all 70 comments

[–]Informationator 82 points83 points ago

MOR BLACK LEVELS MOR SHARPENING MOR SATURATION

...perfect

[–]Spankler 13 points14 points ago

[–]dgutty 6 points7 points ago

This is what it's like to be on half an 1/8 of shrooms. Maybe more colors.

[–]SkateboardG 1 point2 points ago

MY EYES!!!

[–]Informationator 2 points3 points ago

CLARITY
export
import
CLARITY
export
import
CLARITY

[–]Dropping_fruits 0 points1 point ago

MOAR PHOTOSHOPPED REFLECTIONS

[–]Kristophigus 18 points19 points ago

I took a cool reflection photo a couple months ago http://imgur.com/TY4ZJil should probably post it :/

[–]Dropping_fruits 2 points3 points ago

That is crazy awesome. You should post it.

[–]pussifer 29 points30 points ago

Ahhh yeah. Nothing like taking every single level in a photo to that 'just before being totally blown out' area to really make that shit pop. I don't get why people feel the need to do this to something so already beautiful as nature. A little editing is fine, to really show the natural beauty, but this is just ridiculous. Unless you're tripping on a low dosage of some hallucinogen, you'll never see colors like this in nature.

[–]love-from-london 55 points56 points ago

/r/shittyHDR might like this.

[–]spthirtythree 30 points31 points ago

Actually, I fixed it.

http://imgur.com/YKNCvzb

[–]ImaWheel 10 points11 points ago

Incredible!!

You have been awarded the "Mystifying Planet Award"

{Please award this prestigious honour to 13 other photos each day}

"I like the colours"

[–]stryrker 3 points4 points ago

Lemme guess - 90% of all Flickr comments.

[–]pussifer 0 points1 point ago

Only if you don't weed out the shit heads/groups. It's still a useful community, so long as you use it right. But yeah, otherwise you're absolutely correct.

[–]spthirtythree 2 points3 points ago

We would be honored if you would join our group,

Very Surreal Reflections

Please consider this your invitation.

[–]chrispine 3 points4 points ago

PERFECT!!!

[–]Tulki 0 points1 point ago

I immediately puked strawberries upon seeing that.

[–]CaffeinatedGuy 9 points10 points ago

That subreddit has ruined my eyes. I think I have cancer now.

[–]ILL_Show_Myself_Out -1 points0 points ago

There's a subreddit devote to bad high def pictures. Now I've seen everything.

[–]love-from-london 10 points11 points ago

Not high-def, but HDR, which is a way of editing photos that's usually overused and badly done, as in OP's pic.

[–]Bennyboy1337 0 points1 point ago

I i'm subscribed to /r/shittyhdr and actually thought this picture was from there, disappointing to see it got this many upvotes in /r/pics tho.

[–]shanoxilt -2 points-1 points ago

[–]gologologolo 3 points4 points ago

Heavily shopped

[–]MattPH1218 2 points3 points ago

If it hasn't been already, this will be reposted at least 15 times this year.

[–]ArchGuru 3 points4 points ago

I thought this pic was cool. Do any of you cameraheads care to explain what's wrong?

[–]Ryan2286 13 points14 points ago

Well, first off it would appear to me that the clouds in the reflection are fake, what OP did was cut around the shoreline and paste in the clouds at some point - you can tell this because of shoreline with the grass just to the left, it's clearly cut out.

Though HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography is popular these days, most choose to do it on the computer as opposed to in camera and the hard way. When done correctly it's can produce amazing pictures; however when done in post it turns a nice photo into instagram garbage. basically by blowing out contrast, clarity, saturation, and vibrance, potentially along with sharpening, the wrong way.

HDR photography in post is widely used by amateur photographers, unfortunately ruining it for those that do it well.

[–]tsjb 1 point2 points ago

unfortunately ruining it for those that do it well

In what way does it ruin it for the people that do it well?

[–]pussifer 0 points1 point ago

It attaches a stigma to their decent work, lumping it all together into one big pile of shit. For most viewers, anyway.

[–]capt_0bvious 3 points4 points ago

photoshop

[–]Bennyboy1337 -2 points-1 points ago

what's wrong?

I really hope I shouldn't have to explain why unicorn puke is so unapealing.

Anyways OP used a thing called Tonemapping which allows you to edit images to show crazy amount of light values. Realistically the human eye can see about 22 stops of light, this is a measure of change in light. A good DSLR will capture about half of that, in order to take realistic pictures of sunsets, which have crazy EV range values in light, you need to take several shots at different exposure values, then you use software to tonemap and compile the images together; what you have in the end should be a beautiful realistic photo. What happens lots of time is people get carried away with the setting and try to make hyper-realistic photos that like unicorn rainbow puke, like OP's picture.

[–]wpnw 8 points9 points ago

While it is possible this was tone mapped, the tell tale signs of it are definitely not present: there's no haloing around the mountains, the clouds aren't darker than the foreground grass, the reflection isn't significantly lighter than the sky, and there's still plenty of contrast. If this was tone mapped, it was done exceptionally well.

