Category: HDR Photography

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

Yosemite’s Half Dome in Winter Color

Half Dome with Family from Cook's Meadow - Yosemite - Version 3 - Single Image HDR by Scott Loftesness

Last week, in my post The Real Yosemite, I featured a black and white version of this image. I’ve written previously about the “power of black and white” – and really enjoy that first version I posted.

There’s something special about this image – the immensity of Half Dome towering over everything and that family with the little one out playing in Cook’s Meadow.

Tonight, I did some additional work with this same image (shot in RAW on my Canon 5D Mark II) – trying both a black and white conversion using Aperture 3 (instead of Lightroom) and a single shot HDR version processed using both Photomatix and Lightroom – which is what you see above.

I find both of the black and white images and the color version to be equally beautiful – but obviously different. The images evoke different moods for me – I find the black and white images being more contemplative and the color more here and now.

What do you think?

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90 San Francisco/California

The Golden Gate Bridge in HDR

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Golden Gate Bridge from Fort Point – in HDR – San Francisco, California

Far and away my most popular image on Flickr is this one – titled “Golden Gate Bridge – 2010 – (Canon PowerShot S90 HDR)“. It has over twice the Flickr views of my next nearest image – lots of folks have favorite’d it, commented on it, etc.

This image shows you what you can do these days with a tiny little camera in your pocket – if you know how to shoot. Taken just about a year ago, this image was shot from up on the top of Fort Point just below the Golden Gate Bridge – out in the late afternoon sun – with my tiny Canon PowerShot S90. The January sun angles are always just the best – and this was a perfect day in that regard with low sun and some interesting clouds in the sky.

What’s HDR? Stands for High Dynamic Range. Shooting HDR involves capturing at least 3 shots of the same image exposed differently. You then post process the 3 images into a single composite image. The result can be quite spectacular!

The Canon PowerShot S90 has built-in exposure auto-bracketing – so taking this kind of shot basically involves going to Aperture Priority, enabling Auto-Bracketing, and then shooting the 3 images. Ideally, you use a tripod to steady the image and minimize alignment issues (as with this photo) – but you can also just shoot handheld if you’re steady enough.

My favorite aspect of this particular photo is the sign in the lower right telling folks not to sit on the wall – which, of course, the couple just under the bridge is ignoring completely!

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Compact HDR HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90 Photomatix Pro San Francisco/California

The Palace of Fine Arts – San Francisco

The Palace of Fine Arts - San Francisco - 2010

Order a Limited Edition print of this photo

This photo was taken last June at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. The Palace was originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition – and these few buildings are all that remain. It was a typical San Francisco blue sky morning – with lovely lighting adding a hint of shadows. The Palace is another one of my favorite San Francisco venues – a place I love to visit and photograph in all seasons.

The Canon PowerShot S90 (and its successor, the Canon PowerShot S95) are delightful little cameras that can take some amazing photographs. Because of the quality of the 10 megapixel image sensor and the auto-bracketing feature that’s built-in, you can easily shoot HDR (high dynamic range) photos with either of these cameras. Ideally, you’ll use a tripod – but I’ve had great success doing handheld HDR images – just be sure to find something to steady yourself against if you can while firing off the three shots! (Here’s a picture of me walking with Trey Ratcliff and others at Stanford last spring – that’s me on the right with the tiny camera (S90!) on top of the tripod!)

For more background on how I shoot HDR using these compact Canon point-and-shoot cameras, see this post (some tweaks) and this post (original).

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Compact HDR Half Moon Bay HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90

Tree Canyon – Fitzgerald Marine Preserve

Fitzgerald Marine Reserve (HDR) by Scott Loftesness

A year ago today, I was over in Half Moon Bay on one of those amazing mornings – where the fog and the sun are almost dancing in the sky.

The Fitzgerald Marine Preserve has this amazing cypress tree canyon (no better word for it!) the someone planted and tended many years ago. You feel like you’re in a tunnel walking this lane – and, usually, there’s no one else around to spoil the natural beauty.

This particular image was shot in HDR using my Canon PowerShot S90 mounted on a tripod. The sun had just started shining through from above those trees on the left while the rest of the trees were still below foggy skies. Just seeing this image brings back vivid memories for me of having been there – just a year ago.

It’s time to get back over there again!

Continue reading “Tree Canyon – Fitzgerald Marine Preserve”
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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro San Francisco/California

Handheld Canon S95 HDR – Pulgas Water Temple

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Earlier this week, I visited both Filoli and the Pulgas Water Temple with my favorite new little camera, the Canon PowerShot S95, in hand. The water temple sits above the southeastern shore of Crystal Springs reservoir – at the end of the long pipeline that brings fresh water to San Francisco from the Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park up in the Sierras.

At lunch earlier in the week, another friend was telling me his experience using Photomatix Pro to align the multiple exposures associated with an HDR shot. He had taken a skyline view of San Francisco in a sailboat with his Canon 5D Mark II – and was surprised at how well Photomatix did using the “align features” option.

