I’ve been gaining a broader understanding the limitations and strengths of digital photography. One of the main limitations is the shallower bit-depth, compared to film, which hinders the dynamic range of the image. This is most apparent in sunset and sunrise images, where the dynamic range is not great enough to capture the details without blowing them out, and color tonality in the delicate pink, yellow and purple hues is lost. Of course, those are the colors that make a fantastic sunset or sunrise—so what is a photographer to do? The answer is called High Dynamic Range or HDR. HDR refers to the range of light and dark that a camera in this case can capture. There are several programs on the market now supporting HDR, but if you have PhotoShop CS2—guess what?—it’s already part of the program! It’s been hiding there all along.

 

There are many good HDR tutorials out there already, so I won’t bore you with all those details; instead I’ll point out several very good resources.

 

http://backingwinds.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-create-professional-hdr-images.html

 

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/hdr.shtml

 

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/PS_HDR.HTM

 

http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/high-dynamic-range.htm

 

The main things you need to know, in order to get started, are:

 

  • You’ll need multiple exposures, a range of pictures with different exposure of the same setting;   multiple exposures….
  • Learn how to bracket [-2][0][+2]. That’s three exposures: one under, one according to the meter, and one over.  Two stops on each side are plenty. You can play with more if you have a steady subject with few or no moving items like clouds, for instance.
  • Use a tripod – the shots all need to be as close to exact copies of each other as possible.

 

Once you start down this road your memory sticks will never be the same. They fill up fast, so take along extras or a device to dump the images to in the field.

 

I presented this image in the September news letter. It’s a nice image but, even with neutral density filters and gradient filters, the camera is no match for what the eye can see. Notice the lost details, and the high contrast between the fog and ground. In order to avoid blowing out the sun through the mist it was necessary to ignore the ground.

 

 

 

 

Here is the same picture run through HDR in PS CS2.

 

 

The difference is nothing short of amazing. Fortunately, I bracket on just about everything I do, so I had several sets of bracketed images on this one. To give you an idea, here is the set this image was derived from.

 


 

The first image is under exposed, in this case by two stops. The second image is as the meter indicated and the third image was over exposed by one stop. The under and over exposed images are normally reserved for the trash bin, but as you can see they are now useful. 

 

 

This image of Mt. Rainier appeared in the August news letter. Again, the camera just couldn’t capture the dynamic range.

 

 

 

Thanks to my bracketing habit I was able to revisit this image and now you can see what I saw.

 

 

 

The following two images show how you can use HDR for scenes with moving details, like water. Water is more forgiving than clouds, I’ve found.

 

 

 

I hope I’ve whetted your appetite for bracketing, and for learning to get the most out of your camera.

 

 

Another tidbit I’d like to share this month is what I like to call “seeing the big picture.” I’ve been working with panoramas over the summer, and I am really enjoying the challenge, and the results. For panoramas, you will need software to stitch together several images into one large image. I’ve tried several including “merge to image” in Photoshop but this is one time Photoshop doesn’t stack up. My favorite software for building panoramas is Stitcher, from Realviz, located here:

 

http://stitcher.realviz.com/products/ST/index.php?language=EN

 

The best way I can describe it is, IT WORKS. What you need to know about panoramas is to overlap your images, use a tripod, and keep your aspect the same through out. Again, I’ve got a few links for you. The last link is a PDF, so you will need a reader to view it.

 

http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/PhotoLab/KnowledgeBase/DigiPhotoTips/MakingPanoramas.htm

 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/takeit/panorama.mspx

 

http://www.imaging-resource.com/TIPS/LAWLER/PANOHOW2.PDF

 

 

The next three images are good examples of what can be done when you start looking at the big picture. The down side to all of this is that the pictures are huge when they’re done. I typically combine four to six images in a panorama, and it’s not uncommon to have a 100-plus megabyte image when I am done. You will need lots of RAM and drive space for this. The first two images are only 600 pixels high for this example and the third one is scaled down to 300. The originals are 6,000 to 10,000 pixels high so you can get an idea of how large the final compositions really are.

 

 

 

 

 

This last image is an example of combining both HDR and Panoramas. I just happened to bracket a full panorama of Camas Prairie this spring. The HDR allowed me to capture the subtle shades in the mountains and the clouds, without losing the details in the flowers and field. Combined in a panorama the results are breath-taking.  This image was comprised of six images, all bracketed by one over and one under. That’s a total of eighteen pictures to create this single image. This example was also scaled down to just 300 pixels high.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For additional information or to order prints go to our website: www.bmckain.net 

 

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