Aurora Landscapes

Aurora Landscapes - student project

I resisted the urge for so long to even consider Aurora HDR because I already had HDR Efex Pro that I had become quite comfortable with.  Prior to a Chicago and then Death Valley trip I decided to give it a whirl.  There are some awesome presets.  I really love the Trey presets as I have been a big fan of his for some time.  I really like using the presets as a starting point and then dialing down or dialing up the look I want.  Most of the time the tone mapped image is just an overall good beginning point.  I used the tone mapped image and just adjusted it to my liking on this photo that I took at sunrise at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley.  The original picture does not do all of the colors justice but Aurora does!

Zabriskie Point Sunrise

Aurora Landscapes - image 1 - student project

Here are the three sample images I used to create the final HDR Image:

Aurora Landscapes - image 2 - student project

Aurora Landscapes - image 3 - student project

Aurora Landscapes - image 4 - student project

I think if I had it to do all over again I would probably do 2 stops difference between each photo.  As it was I bracketed 1 stop apart.  I'm still happy with how the final image turned out.