The Photographers' Corner 2013-2020

[kcowan]

I don't know if anyone has mentioned the HDR applications for smartphones. Takes 3 pictures and blends them into one final. Great for dawn and dusk shots. Many are free.

 

[seraphim]

You guys are inspiring me to stop stop taking snapshots and get serious again. Downloaded a free HDR program last night, just to look over the basic controls, and did a little studying. I can see the advantages to having HDR available for tough shots or a bit of surrealism. I like mathjak's barn photo, but something didn't feel right looking at it, and I think I figured out that feeling. Though the eye can discriminate a large tonal range, like the camera it can not do so all at once. So being able to see detail of the snow AND detail inside simultaneously didn't feel quite natural. This isn't a negative critique of the image, just an observation. Art doesn't have to be realistic, although realistic art is my personal preference. Yet, in ItDontMeanAThing's recent examples, the HDR did add depth and detail to the images, without making the shadows look unrealistic.

I'm also a big fan of chiaroscuro, and black shadows play an important role in a composition, to me.

Just talking out of my posterior, here...

RonStar

You guts are making me feel lazy... Nice composition and lighting. Amazing how nice subjects are often just laying around the house.

Kcowan

Got a favorite you like?

 

[HFWR]

Kcowan

Got a favorite you like?

HDR is "built-in" to the iPhone.

How To Take Stunning HDR Photos With Your iPhone

 

[photoguy]

Just for information - was having a discussion elsewhere and mentioned a focussing technique some hadn't heard of: it's called back button focussing.

+1 for back button focussing.

Only drawback is when you give your camera to someone else to take a quick snap, they get confused by the removal of focus from the shutter.

 

[Major Tom]

Just thought that SF Bay Area photographers might find this seminar on May 4th interesting. It is taking place in a number of locations. Many of the dates have already happened, but some have not. You'll have to troll around on the site to see if there's one near you that hasn't happened.

I have no pecuniary interest in this and am, in fact, too much of a cheapskate to go myself. I like things that are $10 or less

National Geographic Traveler - Photography Seminars : Spirit of Place

 

[Major Tom]

Fooling around in my home office. Natural light coming through the window seemed about right

Nice, Ronstar. I like using available light. It sure is a lot easier than hauling heavy lighting gear around!

 

[Major Tom]

Downtown Los Angeles. Jan 2006
Not sure if I even like these images, but I enjoyed the time spent to see these scenes and frame them.

 

[mathjak107]

nice and simple can look so nice. I like the last one.

 

[Ronstar]

I like the first one - the sphere makes it for me

 

[Ronstar]

Nice, Ronstar. I like using available light. It sure is a lot easier than hauling heavy lighting gear around!

...RonStar

You guts are making me feel lazy... Nice composition and lighting. Amazing how nice subjects are often just laying around the house.

Thanks - Saw the shelf above my computer this morning as the sun peaked in and thought the lighting made it pop. Unusual to get sunlight around here. And yes - it sure does beat hauling lighting gear around.

 

[ERD50]

... I like mathjak's barn photo, but something didn't feel right looking at it, and I think I figured out that feeling. Though the eye can discriminate a large tonal range, like the camera it can not do so all at once. So being able to see detail of the snow AND detail inside simultaneously didn't feel quite natural. This isn't a negative critique of the image, just an observation. ...

Interesting observation. It points out that there is a difference between 'freezing' a shot with photography, and the way the eye/brain look at something in real life and real time.

As an example, I think most casual photographers are often disappointed to see something distracting in the background of a shot they took, when they thought they had a great shot of the item they were looking at. Their brain focused on the point of interest, and ignored the stuff in the background - until you see it 'frozen' in time, then it becomes glaringly obvious.

This reminds me of a podcast I heard years ago - they were talking about trying to compress the amount of data required for a movie. These scientists pointed out that we really only focus on what is important - if you are crossing the street, and a car is coming close to your path, you focus on it, and really can't observe anything else. But if you took a snapshot, you could read the signs on the storefronts, etc. And apparently, our eyes physically capture most of this as well.

They were trying to develop ways to identify what is important to our minds in a movie sequence, and compress everything else and give high detail to the important areas (similar to the way mp3 compression works for audio). I don't think they were successful, but I found it interesting.

So imagine in the future - the computer camera tracks your retina, and adjusts the lighting/focus of the area you are looking at? Peer in to the dark inside of the barn, and your eyes seem to adjust to the light, just like in real life? Seems possible.

