Getting the HDR effect

My results on a photo getting that sought-after HDR effect. In Picnik, you can create it without ever fooling with Photoshop. Lucky for me, because I don't have photoshop.

This rendering is a combination of Picnik effects.

I have experimented here with several different effects to achieve variations of the HDR effect.

And here is the original photo, below:

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Summertime offers snapping ops galore!

Just about everywhere you turn, there is the possibility for another great shot. And if you don't seize that moment, it will be gone in an instant, but not to worry, another opportunity for a great shot is right around the corner!

The dog days of summer are getting shorter as the tires are rapidly squealing toward shorter fall days, but there are still many opportunities for snapping shots and improving on image-taking and image post production to correct white balance, etc.

White balance and color correction can easily be corrected in free programs such as Irfanview or Gimp. It's worth the time to evaluate and rank your photos and adding keywords, so they will be easier to find later. It's also very much worth the time to experiment with software until you find the one that gets the best results.

Photoshop may be the industry standard, but for the budding photographer like me with not a lot of money, photoshop just isn't an option. It takes time to learn, is not an intuitive program, and it's expensive.

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