Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Joseph Bautsch" data-source="post: 27394" data-attributes="member: 654">I wish I could have done more with the sky. It was a bright overcast day and there was no color shape or form to the sky at all, just a light dull gray. HDR goes crazy with that kind of sky. No contrast, and you wind up with a dark gray sky and halos around everything it touches. To keep it from doing that I had to turn down the Photomatix strength setting to about 35 (50 is average). Even then I still had to lighten (dodge) the sky and darken the bridge facia to get it to balance out. Any darker sky looked awful. The depth of field is the key to the shot. Without the depth of field it's just another picture of a railroad bridge. To get it I set it up to shoot at 18mm at f/22 and focused at 100ft. With those settings the DOF was from 2.32ft. in front of the camera to infinity. The front facia of the bridge was only about 30 ft. in front of me. Good idea about using the sunglasses. I usually just take the CPL filter and put it over one eye and turn it to see the effect. (Camera not attached). I use the CPL more than any other filter and use it in several different ways. One as a CPL to eliminate glair and darken the colors, but it dosen't have to be all or nothing, it can also be adjusted by turning it away from the direction of the light slightly to let in just a little glair. Some shots work better if a little glair is left in them. I also use it as a ND filter. Turn it 90 degrees away from the light direction and it loses the CPL effect but it still is a one and one third stop ND. And of course thank you all for the kind comments. It is most appreciated.</blockquote>

Verification