Back to HDR

Posted on by

The purchase of my new tripod a couple of months ago has rekindled my interest in HDR. I’ve been trying to get some decent night shots of the Manhattan skyline [with pretty mixed results] for quite a while. Anyway, here is the best of the HDR results:

Manhattan HDR

This is comprised of three images bracketed around a starting point of F5.6 and 8 second exposure. going +/- 1.33 stops. I’ve created the HDR image in Photomatix, and then used the resulting image as a layer mask against the middle of the three bracketed images. Finally I’ve restored most of the skyline, which was very grainy, and also the water, as it lost the smoothing from the long exposure. It’s ok, I think.

I’ve also had a hack with the new HDR offering from Nik Software, HDR Efex Pro. Here is a shot from a trip to Bath a couple of weeks back, with the HDR dial turn up to 11:

HDR - Bath

The starting point for the bracketing here was a F13 3.2 second exposure, with +/- 2 stops. This is using a preset called Grandma’s attic [I think; it takes a while to spin up on this machine]. I’ve finished it off with a bit of dodging and burning on the sky.

I like the results of this shot, despite the pretty classic over-sharpening halo around the building, and I quite like the package. Maybe it’s just me doing something wrong, but I often find that the alignment [using the default import / alignment setting] in Photmatix is a bit hazy. By comparison the Nik Software offering is tack sharp. There are some strange artefacts in this preset, which I think are visible in this small version of the image: there are a load of parallel horizontal lines across the sky. And it’s not just a feature of this preset: I’ve used it on other HDR shots from this weekend and it’s not there. It’s also pretty expensive for an [admittedly very good] one trick pony. I don’t know if I’ll take the plunge once the trial runs out…

Fungal Affection

Posted on by

Here are a few shots from a forest walk at the weekend. I got absolutely soaked, so I think we can allow the dreadful pun just this time. I’d never seen fly agaric growing [does fungus ‘grow’ or ‘form’?] before. I failed to identify either of the other two sprouts.

At the Races

Posted on by

We went to the local track on the Bank holiday to lose a modest amount of money and, for me, to take a few photos. Well – about 550. First the excuses, as none of the resulting shots would make the grade for stock. It was a little overcast, so the high speed shots I took were all in the ISO 400 to 500 territory. I’d also hoped to take a few snaps somewhere near to one of the jumps, but we were confined to the single enclosure which probably spanned a couple of hundred metres of the flat part of the track.

Some passable results. First up, some high speed shots. Everything was taken on shutter priority [including the motion blur pictures below]. I don’t think there’s any point in messing around with shooting in RAW when you are going to be firing off a lot of pictures, and then not really make any significant adjustments in post.

1/1000 sec at 250mm, ISO 500 at F5

1/1000 sec at 250mm, ISO 500 at F5

1/1000 sec at 100mm, ISO 500 at F4.5

1/1000 sec at 100mm, ISO 500 at F4.5

A couple of motion blur shots:

1/80 sec at 105mm, ISO 100 at F9

1/80 sec at 105mm, ISO 100 at F9

The choice of 1/80 second was an educated guess based on having a couple of attempts at taking shots of cars over the last few years. Not great luck with composition in both of these, but it’s always going to be a lottery with so many subjects in play.

1/80 sec at 105mm, ISO 200 at F10

1/80 sec at 105mm, ISO 200 at F10

Bit of a nudge on the saturation and curves [auto contrast]. Finally, and primarily to reinforce the investment in the tablet [!], the obligatory colour popping shot:

1/1000 sec at 160mm, ISO 500 at F10

1/1000 sec at 160mm, ISO 500 at F10