A Walk in Prague

Shot as a handheld 3 image HDR a few hundred feet from the Charles

Bridge. The streets of Prague remind me of Times Square but with 800

year old Medieval architecture. Why do I say that? Because it is so

crowded one can barely move...just like Times Square. I walked around

from street to street trying to find something empty, but still

indicative of Prague's Old Town itself. I managed to find this street

with a couple holding hands. I knew the sky was going to blow out so I

set the camera to bracket +1, 0, -1 so as to bring in the sky but

still allow fast enough shutter speed to avoid too much blur on my

subjects. Any input, critique or thoughts is always appreciated.

Beautiful results Joseph. It is good that you thought of those exposures, I think they worked very well. Glad you found this quiet street. I knew Prague was a very busy city, but did not realize that so many tourists would be there and it would be so crowded. This spot must have felt like a bit of 'heaven' after all the crowds. I like your HDR work, it is not overdone. Lovely!

Very nice HDR. Be careful with the halos between the buildings and the skies. This is easy to post process.

I like the composition. There is a technique which I saw from Scott Kelby to get rid of the crowds. One takes several pictures, people are moving, so they are not in the same place in the different pictures. Put the pictures in different layers in PS and then erase the people.

He showed some interesting pictures of Versailles processed that way.

Best regards,

Ben

Joseph - the thumbnail attracted me because I really like the scene. The couple holding hands adds to the aesthetics probably because we are dealing with "lifeless" and very aged buildings.  For a 3 image hand held capture, the results are pretty good.

there is probably room for improvement and it is mostly in the sky area.  It looks a bit too soft and when I looked at the larger view. the 'post with the flag' at the top of the image looks even softer than i would like. Sometimes we have to ignore these fine 'technicals' and just enjoy the image 'as is'.

If you wanted to 'enhance' the sky area, I would look at the single image that registered the sky sharper, where highlight information is present and hand blend that into this image.

It is lot harder to write a critique like this in case the photographer gets defensive but my intention was to be constructive.

All the very best,

Hi Tony, Thanks for the input. I never get defensive and try never to make excuses. Some just post their pictures wanting to hear how good it is and others just want to see it showcased in a gallery. I post my pictures because I want input, critiques, information or different perspectives. Sometimes I post work that is a bit marginal to see what others think, get information or another perspective. As long as the critique is realistic and respectful I personally don't mind what it is said. Unlike some random others that I occasionally see posting I also never post a rebuttal after someone doesn't like what I have done.

In this image I knew that the sky was going to be a little weaker and the image wouldn't stand up to a larger view in certain areas. To be honest I didn't spend all that much time cleaning it up because I wasn't sure what I had here was something that I would give alot of time too. I didn't post it to my website for instance but there were some characteristics that I enjoyed so I posted it with goals and other snippets to see what input I would get.

So post away Tony, you can't hurt my feelings.

Thanks,

Joe

I like the balance, the perspective and the overall mood of the scene. The couple holding hands add a romantic theme to an already alluring scene.

 Whilst the HDR undoubtably allows for exposure of all the detail, on a hand held attempt it is extremely difficult to get perfect alignment and subsequent sharpness. The suggestion of using the RAW image used to expose for the sky has already been suggested, maybe another idea is to blend two images, on for the sky as formerly suggested and one for the street area, thus retaning sharpness and exposure values?  Just a further suggestion to add to the already excellent feedback.

Best Regards

Alf

Best regards Joseph!

PDE