HDR Photography - made easy!

HDR or High Dynamic Range imaging creates a whole new world of possibilities for a photographer to be creative. You can't just ignore a HDR photograph. It "stands out" from other photographs. Now, not many professionals do HDR often. But some people, like Trey Ratcliff, for instance, create quite a stir with their beautiful, and dream-like HDR photos..

Assuming you clicked the links, (if not do it now! It's really AWESOME!), you must be thinking, "How is it possible? I mean, we all use cameras.. How's that I cannot shoot HDR photos? " Do you need a DSLR to shoot HDRs? Not really. Any point-and-shoot would do the trick!
This tutorial guides you through the making of HDR photographs..

The technique:

The technique behind making a HDR photograph is to combine multiple images, of different exposures. What happens is, you combine the best elements of each photograph and the resulting image is a combination of all the photographs.. 

There are a few things that you require to create a beautiful HDR image.

1. A camera that has manual mode, or AEB(Auto Exposure Bracketing)
2. A tripod is recommended, since even the slightest movement of the camera would spoil the image.
3. To combine the images, you'll need a software. Now you will be thinking about Photoshop, but actually, Photomatix Pro is a better and easier post-processing software for HDR. Here's the link to Download Photomatix.

 Auto Exposure Bracketing(AEB)

The next part is to shoot the photograph. If you have a DSLR, or if your camera has AEB, you can easily shoot three/five { -3,-2,-1,0,+1,+2,+3} photographs of different exposures. If you don't have AEB in your camera, switch to Manual mode. With your camera on the tripod, shoot photos-like the ones above-with three different exposure levels. The important point if you shoot manually, is that the images should vary ONLY in the shutter speed, with constant Aperture and ISO. Do not change either of them. If you have no idea what SUTEER SPEED, APERTURE and ISO mean, see more about the Exposure triangle.. In either of the cases, you need to select the lowest ISO possible. Mainly because HDR post-procesing brings out a lot of noise, and you want to minimize the noise in the shot as far as possible. Now that you have the 6 images, import them into your computer and you're good to go.

Merging and Editing in Photomatix

Install Photomatix Pro in your computer. Open it and then select Load Bracketed photos and then select the photos you have imported. Select the Align source images check-box and the other pre-processing options that are listed. But the more you select, the longer it will take to merge the photos. The next step is where you first see the merged image. A lot of preset thumbnails are available to you there. Experiment with them. And on the left side to the image, you'll have the Adjustments window. There are quite a lot of sliders present there-Strength, Saturation, White point, Black point, Lighting adjustments and a variety of other stuff - depending on the preset you have selected. You'll have an idea about what happens when you experiment with each of the values. Just remember - There's no RIGHT way to set these values. You're free to mix everything up!

But just remember a few points..

• " Don't overdo it. ". A good HDR photogarph isn't necessarily one with high saturation and with halos behind the subject. It shouldn't look artificial. The whole point of HDR processing is to portray what our eyes see, surpassing the technical limitiations of the camera.
• A good practice would be to ask a second opinion or take a fresh look at the processed photo again. The photorgaph must be appealing and not off-putting.
   
• If you don't understand what every slider means, take a minute and read the description in the box below. You'll do better if you know what you're doing.
  
  
• Don't just kick everything up a notch. Try to keep it simple, and yet, different from other photographs.
• You can even save your values as a preset to use it next time around. 

Now that all the adjustments are done, Click Process. Voilà. There it is! Your HDR photograph. By the time you've edited it yourself, you'll know, how a HDR photo differs from other photographs. You can reduce the noise in you HDR photograph by using Noise reduction in Photoshop.

Here are some of my own HDR photographs..

  






 

Do give this a try! It's so easy and awesome once you start doing it too!

Instagram - The shortcut to better photography!

Instagram is a photo-sharing app that was launched in 2010 for iPhone users. You could easily edit a photograph and share it with your friends within seconds.. It worked like magic.

A few months ago, the app was extended to Android users too! Millions of people downloaded it s soon as it was launched. And they were not disappointed. The interface looks beautiful and it is easy to use. It is fast and there are a lot of preset photo edits you can choose from.. And then in a click or two, you can share it with your social networking buddies..

