I’ve gotten many questions privately regarding the HDR process. People really want to know how the process works. I can completely understand.

Months ago I found a web site talking about HDR. I was investigating the process after speaking with another photographer about how I shoot. He suggested I look into HDR, as it was a technique that he thought would work with some of my landscape shots in the Dells. Boy howdy, he was right!

So, today I thought I’d talk about the process, and about the 7 Point system as well.

The current photo to your left is an edited photo (not HDR) that I used the 7 Point System with. I only spent about 5 minutes on it. The shot was a little too dark, the white balance was off a bit as it was an extremely overcast day, and very little blue showed through in the sky. You’ll see the original photo next, and I think you’ll agree it was a touch washed out.

The 7 Point System is extremely helpful in knowing what to do in Photoshop. For this photo I worked in the Camera Raw editor. Nothing more. No masks, no layers, no painting with light. I could definitely improve this image some more, but I didn’t want to spend a long time on a quick shot for this post. Realistically I could have used Photoshop Lightroom’s Develop module and done the same quickly.

So, where did this edited photo come from? It was the 0EV exposure I shot as part of a series to create an HDR. When creating HDRs you want to take at least 3 photos at different exposure levels. With each exposure you get different levels of detail. A -2 EV will give you a lot of dark space, but the bright space making it through is usually not clipped. Your 0EV shot shows a bit of everything, but might not have the most extreme contrast. Finally, an over exposure will blow out your highlights (clouds and sky) but it provides a more accurate depiction of things like the foreground in a sunset photo.

Normally when you shoot a sunset the foreground is DARK. Or it’s a silhouette. Whatever the case, in order to get the detail of the foreground you need to over expose. When that happens the sky turns to junk. So, you need a few exposures.

The exposure to the left is the 0EV (on my light meter) shot. Pretty dark and ominous. Lacking a lot of color and detail. Did I take a bad photo? Nope, this is what the scene was due to lighting. Did it look like that to me? Nope, I definitely saw it different than the camera.

The first photo on this page was derived from this exact picture. Ah, the 7 Point System really can help with a “bland” photo. I’m so glad I’ve finally realized that using Photoshop isn’t some evil thing. Instead, used right it can really help you accurately recall a scene that your camera sensor just couldn’t bring in the whole way.

Our cameras always have a fixed aperture you know. You can select the amount of light and your exposure time when shooting a subject. Now, let me ask you, when you view a scene does your “aperture” in your eyes stay the same? No. Your pupils dilate, change the light coming in, and your eyes get to readjust for all sorts of light levels. It’s hard getting the whole scene with one fixed setting at a time. That’s where HDR comes in. Oh, and by the way, I’m not expert, but I get it, I finally get it, and it’s cool that someone realized blended exposures could show the viewer more!

Next I’m going to show you the -2 and +2 exposures side by side. Those two shots plus the one above went together in order to create the final HDR.

As you can see, the over and under exposures wouldn’t make for great photos alone. The under exposure (super dark one) shows you no details of the rocks at all. But take a look at the sky. Darker blues, darker elements to the clouds. The sky’s detail comes through a little more.

The over exposure on the other hand shows you all of the foreground. You really get to see the rocks of the Dells. But the sky’s detail is almost washed out. Not great. Maybe the 7 Point system could help with the brighter shot, but the dark one wouldn’t get too far……

The fun part is the fact that if you combine the 3 exposures (-2, 0, +2) you can get all the detail out of the 3. Take a look at the last image in this post and you’ll see…..

This image is the final HDR image. A shade different than any of the pictures you’ve seen so far, yet it’s just a Tone Mapped combination of the 3 images. It doesn’t look like any of the original shots, but it was derived from all the color and light information in the 3 photos.

In addition to combining the photos you also get to tone map the shot. You can increase the color strength of the image in order to get each color to really pop. You can reset the White and Black points to enhance bright areas and shadowed areas. And you can work on the contrast in the photo through a Micro Contrast and Micro Smoothing tool.

I currently use the Photomatix Program, and the Photomatix Plugin in my Adobe Photoshop CS3. There are other programs out there for HDR generation, and each has its own name for tone mapping, but all of them do the same thing.

So, not only are the photos blended, they are then worked on in the Tone Mapping within Photomatix. I can push the colors up or down, enhance light and shadow, and make my own attempt to really represent how my eyes saw the scene. And if I want I can also enhance what I saw. It was pretty drab out there when I shot this photo. Nice to take the drab out of it.

