Photography Fun

[Hookedtrout]

Ok I downloaded the trial program and played with a few jpeg photos. Well I am now going to buy me a camera that I can bracket with and really get into this photo process.
Have you printed any of your photos yet Cory?
I want to thank you for bringing this process to our attention.

The statements about these effects on a single photo are correct but it does inhance them to a nice degree. No where near the effects of a bracketed shot for sure.

I haven't printed any of the HDR photos yet but I have printed a lot of other photos in the past year or so, I use a guy out of New Mexico for printing, he does an awesome job and you aren't limited to standard sizes, I like to do wide narrow panoramics so he tells me to send the picture via email, give him one dimension either the height I want or the width I want and the other dimension will be what it is. If you want his web let me know, excellent results, various paper types including canvas and he once called me to answer a few questions and we talked for an hour about various things.

I'm still just learning the HDR so once you get your camera you can learn with me. And you are very welcome for my sharing, heck that's as much fun as the doing.

[The Big M]

The best thing is this program is a thousand times more user friendly than Photoshop and the article I read said Photoshop alone isn't capable of HDR, at least not the version I have which is last years version, Elements 9.

I assume Elements 9 is a trimmed-down version of Photoshop CS4 so you could be missing that feature, but I have done it with CS3. I may have needed Adobe Bridge though, I don't recall. I usually just look for an online tutorial whenever I want to try something new, and I've only done one or two images.

I'd like to offer a critique, Cory. Have you tried applying some noise reduction to your individual exposures before merging them? I'm seeing a lot of noise in the skies and shadow areas, and I think the HDR process is making it much more obvious. Particularly the storefront window in the Bridge Street shot. It looks like the program is overboosting the shadow detail when it really doesn't need to, causing the increased noise. I think the textures of the sky, bricks, and street are more important, along with detail in the marquee and neon sign. I'd like to see that shot tweaked to bring out the highlights a bit more, reduce the glow around the streetlamp, and increase the contrast slightly.

There's a lot of visual interest there, but it looks a bit muddied, if that makes sense. A little bit of tweaking here and there should bring out the marquee and neon sign while still maintaining the interesting textures of the other elements.

[Hookedtrout]

The best thing is this program is a thousand times more user friendly than Photoshop and the article I read said Photoshop alone isn't capable of HDR, at least not the version I have which is last years version, Elements 9.

I assume Elements 9 is a trimmed-down version of Photoshop CS4 so you could be missing that feature, but I have done it with CS3. I may have needed Adobe Bridge though, I don't recall. I usually just look for an online tutorial whenever I want to try something new, and I've only done one or two images.

I'd like to offer a critique, Cory. Have you tried applying some noise reduction to your individual exposures before merging them? I'm seeing a lot of noise in the skies and shadow areas, and I think the HDR process is making it much more obvious. Particularly the storefront window in the Bridge Street shot. It looks like the program is overboosting the shadow detail when it really doesn't need to, causing the increased noise. I think the textures of the sky, bricks, and street are more important, along with detail in the marquee and neon sign. I'd like to see that shot tweaked to bring out the highlights a bit more, reduce the glow around the streetlamp, and increase the contrast slightly.

There's a lot of visual interest there, but it looks a bit muddied, if that makes sense. A little bit of tweaking here and there should bring out the marquee and neon sign while still maintaining the interesting textures of the other elements.

I appreciate any and all comments and the first thing I'll say is I am self taught in pretty much everything I dabble in and I just jump in with my clothes still on as I only do it for the fun and for me with no intent on selling or being a professional.

Half of what you talk about is over my head at this point but I'm sure as I play I will start to understand this better, at least I hope. I did play and manipulate them some but I did it from a very high level just dragging the little adjustment bars here and there until it looked cool to me if you will. I wasn't putting a lot of thought or enlarging them to look at the in depth detail. I've only done 6 or 7 shots so far so keep giving me feedback I love all the help I can get.

One additional thing, not to lessen your advice as I'm sure it's sound once I figure out what exactly you are talking about but several of these pictures were shot through my front filthy dirty windows during a rain storm right after I downloaded the program so I could try it and to get them here in the slick 60's I took a 5 MB photo, reduced it down to less than 1000 kb so it would load easily so I'm sure a lot is lost in the reduction.

