Category: HDR Photography

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Half Moon Bay HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90

More Canon PowerShot S90 HDR Photography – Fitzgerald Marine Reserve

I had such fun on my brief excursion to Stanford yesterday shooting HDR photos for the first time on my new Canon S90 that I got going early this morning for a trip over the hills to Half Moon Bay and environs.

I have several favorite spots for taking shots in Half Moon Bay and I visited each of them in turn this morning while the light was still good and low over the winter horizon. But, of all the places, the best shot of the day came from one of my favorite walks among the cypress trees in the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. See what you think – view it larger here!

sv-fitzgeraldmarinereserve-03jan2010.jpg

The sun glow in this photo is amazing – especially considering that the sun was actually a bit beyond the upper right corner of the photo. Today, I again used a tripod for the S90, shot three JPEG images at 0 and +/- 2 stops in aperture priority, f/8, ISO 80, and post-processed using Photomatix Pro and Lightroom 2.6. (Here’s a link to a similar shot taken last July with my Canon 5D Mark II.)

Shooting HDR with this superb tiny little camera is turning out to be a whole lot of fun! Throw the S90 on a lightweight tripod (it looks so tiny up there!) – and you can go almost anywhere and take some really superb HDR shots – without the weight of a big camera and lens! After all, the only reason I bought the Canon S90 was because of my rotator cuff surgery in my right shoulder about 10 weeks ago which made shooting with my Canon 5D Mark II impossible for a period of time. The S90 has kept me in the game – learning new things about using compact “point and shoot” cameras to make some great photos!

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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon PowerShot S90 Stanford

My First HDR Shots With the Canon PowerShot S90

Lily and I took a quick trip over to the Stanford Quad this afternoon to get a bit of exercise and to try out my new Canon PowerShot S90 on some tripod-based HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. I was very pleased with the how well it all worked!

Here’s an example of the results – my full Flickr set is here.

Stanford Memorial Church (HDR)

PS: This tiny camera looks a little silly up on a tripod – but it sure took some great photos! Next time, I’ll try some handheld HDR as well – we’ll see how they turn out. I also need to remember to shoot the HDR shots in Aperture Priority – at least that’s how I do it on my Canon 5D Mark II!

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HDR Photography Photography Stanford

Multi-RAW Processing – Stanford Quad Example

Wow! Earlier this morning I wrote about Harold Davis’ multi-RAW post-processing technique. I’ve just spent some time in Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop working on a photo I took on the Stanford campus in late April.

The results are dramatic – as both the color balance in the originally was off along with the exposure. Here’s the original – followed by the 2-pass multi-RAW version. Pretty stunning comparison!

Original:

IMG_1023-1.jpg

Multi-RAW Processed:

IMG_1023-2.jpg

Notice how the right side exposure has been corrected and blended using a Photoshop layer mask gradient with the originally lighter (and properly exposed) left side of the photo.

Many thanks again to Harold for sharing this technique!

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HDR Photography Photography

A Great Tutorial on Multi-RAW Processing by Harold Davis

Harold Davis has written an excellent introduction to using multi-RAW post-processing of camera RAW files.

This is a new technique for me – one that seems very complementary to my Handheld HDR – but without requiring the bracketed photos that HDR uses.

I’m off to play around a bit with Harold’s technique! Thanks to Harold for sharing it!

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HDR Photography

A Great HDR Photography Tutorial by Peter Tellone

Peter Tellone has written a great tutorial on high dynamic range (HDR) photography over on Phototuts. Titled “How to Shoot and Post-Process Professional HDR Photos in One Day“, Peter goes through each step of the process providing some value tips and techniques from taking the photos to optimizing the post-processing phase. Highly Recommended!

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Art and Artists HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II Stanford

Painting Stanford with Donald Neff

My friend Donald Neff and I visited Stanford this morning for a fun exploration of painting and photography. Don’s quite an accomplished landscape artist and, while I rarely pick up a brush, I’ve got way too much photographic gear to just sit by and watch!

