Category: HDR

Spring Sunrise

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Spring Sunrise
Spring Sunrise

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This is from a shoot I went on with a friend last week to the new Parklands park that is being created along Floyd’s Fork in eastern Louisville. We were there very early and I wanted to experiment with boosting the ISO and shooting in very dark conditions.

This image is from a three exposure bracket set taken well before sunrise. NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 did a good job of bringing out the colors and detail in the scene which was very heavily under exposed in the shadows. There is some noise in the deep shadows but all in all I’m pretty satisfied with the overall result. This park will take some getting used to and I hope that after a few trips out there I’ll have a better handle on what settings I’ll need to use to eliminate a lot of the noise in camera.

“Using HDR Photography to Create Your Own Personal Style” Workshop Scheduled

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Alabama Morning #3
Alabama Morning #3

The link below will take you to the registration page for this session.

http://outdoorphotogear.ticketleap.com/using-hdr-photography/

I will be conducting a workshop  “Using HDR Photography to Create Your Own Personal Style” at Outdoor Photo Gear’s classroom facility May 17 and 18 here in Louisville, KY.

In this workshop, I will cover the techniques and tools that are needed to enter the fantastic world of High Dynamic Range photographs, and how to give those images your own personal style.

Workshop times are Friday May 17 from 7:00 – 9:00 PM and Saturday May 18 from 9:00am – 5:30 pm.

I will be teaching workshop attendees how to use the powerful NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 software as well as other NIK plugins for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture 3 to create HDR images that range from Hyper Realistic and Super Saturated to pleasing realistic photos. This small group workshop will be extremely hands on, and each attendee will leave understanding the key elements of processing HDR images to create their own style.

Swing Garden Spring

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Swing Garden
Swing Garden Spring

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I think one of my favorite parts of Louisville Waterfront Park is the Swing Garden. I like the peaceful feeling that it instills in me as I gently swing and watch the river or listen to the sounds of the city humming in the air. I especially like to be there in the morning when there aren’t many other people using it. The geometric design of the plantings and the landscape elements as well as the man made structures take on so many different aspects as the sun rises and shadows play across the garden.

As usual I shot a three frame bracket which I merged in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 and finished in Aperture 3. I used the Deep 1 preset which I dialed back slightly in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 before making some vibrance, contrast and sharpening adjustments in Aperture 3.

Black and White HDR

Posted on by Nick Roberts
Untitled
Untitled

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Sometimes simple is better….

I like using NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 for preparing black and white images. Using the bracketed exposures really helps intensify the textures and contrasts within an image. After merging the three exposures -2, 0, and +2 EV I returned the image to Aperture 3 where I applied a B&W setting with a blue filter. Some sharpening and contrast adjustments were applied and a slight vignette was used to finish the image.

U of L Women’s Rowing Team

Posted on by Nick Roberts
U of L Women's Rowing Team
U of L Women’s Rowing Team

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Yesterday morning I was in Louisville Waterfront Park for some early morning shooting. I was trying to find fresh points to view the park and had been in the kid’s playground trying to see the park from their viewpoint. As I walked toward the river I caught sight of the U of L Women’s Rowing Team practicing. They were just downriver heading back upstream. Their support boat was with them as well but I didn’t want it in the shot so I waited until the scull just passed the observation deck and shot a three frame bracket set. A moment later the support boat entered the scene and I wound up with only three exposure of this scene.

I processed the three images in NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 but I needed to deal with some ghosting that the boat’s movement was causing. I first applied 20% anti-ghosting but that didn’t fully eliminate the ghosts; I went through 40% and 60% settings but at 60% the trees in the foreground began to halo badly. I settled on 40% anti-ghosting which was all I needed. I also changed the reference image in several versions before settling on the 0 EV frame. The other frames exhibited more ghosting than the 0 EV exposure.

I find the anti-ghosting adjustment to be one I spend a great deal of time experimenting with whenever I am dealing with images that have a lot of movement between frames. The tendency is to only look at the section where the movement is the greatest and work to minimize that issue. What I am discovering is that it is also important to look at the objects that are static too and watch out for haloing around them as I balance how much anti-ghosting to apply.

I applied the Deep 1 preset and them nade some minor adjustments there to Tonality before returning the image to Aperture 3 for my final adjustments.