Since I arrived in Prescott I’ve been fascinated by the Granite Dells, Granite Mountain, and most of the national forest surrounding the area. I’ve been amazed by the scenes around me, and I’ve shot too many photos of the area. Many of those shots end up on the blog.

Over the year I’ve had many comments from readers about the area. Everyone gets that the rocks are amazing and the area is beautiful. Many people have commented on the neat photos coming out on the blog. And I’ve been glad to share the area.

The disappointment for me has always been the fact that none of the photos I’ve posted have truly captured how vast some scenes are. The Dells always seemed flat in my regular photos. While readers get to see the rocks I always thought they didn’t really see the rocks. With the HDR technique I think I’m finally showing you how dramatic the scenes are here.

Well, hope you enjoyed my longer explanation of HDR. If you’re interested in trying this out feel free to drop a comment with your questions. I’ve posted links to HDR tutorials before, but I’ve found every one lacking. I finally found a book that really helped me understand more about HDR. It’s not a “simplistic” book. A little technical actually, but if you can push through the technical I think you’ll find some great pieces of information. The book is, “The Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography,” by Ferrell McCollough.

By the way, if you’re a full-time RVer who is now interested in these photo techniques…….don’t blame me for filling your rig with books. It’s happened to me, and I’m finding ways to make space! And if you’re going to fill your rig with books, make sure my book is among them!

I was planning on holding off on more HDR shots today.  Instead I was going to write about my portable photo lab.  There’s so much I can do in the Airstream’s space, and the equipment takes almost no room.  Well, except those darned books….  

I’ll write about my portable photo lab later.  Instead we’ll talk a little more about the HDR shots.  I know, more strange photos, right?  Sure, if you want to call them strange.

Last night I walked into the Granite Dells once again (shocking).  Strange wispy clouds were covering the skies once again.   I thought I might find some interesting shots.  Once again I set out to create a few unique HDRs that really relay what the Dells are like.  See, I’ve never been satisfied with photos of the Dells.  I never feel like the depth and scale of the rock formations gets relayed with standard shots.

So, I set up to do my HDRs.  The first two photos that you’re seeing here today are shots that went into the first HDR on this page.  One over exposed photo, one under exposed photo, and the one missing with a centered exposure.  In the end, with 3 photos in hand I generated the next photo…..

As you can see, this HDR seems to be more than a sum of it’s parts.  That’s why HDRs interested me in the first place.  The fact you can really bring out the contrast and detail of a scene blows my mind!

What’s nice is that you can see so much more than you would with a standard snap shot.  Normally, a sunset photo will yield neat skies and dark shadowed mountains.  Not with the HDR technique.  You can show the foreground as well, really providing the detail of the scene.  Just plain exciting, don’t you think?

Creating my HDRs isn’t super time consuming.  But keep in mind.  I don’t consider any of these a final product yet.  Give me time.  These are just the first pass with little work.  The next step to really get great art prints out of these is to work with the histogram, ensure accurate color, and make sure the HDR isn’t over the top.

With HDR you can do really accurate photos.  Or you can create almost cartoonish images that go beyond the reality of the scene.  I’d like to fall closer to the accurate scene.  Maybe with a little extra “pop” that makes a viewer stop and say, “Wow!”  Personally I’ve been saying that a lot lately as I learn about this craft (and it is a craft for sure).

Well, that’s it for today.  Hope you enjoyed seeing the photos that go into an HDR.  For your viewing pleasure I’ve included a second HDR from last night.  Just plain fun!

Oh, and by the way……with these types of shots I have to ask you……….

Isn’t my back yard super cool?  :)  I think it is!

This morning I had to get up and head out extremely early. More classes down in Phoenix. And in the future….a flight for a week of training elsewhere…..in the cards apparently. Wow, I used to fly constantly back in the “cell phone” daze…..

So, do you really want to hear about today’s class, the long ride to Phoenix, the extreme heat down there, etc, etc? Nah. You probably don’t.

Oh, and it was hot down there. Good grief…we headed to lunch and walked to the lunch spot. So hot….boiling inside quickly! Lunch was a salad, as nothing at the restaurant fit within my needs. Not a bad salad though….and it was hot……oh, I wasn’t supposed to talk about this…..

How about the latest HDR photos? Ah yes, that’s much more fun!

Sunday night I shot several series to create the two photos in today’s post. The first one is my favorite of the two, but it still needs some work. Due to a lens flare there’s a spot I’m unhappy with. But I’ll correct it.