-ERD50

 

[FIREd]

So I have a situation where, in the same frame, I have very bright light and very dark objects (say I am in the woods. It's very dark under the tree canopy, but bright sun light punches through here and there) . What can I do to make the shot more evenly lit? I tried HDR but I am not happy with the results. It looks too surreal but maybe I did it wrong. I took seven shots at one stop intervals from -3 to +3 and combined them with Photomatix. I also played with highlights and shadow brushes in Aperture, the result is more realistic but it is very time consuming. Anything else I can try?

 

[mathjak107]

slash , brighten the dark object a bit.

 

[FIREd]

What does slash mean?

 

[HFWR]

What does slash mean?

 

[FIREd]

I know that Slash, but I am not sure he can help. Perhaps slash in this case means slash exposure?

 

[splitwdw]

A photo from my iPhone when walking The Great Wall on vacation in China.View attachment 18608

This is a place that I hope to go in a few years. Nice shot.

 

[mathjak107]

slash , brighten the dark object a bit.

ha ha ha , first day with the new hands. FLASH!

 

[Walt34]

+1 Walt. I keep warning DW that I'm going to get an 800. And yesterday i found that I owe only a few 100 in taxes, not a few 1000. So if I get one and a lens, it's almost as if it's half paid for.

Sounds like a good [-]rationalization[/-] justification to me!

I went over to the local park today to play with the flowing water effect from a new variable density filter. All these were taken in bright sunlight although somewhat shaded but there would be no way to get a 20-sec exposure otherwise. The first photo is 4 seconds.

The duck just happened to walk by and sat down about 10 feet away (I had been sitting on the ground by the tripod for 15 minutes or so) but kept a wary eye on me.

 

[Major Tom]

So I have a situation where, in the same frame, I have very bright light and very dark objects (say I am in the woods. It's very dark under the tree canopy, but bright sun light punches through here and there) . What can I do to make the shot more evenly lit? I tried HDR but I am not happy with the results. It looks too surreal but maybe I did it wrong. I took seven shots at one stop intervals from -3 to +3 and combined them with Photomatix. I also played with highlights and shadow brushes in Aperture, the result is more realistic but it is very time consuming. Anything else I can try?

Although this is not really practical with a landscape type scene, if you're shooting smaller scenes or portraits outside, you can often reduce the dynamic range by using flash or strobes to fill in the shadows a bit.

Another approach is to ask yourself whether it is really important to the particular image you are shooting to keep details in both highlights and shadows? A lot of wonderful images have very deep shadows and/or blown-out highlights.

 

[seraphim]

HDR is "built-in" to the iPhone.

How To Take Stunning HDR Photos With Your iPhone

It's built into my iPad, but I've not had the right opportunity to try it. In normal usage, it doesn't seem to affect much.

 

[seraphim]

The Photographers' Corner





Attached the original file and post production photo in case anyone wanted to discuss exposure. Had a 35-70 lens on, so couldn't zoom in any closer, and not much time. I judged poles to about the same distance as the hyper focal length of the lens at 70mm, did a quick focus there and shot the image as before he made the turn. He was taking photos along the way. We followed about an hour later.

Just used the histogram, plus tweaked sharpness and saturation. This exposure was about 3 stops below the camera's suggested exposure, which left the sky featureless

Ought to burn in the bottom right corner a bit, though - and get rid of that small bit of branch.

 

[FIREd]

Although this is not really practical with a landscape type scene, if you're shooting smaller scenes or portraits outside, you can often reduce the dynamic range by using flash or strobes to fill in the shadows a bit.

Another approach is to ask yourself whether it is really important to the particular image you are shooting to keep details in both highlights and shadows? A lot of wonderful images have very deep shadows and/or blown-out highlights.

In that particular image, I think that the blown-out highlights are distracting. Dark areas can be brightened reasonably well but no amount of processing seems to be able to correct blown-out highlights. With that in mind, I have been underexposing that kind of shots by one stop. Better but still not great. The flash idea though will come in handy when I photograph interiors with a window in the background.

 

[seraphim]

+1 for back button focussing.



Only drawback is when you give your camera to someone else to take a quick snap, they get confused by the removal of focus from the shutter.

You let someone else touch your camera! LOL

 

[seraphim]

The Photographers' Corner

Downtown Los Angeles. Jan 2006

Not sure if I even like these images, but I enjoyed the time spent to see these scenes and frame them.

I like the sphere in opposition to the square window - plus to the slope, as if inviting the ball to roll. The ball's high position in the frame gives it a feeling of instability, as if it WANTS to roll, but the tree won't let it...