Never Write It Down! Photoblog

Honeysuckle

2009-09-16T12:43:00.002-04:00

My honeysuckle almost died this year, but I take a picture of it every year and this year the flowers were just as nice, even with only half of the plant.

Tree Rat

2009-09-16T12:03:00.003-04:00

There is nothing I dislike more than photos of brown animals and my least favorite are squirrels. I don't dislike squirrels exactly, just wasting photos of them and finding them proudly displayed on friends websites! So, I happened upon this mangy thing in my backyard and thought of my friend Mario in Montreal who is the biggest offender of this. His squirrel photos are WAY better(supposing there's a rating system for crappy squirrel photos)... he cares more about getting them just right and capturing the essence of squirrel life.

Me? After I quickly snapped this picture and posted it here, I deleted all traces of the rat-like animal from my computer. This guy was far above me and I shot it at 450mm to keep my distance. Although I always secretly wish one will jump at Mario so he'll stop taking pictures of them, I didn't want it to happen to me. Just thinking about it made me scream like a girl and run into the house.

So, to my friend Mario... I was thinking about you buddy and this one's for you!

Orange

2009-09-15T09:42:00.002-04:00

Alex

2009-09-13T19:55:00.006-04:00

Newly Canadian Alex back for a visit.

White Hydrangea

2009-09-13T19:34:00.002-04:00

Meadowlands Sunset

2009-09-11T15:31:00.004-04:00

Barry at the Gym

2009-09-10T10:28:00.001-04:00

La Bella Luna

2009-09-05T17:21:00.009-04:00

The moon looked kind of cool against the sky last night, so I took a few shots.

Backyard Flowers at Night

2009-09-05T17:07:00.002-04:00

inside

2009-09-05T16:47:00.004-04:00

My main site is 'under repair'. Looking forward to having it back in a week or two.

This year, I noticed that just about everyone did a dandelion shot. I thought I'd do one and try not to do one with that single seed floating away.

HDR: Worth it?

2009-06-26T22:15:00.007-04:00

You love it or you hate it. No inbetweeners talking about it.
As you try it, the temptation is to go all the way. The more you use it, the more you pull way back and use it as a tool.
It's here to stay, either way. Cameras have started the movement with Active-D Lighting.

With the help of a photo of Montreal's famed Silo No.5 from Mario Jean of Madoc Photo, we'll take a ride through options (excluding the crazy, grunge option!). And to make it easy, we'll start with only one, normally exposed shot. I'll also talk in Lightroom/Photomatix Pro, but any combination will do. I always use RAW (NEF, DNG, etc.) files because they hold the most data in the shadows and highlights, but Mario gave me a TIFF file, so, that's that.

The original photo has a lot of HDR potential. A nice sky, loads of details in the building and landscape and reflective water. The exposure is good and the composition is nice.

In the next image, the photo was imported into Lightroom. Exposure was not touched, but it was color corrected, sharpened and got a little contrast with the Tone Curve sliders. It was then exported to size as a JPEG. About a minutes work. It came out great because it was a good picture to start with. That's very important. HDR will not fix bad photos, it will only make them much worse.

For the next shot, we'll take it easy on the end result, but we'll make an HDR that won't make people scream.

Like I said, I only had one shot and making a pseudo HDR can be done, but not with very good results. So, in either the Lightroom Library or Develop Module, create a virtual copy and up the exposure by 2 full stops to overexpose it. Create another virtual copy and underexpose that one by 2 stops. You can do another on each end at +4 and -4 for a total of 5 shots if you have very light areas and very dark areas, but three is enough for us.

Now, you have 3 shots as if you bracketted the exposure in your camera. This method is especially useful if you want to HDR treat previously taken photos that do not have bracketted exposures. Export these shots as different 16 bit TIFF files. Import those into Photomatix, making sure you select 2 stops on the menu and then click the Tone Mapping button.

We will only touch the radial buttons for Light Smoothing and only one of the two on the right. The right-most selection is what was chosen here. For this more natural image, we want to only use Photomatix to merge the images for us. Don't try this in Photoshop, you'll be disappointed. Click process and then save the new TIFF file.

