can HDR save this? learning me some PP? :)

[GeX]

howdy.

went out to play again today, seeing as though i have a nice shiny new sandisk ex3 memory card i shot everything in RAW today. Now i'm having fun tinkering with the images.

I've done this.. which wasn't too clever, but how can an image like this be rescured (yes, i mean the blownout bit at the back). I had a very quick play with photomatrix, but quickly realised i'm not really sure what i'm doing - so am not sure if i'm wasting my time.

if anyone wants to have a play with this image, and explain what they've done to it - i'd appericate it muchly.

and the raw file

http://tackycheese.net/images/expl/tatelyle/misc/DSC_0296.dng

 

[GeX]

that's what i came up with when i was playing, i can get a bit of detail back from it - but not totally.

is there anything that i could to it to reduce the impact of the back bit without making it look odd. is it as simple as it sounds, in just reducing contrast on that section till it looks 'better'

like i say, i've not done a lot of PP but am very keen to learn - and learn best by doing, especially with my own images

 

[GeX]

To be honest I think its a lost image...

ok, thanks.

that is something i need to get some sort of gauge on, i don't know fully know what can be done so am not sure when i'm wasting my time starting!

 

[GeX]

that makes sound sense, thanks.

do you think i would've been better to take that shot using a higher shutter speed, to capture the back bit and then take a shot with a lower speed to get the front - then combine the results.

at the moment i'm not looking for 100% perfection with any of my images, i'm simply trying to learn techniques

 

[GeX]

how would you then blend the images, what springs to mind to me is having the differently exposed images as seperate layers, with the higher speed shot underneath, then selecting around the blownout bit on the top layer, feathering it and then deleting.

is that the best way to approach this, or does photoshop have tools that i've not found yet which are best suited to this kind of job?

thanks for all your help mate, i do appreicate it.

 

[GeX]

that's truly nice work my friend

are the layer blend modes worth playing with when blending images like this, they're something i've had a play with but can't really figure out what they are doing.

 

[GeX]

i've had a play..

theres still a kinda hazyness to it that i want to remove, and also i need to adjust the colouring on the bottom layer as to me the sky looks 'wrong' and some bits to clone out near the radiator.

 

[GeX]

one shot, then the exposure tweaked and the images blended.

i'll have to keep digging through my shots and see if i have any that i can practice this on