The best part of this app is that the process of editing is so easy.. You have a bunch of filters, you can add blur, and even frame it.. You can also geo-tag your photos and add a caption so that your friends know where you took the photo.. It's all done within seconds.. The first time I used it, I enjoyed the fact that I didn't have to login to Facebook, everytime, to share a photo. It worked like a charm. You can follow people and they can follow you too! You get all the photos your friends have shared in a page similar somewhat to the Facebook newsfeed. And yes, you can "like"  photos too!

Instagram is a a god-send for people who want their photos to look awesome, even though they really don't want to spend a lot of time editing it.. The photos shared here were not taken with my phone. But I did use Instagram to just add some basic filters..

Here's the link to the Android app and the iPhone app. Enjoy!

The Exposure Triangle

Everyone thinks that the 'clarity' of the image depends on the mega-pixel of the camera, as I had mentioned earlier. That's is a big misconception! It depends on three main elements of the photograph- Aperture, ISO and Shutter speed. These three make up the Exposure Triangle. The most basic knowledge that a photographer must have, is that of the exposure triangle. These three affect the light reaching the sensor. They are used to maintain the exposure required.
Most of the photography-tricks are based on these three elements. Let's see what these mean.

TIP #1: Get out of the Auto-mode. Don't be afraid to try the Manual.

ISO:

ISO is the sensitivity of the sensor (inside the camera) to light. It controls the amount of light hitting the sensor. A higher ISO setting gives us a brighter image. But chances are, that the photo becomes grainy. Have you ever wondered why most of your night-time images tend to be grainy? Well that's because the camera automatically sets a higher ISO, and a lower shutter speed. But let's get to that later.

TIP #2: Use the lowest ISO setting possible.

---

Aperture or f-stop:

" Lost faith..  " (A macro shot)
**Aperture: f/3.5**

Aperture literally means a hole. In this case, it means the hole inside the camera, through which the light hits the sensor. This may sound a bit confusing, but let me try to put it in simple terms-
A smaller f-value means a larger opening and vice versa.

Smaller f-values, say f/2.8 or f/3.5 can be used for Macro shots. This is to get a shallow depth of field. (Much like isolating the subject) Using a lower aperture can brighten the image.
If you want to do landscapes, use a higher f-value like f/22 or f/32. This creates a deep depth of field and darkens the image.

TIP #3: Higher f-stop for Landscape, lower f-stop for Macro.

---

Shutter speed:

" Majestic! "
**Shutter speed: 1/1000**

Shutter speed is the amount of time the camera shutter is open. If the shutter speed is low, the image is brighter, and you can guess the opposite. Normal point-and-shoot cameras have a shutter ranges between 15s to 1/8000s. Today's DSLRs have the bulb mode, which can be used to set more longer shutter speeds.



 Lower shutter speeds require a tripod because hand-held shots may tend to get blurry.A long-exposure means that the shutter is open for a long time. Stop-motion photography is the opposite.

TIP #4: Lower shutter speeds for longer exposures.

---

Now, when you set a camera into Auto mode, what it does, is to try and balance the exposure by changing these three values. Sometimes when you return from a friend's party and look back at the photos, they look all blurry. This is because the camera automatically sets a lower shutter speed because you are indoor and there is low light. It spoils the photograph. This is where you raise the ISO. But if you raise it, you're shots get all grainy.

So, finding the right combination of these three elements is the key to getting the most out of your camera. This is what affects the 'clarity' and quality of the photographs.

This one should probably sum up the whole idea:
(Courtesy: Living in the stills)

The 'golden' hours..

It's been a long time since I posted here.. That's because of two reasons:
1. Lately, I've not been in good health. I was affected with cold, then got myself wounded on the leg, and much more..
2. My camera had some faults, so I've given it for repair. I was left with no new pictures to post.

---

Here are a few pictures of mine taken at dusk.. The waves in the sky, the different mixtures of hue, the birds flying back to their nests; Evenings are one of the best times for a photographer. It's when we can play with the rays of light..

"The two golden hours that a photographer ought not to miss: One is the dawn, the other is the dusk.."