An Old Truck in HDR

I have spent this week fiddling with Photomatix, the HDR program that is preferred by a lot of photographers.  This old truck is parked in an alley about a block from my office and I thought it might make a good HDR subject.  It looks like some kind of old rusted out research vehicle.

Obviously I need a little more practice.  But overall I am pleased with the program and I like the creative aspects of HDR.  As with most anything, all it will take is a little more study and practice and I should have it down... right?

Photomatix is free to try out and it doesn't expire.  You just have to put up with the watermark until you fork out $99 for the program.  I think it's a pretty good deal, but check it out for yourself at http://www.hdrsoft.com/

I'll see you Friday.  Until then, keep shooting!

Ryan

Using Photomatix for HDR Photography

Here is an HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo I took of the train located at Victorian Sqare in Sparks, NV.

Everything I have read seems to say that Photomatix is the program of choice for HDR.  I am testing it out as you can tell from the Photomatix watermark that is plopped on the front of the train.  So far it seems to be a great program.  I may have to put in on my Christmas wish list.

This photo was created using a combination of 5 exposures with 1 f stop between each exposure to capture all the shadows and highlights.  It was high noon when I took the photo so shadows were very harsh.  I shot this with my Canon 1D Mark III set to Auto Exposure Bracketing and mounted on a tripod.

Hope everyone is having a great week and looking forward to the holidays as much as I am.

Keep shooting... and think about adding Photomatix to YOUR wish list.

Ryan

HDR Photography

This weekend I decided to try some HDR photography.  HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and refers to the difference between the highlights and shadows in a  photo or scene.  Have you ever taken a photo where some parts of the scene are pefectly exposed while other parts are too dark or too light (blown out).  The scene looked great to you but the camera just couldn't capture it.  This is because our eyes can see and adjust for a much broader range of highlights to shadow then our camera can.

HDR is a photographic technique of taking multiple exposures and combining them to create a photo that captures a much wider dynamic range then a camera can do with one single exposure.  I will explain HDR in greater detail in an upcoming post, but this is one of the pictures I took this weekend.  It is a bridge over the Truckee River in Reno.  There  are a couple of different ways you can use HDR.  One is to recreate an image as you saw it... in other words realistic.  The other option is to create a surreal type of image that leans more toward fantasy.  I used a surreal style with this photo.

Here is what the image looked like coming out of my camera as a single exposure.

To create this HDR photo I used Photomatix and Lightroom 2.

That's it for today.  I plan to continue this discussion on HDR in this weeks blogs so check back in if you're interested, or if you just want to see some cool looking pictures.

Keep shooting!

Ryan