Bring the photo into Lightroom (or Camera Raw, etc.). Make a few adjustments to color saturation, etc. and then open it in Photoshop. Now, work on the image as it it was a normal photo, adding levels adjustments, sharpening, high pass, etc.

Do this once and the second time it will take you only a couple of minutes. You come out with a more punchy shot than the normally processed one and a lot more detail. Most notably is the rusty equipment above the pipes. They show rusty pipes instead of a black blob. I can now also see what's happening in background-left.

For the last shot (and this is as far as I'd ever go), more was done in Photomatix Pro. Here, the defaults were not used and the keys are Luminosity and Micro Smoothing with a little white and black point adjustment. This is where you get the famous clouds that made HDR famous and desireable. You still have to work in Photoshop, reduce noise where you can. HDR processing adds noise if you're not careful and you'll need less sharpening in Photoshop, but still do it.

This last image may still be a little much for some, but it is memorable as it smacks you in the face. HDR for the greenery in the image was removed completely. Leaves and grass, when not a main subject tend to get over sharp and ugly. The water was reduced by 50%. Ripples become knives in the water if fully processed. Play with the shot until you get what you want.

For me, the sky and water are cool and dramatic. The building looks either more ancient than it is or too grungy for me.

Once you go too far, I must say, it's difficult to back away. HDR can be like a drug.

The 'dirty' look is common with HDR and is why you don't see a lot of people photos done with it. But when they are done well, people photos look great. Think Nike commercials. People with darker skin look fantastic in HDR. You notice more of the lightening effect than the darkening, blotchy effect that looks dirty. Always watch for noise and if you wind up with some correct it with a noise filter like Noiseware Pro and then mask it in Photoshop so it doesn't smooth too much detail that you worked hard to get.

Abandoned places with dark corners, bulldozers, and those big, round hay bales are great HDR subjects destined for a little over processing. Inside homes with uneven lighting or windows or your pet in the dense shade of a tree are great choices for light HDR processing.

Thanks to Mario at Madoc Photo for the picture.

To see some examples of HDR, try Eric Bowers Photography. Eric stays on the edge, but his processing is consistent and his shots are interesting.
John Maslowski does excellent work at his Sirius2 Photoblog. You can tell John spends a lot of time getting it just right.
For the good, the bad and the ugly, try HDRCream.

Looking Down On Beantown

2009-04-21T15:22:00.003-04:00

Boston, Mass.
There is a nighttime version at A Thousand Words

Go on an Adventure with Framed and Shot

2009-04-20T21:38:00.007-04:00

Framed and Shot
Photographers: Randi Gording / Knut Schjerverud
Site: http://www.framedandshot.com/

My first dealings with Framed and Shot were a little comical, I must say.
I found the blog, loved the photos and started commenting. When I got a few comments back... always generous... there was a vibe there I was not getting. There were a lot of WE's and US's. I thought 'how eccentric'. Then I thought, maybe they are royalty. Maybe one of the British Princes had taken an interest in my blog. Hey.. it could happen. Well, I finally discovered (with help) that Framed and Shot were two people. Yes, Randi and Knut. Ooops! Boy, did I feel stupid.

I don't know who is Framed and who is Shot, but they take equal credit for what appears on their site. One may take a photo and the other may process it. Together, they take us on a wild ride.

When I go to their site, I never know where I'll end up or what creature I'll see, if there will be a train driving at me or someone fixing a car. That's part of the lure for me. The diversity mixed with a keen eye for the extraordinary makes me always want more. To see where they've been and who they've met. Hearing their descriptions of places I've never been makes me yearn to visit. Seeing their thoughtful photos makes me grab for my camera. Reading their generous praise for everyone they meet makes them among the most sincere people I've never met.

I cannot express enough praise for these two, so I won't try. Visit them and say hello to genuine people, willing to learn, able to teach and definitely up for an adventure to who knows where.

Randi and Knut have a strong penchant for HDR photos. Both creating them and viewing others. Their latest shot (above) is a great example of what they can see and what they can do.

They are listed on VFXY and are Hall of Fame members at photoblogs.org among others.
http://www.framedandshot.com/

Cathedral

2009-04-10T13:36:00.002-04:00

Happy Easter

Top 10 Daily Photoblogs

2009-04-09T23:53:00.014-04:00

Photoblogs I follow every day... without fail.