The second shot was taken right before the sun went down. There was a lot of pink and yellow going on, and the overall lighting really impacted the look of the Granite Dells.

Of course each of these photos is really a compilation of 3 exposures of each scene. They’re pretty neat, but nowhere near finished. Just the beginning of my HDR trek with each photo.

If dinner gets finished quickly I’ll head up into the rocks and try a few more exposures tonight. See, there’s some funky cloud cover again today, and I’m betting it would lend to interesting HDRs.

Oh, and the second shot has a similar version posted a few days ago. Similar, but not the same. Did a little additional tweaking on it. Still, I like the first shot better……

Well, moving day has come and gone.  Just like that.  New spot….bigger spot….better views…..and room for an awning. 

This morning I did the standard “day of rest” chores.  Laundry, reorganizing, etc.  But early on the folks in the site I was moving to hitched up and headed out.  Whoops….I’d planned on moving at noon.  Since they headed out early I decided to strike while the iron is hot.

There was no iron involved, however it was rather hot today.  Leaning on the truck during the late afternoon I almost burned myself…..so, maybe there was an iron involved.

After settling into my new site several errands were taken care of.  See, this evening we had a cook out at site 9.  Tony, Kate, Zora, CJ, & Sadira all joined in to celebrate the new site.  It was nice to have a little cook out, and have room for guests.  This is going to be nice!

I’m sorry to say Dina, Charlie, and Niko couldn’t come.  Guess Dina is having some severe issues thanks to sinus problems.  No sleep = no cook outs.  Feel better soon Dina!  We’ll get Niko out climbing again.

That’s the quick wrap for today.  I’ll write more about the site, take some shots, and tell you about my new hitch cover in the next few days……

Nothing to blog on this morning, so I’m taking a page from so many blogs, and I’m taking a day off.

Go back, re-read, take a look at recent photos, etc.  This morning is slated for reading my new books! 

I’ll have something to blog on tomorrow!  Oh, and you can look back through the last few HDR experiments…..

Before work yesterday I stopped by Barnes & Noble again.  It’s almost like I can’t stop myself.  Fortunately I keep finding space for one or two extra books.  Well, I “sorta” find space.

In the back of my truck I’ve got a rubber maid bin full of books.  Back in New England I’ve got tons of books in a trailer.  Glad they’re not here right now (although I’ve wanted several of them now and again).

See, here’s the issue.  Recently I became interested in really learning Photoshop.  I blame Scott Kelby’s good writing.  So, I’ve gotten into using Photoshop, I’ve been reading tons, and I’m starting to get it.  Mission accomplished…..I’ll get better at using Photoshop, and I’ve got some great references.

With that mission well under way the next curiosity popped up.  These HDR images.  What are they, how do you do it, can I figure it out too?

The shot to the left is my latest HDR.  I’m actually digging it big time!  But after tinkering with it for a while yesterday I realized I need to read more about it…….

You know where you can read more about things…..in books.  Ugh!

So, 2 books on HDR were purchased yesterday.  I want to learn even more.  Why?  Basically just plain old curiosity.

Soon I’ll be sleeping outside to make room for the books in the Airstream.

Over the weekend I set up several HDR shots to work with.  I wasn’t sure what would be good or bad.  The shot to the left is another example of my experimentation with HDR.

High Dynamic Ratio Photography is growing in popularity.  I personally find it extremely interesting, and I understand how it can be used to create more interesting and sometimes accurate photos.

So, how does one take an HDR photo?  You don’t.  You take a series of photos, and then merge them together.  The photo to the left is composed of 3 different exposures.  One extremely low light photo, one properly exposed photo, and one extremely over exposed photo.

Once you have your 3, 5, 7, etc., exposures you pop them into something like Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Photomatix and merge the photos.  Once merged you still have to tone map the photo.

I have yet to find any in depth documents on the tone mapping process.  It seems to be a matter of artistic preference.  When I first open each of my HDRs I’m usually disappointed.  Only my recent shot of the courthouse worked out right on the first pass in Photoshop, no real changes in tone mapping (the photo is included in this post).  Others seem over blown, under exposed, etc.  That’s where the tone mapping comes in.

I’m willing to bet people who are great with HDR shots have some specific things they do while tone mapping.  I’d like to learn what those things are……

In the meantime, I’ll experiment and see where I can get these types of pictures to go.  I won’t concentrate too much on these though.  I think HDR works for certain types of pictures, but not all pictures.  So you won’t see this blog going all HDR all the time…..we’ll still talk about other stuff and present other pictures. 

