HDR and I
Inside Usina do Gasômetro (Gasometer Power Plant), Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Inside Usina do Gasômetro (Gasometer Power Plant), Porto Alegre, Brazil.
[dropcaps type=’normal’ color=’Red’ background_color=” border_color=”]HDR[/dropcaps] – High Definition Range, three-word expression that slowly became part of my world.
Years ago, I possessed a point and shoot Cannon Powershot SX 20 IS, if not one of the seven wonders of the world, allowed me to understand what was going on with the digital photography scenario. This camera only produced JPEG images with a terrible tendency to have plenty of noise in each one.
Looking for a solution for the problem, I heard something about RAW images produced by those strange, bulky and expensive DSLR cameras, with their (again, as I heard) unrivaled quality and, most importantly, very low noise. Digging here and there, I also found out that I could have RAW images from my small camera by using a hacked firmware that would overwrite the original one. This new firmware also introduced unlimited bracketing and something new to me called HDR in camera. Together, arrived exposure control, EV and many other concepts that I could not fully comprehend and measure at the time.
But, what really stroked me was the look of an image produced using the HDR technique. That was a discovery! From night to day, all my pictures were HDR-able! In some cases, I took more than 20 pictures to produce a single one in camera.
Something was wrong though, because my pictures were not even near close to the ones I was able to see in articles and websites from good photographers. More digging and Trey came along with his stunning pictures. His tutorial introduced me to Photomatix and, from there, I progressed by constantly experimenting, reading and experimenting.
I tried the number of shots, different lenses, different light conditions, different settings in camera and in Photomatix… Finally, I managed to produce this one.
This small feat encouraged me to proceed the investigation and experimentation!
Certainly, Trey’s tutorial was a significant starting point but I needed more and that is why I am constantly reading about the subject.
It is my belief that, now, I am almost ready to start doing something interesting even though I honestly consider myself kilometers behind Trey’s work which I considered to be my reference.
So far, this is what I learned:
1) HDR is not a remedy for all light conditions: problems with light? No problem! Bracket any three pictures and Photomatix will resolve everything! Reality shows that
2) The more pictures you bracket, the better: depending on the contrast present at the scene, you might require more or less pictures with a smaller or bigger bracket (exposure) interval;
3) All scenes look better in HDR: HDR enhances details and provides a better exposure range but it does not follow that we really want these qualities in all pictures;
4) Bracketing with hand held pictures is easily resolved by Photomatix: do not worry if you
Inside Usina do Gasômetro (Gasometer Power Plant), Porto Alegre, Brazil.
No Comments