I am having a blast playing, critique away and help me improve but please excuse my ignorance as I ask questions as I may not understand exactly what you are talking about. I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express a couple of times!

[Max]

I thought it may be the ISO settings causing graniness too. Low light and if the camera is compensating for it by increasing the ISO. Keep the camera on a tripod, lower the ISO and increase the exposure time if you have to in order to reduce the grain in the image.

[Hookedtrout]

I thought it may be the ISO settings causing graniness too. Low light and if the camera is compensating for it by increasing the ISO. Keep the camera on a tripod, lower the ISO and increase the exposure time if you have to in order to reduce the grain in the image.

It very well could be, several were shot outside late, especially the moose and the two shots in town. None of which I used a tripod so I'm sure i got some Ghosting, I did set the one of the theater on the roof of the car but didn't have a bag or anything.

[oldtrucks]

My camera is a Nikon Cool Pix 8 megapixels and I was looking it over and it has an exposure compensation feature +/_ up to 2 so maybe it will work. I'm going to try it and see what happens. I've got a Bogen trypod and a bunch of head attachments. The little camera will look funny on it but what the hey if it works yea

[The Big M]

I thought it may be the ISO settings causing graniness too. Low light and if the camera is compensating for it by increasing the ISO. Keep the camera on a tripod, lower the ISO and increase the exposure time if you have to in order to reduce the grain in the image.

I agree, if the camera was set on auto it may have adjusted the ISO.

What I was getting at is that if the images are noisy (i.e. grainy) to begin with, then the noise will become worse if you overlay all 3 of them.

Also, if you're brightening the shadows at all (via the sliders in your program) to enhance the detail in them, then it may be making the existing noise much worse. Noise can also be caused by underexposure, so it's often evident in shadows.

Anyway, it's not really a big deal since you were using quick snapshots for practice. Try some longer exposures at low ISO, using a tripod as Max suggested. Then see what you come up with.

[Hookedtrout]

Awesome Mike, now you got me thinking I need to check my little point and shoot Canon camera as I have it with me 24-7 and 90% of all my photos are taken with it because I don't head out with the intent on taking photos most of the time the opportunity just presents itself.

I have a really nice Manfroto tripod with a pistol grip attachment for adjusting to any angle and locking so I will be giving this more thought as I progress, hopefully the results start to show.

[Max]

One of the keys to successful HDR photos is that it allows you complete control over all exposure aspects of a photo. So what you want to try and do is eliminate any 'auto' features of your camera other than auto-focus. That way you can set everything up yourself and not guessing later why your photo didn't come out like some other examples because you will know exactly what settings you had it on and improve on that.

Cory did a great job of picking high-contrast settings to begin with and that helps. Clouds, different buildings, vehicles and land, etc. Great thing about HDR is the crappier the weather and conditions, the better chances of a successfully amazing HDR image.

[Hookedtrout]

One of the keys to successful HDR photos is that it allows you complete control over all exposure aspects of a photo. So what you want to try and do is eliminate any 'auto' features of your camera other than auto-focus. That way you can set everything up yourself and not guessing later why your photo didn't come out like some other examples because you will know exactly what settings you had it on and improve on that.

Cory did a great job of picking high-contrast settings to begin with and that helps. Clouds, different buildings, vehicles and land, etc. Great thing about HDR is the crappier the weather and conditions, the better chances of a successfully amazing HDR image.

Ya, what Max said about the crappy weather is so true, well I guess I haven't had the opportunity to do nice weather and may never have that opportunity with our weather pattern this year but it is true they come out really cool when the weather is cloudy and ugly.

As for the Auto stuff, my camera won't do the AEB while it is set to Auto settings, you can't even select the AEB settings so you have to go to manual, do I know how to pick the right manual settings on my Sony A380, not very well, I just guess and learn from my mistakes.

I did find on my little Canon point and shoot that it has a fisheye setting while looking for the AEB setting, never did find any AEB settings? I'll read the manual or do like I did with the Sony and go online and get "Chat" support and have them walk me through it. What a freaking amazing time we live in.

[oldtrucks]

Well good news Cory it worked just need to get them up on photobucket so I can post them. On one of my camera controls there is a symbol, it is a box with +/- and its called exposure compensation.

I think that I'm going to buy this program it really gives you a lot of creativity with photography. Making it more fun than it already is. Even tho I am able to use my little point and shoot I still want to get a DSLR body I can use with my Minolta lenses. If anyone knows what body will work let me know. I understand Minolta no longer makes cameras.

