Category: HDR Photography

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HDR Photography Photography San Francisco/California

About the San Francisco Bay HDR Group

Golden Gate Bridge (Canon PowerShot S90 HDR)

Last August, we started the San Francisco Bay HDR group on Flickr – dedicated to HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography of the San Francisco Bay Area. The group has kind of been off in a corner, but it’s already got some great examples of HDR images of San Francisco and points nearby.

Be sure to check it out – and, if you’d like, join and contribute your San Francisco Bay HDR shots to the group as well!

The photo above, as it turns out, has been my most viewed HDR photo on Flickr. It was taken on the top of Fort Point using my little Canon PowerShot S90. The light that afternoon was incredible with some interesting shadows and beautiful clouds along the horizon. Click here to see a lightbox version. I particularly enjoyed the sign “Danger – stay off walls” as that couple was sitting right up there! Hope you enjoy it too!

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Aviation HDR Photography Photography

Douglas C-47 Skytrain at Castle Air Museum

Douglas C-47 Skytrain at Castle Air Museum

Here’s another photo from almost four years ago taken at the Castle Air Museum in Atwater, California. This time, it’s a C-47 Skytrain, the workhorse transport aircraft of WW II, the Berlin Airlift, etc.

This shot was taken using my first digital SLR, a Canon 30D, as a single RAW image. Postprocessing was done using Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5 (to remove power lines, etc) along with Nik’s HDR Efex Pro and Color Efex Pro.

Hope you enjoy it!

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Aviation HDR Photography Photography Photography - Black & White

The SR-71A Blackbird at Castle Air Museum

SR-71 Blackbird - Castle Air Museum, California

I’ve been playing around a bit more with black and white photography – including going back and looking through my collection of earlier images for candidates for conversion to black and white.

Here’s an example from the Castle Air Museum from four years ago that I recently converted to black and white. Castle has one of the few remaining SR-71’s – specifically SR-71A 61-7960.

In terms of process, I first did a single image RAW HDR conversion following by the black and white conversion. This is a particularly challenging image – because of how the SR-71 is positioned in front of all of that tree foliage. Still, I thought the conversion turned out OK.

Many years ago when I worked for IBM I spent a day at Beale Air Force Base – home of the SR-71’s. What a treat! Years later, I was at Oshkosh when the first SR-71 flew in for the airshow – took about 45 minutes for the SR-71 to travel from Beale to Oshkosh! I remember the rope line around the SR-71 while it was on display with the signs that read “Use of Deadly Force is Authorized” – in other words, stay away!

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HDR Photography Lightroom Palo Alto Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro

Working a Subject

Bill Bliss Memorial Sculpture - Palo Alto Baylands (HDR)

It’s fun to get to make repeat visits to interesting locations at different times of year with varying weather conditions, etc. For example, I do a lot of photography at Stanford – where I have my favorite spots that I enjoy seeing with different sun angles, cloudy vs. blue skies, etc. Looking back at my portfolio of Stanford images, I can also see how I’ve improved over time (or, at least changed!) – and that’s fun to observe and reflect on.

Another recent subject this week has been the Bill Bliss Memorial Sculpture in the Palo Alto Baylands. I blogged about it a couple of days ago. Yesterday, while taking my car into the dealership for service, I was near the Baylands again – this time with a wicked morning sky as a front was moving through the San Francisco Bay Area. I made a quick detour down to the sculpture, grabbed my little Canon PowerShot S95 out of my backpack (it’s always with me – like my iPhone 4 – who’d imagine we’d be walking around with multiple cameras these days?!).

The image above comes from a 3-shot exposure bracketed sequence shot handheld – and post-processed in Photomatix Pro, Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom. It’s different than the ones I shot a few days back – and that’s why I like it!

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photomatix Pro

The Bill Bliss Memorial – Palo Alto Baylands

Bill Bliss Memorial - Palo Alto (B+W HDR + Selective Color)

On Sunday, I set out to explore some local spots for HDR photography. One of the spots was the new Bill Bliss Memorial Sculpture by James Moore in the Palo Alto Baylands. I shot this photo with my Canon 5D Mark II using a 28mm lens.

This was a 3-shot HDR taken with the 5D mounted on a tripod – and then post-processed in PhotoMatix Pro. Once that conversion was complete, I used Nik’s Silver Efex 2 to do the black and white conversion – with the selective color to bring out the blue in the bike frame. A final touch up in Lightroom 3 completed the image. 30 seconds of composition on the scene followed by 30 minutes of post-processing to get it right.

