The Good Ole Days

This is my first attempt at HDR and Tone Mapping.

It was a very bright and sunny day.

I would appreciate your critiques.

Thank you

Nicely done..not "overcooked" although I like that look sometimes... tone and comp look well handled. Congrats

Thanks to all of you who contributed to my critique.

I appreciate your comments very much.

All my best,

Steve

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This photo has a nice feel to it overall, a nice slice of how things were. Of course, it does appear that the proprietors here have included different periods and brands that probably would not have been seen together in the actual time.

Overall, it is a nice clean image. We know it has been cropped, but there are a few things that make me wonder how and where it was cropped. The image is very centered, with the car bisected by the center line. This probably doesn't really help the image or foster a nice eye movement throughout the image. The tallest pump seems a little tight to the top of the image. Then, we have an expanse of grass in the foreground that could probably be cut by 1/2 to 2/3's without any loss of information and yet would make the image a little less centered and stimulate a little more movement of the eye through the image.

As soon as I opened this image, I thought HDR. I looked for the usual tell tale signs--normally it seems you don't have to even look!-- and couldn't see any at this size. There have only been a few images done with HDR that seemed to really work for me, and this may be one of them. In this case, I think there are a few places where it might have gone too far--upper left corner tonal compression and maybe in the far headlight, but overall it stayed away from getting cartoonish and yet did clarify in the way HDR can. I hate to say it, but should we know immediately that something has been processed a certain way as soon as we look at an image or should our processing be transparent?

Overall, I think it is a nice image but feel that a few tweaks could easily be made to make it a bit better.

By the way, it would be interesting to see the original image before HDR. When I look at so many HDR images and knowing the type of scene, it makes me wonder if HDR was really necessary. This is one of those cases and think it would be interesting to see the original and what was garnered by its use.

Dear John A.
You are dead on accurate and I appreciate your comments as it truly helps be to become a better artist.
I have copied your comments to my file for further review of the image.
I am attaching one of the original images which has not been edited in any way. I took the standard three shots for the HDR and the original image I am attaching is the + side of center.
Thank you for your professional observations.
Sincere regards,
Steve Raub

I like the image as a whole, and unlike a lot of HDR work, this one doesn't glare out at the viewer. The main thing I question about it is the vertical format. I understand that the photographer may have wanted to get the full height of the gas pumps and part of the roofline in the shot, but for me, all the visual information seems sort of crammed into the space. I think it would have worked better if recomposed and shot in a horizontal format.

All in all, I like it. It's a very good vintage shot. It's also very refreshing to see an HDR which is not overdone, as most are. I think the vertical format fits the shot well

I'd like to offer two observations, other than to say thanks to Steve for providing an original frame, and for being open to critique. Thanks Steve.

First, there is an abundance of empty space that doesn't, in my opinion, add anything: Neither the grass at the bottom, nor the sky at the top make significant contributions to the heart of the photo, which is obviously the car and its immediate surrounds. There might have been good reasons for not going horizontal, although I tend to agree that a horizontal might work better. We can see from the original that modern life is immediately to the left of the pumps, and we can therefore assume it's immediately to the right, as well. In that case, with the 2x3 format Steve was shooting with, vertical provided a more sensible format. Maybe there was a tad more on the left, but it may have distracted from the rest of the scene. In other words, with the car as the main subject, extra details on the right may not have helped.

Solution? A compromise works well, for me, specifically, a more squarish crop, which reduces the sky and the brown grass. All the principle information remains, and is more readily accessible to the viewer.

The second observation is the perspective distortion of the pumps on the left, and the slats of the barn on the right. An easy correction (Edit>Transfor>Perspective) does wonders for this problem. True, it reduces the available image area, but in this case, Steve provided plenty of room to make the adjustment and the side margins end up the same as Steve's posted version. Some photographers like the skewed tilt provided by wide angle lenses, and that's fine, so this would be a personal choice that may work for one photo, but maybe not with another. If you were doing this with three layers, to keep everything aligned, you would need to select all three layers and transform them as one.

Being the negative SOB that I am, my first inclination was to look for anachronisms in the frame, for example a digital clock on the side of the barn, or some other modern gizmo among the artifacts. I couldn't find any.

Nice shot.

The accompanying three versions illustrate crops trending towards the square. My preference would be the middle version, which is very slightly horizontal.

In real life, I suppose a station wouldn't represent two oil companies: Gulf and Mobil (the flying horse)

Steve, thanks for posting one of the original frames. As I thought, this image could have been created without HDR and still gotten much of the same rich tones and separation using various layers and masks. It might have actually taken a little more work, which might be the downside, but would not have exhibited the HDR "feel". I realize it is a preference, but when my wife looked over my shoulder at the image her first comment was "Oh, HDR!". I just think that might say enough.