[Max]

Mike, you can check out Adorama.com They're out of NYC and are excellent regarding older equipment and just piecing together a good rig.

They also sell a lot of used equipment and have a great way of coding the condition of the items.

[Hookedtrout]

Well good news Cory it worked just need to get them up on photobucket so I can post them. On one of my camera controls there is a symbol, it is a box with +/- and its called exposure compensation.

I think that I'm going to buy this program it really gives you a lot of creativity with photography. Making it more fun than it already is. Even tho I am able to use my little point and shoot I still want to get a DSLR body I can use with my Minolta lenses. If anyone knows what body will work let me know. I understand Minolta no longer makes cameras.

Awesome, can't wait to see the pictures, isn't it a blast just to play with them. I have some more good news, I think your Minolta lenses will fit the Sony a or Alpha cameras just like mine. If you weren't so dang far up north I'd run over and we could go play and try those lenses to make sure.

My aunt had a Minolta and she bought a Sony Alpha DSLR and all her lenses fit if I remember correct, I don't know what Minolta she had and that may make a difference but I bet there are a dozen web sites dedicated to telling what will fit what.

[oldtrucks]

Here goes



I'll dig out the lenses and see what I have.
Max thanks for the link I'll go there.
I had to convert this picture back to a jpeg as the output was in tiff. Photobucket apparently doesn't like tiff files. Had to find a format converter but got the job done. I have learned a bunch in the last day or two. Thanks again Cory and all, photography is taking on a new feel.

[Hookedtrout]

Awesome stuff Mike, I can see you smiling like I was when I plugged in my first couple and saw the results. Too fun!!

[Max]

I've used HDR for work assignments to draw out subtle detail. This was an image I took for a magazine ad about a year ago. Subtle HDR effects but this was composed of 5 images and done in a studio setting. Extreme HDR turns photos into dreamy, soft paintings. Subtle HDR goes unnoticed but enhances the image. The original was pretty good but HDR makes it grab your attention in certain settings. It's all in how you want it to look.

[oldtrucks]

For me photography will never be the same. The learning curve isn't all that bad and the possibilities appear to be endless.

[Hookedtrout]

For me photography will never be the same. The learning curve isn't all that bad and the possibilities appear to be endless.

I can see what Max is saying as well, as you learn it you will be able to manipulate things exactly as you need, right now it's just cool beans how it takes the ordinary and turns it into something extrordinary, at least for me it is and everyone I've showed them too is just astounded.

The bad thing is when I go outside and stand where I took the photo after having the photo it's like wow this place is boring as compared to the photo.

[The Big M]

I've used HDR for work assignments to draw out subtle detail. This was an image I took for a magazine ad about a year ago. Subtle HDR effects but this was composed of 5 images and done in a studio setting. Extreme HDR turns photos into dreamy, soft paintings. Subtle HDR goes unnoticed but enhances the image. The original was pretty good but HDR makes it grab your attention in certain settings. It's all in how you want it to look.

Great shot, Max.

As for the Auto stuff, my camera won't do the AEB while it is set to Auto settings, you can't even select the AEB settings so you have to go to manual, do I know how to pick the right manual settings on my Sony A380, not very well, I just guess and learn from my mistakes.

Will it work in aperature priority mode? It's a little simpler than full manual, in that the camera will choose the appropriate shutter speed.

Sometimes the camera's metering is fooled though, which is another reason why exposure compensation is useful. I'd recommend to anyone who shoots in an auto or program mode to become very familiar with this feature, as it allows you that extra degree of control without having to dive right in to manual mode.

That being said, I learned by shooting fully manual in available light.

[oldtrucks]

I to am self taught. I began about 15 years with 35mm film and now with these digital tools I am really blown away with what can be done at home with a couple of software programs and an inexpensive camera.

Then you go and see what the pros are doing with the same software and their expensive equipment, and their years of experence its just incredible. What a time we live in.

I cant wait to get a dslr camera and get back to shooting again. Where does one start???? Every thing you look at begins to takes on a different feel.

I always knew there was a lot of talent on this forum and I am blown away by how freely it is shared. I am proud to be a member. Thank all of you. I hope I can add enough to make me worthy of being a member.