Archive for category Massachusetts
To HDR or Not to HDR
Posted by Peter in HDRI, Light Houses, Massachusetts on February 15th, 2010
There has been quite a bit of discussion going on over at Scott Kelby’s Photoshop Insider Blog relative to the topic of HDR (High Dynamic Range ) image processing. The discussion all started with a Scott referencing a quotation about HDR that originally appeared on Dave Cross’s Blog.
Some of the comments remind me of the Chevy vs Ford, Toyota vs Honda, Canon vs Nikon, film vs digital arguments.
Personally, if the person creating the image is happy with the results what difference does it make what process was used to get there. Whether you used negative film, Polaroid film, digital capture, some processing is done to obtain the final results. Heck, even Ansel Adams manipulated the processing to create the final results of what he “saw” as Yosemite.
Scott goes on to mention “The biggest trigger point for most commenters seemed to be the amount or style of HDR tonemapping applied to a photo, and they seemed to feel that the over-processing was strictly to hide bad photographic technique.”
Can HDR be over done ? Sure, but when processed correctly (such as those done by Ben Willmore), HDRI can be the proper artistic technique to use and is better than the same image simply “Developed”.
Personally, I prefer a more subtle HDR tone mapping as done in the image below with final processing in Lightroom or Photoshop.
Though at times I do like to push the effect to what is obiviously not “real” but I do so because I personally like the effect, such as the image shown here.
Bottom line to me is, if you like what you are doing, create it and have fun doing it.
For an in-depth tutorial on the creation of and HDR image check out “My Deconstruction of the HDR image” by RC Concepcion.
On a cold and Gray New England Day …..
Posted by Peter in HDRI, Historical Location, Lightroom, Massachusetts, Photomatix on January 24th, 2009
…… I went back into my catalog of recent images I captured of the Concord River and Old North Bridge.
Normally when I merge to HDRi, I capture a range of exposures of +2,-2,+1, -1, 0EV. However for this set I only capture +1,-1,0 EV .
I was particularly concerned how this was going to render due to the snow cover (which is difficult to expose correctly without blowing out details in other parts of the image) and the fact that I was shooting mid afternoon on an overcast day.
Here are the +1, -1, 0 EV captures
After merging to HDR with Photomatix and while I was still in Photomatix, I applied a subtle tone mapping to avoid that “grunge” HDR look.
The tone mapped version was then imported into Lightroom. Once in Lightroom, I removed the blue cast that you can see in the snow, applied a local gradient to the sky to bring back some blue that was removed from the sky due to the previous step. I Then applied some tonal adjustments to the bridge to bring it more inline to what I saw. Lastly, I sharpened image and removed dust spots.
Resulting in this rendering of the Old North Bridge -
Part of the fun is getting there ….
Posted by Peter in Google Earth Locator Link, HDRI, Light Houses, Massachusetts on September 2nd, 2008
Monday was a beautiful day on the North Shore of Massachusetts. My wife and I decided to see if we could make our way through the “Private” roads of Annisquam and make it out to the Annisquam Light.
I had been there years before and knew that parking was available for visitors.
I can understand why the nearby residences would like to prevent access, the roads are narrow and winding and the location is such that if not controlled would be overrun with people seeking access to the small shoreline beach.
Annisquam Light – Google Earth Locator
Expect to be stopped by a local resident association volunteer and to only be allowed 15 minutes of parking.
Here is one of the captures – (click on image for larger view)
This rendering was created by combining three exposures into a HDR rendering made using Photoshop Cs3 and some final tweaks within Lightroom 2.0
Bay watch ….
Posted by Peter in 7-Point System, Massachusetts, Scott Kelby on June 3rd, 2008
Beautiful night here in New England, so my wife and I decided to dine out at the Clam Box in Ipswich MA.
After consuming more fried food than we probably should, we headed to Ipswich Neck and Bay area to check out the ocean and views.
Here is an image I captured of Ipswich Bay looking towards the setting sun.
The image was first processed with Adobe Lightroom and then transfered to Photoshop to make some additional edits using Scott Kelby’s 7 Point System.
“the regulars are coming, the regulars are coming”
Posted by Peter in Historical Location, Massachusetts, Matt Kloskowski on April 17th, 2008
Paul Revere never said “the British are coming, the British are coming”, since he, like all the other colonist considered themselves British. He actually called out – “the regulars are coming”, meaning the regular British Soldiers.
Well this weekend, the regular tourist are coming to Lexington Green, where on April 19th, 1775, the regular British Army met the Militiamen of Lexington and started the American Revolution.
Since it was such a great day in the Boston area, I decided to take a break from painting, get out my bike and head to the Minuteman Bike trail for some much needed exercise.
I found it to be unusually quiet on Lexington Green. I am sure that it will not be that quiet this weekend.
Here is an image that I captured of the statue of Captain John Parker.
I decided to apply the Surreal Edgy Look Lightroom Preset developed by Matt Kloskowski and recently posted on his blog.
Thanks !
