Photo of the Day

Grand Canyon, South Rim View

This is a 3 shot bracketed exposure that I took this past fall from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The photo was processed in the newest version of the NIK HDR Software. It had been a very cloudy grey day and the light was flat and colors were really muted. I have been experimenting and trying different HDR software programs to see what works best for me. Although Photoshop CS5 has improved their HDR software a lot since CS4, it still will not truly tone map and allow you the control that other programs do. The goal on this shot was to keep the photo as natural looking as possible. I do like the really crazy results you can create with HDR software. For me it just depends on the subject matter and what I am trying to produce. For a stunning landscape such as the Grand Canyon I want the natural "what I saw" look. I have tried the Photomatix HDR software (version 3) which has been the best out  there for a long time and was considered by many as the gold standard for HDR. When I am done with my trial version of the NIK software I will try the newest Phtomatix version before I decide and purchase a software for my future HDR use.