I visited the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden over the summer and like everyone else took a picture of the sculpture Spoonbridge and Cherry:
ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/7.1 1/250
Given the size of the sculpture, there are many different ways you could shoot it. When I was shooting, there were a lot of people milling around so that was a factor in the angle I decided to go with.
The other challenge in taking this picture was that it was bright and slightly hazy, which meant that the exposures I was getting were a bit flat. Given that I had such a high shutter speed to cut down on some of the light, I was pretty confident that I could bracket the exposure and make an HDR image later. The resulting image is what you see above. I’ll put the original middle exposure photo below. You will see that the two are not drastically different. While HDR is also great for creative images, I think it also works well for standard shots such as this one. To my way of thinking, it is a clarification of the original shot. The HDR editing software I prefer is Photomatix. In this case I combined my images and then cropped and sharpened it is Photoshop.
Here is the original image:
ISO 100 50mm 0ev f/7.1 1/250
What do you think? Would you have even bothered with the photo editing process on a photo like this?
This post was written in response to the travel theme big over at Where’s My Backpack?
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 
I like the original one even though they weren’t that different. However, I think the original one has clearer contrast between the sky and the subject … 🙂
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Thanks, and thanks for taking the time to comment.
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LOL. A perfect choice for the BIG challenge!
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Yes, this one was a bit of a no-brainer for me 🙂
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I LOVE this sculpture! Perfect for the challenge.
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I’m sure you could have found some great angle to shoot it from 🙂
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a very nice photograph for the challenge. thanks for stopping by and liking my blog.
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Thank you 🙂
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This is a great photo for “big,” but I really can’t tell much difference between the two photos. 🙂
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Thanks 🙂
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I have mixed feelings. Your top photo appears sharper, more definition. But I do like the red on the cherry in the original photo. Interesting dilemma. 🙂
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I guess that’s what we get when we mess with photos 🙂
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Yes, I can see the “improvement”, if you want to call it that, but I do like photography to be as natural as possible. I think I’m all alone in that 😦
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Actually, I don’t think you are the only one who thinks that. Even if you were though, it is still your opinion and preference, nothing wrong with that 🙂
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I also had a chance to visit the garden this summer and loved the sculptures, especially the Spoonbridge and Cherry.
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Yes, that one sort of stands out doesn’t it?
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I can see the sculpture looks better in the new version, but I prefer the original – there’s more depth to it because of the darker shadows.
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I agree about the sculpture, I think it looks better edited. The original does look like more of a photograph to me though.
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Boy, that’s a tough call. Awesome choice for the challenge! What I like best is your openness to accept everyone’s opinion!. That, to me, is the best part.
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Thank you, I do agree it is a bit of a tough call, and in a way it does come down to what you think is important in the photo, is it detail or a “real” photograph look. I do look forward to reading everyone’s opinion, to me, the conversation is an important part of the process. Thank you for visiting, I do appreciate it.
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