Digital Photography

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Comment by Mark Levelle on December 1, 2009 at 2:25pm

Just posted some information on photography events at Pacific New Media, including some FREE stuff - check it out in the discussion area.

Comment by Darin on November 10, 2009 at 10:13am

Hi, anyone do videos using Canon 5D Mk2? I'm in the process of buying a MAC PRO, but not sure if the quad 2.66 is good enough. I hate to be waiting around for rendering video. Any info would be helpful. Thanks!

Comment by Terrance Young on November 5, 2009 at 8:09pm

Hi Bill, I use Photoshop to do my HDR I like to make my images very lightly HDR'd as you can see by my photos, but sometime they are cool doing a really surreal photo too I like Christophers pics.

Comment by Bill Spencer on November 5, 2009 at 12:58pm

Thanks Chris, I'll check out hdrsoft. I think that is the one I tried before.
I love surf shots. Here is one of my favorites.

Comment by Christopher Jetton on November 5, 2009 at 12:50pm

Hi Bill, Try out photomatix at www.hdrsoft.com. They have a free evaluation download available. This image was enhanced only in Photoshop. Surfing seems to be one of the hardest things to shoot properly. I am still learning and hope to get better as time goes on. Chris

Comment by Christopher Jetton on November 5, 2009 at 12:43pm

Speaking of Chinatown and HDR. Here is the problem with not making the world stand still while taking multiple shots. Notice that the very last shot had a car enter the field of view on the left of the image. It left a ghost like image.
Chris

Comment by Bill Spencer on November 5, 2009 at 12:36pm

Thanks Terrence and Christopher!
I have experimented a little with HDR. I guess you can use HDR software (is that what you guys do) or do you use photoshop, align the multiple images then collapse them into one. I'm not a real expert with photoshop. I tend to just do minor contrast/brightness adjustment and/or occassional sharpening. I think this is a cool technique. What do you guys use/recommend?

Comment by Christopher Jetton on November 5, 2009 at 12:11pm

The answer is an image like this. This is a result of five images of various exposures, one at the proper exposure, one F stop below, and one F stop above the proper exposure. I do have to other images in the mix that are a half below and a half above that was used as well. These last two are not necessary, but the full F stop ones are. I have used as many as nine images of various F stops when there is a need due to the differences in light.
If you notice Terrance’s tea house image below (thanks Terrance), you will notice how dark the door area is. In his image of Chinatown, there is less area that is blacked out. He has done an imitation of the above technique using one image. Digital cameras pick up a huge amount of information and if you shoot and save the raw image, you will be able to show the details that are normally hidden in the dark areas. At the same time, you will be able to tame the lighter areas.
As Terrance suggests, the technique of using multiple exposures and combining them results in a high density range image called HDR. The image of the fire boat and Beachwalk have even more post processing to give it an artistic feel.
Chris

Comment by Christopher Jetton on November 5, 2009 at 11:58am

Hi Amber and Bill. My requested elaboration: ;-)
When taking photographs, we usually wind up with just the subject having the best exposure. This is okay; it has always been that way for the most part. When taking sunset pictures, you will normally have everything but the sunset as black silhouettes. Like in these two images. One is over exposed. The sky is washed out and everything that is bright is literally gone. The secrets in the shadows however, are exposed. In the other photograph, the image is under exposed, but you have a blue sky. The other light areas of the image are visible and clear. What if you could take the best of both worlds and combine them into one image?
Chris

Comment by Terrance Young on November 5, 2009 at 11:35am

Here's a pic I took in Chinatown HDR'd

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