Trinity church, Boston (1, HDR)

HDR can give excellent results without looking artificial - it takes

some practise with adjustments, but if there is a little bit of blow

out (as in arch over trancept) and a little bit of detailless shadow

(eg top LH corner) then the result can look quite natural.

I'm glad you posted this, along with the explanation. I have been following the development of the HDR aesthetic, and, so far, I can't say that I've much cared for it.

I'm not sure I'd say HDR photos look "artificial", as I use that word very carefully if at all with respect to photography. All photos are, compared to human vision, artificial. HDR photos look very different from what we have become accustomed to. Yet, the argument could be made (although I will not make it here) that HDR approximates human seeing more closely than photography with less dynamic range.

At any rate, I think this photo, with its more restrained use of the technology, pleases me more than any of the other HDR photos I've seen.

Thanks Gordon for your critique. I have experimented with some HDR and in this case the HDR image was better than the best I could do with any single shot. I could not adjust the "normal" exposure anywhere close to the quality of the HDR image. My best efforts adjusting the RAW underexposed image gave me a reasonable image, but it is very noticably noisy - I've attached this image below.

Cheers, Rick

... please take a look at my portfolio for the HDR tests at Trinity Church that I did last year. The results were quite interesting. Thanks.

Here is a link to a discussion on HDR for these purposes: http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6240667

Were you really able to handhold 1sec exposure and match the other bracket shots? That's what gets my admiration!

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for taking the time to comment and for the pointer to your great gallery.

My pics of Trinity were taken on a cloudless summer afternoon, the altar was dazzlingly illuminated by a beam of sunlight - challenging conditions for photographing church interiors. I've posted some of my other shots, you can clearly see the spotlight effect.

As for handholding at slow shuter speeds, you will notice that all my shots were taken at odd angles, i.e. from places where there was something rigid to steady my camera.

Now I'm off to take a close look at your gallery...

Cheers, Rick DB