Timepiece Ticks

 

I jus’ noticed, what a neat date!  And it’ll happen again in a year and a day; and again in one more year and one more day!  And so on… etc.  :O)

I did something today I next to never do; I entered a contest.  (O’ course this fool thing won’t let me upload an image now!  My LORD, I do hate these things!)

 

Well! Ain’t THAT nice?  ‘Damnfool m’chine actually let me get it done!  Anyway, that’s my entry in a contest themed “Fall”.

And this is all leadin’, somewhat less than gently, into a short discourse on th’ process by which that image was made.  It’s called HDR Photography, which I finally found out after using it for a month, stands for High Dynamic Range Photo, etc.  It’s the final product of 3 exposures, combined into one image.  And it’s a wee bit tedious in that all 3 exposures HAVE TO BE identical except for shutter speed.  Getting said “identicality”, if that’s a word, is where the tedium comes in.  There can’t be ANY movement in the frame between exposures or it will show up as “blur” in the end result.

So a GOOD tripod is a necessity.  And if you’re smart, an off-camera shutter release; tho’ I’ve gotten by w/o it.

Set up your camera to bracket the 3 shots with a 2EV total between the 3; ie, one @ an EV UNDERexposed, the next on the metered value, and the 3rd an EV OVERexposed.  Each EV step is accomplished by varying the SHUTTER SPEED, not the f-stop.  Better cameras have this built in.  Look for a setting called “bracket”, and you’ll be fine.

Once you’ve got your 3 “in th’ can”, the fun starts!  (I’ve come in with 90-odd shots in th’ can!)

I’ve been using a software called “Dynamic Photo HDR”.  Once you have your 3′s offloaded, convert ‘em all to Jpg’s, and feed each set of 3 to the DPHDR software and it aligns ‘em all, or gives you the option of changing said alignment, if things are a teeny bit off.  Once you’re happy with that, it does it’s thing, making 3 into one.

Then comes the FUN!  Tone-mapping each set is where you can “run wild”.  The possibilities are ENDLESS!  Personally, I tend to be a li’l conservative amd just settle for a real rich end result.  I think I’ve posted a few here already; so you’ve an idea of my tastes.  But believe you me, I’ve seen some that just about curled my toenails!   NOT to say that sorta extremism is BAD; it’s jus’ not to my taste.

Come t’ think on it, it’s HARD to commit bad art w/a camera.  ‘Can be done; but it’s hard!

So there’s my 11/11/11 post!  Maybe I’ll cap it off w/one more pic, the one of that same piece o’ bush shot “straight”.

And there you have it!

Cheers!
RD

 

 

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Tags: 3 exp's into 1, bracket, contest, fall theme, HDR photography, Jpg's, Neat date, settings, short discourse, tone mapping

This entry was posted on Friday, November 11th, 2011 at 8:25 pm and is filed under Personal, Photographic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.