It's a sunny, windy day. You're shooting architecture and using bracketing to ultimately capture an image that's exposed perfectly. But you forget about the flag on the building, and how it's waving in the wind. Putting your three or five bracketed shots together will create a blurry flag. All hope is lost, right? Wrong. Earlier this year I highlighted some of my New York photos from last fall, in showing how to use Photomatix Pro to create realistic HDR images. One of the photos I stumbled upon had an American flag front and center. … [Read more...] about Fixing HDR Ghosting with Photomatix Pro
high dynamic range
Realistic HDR images with Photomatix Pro
HDR photography gets a bad rap. Many believe that HDR means over-contrasted, over-saturated, over-sharpened photos. But in reality, HDR is really just blending multiple images together. And by using the technique effectively, you can enhance your images and create a blended photograph that is both natural-looking and more attractive to the viewer. I was in New York last week for the Out of New York Conference, and without a tripod on hand, I bracketed my images, knowing I could put them together to create a more dynamic photograph. I … [Read more...] about Realistic HDR images with Photomatix Pro
Macphun’s Aurora HDR Pro Update Has Me Impressed!
By now most of you have heard of Aurora HDR from Trey Ratcliff and the team at Macphun, and if you haven't, well it's a joint project by Trey and Macphun to create an application tailored to exactly what the most prolific HDR photographer in the world would want out of software. Over the course of an entire year they worked together to create an app for photographers of all skill levels that would produce incredible images. You can run it as a plug-in for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture, and Photoshop Elements, OR you can run it as a complete … [Read more...] about Macphun’s Aurora HDR Pro Update Has Me Impressed!
How to Use HDR for Nighttime Photography
Making pictures at nighttime can be challenging. Parts of a picture that are lit with street lamps or other lights are very bright compared to the darkness of the sky or the shadows under trees and porches. This scene is described as having a high dynamic rangethe difference between light and shadow is very great. This is the reason we have HDR tools for photography. Let me show you how I used HDR techniques to make a picture at nighttime. Bracket While photowalking with a terrific group in Austin, Texas, I wanted to make a picture of the … [Read more...] about How to Use HDR for Nighttime Photography
Beat the Bracket Racket – Shooting HDR Base Images the Right Way
Photographers have struggled with limited dynamic range for as long as there have been photographers. Expose for the highlights in most scenes, and you will end up with crushed shadows where no details can be extracted from the inky blackness. Conversely, if you expose for the shadows, the highlights will blow out, leaving nothing but garish white the absolute absence of detail. To capture the broad range of light in many scenes, photographers use High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing to combine multiple images shot at different settings into one … [Read more...] about Beat the Bracket Racket – Shooting HDR Base Images the Right Way
Painting In HDR With Snapseed
Google's Snapseed has undergone a facelift of late and one of the things Ive found helpful is the ability to brush in the HDR filter. Applying The HDR Scape Filter To apply the HDR filter tap the pencil icon in the bottom right corner Then slide up to reveal the filters. Among the filters is the new HDR Scape. This works much better than the Drama that you may have added before. Here add the adjustments to suit. In this example Im only adjusting for the portion of the image under the desk. The wall and windows Ill do later. Ill tap the … [Read more...] about Painting In HDR With Snapseed
What Difference Does HDR make With Smartphone Images?
On all the smartphones I get my hands on these days there's a n HDR function. Quite often I find that the default is 'Auto' but what difference does it really make? What Is HDR? High Dynamic Range or HDR is a technique of combining three or more images to make one evenly exposed image. That is, one for shadows, one for mid-tones and one for highlights. Photographers have been creating HDR images for some time using software from Photomatix, Adobe or other third party software providers. The Smartphone HDR What smartphones do however is take the … [Read more...] about What Difference Does HDR make With Smartphone Images?
Don’t Be an HDR Hater — Exploring The Aesthetic Benefits
I'm a big fan of HDR photography (so is Scott). HDR unlocks shots that we just can't get otherwise (especially with challenging lighting situations). But many photographers are wary... and justifiably so. When used incorrectly, HDR tools can give an image a telltale look. Let's objectively explore the technique of High Dynamic Range photography and what it can achieve when used correctly. Here are few of the reasons we choose to shoot HDR. Dramatic Colors The possibility of boosting color in a HDR photo is one of the main reasons people … [Read more...] about Don’t Be an HDR Hater — Exploring The Aesthetic Benefits
