a little safe. If you had been able to get closer to shoot from a lower POV you may have had a much stronger, more dynamic image to work with. The glarey sun is a bit much and could have been burnt down a bit without damaging the image.
PP is very subjective, it's hard to tell someone what they should do with their images. However, here the answer is easy as you have pretty much hit the nail on the head. HDR is indeed a love/hate topic here. I don't hate it, and have used it myself, but don't like getting my eyeballs blistered by too-heavy HDR! IMHO this is getting to be too much HDR, but I have seen much worse here. If in doubt, or if you're unhappy with the image yourself, rethink things a little. Then go back to a copy of the original file and work with it, but scale things back a little.
Again, and strictly my opinion and experiences talking here...no amount of pp will save a poor image, and it's very easy to ruin a perfectly fine image with too much pp. Check out my own portfolio from approx 2006-2008 and you'll see what I mean - I really do know what I'm talking about!
You may want to look up previous HDR challenges and try this little trick. Go through all the images, in reverse order, and work your way up to the front page. You'll notice that the images get cleaner, and if you see entries with what you feel are levels of HDR you want to approximate, read the comments. Try PM'ing that particular photog and ask for advice or hints. Most people here are pretty good folk and will help you out.
Hope this has been of help, keep on shooting and entering!
Feel free to PM me,
Susan
Photographer found comment helpful.
