MY 1st HDR

[xiuxiuchong]

took me a few days to finish my shot on HDR very very happy with this one I did one before but it was hard to get right This was a shoot i charged a school of mine, i'm trying to start a company and i'd like any advice on HDR or what kind of prices I should charge per shoot. any fellow HDR people out there

happy shoots!
Xiu Xiu

[Adam Moore]

That's excellent, coming from an outsider...mind posting the original?

[xiuxiuchong]

Thank you! I'm trying to make my images like:

Www.davehillphoto.com
Www.paulwheatleyphoto.com

They are really good at that styles. Any suggestions on what they use to make everything look so good?

Please any help would be thanks!!!

Happy shoots,
Xiuxiu

[Bynx]

Dave Hill has been my inspiration since day one of my learning HDR. Your image is somewhat in his style but you have a ways to go yet.

[xiuxiuchong]

Dave Hill has been my inspiration since day one of my learning HDR. Your image is somewhat in his style but you have a ways to go yet.

thanks, going to try and study both their styles more this week. I must say i love american photogs!

[EasternSierra]

The first thing I would recommend is to stop trying to "copy" another's style, and try to find your own. You will never get as far with someone else's ideas as you can go with your own. Devlope your own sense of taste and style, and work on perfecting that.

The other thing I would say is to work on lighting techniques more than processing techniques. I could not open the Dave Hill website, so I can't comment on similarities, but I could open the Paul Wheatley, and I must say his style revolves around lighting, not processing. Your image here relies solely on HDR processing to give it a "unique" look, whereas Paul Wheatley's images reflect a mastery of lighting, not processing. His shots almost look HDR, but they don't seem to be. His shots are more about proper lighting of the foreground and subject to match the background, and bring out textural details and subtleties in the subject, not processing HDR images to be super-saturated and "grungey".

I am not trying to dissuade you, infact, quite the contrary, I am trying to motivate you. Work with your lighting techniques. Portraits are not supposed to be heavily manipulated like yours is here. I'm not sayingyour shot is bad, I'm saying your shot does not fall along the same lines as what I was able to see in your example links. Portraits are about flattering your subject, and HDR processing is very rarely flattering to portraiture. Lighting and exposure will flatter your subjects, and give them the "pop" you are looking for without requireing intense processing and HDR merging...

[SilentAssassin]

Nice

[siodre]

sorry, but it just isn't a good image. i'm not talking about the style. style can't make a bad photo better, it doesn't mask the spots in the sky from a dirty sensor or straighten the horizon. also, try filling the foreground with something or just crop it out. do some reading on composition to learn how to frame things in your images without wasting space or making them feel cramped by placing them too close to the edge.

[xiuxiuchong]

I am much more better at these now! Thank you for the responsees, I have skills that I think can start to compete with amricas greats! i will uploads a few more tonight. thanks you again friends.

XiuXiu Chong

Happy Shoots!

[xiuxiuchong]

Hey all, Hi. How does you's feel about photmatix plugins? I am new to this plug ins and like to know your thoughts? I get confuse now more than I did before when edits these shots. any help are greatly appreciates!

Thanks you,
xiu