One Shot HDR – Torrey’s Peak Reflection, Colorado

On 01.06.10, In Commentary, HDR, Landscape, Photos, By Chester

Torrey's Reflection - Tonemapped

For as long as HDR has been a processing option, there has been debate about whether or not a single tonemapped image constitutes and HDR image. Classic thinking would say no. However, Photomatix is capable of taking a RAW image and doing the tonemapping actions that come with HDR processing. In fact, the guy who is now producing the best HDR books, Trey Ratcliff, encourages you to try the technique. So I did, and you see the result above.

I personally am happy with it. Some photographers like heavily tonemapped HDR, some don’t. For me it depends on the image. More importantly though, the image consuming public likes it, and wants more of it. To that end, I guess I will do my part and keep contributing.

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HDR – I Still Love It

On 12.30.09, In Commentary, Industrial, Photos, Software, By Chester

HDR image of a gondola car taken near South Fork, Colorado with an Olympus E-510

I started shooting High Dynamic Range (commonly known as HDR) images roughly 2 years ago. I don’t shoot many (26 in my flickr gallery), but I enjoy shooting them. The gondola rail car in the photo above is the best one I have shot I think. Shooting HDR takes patience, at least with older dSLR’s like my Olympus E-510. Newer camera models, mainly ones that have arrived in the last 6-12 months, might have enough exposure bracketing built in to them to accomplish HDR captures with one click of the shutter release. Still others might have had a firmware update to accomplish this. It is my biggest hope that whatever Olympus brings out to replace the E-3 will have this feature.

I could write a tutorial on taking HDR images, but really, it would pale in comparison to the master, so I’ll let you have a look at Trey Ratcliff’s HDR Tutorial instead. I would also encourage you to check out his new book – “A World in HDR“.

After the captures, you need software. I have been using Photomatix HDR since I started doing HDR images, and highly recommend it. Trey does too, and he has even worked out a 15% discount with Photomatix (follow the link to see how to get it). Once again, Trey tells us the best way to use the software. For me personally, I usually play with a couple different settings in Photomatix to get the photo looking just the way I want to. For the gondola above, I think there were 4 versions, this one being the best (in my eyes). I would encourage you to experiment as well, and get the look that pleases you the most.

If you are looking for inspiration in other people’s HDR work, or if you have your own portfolio of images to show people, you need to take a look at hdrspotting.com. This collection of images is extraordinary, and I hope I produce something worthy of inclusion. To become a contributor, you need to obtain an invitation code. While it is not clear to me how people get codes to give away, if you watch #hdrspotting on Twitter or ask around in the HDR group on Facebook, you should see a code pop up. I will post them to my Twitter feed if they ever come my way.

If you are a flickr user, you should look into the HDR and Photomatix groups. Great pictures and discussions happen in both.

Get out and try your hand at HDR, and put links to your pictures in the comments below. I love seeing what other people do with this new type of imagery.

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Review: Practical HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers

On 06.03.09, In Book Reviews, By Chester

Practical HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers Practical HDRI: High Dynamic Range Imaging for Photographers by Jack Howard is the latest book I have read on the subject. I haven’t touched my Photomatix software (indeed, even my camera) for some time. Reading through this book helped inspire me to get back out shooting photos, and also to see if Olympus was doing anything to help with the capture of HDR images. As it turns out, the recently released Olympus E-620 has far better support for proper image bracketing to get the exposures you need.

The book itself is fairly short – just 168 pages. But these pages are full of good information and practical examples using more than just one software package. What I like most about it is the frankness of the author when it comes to producing realistic HDR images, as opposed to some of the cartoonish extremes that have come to symbolize the genre. I much prefer a realistic image that has great depth in all ranges between the darkest and lightest sections of the image. In addition to the software examples (Photoshop CS3, Photomatix and FDRTools), the author tells you what to watch for when capturing the images, well before they see the computer.

All in all this was a very worthwhile book, with more than enough interesting bits for the novice and experienced alike. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is looking for more information on HDRI.

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HDR Done Right

On 10.23.08, In Photos, Software, By Chester

Ferringway #8 As previously mentioned, I took some time while in Durango recently and worked on my HDR images, specifically where real estate is concerned. I even followed the directions from the Photomatix people. While I actually took several HDR images on my trip, I was particularly pleased with the real estate ones.

The best one, the exterior shot above, is a combination of 4 exposures. I imported all of my images form the weekend into Lightroom, then selected them and corrected the white balance. I had shot them without resetting my settings from earlier experiments – thank god for RAW and Lightroom. I then took the 4 images and exported them using the HDRSoft Photomatix Lightroom export plugin. I then combined the images in Photomatix, adjusted the tone map until I had an image I liked, then saved it and went back to Lightroom.

I had some really bad converging verticals though, so from Lightroom I chose to edit the image in Photoshop CS3. Once in PSCS3 (say that 5 times fast), I used the Distort feature to straighten the verticals and make everything look proper. All in all, I am quite pleased with the outcome. I know there are free tools out there to generate HDR images, but none of the ones I tried came anywhere close to Photomatix in terms of resultant quality or ease of use. If you are seriously considering HDR photography, you really should invest in Photomatix.