We picked a spot inside the quad and I took a “reference photo” which Don looked at briefly and then began to sketch and paint. We wanted to see a comparison of the same scene – painting and photo – more on that later! Don took this picture of me shooting our “subject” in the Quad. Here’s Don’s blog post on today’s “Stanford Shootout!”

Don and I worked together at a couple of points in our careers in the payments world. Here’s a photo of Don hard at work inside the quad at Stanford!

Donald Neff painting at Stanford University

Below is an example of one of my HDR photos (High Dynamic Range) taken with the Canon 5D Mark II using +/1 2 stop Automatic Exposure Bracketing on a monopod.

StanfordQuad-HDR-25Apr2009-ScottLoftesness.jpg

And another HDR shot of one of Rodin’s Burghers of Calais in the Stanford Quad.

Stanford Quad - Rodin's Burghers of Calais

The full set of HDR photos I took inside the Stanford Quad are here.

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Business Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Cooking HDR Photography Lily Living Menlo Park Photography

Grey Saturday Musings

Taking it easy on this grey, overcast and sorta chilly Saturday in Menlo Park. Grocery run this morning (Trader Joe’s, Draeger’s), a nice 0.6 mile walk with Lily, catching up with the morning papers, and now enjoying the aroma of the short ribs simmering on the stove! More about those short ribs coming soon over on Scott’s Kitchen!

Chris Gulker‘s mentioned Anne Knudsen to me on our morning walks. She’s a great Silicon Valley photographer friend of Chris – see her latest photo of him!

Don Neff forwarded a link to this article on Gizmodo: How To: Create Stunningly Realistic High Dynamic Range Photographs. See some of my earlier posts about shooting HDR on my Canon 40D. It’s been way too long – I need to carve out some time for another HDR shoot day sometime soon!

AIG sucks again. This story in tomorrow’s New York Times says they’ve got to pay out $100 MM in bonuses “to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.” A chapter 11 filing would have forced a cram down on any “contractually obligated” bonuses. Who’s in charge of this circus, anyway?

Late tonight, the WSJ comes out with another story about AIG bonuses – it’s actually worse than it appears! This crap has to stop!

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

Shoot HDR on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II – Rodin’s Gates of Hell

IMG_0088_89_90_tonemappedHere’s my first attempt at handheld HDR photography using my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

The setting is Rodin’s Gates of Hell at the Cantor Arts Center on the Stanford University campus.

I love their description:

“The Rodin Sculpture Garden is open all hours, with lighting for nighttime viewing. Admission is free.”

I took three raw shots while seating on the ground, holding the camera as steady as I could, using Aperture Priority with three high-speed shots on the 5D Mark II.

Continue reading “Shoot HDR on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II – Rodin’s Gates of Hell”
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HDR Photography Photography Photography - Canon 5D Mark II

Moving Up – Canon EOS 5D Mark II

5dmark2.jpgAfter talking to a very good friend (and another Canon shooter) at breakfast earlier this week about his experiences with the new Canon EOS 5D Mark II, I decided I really didn’t have the will power to resist – in spite (or, perhaps, because) of the economy! Some other photographers have also not been able to resist!

Here are the details on this new camera from the Canon web site. If you really want to be blown away, watch this HD video shot by Vincent Laforet using this camera.

Continue reading “Moving Up – Canon EOS 5D Mark II”
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Half Moon Bay HDR Photography Living Photography Photomatix Pro Walking

A Sunday Morning Walk in the Coastal Country

Over the last couple of years, I’ve subscribed to the RSS feeds of a number of local folks on Flickr who share some great photography. How I find them initially seems pure serendipity. Sometimes they post one or two photos in a local group – sometimes I just stumble upon their work. If they’re interesting, I add their Flickr RSS feed to my Flickr folder in Google Reader. Inevitably, their work helps me to learn more about photography and stimulates me to visit some new local locations – it’s very rewarding.

Continue reading “A Sunday Morning Walk in the Coastal Country”