Your pictures look like paintings. This one, in particular. If I didn't know that was a photo, I'd swear it was an amazing airbrush rendering.
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Some of my pictures look like paintings depending on the visual effect I am trying to convey. I rely heavily on using photo editing plugins. Similar as iPhone photo editor apps (art filters pic effects).
This last picture was created by taking (4) images using different exposures, and blending them together with Photomatix Pro using a process called Tone Mapping - (Soft 3 preset). They are then aligned, merged and rendered to HDR.
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Blending Four Images With Different Exposures:
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The final touch is done by using another photo editing program called Topaz Adjust, using the "Vibrance" preset. As I mentioned before, I like to use the Adobe Photoshop Elements plugin called Topaz Adjust because it helps to bring images to life by providing dramatic contrast, in addition to enhancing details and colors. They are great tools to make your HDR images pop.
Can you can tell the difference by comparing the four images above, to the final result below?
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Click on (THIS LINK....) to view a larger image.