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Finding the time

On 10.21.08, In Commentary, By Chester

Colorado Aspens in HDR from Photomatix
I am very fortunate in that I travel a fair degree, both with my family and without. When I am traveling without them, it is fairly easy to stop along the way, take detours to photogenic subjects, etc.

It’s when I am with the family that it gets more complicated. Especially on a trip like our last one. We were making the ~350 mile drive from Denver to Durango to do a campus visit at Fort Lewis for our oldest (she is going off to college next year). I didn’t expect the fall colors to still be quite so intense, but I did know, from past trips down that way, that I would want to take pictures of at least a few things.

On the way down, we did make one stop for photos on Wolf Creek Pass. I didn’t get anything spectacular, I did practice with panorama mode a little bit. A few miles further down the road, I did catch a glimpse of an aspen stand that I liked. But we were already 5 hours into this drive and even I didn’t think it would be worth it to stop.

During the course of the next couple days, we spent a fair amount of time in downtown Durango. I had my camera with me, and took a bunch of pics of the Fort Lewis Homecoming Parade, but that didn’t yield anything spectacular. I almost went to the railroad tracks to get pics of the trains coming back for the night, but even that didn’t sound good to me. The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad has had more pictures taken of it than I ever will take in my lifetime. So these would pretty much be snapshots for me as opposed to anything of value. I could have gone down to the railyard to try and recreate this image I shot a few years ago, but I had this nagging doubt that it was getting too late and the moment just wouldn’t be there. Clearly my focus was on other things.

Saturday evening the kids wanted to go do some shopping. I opted to return to the condo instead, and the family took off to the mall. When we had arrived at the Ferringway condos on Friday, I did make a mental note that this place would be good additional practice for my real estate photography. In doing so, I could practice positioning of my wireless flash (love those eBay Cactus triggers), practice HDR exposures (in proper increments this time), and in general practice the proper views of the rooms. So after they dropped me off, I did just that. The results are pretty good I think. Good enough that I think I am ready to officially start trying to make a go of this real estate photography thing, both in Lakewood/ Denver as well as the mountains (Summit County, etc).

On the drive back Sunday, we did make two unplanned stops. The stand of aspens that I saw was still very vibrant. So we stopped and I spent about 10 minutes taking pictures (the one above is one of the HDR versions, processed in Photomatix). We also stopped at the north base of Wolf Creek Pass to get some pictures of the creek. Noone of those came out too well, but there was a good shot of the rock formations that I like.

I try to balance family and photography as much as I can when I am with the family, but sometimes it feels like I should try to do more on the photography side when we go certain places. How do you balance it?

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Using Photomatix to Blend Exposures

On 10.13.08, In Software, By Chester

Photomatix Test 3
When you are shooting a room with a great view, it is a good idea to show that view, if you can. But that is more complicated when you think about the exposure levels outside versus inside the room. Since I was in an awesome location recently (the Park Hyatt in Beaver Creek, Colorado), I decided to use the property to do some practice on. I have posted a few images from this test in the Photography For Real Estate Flickr group (yes, it is a Flickr complement to Larry Lohrman’s excellent site/ blog) and have received some useful feedback from it.
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More real estate practice

On 10.08.08, In Photos, By Chester

Room at Park Hyatt, Beaver CreekLast week in Beaver Creek I was able to take advantage of the great surroundings to do some practice photos for real estate purposes. At the same conference, I met with the manager of a new property in the mountains that is wanting some photography done. They don’t have a budget per se, but do love to trade. So I am planning on trading my photography for a couple of nights in the property during ski season. Should work out well for both of us.

The picture above, while not quite what I wanted, was generated on my laptop from 5 exposures (-2, -1, 0, +1, +2) combined in Photomatix. It is my intent to do a full on review of Photomatix in the next couple of weeks. But all in all, I am happy with the result here. I’d like to lighten it a bit of course, but it does give the feeling of the view you get from my room at the Park Hyatt. I think that the next time I do this, I might be inclined to take 9 exposures, shooting at -2, -1.5, -1, -0.5, 0, +0.5, +1, +1.5, +2 and seeing if that results in a better image. I need to go back to my notes from the HDRI book I read so long ago.

I could probably hang my shingle out for this now, but I want to get it right before I start expecting people to pay for my time.

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Review: The HDRI Handbook

On 08.16.08, In Book Reviews, By Chester

Book CoverHDR (high dynamic range) images are starting to take the photography world by storm (at the time of this writing, the HDR Flickr group has over 18,000 members). If you ask a room full of people what HDR is, you get a wide range of answers, and typically they are all partly correct. Simply put however, HDR imaging is the process of creating an image that encompasses a wide range of exposure values. This allows the resultant image to be nearly all encompassing in every detail. HDR Imaging has, until very recently, been the purvey of Hollywood graphic and special effects artists. “The HDRI Handbook” by Christian Bloch helps bring this exciting arena to everyone else.

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