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I finally found some time to go out and have a play with my D200... and I actually managed to find some blue sky in Sydney today

I've driven past this beautiful landmark many times, but have never taken the trouble to stop & have a look... Today I did...

I have to say that the building is slightly less spectacular close up than when seen from a distance, but beautiful & peaceful nevertheless...

I had a play with the rapid-fire exposure bracketing on the D200 and took 3 images hand-held, 0EV, -1EV & +1EV. The Tokina 12-24 & a CPL were used...

I merged the 3 images to HDR in PS and then compensated for the distortion... I ended up with this, which I'm quite pleased with...



Here's the 0EV image with minimal processing, so you can see the difference...



The highlights at the top-right of the dome in the HDR version are a little blown, but what do people think???

P.S. I think it's about time that I calibrated my monitors again... The main pic looks OK on one and extremely dark on the other - what do other people see?

looks fine to me especially for a hand held HDR

well done

Nice image. I'm in Warriewood so I can just about see the temple from my balcony. I've taken a few pictures of the temple by moonlight which turned out quite well.
On my monitor the foreground is very dark and has lost most of it's detail. I'd be tempted to try and lighten the area or crop it out. You've chosen a hard subject to get right though. The blue sky is nice but you then have to deal with the strong sunlight. You have to compromise somewhere and have done a pretty good job.

i like the tone of the 2nd one
if you just straighten it up a little that would be charming

hi john. to me it looks as if it's leaning to the left a little, i also think if you crop some of the shadow off the bottom you would have a winner.
cheers pa

John, I am like you in it appears less spectacular upon closer proximity. From a distance on the hill it just looks that much more massive but now does not appear quite so large?

Pa wrote:hi john. to me it looks as if it's leaning to the left a little, i also think if you crop some of the shadow off the bottom you would have a winner.
cheers pa

Pa... The first one is pretty damn straight according to my rulers, but the second one is uncorrected and is 1 degree off...

I like the result you have achieved here, on my monitor the forground is a little subdued but it adds to the image imo.....very nice.
I haven't seen this temple for an eon, used to pass this on my way to Whale Beach........too many moons ago to even want to think about it.

John, I was just reading something about HDR and Photoshop today and it mentioned that to use HDR effectively it requires at least 5-7 images (or more) and that manual as opposed to autofocus is best used. It seems to me you used the auto bracket function in the D200 to bracket. Can the D200 bracket more than three images at a time? To get greater dynamic range you will have to use a tripod and many more images. I think the buildings shape is worth the effort to do so, as this would require a bit of an expedition. I'm surprised it isn't in the form of a lotus like the headquarters in Delhi.

Dargan wrote:Can the D200 bracket more than three images at a time?

Yep, the D200 can bracket up to 9 images with +/- 0.3, 0.7 or 1 EV each time... That should cover any innacuracies in the metering

Of course, I would only attempt that with a tripod and a cable release...

HDR looks great here, any more shadow detail and it would start to appear unrealistic. Nice leading lines in the foreground. Blown areas of the dome don't bother me - again, this is what my eyes expect in a scene with huge DR. Good shot

rooboy wrote:HDR looks great here, any more shadow detail and it would start to appear unrealistic. Nice leading lines in the foreground. Blown areas of the dome don't bother me - again, this is what my eyes expect in a scene with huge DR. Good shot

Thanks Patrick...
Yep - it was an interesting exercise in trying out both my D200 and PS HDR which I haven't used seriously before...
The result - pretty much what I saw at the time...

Hi leek / all, any pointers for a good guide for the HDR process, I have some picture series I would like to try this effect on.

John, great result. Shows the benefit of your skills, the D200 and HDR.