I have so much more to learn about how to use Nik’s Silver Efex 2 – just beginning to get acquainted with all of its power!

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Photomatix Pro Stanford

Stanford Quad – Memorial Church in HDR

Memorial Church - Stanford - 2012

Spent a delightful hour this morning at Stanford – shooting HDR with my Canon 5D Mark II. This photo, of Stanford’s Memorial Church, was shot using a 28mm lens just below the front face of the church with the 5D on a tripod. At the time, the sun was just behind the left corner of the roof.

The image was post-processed using Photomatix Pro – in this case being double tone-mapped to bring out the incredible detail and colors on the face of the church. Hope you enjoy it – and share it!

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HDR Photography iPhone 4 Photography

Trey Ratcliff and the Way to San Jose!

This afternoon I headed down to Adobe HQ in downtown San Jose to attend Trey Ratcliff’s talk in Adobe’s Distinguished Lecturer Series.

Trey RatcliffTrey’s the author of the very popular StuckinCustoms.com travel photography blog. A year ago, I really enjoyed photowalking with Trey at Stanford – we really had a great time and learned a lot – here’s the Flickr group pool from that Stanford shoot!

Trey’s talk today was wide ranging – moving beyond HDR photography into how our minds and eyes work, how we perceive, and what’s most important in terms of our artistic side.

Among my takeaways was Trey’s recommendation to shoot out in the field with a pair of headphones on tapped into some great music. He cited the benefits of disconnecting our visual experience from our auditory experience – using the music/headphones to make that isolation.

During the Q&A, Trey was asked how he deals with those in the environment (think security guards) who want to shut down photographers. His recommendation: watch Burn Notice – where Michael Weston works to solve problems. As he’s working on a shoot (e.g., Grand Central Station), he’s studying the environment carefully and assessing how he can capture the shots within that environment.

Great inspiration! Follow Trey on Twitter: @treyratcliff. My photo of Trey was shot using his 100 Cameras in 1 iPhone app.

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Yosemite

Three Brothers in Yosemite – An Editors Pick on HDR Spotting!

Wow, I was surprised to learn last night that my Three Brothers photo taken in Yosemite last fall was an Editors Pick on the HDR Spotting web site.

This was the first time one of my photos has “won” anything! A nice feeling!

Once again, thanks to Michael Frye for taking my son David and I to this most special spot alongside the Merced River in Yosemite! It was spectacular to shoot from there! If you’re going into Yosemite for photography, Michael’s your best guide!

Three Brothers - Merced River - Yosemite (HDR) - Scott Loftesness

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Berkeley HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro

The Campanile at UC Berkeley in HDR

UC Berkeley - Campanile by Scott Loftesness

We stopped by the UC Berkeley campus this afternoon and captured a few shots of the Campanile (Sather Tower) – post-processed as single-shot HDR from the RAW photos taken with my Canon PowerShot S95.

It was another lovely day in Berkeley, cool enough for a light jacket but with a lovely set of clouds in the sky.

The four HDR photos I post-processed are here in this Flickr set.

Here’s an earlier set from last May – with the trees in bloom, etc. It’s interesting how my post-processing has evolved to be more subtle – these earlier photos now look over processed, over saturated, etc. to me!

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Yosemite

Fall in Yosemite – Three Brothers

Three Brothers - Merced River - Yosemite (HDR) - Scott Loftesness

Early in October last year, my son David and I spent a day exploring Yosemite with photographer Michael Frye.

We drove up to Yosemite on Friday afternoon and met Michael early on Saturday morning in the Curry Village parking lot.

One of his first questions was what did we want to shoot? Not the big icons, we quickly agreed – instead, take us to some secret spots in the park instead!

Michael lived in Yosemite for 25 years. He knows this land intimately. One of our mid-morning stops provided us with this shot looking back up the Merced River at Three Brothers. The combination of the slow water in the river, the stunning reflection, and the glorious light on the Brothers made for a spectacular scene. In the course of shooting at this location, I learned more about my camera (Canon 5D Mark II) from Michael than I’d ever learned before!

The resulting image is a 3-shot HDR, combined used Photomatix Pro with final adjustments made in Lightroom 3.

David and I will never forget this wonderful day last October that we spent with Michael!