meat-and-3

This store lined covered corridor spanning a block between 4th Ave and

5th Ave in downtown Nashville, simply called The Arcade, is a

Nashville landmark built in 1902 and purported to be modeled after an

arcade in Italy. My childhood memories of this landmark are primarily

the Peanut Shop which still exists today and the popcorn vendor at the

mouth of the mall at the 4th Ave side who made some killer popcorn.

The popcorn vendor is long gone and with that loss the Arcade has

never been the same for me. I chose a less trafficked day and this

location to attempt my first true HDR image(s). As I positioned

myself at one end of the upper level of the Arcade, a security guard

from below yelled at me (well maybe not yelled, but asked me loud

enough to be heard from my perch) whether I was a professional

photographer. I didn’t quite know how to respond to his question

until he said professional photographers are not allowed to photograph

in the Arcade. I wanted to engage the guard about why professional

photographers are banned, but wisely just answered no and went about

my HDR self-assignment. Comments and critique appreciated.

A very nice result with beautiful lighting, Wayne!

Wayne  a very nice impression of the factory  nice colors lighting and prespective .little bias but that is forgiven Wayne very nice shot. best regards janegbert

Symmetry works well here, very good light and processing.

Best regards

PDE

Hi Wayne,

  Beautiful image with wonderful composition, lighting & details.  Take care, Patsy

"The Peanut Shop"....sounds like my  kind of store! 

HDR gets a bad name, and I suspect it is from over zealous photographers that go a bit loopy when they get their hands on the software and realise what t can do. 

But here you have exercised restraint, which has resulted in a subtle HDR that allows all detail to be viewed and from a well chosen pov too.   The only suggestion I could make to enhance the image further is to address the slight distortion. 

Interesting interchange with the security officer........I wonder what they have against professional photographers : - ) 

Best Regards 

Alf 

Ruud,

Thanks for taking to review and your kind comment.

Janegbert,

Many thanks.  I think I understand what you mean about bias and it is due my learning how to process HDR with my antiquated computer.

Vlad,

Thanks for stopping by and your kind comment.  Every bit of encouragement helps.

Pierre,

Many thanks. 

Patsy,

Thanks. This is new for me so I really appreciate the encouragement.

Alf,

Many thanks.  Your comments are very helpful.  I agree with your view on "overly done" HDR.  My goal was to make the HDR imperceptible.  I interpret "distortion" here to mean the lack of crispness, some noise, and some chromatic aberration and maybe even a little ghosting seen in the image - and not the misalignment and the natural bulging of this old structure.   I didn't let the software (photomatix) do all the correcting it is suppose to accomplish. My computer memory could not handle all the processing of the three large raw files I was working with.   I am most curious too about their banning professionals. 

Alf,

I notice I didn't adjust for the difference in contrast and probably other characteristics when converting the about 69mb tiff file to the jpg web file. I have a lot to learn.