The Unknown Soldier

The Unknown Soldier Non-HDR version

The power of HDR images is sure known by many of you, but I still wonder if this has really much in common with photography, as we know it. Yes, you still have to find a nice composition and framing, the subject must be interesting and you got to know the technique to take so many different exposures, but after that, the software's algorythmics do the rest for you. All right, you have to know how to move the slides, but this is the same in Lightroom or Photoshop so its just part of the game.

The Unknown Soldier HDR version

Five exposures can turn a so and so image into something quite dramatic and eye catching. This is a night shot of the Unknown Soldier in Piazza Venezia in Rome. The Romans call it the Typewriter, because of its shape. I put it together in Photomatix using a quite conservative editing, like many of my HDR, but still the result is quite impressive, un realistic I would say. Here you can compare it with the result I got from just one of the shots, the one that offered the best exposure and that I had to work in Lightroom with some dodging and burning and selective retouching. You can judge yourself and pick the one you like the best.