Travel Photo – St. Francis Xavier statue in HDR
If you come to Malaysia this year, one of the top 10 places to visit in Malaysia would have to be Melaka, the UNESCO world heritage city. When you are in Melaka, you must drop by (or you would definitely be passing by) the Christ Church, the red Spanish architecture. Behind it on top of the hill would be the abandoned St. Paul church built by Portuguese 489 years ago in 1521. Beside it there is a statue built in 1952 to commemorate the famous spanish jesuit, the late St. Francis Xavier.
This is a photo taken on the statue with St. Paul church behind it. It was processed with some PS action to create a HDR (High Dynamic Range) effect.
I don’t like HDR photography with too much action that makes the photo looks artificial or like oil painting. However, I like HDR photos of landscape that made every part of the scene looks perfectly exposed and colourful (especially high contrast scene or lighting) which could never be achieved even you are shooting with a Nikon D3x! How do I do HDR? Shoot 3 to 5 photos to a scene with different exposure value (EV) setting from +3 to -3. Then merge them into HDR image with either PS CS4 or Photomatix. Software would combine the best exposure of each part or object of these photos and turn it into 1 perfectly exposed HDR photo with incredibly high dynamic range!
Still not convincing or attractive to you? Look at the original photo right out of my Nikon D60 below and compare it to the above…
Sometimes, we need photo editing software to do some wonders for us and to our photos. I prefer natural lighting and colour. I prefer shoot more to get the best photo right from the camera without much post processing. We are photographer not graphic designer. However, if some appropriate and moderate editing actions could bring out more substances from a photo, why not? 🙂 – Travel Feeder.
About The Author
Cecil Lee
The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.
I’ve played a little with HDR but have huge amounts to learn. You’ve done a great job with the statue but I agree that most photos look so artificial.
- January 29, 2010.-= Mark H´s last blog ..Living with Martin Luther (Wittenberg, Germany) =-.
So much different. Love the blue blue sky.
It’s good that you post the original photo too. 🙂
I didn’t know PS CS4 can do HDR too.
- January 29, 2010I took a photo of this famous guy too when I visited Melaka in Dec 2008. I do enjoy viewing HDR images but sometimes it can be overdone and images end up looking artificial. I don’t think I will wander down the HDR lane.
In this case, the HDR is well done.
- January 29, 2010.-= Mei Teng´s last blog ..Baked Mussels =-.
Helo Cecil!
Indeed photoshop can do magic but your composition plays a major role n u did it very well! 😀 I thought u go Europe hehe! It’s not the usual Melaka shots that I expected! good good!
Usually if I want to create more contrast, I will use “Overlay” or “Soft light” in ps.
Now I also quite like that effect of model houses n people, that tilt shift effect.
- January 29, 2010.-= eunice´s last blog ..Day 8 – TA TA TAssie! =-.
@Mark,
Thanks. I’m still learning especially on how to eliminate completely the halo between layers.
@Che-Cheh,
PS CS4 can do HDR. Some might prefer Photomatix though. 🙂
@Mei Teng,
- January 30, 2010If HDR has been done moderately without overdoing, it can add tremendous impact to the image. 🙂
@Eunice,
Haha I’m on my way there to Europe but only in May 🙂
- January 30, 2010I haven’t tried and do not know the “Overlay” or “soft light” function in PS. I’ll will try it out. Thanks.
Tilt shifting the image also is something interesting to create that model house effect. I’m not sure PS could do that. If getting a tilt lens to do that, it would be too costly for me… 🙂
Thanks.
yea there’s always the balance we aim to strike between overprocessing but not making the photo look artificial. i do feel the saturation for nikon cameras need some post processing esp for landscape shots…(i like the skin tone colour of nikon). i do agree with u that the post processed shot here looks better to the eye than the original shot.
- January 31, 2010.-= lechuaphotography´s last blog ..Siem Reap – Street Food =-.
They look ok to me. I like HDR as it makes shot more vibrant and exciting. Just don’t overdo the processing and you’ll get good results.
- February 4, 2010.-= Alterity´s last blog ..The Garuda Wisnu Kencana Statue =-.