These are the 10 photoblogs I follow each and every day. I certainly follow more photoblogs than this and good ones, too. These 10 post consistently each day or so and I try to make sure I see everything as it's posted.

Each is very different from the other, but all have one thing in common... they enjoy photography and it shows in their work.

Please visit some or all of these great photographers and see if you see what I see. Let me (or them) know what you think.

Site: Madoc Photo http://blog.madocphoto.com/
Photographer: Mario Jean
Origin: Montreal, CA
Why I follow: The clarity. The originality. The artistic style. Incomparable quality. A dear and very talented friend.

Site: Digitized Chaos http://digitizedchaos.com/
Photographer: Rian Castillo
Origin: Brooklyn, Mobile, US
Why I follow: Rian enjoys taking pictures. It shows. Quippy remarks. Keen observastions. Moleman!

Site: Buenos Aires Photographer http://www.buenosairesphotographer.com/
Photographer: Thomas Locke Hobbs
Origin: Buenos Aires
Why I follow: Thomas photographs in ways that inspire delight. I'm sure Thomas doesn't know just how good he is as a photographer. What he sees, we see and we feel we are there on a casual walk with him.

Site: Anamaria http://m-anamaria.aminus3.com/
Photographer: Mariana Maodus
Origin: Waterloo, Ontario, CA
Why I follow: I watched Mariana grow from snapsots to thoughtful, inspiring images. She is everywhere. Her energy makes me want to photograph something. Now with a new animus3 blog. Her old blog is http://photoblog.com/anamaria21

Site: bluechameleon http://bluechameleon.aminus3.com/
Photographer: Sharon
Origin: Vancouver, CA
Why I follow: Haunting images that drag you into a mystery. Angles, style, processing like I've never seen before. Her images are part mystery novel, part hypnotic song.

Site: zOOm http://zoom.aminus3.com/
Photographer: Florence
Origin: Paris
Why I follow: zOOm is a playground. Images so complex and simple. So straightforward and artistic. Florence is a painter that paints with light and shadow.

Site: MADNESSMATRIX Eric Bowers Photography http://www.madnessmatrix.com/
Photographer: Eric Bowers
Origin: Kansas City, US
Why I follow: HDR!!! The best I've seen. The most I've seen in one place. My mouth drops open at each new entry.

Site: get a glimpse http://www.get-a-glimpse.com/
Photographer: Paolo Micheli
Origin: Castelnuovo Gar, Italy
Why I follow: Extremely beautiful images. Fun HDR to things that should be in a museum to photos worthy of a high end travel brochure, to graphic art.

Site: ALL Photography from Batailley Photoshop-ed Pictures http://www.batailley.net/
Photographer: Laurent Batailley
Origin: Montreal, CA
Why I follow: Photos... unbelieveable. His blog is an experience to behold. Before/after fades are exquisite and FUN!!

Site: Light:Shadow:Clay::Photography http://gallery.lightshadowclay.com/
Photographer: John Hess
Origin: Dallas, US
Why I follow: Great photos. Always a surprise what may be found next. Abandoned buildings, retro stuff, graphic interest photos. John's retro and logo photos are my favorites.

Next time, photobloggers that allow their photos to linger with us for up to a week. Crafty devils, these.

Sterling Trees

2009-04-07T21:51:00.008-04:00

Sterling Furnace

2009-04-06T13:10:00.005-04:00

Sterling Lake

2009-04-05T21:30:00.005-04:00

Mohonk Mountain House

2009-04-03T14:07:00.002-04:00

Night Skyline

2009-04-03T13:16:00.007-04:00

Sunset over New Jeresy

2009-04-03T13:16:00.006-04:00

From the ferry terminal in Manhattan, waiting to go back to NJ.

Cautious Couple

2009-04-03T13:14:00.003-04:00

Sitting on a makeshift bench cover so they don't attract dirt and germs through their pants.

Personal, Up Close And

2009-03-30T12:52:00.001-04:00

Ellis Dome

2009-03-30T11:59:00.003-04:00

This dome at Ellis Isldan was recently restored (recreated actually) by Timber Restoration of Saddle River, NJ. The structure is almost all treated plywood encased in copper sheeting.

Ferry

2009-03-29T22:53:00.001-04:00