There are a number of ways of doing HDR (High Dynamic Range) photographs. There are some good programs out there that make creating HDR photos very easy. Photomatix is one program that has gotten a lot of good reviews recently. With their software and a few shots you can get that shot that was very difficult until recently.
Actually the last line is only half true. Photomatix does make it a very easy to create HDR images but its not the only way. I’ve been creating HDR images with Photoshop for a few years by using layers. Starting with either, a few shots bracketed or a single raw shot processed to different exposures. I open the shots in Photoshop. Starting with the shot with the most amount of image the way I want I copy the other images to layers on the first image. Next I add hide all layer masks to each of the layers except for the background layer. Finally I select the layer mask of the different layers and grab the eraser tool, set the size to the size of the detail I want and change the opacity to some where below 100% (even as low as single digit opacity). With the eraser tool I start erasing the portion of the mask I don’t want (which causes the portion of the layers that I’m working with to show through). This paints in the detail from the different layers on top of the background giving me the image I envisioned (saw) when took the shot. After this is all done and I have the image I want I usually add a curve layer for black and white points and adjust the midtones.
Here I am sitting in an airport so I thought I would blog (hmm sounds like a limerick seen in bathroom stalls).
Critiquing / constructive criticism or how to give a critique has been covered ad nauseam do a quick google and you will find a description of how to give one. I want to talk about accepting constructive criticism. Constructive criticism has caused so much hurt not because the person giving it doesn’t perform it correctly but because the person receiving it doesn’t receive it correctly. The person getting the critique is usually a very inexperienced photographer and so they haven’t learned to take a picture of something, they are still taking a picture of a memory. They take pictures to capture a reminder of how they felt at that time and place. The photographer usually has great emotional attachment to the time and place captured in the image. They take this emotional piece of themselves and ask a stranger to tell them what they think of their memory. The stranger doesn’t know that the flat picture of a beach is a picture of the last day of the best vacation the photographer ever had they see a poorly composed clich√ɬ© beach snapshot. When you ask some one to critique a picture you have to remember they can’t see the emotion you have for the picture and they shouldn’t see it. You asked them to look at a piece of paper that has some colors and shapes on it (or a file with said properties). When they tell you the light is flat or there is no subject or the flow of the lines draws their eye off the picture they’re not attacking you they are trying to tell you what emotions and reactions they have to the picture. Listen to what they have to say and ask them what they like and what they don’t like try to look at the picture through the filter of their description. When you’re out shooting and you look out at that beach with your patient significant other standing next to you take a reminder shot but then look again and see how the light looks, is it flat does it accentuate the ripples in the sand or make them disappear look at the curve of the shoreline. As your standing there remember what the reviewer said, is there something you did right in that picture you can do again, is there something you can do differently so you don’t make the same mistakes you did last time. You should remember a good critique and try and improve you photography with it. The critique should be a tool that you can use to carve away the filter of your emotions to see what is beautiful or repulsive in front of you so you can capture it and share it. Always remember a good critique is not an attack on you remember they are trying to help you. They are trying to help you improve your photography.
Oh by the way we went to Kauai for our anniversary trip.
Finally my two weeks of travel are over I head home tomorrow. Yeah!!
I love to travel but when I travel without my wife, Lillian, it’s never quite the same. Without Lillian I’m always thinking this would be a great place for us to visit or she would love this spot. And when it comes to photography we feed off of each other. She sees things all the time that I don’t even notice. I always get better and more interesting pictures when we travel together. Of course when we photograph together it can be long days. Some places we go she’ll spend a long time trying to get the shot she wants, and some places we go I’m the one trying to get that right shot.
Traveling with loved ones wasn’t the only thing I wanted to write about tonight. I wanted to share a little of my experience here in Alabama. While here I visited a number of smaller state parks and nature preserves. I’m always surprised at how much one can find when one visits the smaller less traveled places. The big name places like Yosemite or Grand Canyon are beautiful but when you spend a little time looking you can find a lot of hidden jewels. One place I went to in New Hampshire a few years ago was park that catered to the weekend picnicker. The trails there were some of the best ones (photographically speaking) I found. So the parks I visited De Soto State park lots of waterfalls. Monte Sano State park and Nature preserve. I did lots of water work (kind a novelty for me since most rivers in my area go dry during the summer). In all the parks I went to there was flowers and butterflies.
I should have new albums up some time next week.
-Philip