The Empire Strikes back

The Empire State Building in New York was the tallest Building in the World for over 40 years from 1932, when it was completed, until 1972 when the North Tower of the World Trade Centre was finished. Ironically after the destruction of the World Trade Centre in 2001 the Empire State Building is now once again the tallest building in New York City although it is now the 15th tallest building in the world as many other taller buildings have now been completed.

The Empire State Building is a 102-story building at the intersection of 5th Avenue and West 34th Street and has been named by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

One thing that certainly struck me about this building and most of the other buildings in New York was the beautiful architecture and excellent condition they exhibited. Considering the time at which many were constructed the majority of the key buildings I saw in the city look great and have obviously been immaculately maintained and renovated.

Alternative to HDR?

There are usually two fairly strong factions when it comes to HDR .... that is those who love it and those who hate it. I have sat on both sides of the fence having dabbled with HDR for some time then looked at the results and have been sometimes unhappy about some of the final images. However if done correctly and in moderation HDR can produce some pretty spectacular images but usually needs a set of bracketed images to cover the dynamic range of the particular scene and shot preferably using a tripod
The following image is an HDR image I composed in Chiang Rai, Thailand as the sun was setting over the Mae Kok River. I took 3 shots at -2, 0, and +2 EV and combined the 3 images in PhotoMatixPro application.

The 3 bracketed shots that the final HDR image was created from are below for reference.

0 EV

-2 EV

+2 EV

Recently I have using Topaz Fusion Express as a plugin for Aperture and have found that the results can produce images that are as good if not better than HDR images and only using one exposure rather than a number of bracketed shots.

Taking the same image as above, i.e. the 0 EV exposure image and running it through Topaz Fusion Express I got the above result which is equivalent or in my view even better than the HDR image produced from the 3 bracketed images.