Sunday, June 20, 2010

Day 171

ISO 100, 105mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec.

Day 171 - The Last Light

Salem used to have a small but thriving amusement park. Two years ago they shut their doors because the insurance premiums were getting too high. They had a fabulous park entrance sign and I was hoping to still see it today.

All we found was this box of light bulbs and tickets.

The image above is the raw shot and adjusted in Lightroom 2. Since I just uploaded the CS5 Suite yesterday, I wanted to run the bracketed shots through the Photomatix vs. Photoshop CS5 challenge.

ISO 100, 105mm, f/8.0, 1/80 sec.

This image is raw, straight out of the camera. I admit, I do like a more color saturated look.

ISO 100, 105mm, f/8.0, HDR 1/80 sec., 1/250 sec., 1/15 sec.
Photomatix Pro

ISO 100, 105mm, f/8.0, HDR 1/80 sec., 1/250 sec., 1/15 sec.
Photoshop CS5

The verdict is still out for me. In all fairness to Photoshop, I have not read or watched any tutorials. I just pushed sliders until I saw what I liked. I do like the smoothness in Photoshop over the more textured feel of Photomatix.

The reality, I was pretty darn happy with my results from the raw image and adjusting in Lightroom.

6 comments:

  1. I like the RAW one best myself, such great color saturation and I love the photo itself by the way!

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  2. I'm a huge Lightroom fan. I have the CS4 Suite with Photoshop Extended and I rarely use it. I stick to Lightroom. Can't wait to get my hands on CS5.

    Great shots - I like the saturated one too.

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  3. hmmmm...the style i like depends on the day. some days...i want subtlety...and others...in your face...no-denying it pop! today...i like #s 1 and 3 best.

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  4. Nice shot. I like raw as well (but I just got LR3 and I can't get any pictures to show up.) So I haven't been able to compare shots. I like what you did here. Great pics by the way!

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  5. What an awesome find! Great shot.

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  6. I like the juxtaposition of the bulbs, discarded and old with the tickets proclaiming "Thrillville!" Such a great name creating a sense of sadness and loss.

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