I was a little tired last night.  A long and exhausting day.  Of course, a good one.  But I left some things out I’d wanted to mention.

Saturday’s rodeo was my first rodeo ever.  This ain’t your first rodeo son, is it? Yup, it was!

The one thing that struck me at the rodeo had nothing to do with the bucking horses or bulls.  The working horses caught my attention, and I enjoyed watching them.

What do I mean by working horses?  I mean the ones that deal with the rowdy ones after it’s all done.  Two guys on horse back would round up the angry, kicking, jumping horses after “the ride” was over.  These horses were amazing.  Horse and rider would neatly manage the bucking horse right back into a gate.

Watching the working horses I could see they were all about management.  They’d shoot right up to a bull with their riders swinging a rope.  The horses didn’t flinch from their duties.  Pretty darned amazing if you ask me!  The blurry shot to the left is the back side of one of the working horses and it’s rider.  At the ready when someone gets bucked!

I can see how large herds of cattle could be managed by a few guys and their horses now.  With a horse like the ones I saw you could keep most anything in line.  Just amazing stuff!

Shifting gears - More horse talk.

Go figure, a horse heavy post.  In addition to the horses I watched on Saturday night I now want to talk about a few other horses I met yesterday.

As we were returning from Sycamore Canyon we rounded a bend in the road and came to a stop.  2 people on horseback were on the “road”.  2 additional horses were in tow carrying gear.  4 horses, 2 people.  They gave us a wave and we stopped to chat for a few.

The riders asked if we’d seen water up ahead.  They were doing an extended trip on horseback, and were looking for a water supply for their horses.  We’d seen nothing, and let them know.

We had seen troughs at the abandoned cabin a few miles up, and green water in the catchment system there.  Clearly people come up to ride in the area, and that seems to be what the catchment system was for.

The girl / woman (seemed awful young) mentioned that they’d heard of a creek not too far ahead.  We’d seen nothing, and let them know that.

Apparently the couple is crossing the country on horseback.  One of the pack horses had two plastic “Wal-Mart” style lawn chairs on it’s back.  We’d seen them in the morning camped on the Verde River, and now during the afternoon 17 miles from where we’d last seen them.  They were rugged looking, and clearly spend the bulk of their lives outdoors.  The man in the couple had leathery skin, and he was completely dust covered.  The woman was too.

I found myself wondering, “Is this a husband and wife or father and daughter?”  She seemed far too young to be a wife, and I expect she’s only recently out of high school.  What’s their story?  Riding to Colorado?  No major supplies?  Just a rifle on the man’s horse?  Plastic chairs on a horses back?  What’s that all about?

They said they were heading on to Colorado.  In 2002 they’d ridden from Washington state to the Southwest, and now their journey continued.  Once in Colorado they were going to ride the Great Divide.  Interesting trip for sure.  In the end, I was left with many questions about the nature of their trip, who they are, and if they were running from something, or like Thru-Hikers, just interested in a journey.  I sure hope they found some water for their horses…….

****By the way.  The last two photos are HDR experiments from yesterday’s shooting.  Not as cool as the courthouse, but interesting.  I’ll continue working with these photos and see what develops!  Pun intended.

Well, it hasn’t really felt like days off at all.  Busy would be the best way to describe things.

Yesterday I let myself rest a little in the morning.  A late start to the day, but then lots of running around.  The first big errand….well, not really an errand…..but it did involve running around.  Sadira gave me a call to let me know that an Arts and Crafts style event was happening on the square.  I had to go.

See, last year I noticed that there was a regular Bonsai dealer at the shows.  I’d been thinking about adding a little tree to the Airstream, and finding out the first big activity on the town square was happening I jumped in the truck and stopped by Sadira’s.

She was under the weather yesterday.  Sinus infection done, food poisoning in full effect.  One thought here gang.  Shrimp & Arizona….don’t do it.  Just don’t!

We hit the show and sure enough, bonsai trees were available.  I looked around, then wandered the square for a while deciding on what to do.  Finally we returned to the little tent full of trees and I picked my Airstream’s new resident.  You’ll see photos soon enough.

I once had a wonderful little bonsai for years.  High school.  It thrived.  Then I went to MA for a few weeks and my mom watched over the tree.  One night on the phone she told me she’d accidentally killed the tree.  She thought it could use some fertilizer (NOOOOOOOOO) and the tree went brown pretty quick.  Whoops!  Still, she was the best mom I could ask for and I still miss her.  Happy Mother’s Day mom.  A new little tree is along in the Airstream now.