Regarding the use of perspective corrections, I might point out that one needs to be careful with the fact that PS does not correct for both axis at the same time. So, as you correct the canting at the top, you are also compressing the image as exhibited in these examples provided by Doug. Sometimes you need to increase the size of the canvas, vertically, before you do such corrections so you can stretch the image back to scale. Here, one could have just used the generous height that was already in the original frame. It is always difficult to easily compare all these versions here, but I think the original image has a nice feel with regard to perspective.

John, you're right: usin the perspective correction does indeed ignore the vertical axis. While it may not appear as such, I did use a separate tranformation to increase the height of the image after the perspective correction squashed it. So, quite often, correcting perspective is a two step process: one to correct the inward cant, and a second to increase the height. I'll prepare a few screen shots to illustrate. Thanks John. Good observation.

click the link (below) to see screen shots illustrating one way to correct perspective, if desired.

base on all comment I would like to composition this image horizontal than vertical , best regard

The original shot (and this was pretty evident from the posted HDR and becomes more evident when the originals are seen) had a different feel. My first thought when seeing this photo was to wonder why Steve handled this in such a way that would so change that original feel. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts, Steve.

For me, part of the draw and emotional pull of the scene is the contrast between the shiny, black, well-preserved car and the more worn filling station and building. That contrast is gone in the HDR version, where the entire photo, grass and ground included, feels sort of polished and sanitized. So the car and the environment feel more harmonious and idealized and lose the bit of irony that seemed to be part of the scene to begin with. That's probably not a choice I would have made, but I'd be curious if that was Steve's intention and respect it if it was.

As for cropping, though the foreground could be lessened without much change to the feel of the photo, removing from the top of this image does take away a strong element, which is the perspective and depth added by the telephone wires, which act almost like railroad tracks in leading our eye toward the distant horizon, suggesting strong movement through the frame and a nice sense of space. The way they end at the very top of the frame, suggesting a continuation into space up there, allowing my imagination to follow them out of the frame and into more of the environment than is shown, I think is a very nice and energized element of the photo. I agree with others that the crop as posted in the HDR feels tight on the left. Cropped so tightly to the gas pumps, I am conscious that there was something the photographer wanted to crop out or avoid and that would be the only reason for such tight framing there but it's a distraction when I view this. I think leaving at least a hint of the background on the left of the frame makes the photo read much better and feel less chopped. I actually don't mind the entire original background. To me, seeing those parked cars and especially the wires going off into the distance adds to the storytelling of this photo. I think a slightly narrower depth of field or some lighting changes in post could change the character of the background a bit and make it work a little better in the overall scheme of the photo. Removing those elements completely has made it a much more clean and precise image, also more stationary, more like a set piece than a found place, a little more iconic and less like an actual experience. Again, which way to go would depend on the intent of the photographer.

Getting the good comp was tough here. The view to the left is modern so you don't want it in there and the pumps are going to block your view if you move to the left. Overall a decent vintage shot. Like that you kept your attempt at HDR to realistic levels. I'm not a fan of the phony looking stuff. Congrats on your POTW.

I like it. Good choice for POTW. Tasteful HDR. I might would crop out a little more of the grass at the bottom of the frame. Well done.

The HDR/tone mapping works here because of the content: we like hearkening back to the naive illustrations of yesteryear, which were--dare I say it?--somewhat cartoonish. In the same way, the vertical format and cropping remind us of an old-fashioned poster, which provided negative space for advertising legends at the bottom; and here the negative space adds depth to the picture, so it doesn't bother me. A concern is the very contrasty grass, detail which tends to detract from the content above it. It does capture the dry heat of summer in a '30s kind of way, but it would have been rendered more softly in those more pictorial times.

Hello all,
Just getting home and looking at your comments. I want to thank all of you for your observations. I will be printing out your comments for further digestion and growth.
Fred, My reasoning behind the HDR has to do with the bright sunlight and hard shadows, I felt the three exposures at +- 1 stop would help maintain some detail in the shadow and highlight areas. I am a big fan of Ansel Adams and the zone system, and it is this experience that lead to my application.
Please continue with your observations. It is my intent to print all responses and place with my image in a folder for continued review.
Thank you,
All my best,
Steve

All I can say is that I agree fully with John A. and with Doug Burgess's square crop suggestion. With that said, I wish you all a good week, because I wonder what's now left to be discussed... Subject matter is okay, but even framed properly etc, it's an informative picture, as I see it - with very little more to propose than a smile at the "good old days"...