That discussion popped into my head as I was walking around the water temple – so I quickly put the S95 into HDR mode (I have the Custom setting on the Mode dial preconfigured for HDR) and fired off a few shots. Here’s one of the best – looking up inside the Pulgas Water Temple:

Pulgas Water Temple (HDR)

You can only visit the Pulgas Water Temple between 9 AM and 4 PM weekdays. It’s not open at all on weekends. Also, note that the water temple site is going to be closed during 2011 due to construction at the site. See this article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle about the big construction project just getting underway to build the Bay Division Pipeline 5.

According to Wikipedia: “Pulgas” is the Spanish (and Portuguese) word for “fleas”, which were encountered by early Spanish explorers of the area.

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Compact HDR HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90 Photography - Canon PowerShot S95

Canon Introduces the PowerShot G12!

You’ve heard me rave about my Canon PowerShot S90 and, more recently, its successor – the new PowerShot S95.

Today, Canon has announced the PowerShot G12 – the upgrade to the G11 that was the S90’s “big brother”. Like the S95, the G12 also includes HDR built-in to the camera.

Take a look at the details here – the Canon G12 is also now available for pre-order on Amazon.

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Apple HDR Photography

A Wave of HDR Ahead?

Paul Miller writes on Engadget about HDR video shot with dual Canon 5D Mark II’s – and asks “Are you ready for a wave of HDR to crash over the consumer electronics industry?” He views Apples inclusion of HDR in iOS 4.1 as an important signal about what’s ahead.

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Apple Compact HDR HDR Photography iPhone 4 Photography

First Photo: iPhone 4 HDR using iOS 4.1

The iOS 4.1 software update for the iPhone 4 became available today and I installed it on mine. Here’s the first photo I took in HDR – looking right outside my office window. The “surprise” new feature announced last week at the Apple event was HDR for the iPhone 4 – so I wanted to try it out right away!

The first image below is without HDR on – the second is with HDR on. You can see how the stuff in the shadows (cars under the trees, bushes in the foreground, even the wall on the right side) is made more visible in the HDR version. Cool stuff – and no noticeable impact on shutter speed meaning that you can take HDR photos without the wait of traditional autobracketing, etc.

No HDR:

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With HDR:

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When we get some more interesting iPhone HDR shots over the next few days, I’ll share them here!

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Compact HDR HDR Photography Photography Photography - Black & White Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro Stanford

The Power of Black and White – Canon S95 HDR

Maybe it’s the visit to the Ansel Adams show with Chris on Saturday that has sent me over the edge, but I’m continually intrigued by how one can take a color photo and turn it into a much more powerful black and white image.

See the photo below – it’s #3 from my initial Canon S95 HDR post earlier this morning.

Rodin's Gates of Hell @ Stanford

Frankly, I didn’t spend much time on this photo – the point was to provide it (a traditional HDR post-processed shot) as a point of comparison with the new in-camera HDR feature built-in to the S95.

As I was looking at it, I wondered how a conversion to black and white might look – now that I’ve become acquainted and familiar with Lightroom 3’s excellent Black and White Mix controls.

So, I gave it a shot – here’s the result – after about 10 minutes of tweaking in Lightroom:

Rodin's Gates of Hell - Canon PowerShot S95 - HDR

Obviously, it’s the same subject as the original photo – Rodin’s Gates of Hell – but it’s been transformed into a more powerful photograph through the conversion to black and white.

I also experimented for the first time using the new Lens Correction features in Lightroom 3 – to remove the distortion in terms of angle, etc. that I had in the original image. It now looks very close to a direct, head-on shot at the scuplture.

Finally, I tweaked it in Flickr – using Picnik to add a museum frame around it – dressing it up a bit.

I like the result. What do you think?

You may also want to view my Flickr set of Canon S95 HDRs taken this morning at Stanford.

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Compact HDR HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S95 Photomatix Pro Stanford

Some Initial HDR Explorations with the Canon S95

[Update: These same techniques apply to the Canon PowerShot S100 and, I believe, to the Canon PowerShot S110 as well as the Canon PowerShot S95.]

One of the new Scene mode options in the new Canon PowerShot S95 is HDR – High Dynamic Range. If you know me, you’ll know that I enjoy HDR photography – having done a bunch of it on my earlier S90. I’ve used the traditional approach – taking three auto-bracket images at different exposures and then using Photomatix Pro to merge them together and do something magical called tone mapping.

When the S95 was announced, I was curious how well the HDR Scene mode in the S95 would do – compared to both basic auto shots plus also versus the traditional approach I’ve been using for a while.

So, this morning – tripod in hand – I headed over to Stanford University to give the S95 a while. I’ve just completed post-processing the first photos – below you’ll see the result. These photos were taken at the Rodin Sculpture Garden at the Cantor Center – of Rodin’s Gates of Hell.

1. Here’s the first photo – this is the middle exposure of my HDR autobracket sequence on the S95.
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2. Here’s the second photo – this is shot using the in-camera HDR setting in Scene mode. In my opinion, it’s a definite improvement!
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3. And, here’s the final photo – processed the traditional way using three autobracket shots, Photomatix Pro, etc.
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What do you think? I certainly prefer #3 – the traditional HDR shot – but the in-camera one isn’t bad. With a bit of additional tweaking to warm it up a bit, bring up the saturation, etc. it’d be a very good image.

For some more of my traditional HDR from this morning’s Stanford shoot, see this set on Flickr.