I dropped Sadira off and headed for home.  Quick lunch and then I ran up to the Rodeo Stadium.  Yes, I got to photograph the rodeo.  No, I’m not satisfied with the shots.  I needed a 1.8 lens for this stuff, and I didn’t drag one along.  The rodeo started at 7:30, and even with the lights in the stadium the action was so fast that the lenses I brought didn’t cover it.  A few interesting shots that I’ll play with in Photoshop.  Maybe you’ll see them down the road.

I didn’t get home until almost 10, and I was starved.  So I sat up and made a late dinner.  Didn’t get to sleep until nearly midnight.  Ah yes, restful!

This morning was an early rise.  I headed out to the north side of Sycamore Canyon with Sadira, Tom, & DaNece.  2 hour ride in on the super bumpy roads through Perkinsville.  Nearly a 3 hour hike toward the canyon (no water already, lots of dry beds), hot sun, winds with some type of eye irritating  pollen, and a generally wonderful time!  Glad to have shared the adventure.

Our “haze” has returned to the skies, and the blues were really washed out today.  I’ve heard it’s hazy from here to Georgia, so who knows what is up.  So, many of the landscape shots today were sub-par to say the least.  But there was one thing that caught all of our attention.  The flowers heading into the area.  Blues, powder blues, oranges, and purples.  The purple really got me.  Cactus flowers once again (hey, they’re not red).

As we made our way in we began seeing new (to us) flowers that really stood out against the red rock background.  Small green cactus with purple flowers.  One here, one there.  As we neared our destination clusters of the flowers.  Big clusters.  They seemed to be everywhere.  Even along our hike we found more of these wonderful cactus (I’ll look them up in my book tomorrow).

I have dozens of good shots.  They’re all slightly washed out, but I’ll deal with them in Photoshop tomorrow.  High afternoon sun, even with haze, yields less than brilliant results.  But the shots here are currently unedited.  And they’re still stunning flowers in my opinion. 

Finally, after hours driving in, hours hiking, and hours driving back we returned to Prescott.  Sadira wasn’t feeling too well, and I was a little off.  Hot hike, lots of dust, lots of exertion, etc.  Plus I got too much sun.  So we basically crashed on the couch for a while, and finally got enough energy to get moving again.  Sadira headed off to Costco, and I went to do some shopping at Fry’s.  Groceries you know.

After some rest this evening I decided to head to downtown Prescott to try setting up a few exposures for doing an HDR (High Dynamic Ratio) photo.  My intention was to get Whiskey Row and the St. Michaels Hotel.  I’ve gotten many exposures this evening, and only started toying with them.  I only took one set of exposures of the Courthouse, and the result was the photo at the start of this post.  My first satisfying HDR photo (to me at least).  I only tone mapped it after feeding the 3 exposures into Photomatix.  No real tweaking beyond their basic tone mapper.  I like it.  There are places for HDR to be used……more will follow.

That’s it for the evening.  10 p.m. here and I’m beat.  Tomorrow, laundry, errands, and who knows what else.  Wonder if I can fit a 3 hour nap in somewhere?

Ah, time off. No racing around this morning. No radio on to find out the news of the day. Just a slow and steady start to the day.

Oh yeah….I slept in until 8 a.m.! I did wakeup around 5, some light coming through the vent cover, but I strategically placed a pillow and went back to sleep. Sometimes light can be overcome by the common pillow!

After getting up I made a few calls back to New England. Mostly I reached nobody! They’re all out doing stuff, after all they’re 3 hours ahead of me and I woke up late.

While I made my phone calls I did a little organizing in the trailer, and charged up all my camera batteries. Re-stuffed the new Crumpler bag, got the 30 & 40D cameras ready, and charged my flash batteries as well. The rodeo is tonight you know.

I also messed around with a series of photos I shot weeks ago. Remember my mentioning HDR images? Yeah, they’ve still been on my mind, but I’d been doing the 7 Point System. One major project at a time. The next major project is coming up. I now want to really learn about HDR. I’ve got a few ideas you see……

So, this morning I gave Photomatix Pro a whirl. I also tried the HDR setup in Photoshop once more. The image you see here today was done with Photomatix. I’ve only started experimenting, so cut me a little slack on this first true venture into HDR. I used their default settings, and didn’t get far into tone mapping.

Why?

Time for breakfast & a shower. Then to start the day. Plus I had to pop a post up you know.