HDR of Kunigal Bypass

Travelers commuting towards Mangalore, understand the importance of Kunigal Bypass which saves almost 20 minutes compared to commuting inside town. As we travel towards Mangalore, we enjoy the glorious landscape of Kunigal Bypass which is only 2yrs old. I feel like taking so many snaps. Due to some or the other obstacles (usual excuses!), the plans had to be dropped. This time on our return journey from Markonahalli Dam, we stopped at Kunigal Bypass for some time to enjoy the landscape. The puddle after rain, snaky national highway 75, beautiful landscape and monsoon clouds tempted me to grab a HDR shot. The problem with normal images are either sky will be exposed or the land. If we need both of them in the frame, only option is HDR. I somehow became fan of HDR nowadays. Although not many of them are successful, I am happy with successfully composed HDRs. The natural world can only be enjoyed with HDR! However cameras cannot match human eye. Hence we have to grab bracketed shots to compose an equivalent.

Here is HDR composed using Luminance HDR of Kunigal bypass. I am really happy after seeing the results. The bracketed shots were composed using magical open-source  Magic Lantern firmware for canon EOS DSLRs. What a great add-on it is! It automates everything once adjustments are done. The Fatal operator did again very good job in Luminance HDR. Some saturation and alpha values were adjusted to tone-map the image. Later GIMP was used for color correction and luminance adjustments. Hope you will enjoy the image too! I should have shot images in RAW but could not remember :(

KUNIGAL BYPASS ALONG NATIONAL HIGHWAY - 75

Settings:

Camera: Canon EOS 550D
Lens: 18-55mm kit lens
Focal Length: 18mm
Focus: Manual
Aperture: f/13
ISO: 100
Picture Style: Landscape
Metering: Center weighted average
No of images: 3
Exposures: -2,0,+2
ML firmware version: v2.3
Softwares: Luminance HDR (Fatal operator), GIMP