Mike Hardisty

Weekly Photo Challenge: Simple


As a photographer, and especially one who uses HDR, I am always looking for ways to simplify post processing of the photographs I take. I think I have found a solution that suits me in a piece of software called Machinery HDR Effects. Just recently I was re-introduced to this software that previously was not available in the English language. But with the recent release that situation has now been rectified.

So what am I talking about? Take this image:

Original image before processing with Machinery HDR Effects 2.2

There are several things I can see wrong with this image. It’s slightly dark and it could do with some more definition in the skies, the animals fur and the background. Normally this is where I would pass it through my HDR software and then spend some time post processing in PhotoPlus from Serif Software. Finally finishing the image by re-sizing it for WordPress.

Machinery HDR Effects has made my post processing a lot simpler. Here’s my final image done almost completely with Machinery HDR Effects. The only thing I did in PhotoPlus was straighten the horizon.

The final image after processing with Machinery HDR Effects 2.2

I’m not saying that Machinery HDR Effects is for everyone. It suits me and over the past two weeks I have certainly found that it is simplifying my workflow, so that can’t be bad.

By the way, the dog is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and he was photographed on the beach at Weston-super-Mare, England. His Kennel Club name is Amantra Prince Rupert but we call him Deefer. I’ll leave you to work it out what Deefer means.

As usual, in all my posts I use Zemanta to find related articles to this weeks Weekly Photo Challenge. These are the ones that have been found so far. During the week I will re-visit this post and see how many more Zemanta picks up….
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30 comments

  4. The change that made to the sand in particular is astonishing. I’m not normally a fan of HDR because a lot of the photos I’ve seen which use it look unnatural but this is great!

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    • I used to make my HDR images look really crazy. Nowadays the 2 main programs that I use, SNS-HDR and Unified Colors HDR Express are almost incapable of creating that crazy, over-saturated look. I have nothing against it but I now prefer that my images have a more natural look. Machinery takes everything a step further. I can get very natural looking, but if I prefer I can go to the extreme…

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  12. Looks like he’s waiting patiently for his owner to catch up! Lovely pic.

    I also play around a lot with my photos, although I’m completely un-technical. Seem to do most of it by feel, and use GIMP to edit. I see it as an art form, and it’s just great fun.

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  16. Beautiful photo of your adorable dog! And such an amazing difference between the two photos! I use PSE which can be frustrating at times. Thanks for the weekly photo link and the great tips on HDR.

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  21. Awesome photo and awesome post! I’m a huge fan of HDR and can’t wait till I can get a decent camera and the software to use it. The difference in the photos is amazing and the dog is just gorgeous. Thank you for sharing how you made the changes.

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