There may be some photoshop composite work done here because the tone of the sky and the lake is too even for it to be done in one exposure and I see little to no evidence of a graduated neutral density filter having been used (it could have easily been removed and there is a slight hint of a darkened line along the very top of the mountains in the background), if you look closely at the reflection you can see all sorts of imperfections in the water - bubbles, crap floating on the surface, etc - that works in opposition to the sky just being mirrored onto the ground. The perspective of the shore being reflected is also indicative that the reflection is legit.

There's definitely too much sharpening and the contrast is a little bit strong (too much, rather than too little which is what usually happens with tone mapped images), but the overall tone of the image doesn't suggest it would be a difficult shot to capture in one frame, there's no source of excessively bright highlights and the color is reasonably believable (probably pushed a little bit, but not to a gaudy, unrealistic level). I'm going to say this is either a legit picture, or the photographer is really, really good at masking their HDR work. Source: 12+ years experience as a landscape photographer.

[–]omnicognate 3 points4 points ago

Nice comment. I'm not qualified to tell if it's HDR, not that I'd particularly care if it is. I can see the imperfections you point out, which suggest the commenter claiming the reflection is just a copy paste job is wrong.

However it was done, I like it. It certainly doesn't look like "unicorn puke". It looks like an gorgeous sunset reflected in an exceptionally calm lake.

Crazy thought - nature is actually rather colourful sometimes.

[–]darkestsoul 0 points1 point ago

Beautiful picture. I can almost see myself living in this picture like Robin Williams in What Dreams May Come.

[–]SamuraiDukey -1 points0 points ago

Wooooooow

[–]Cygnals 1 point2 points ago

I immediately saw a dick in the thumbnail. I am not proud.

[–]toxoplasmosis_cat 0 points1 point ago

well, I have news for you... http://i.imgur.com/UP70k.gif

[–]ZeroDivided714 0 points1 point ago

/r/earthporn might like this.

[–]spaceglob 0 points1 point ago

Can someone post this again, but flipped?

[–]HamfacePorktard 0 points1 point ago

Why yes, I will take acid there.

[–]gronke 1 point2 points ago

Overdid it on the HDR a bit....

[–]Blueberry_Crumpet 0 points1 point ago

This is my wallpaper from last time I saw it posted lolz

[–]soundofherwings 1 point2 points ago

surreal saturation i guess.

[–]larsmadsen 1 point2 points ago

Fuck HDR.

[–]tonman101 0 points1 point ago

very beautiful picture.

[–]xfrogg 0 points1 point ago

surreal HDR X_x

[–]REDDIT_IS_MY_LIMBO 0 points1 point ago

Looks like an excellent spot for a WalMart

[–]manas_b 0 points1 point ago

Looks like regular reflections to me.

[–]ThePhlogist 0 points1 point ago

Let's put some mighty mountains in here.

[–]Justinyoder 0 points1 point ago

Beautiful photo did you take this

[–]Mind_Lasher 0 points1 point ago

There is no reflection of the building

[–]Donkey_Kong2012 0 points1 point ago

How come these amazing places always have no one around ?

[–]crackrocknbach 0 points1 point ago

whoa, like the water is reflecting the sky, and there's like symmetry. aint nobody got time for that

[–]lazyduke 0 points1 point ago

Iceland is green, and Greenland is icy.

[–]sortika 1 point2 points ago

I looked at that picture for too long and had to close out - eye flickeringly cool cloud and sky reflections alone!

[–]BrodyApproves 1 point2 points ago

These crazy nature reflections make me question whether we're looking into the mirror, or we're inside looking out.

[–]DudeBug 1 point2 points ago

my...fucking head hurts.

[–]entyliv 1 point2 points ago

... I wanna throw a stone in that lake and watch the ripples spread out SO BADLY.

[–]elcheeserpuff -1 points0 points ago

I love these photos. I love the comments more though because I get to see every redditor who took a photography class in high school try to sound like a professional while they tear a photo apart for using HDR. Just because it's obvious that a photo has been HDR-ified doesn't mean you need to publicize it and try to explain to everyone why it sucks. If it was a bad picture then people would see it is a bad picture. We don't need you to try to tell us why just for circle jerking karma.

[–]toxoplasmosis_cat 2 points3 points ago

no, because 99.9% people judge pictures likes this: cute baby, cute kitten, or over saturated HDR = best picture evar!

same happens with music: lots of bass and treble, simple and repetitive, over compressed mastering = best song evar

[–]ImaWheel -2 points-1 points ago

It's a really bad picture, and I'm going to fucking say so.

[–]blundboy 0 points1 point ago

Got high def version anyone?

[–]NeonSky 0 points1 point ago

I want to go to there

[–]rheus 1 point2 points ago

It doesn't look like this in real life. In fact it looks better.

[–]IHateMakingUsername -1 points0 points ago

Aaaaaand Background

[–]neq -3 points-2 points ago

Looks like my penis

[–]rheus 0 points1 point ago

So, it is as large as a thumbnail.

[–]neq 0 points1 point ago

if you are viewing it on this screen, that is quite possible.

[–]L0J 0 points1 point ago

now rotate the canvas so its...not...quite...level

[–]windinsea -2 points-1 points ago

Awesomeness