Pelkor Chode Monestery
A few days ago, when I posted this shot of a boy monk, I told you about Pelkor Chode Monastery. Besides mentioning that this is the inner courtyard of the monastery, there’s really not much I can tell you, so instead, I’m going to ramble a bit about HDR photography.
Lately I find myself working more and more on my HDR photographs, not being satisfied anymore with the tone-mapped version produced my Photomatix or FDR Tools. Take clouds and skies as an example. Usually in the tone-mapped version, they tend to take on a grey, unnatural look and more often than not I will mask the sky back from one of the under-exposed shots for that rich deep blue look. Same applies to areas with strong colours, like the bright red pillars in this photograph. In the tone-mapped version they just look wrong (an over-exposed gory-looking red) so I also blended them back from one of the under-exposed shots. To make it easier to understand what I’m trying to say, I’ve uploaded in the comments area 2 versions of this same shot. The first one is the original metered shot from the camera and the second one is the “as is” tone-mapped image from Photomatix before any Photoshop work. Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that while HDR photography is great, you really need to be careful and not over do it.