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Here’s a beautiful late afternoon shot of the Golden Gate Bridge taken from Baker Beach in San Francisco. This photo was shot using a Canon PowerShot S90 and post-processed in PhotoMatix Pro.
Category: Photography – Canon PowerShot S90
I was surprised to look at Trey Ratcliff’s StuckInCustoms.com post this morning – and see a picture of several of us photowalking Stanford last Thursday afternoon. The photo was taken for the Stanford Daily.
Meeting Trey and some of the other photographers was great fun – see my earlier post. By the way, I’m the guy on the right – Trey’s the guy on the left. You can barely see my tiny camera (Canon S90) on top of my tripod!
As I mentioned earlier, on Thursday afternoon I went photowalking at Stanford with Trey Ratcliff of StuckInCustoms.com. In spite of the drizzling weather, we had a great time photowalking Stanford – much of it spent inside Stanford Memorial Church (see the full set of photos here).
I’ve also been interested in Trey’s use of textures in some of his HDR photos. His textures tutorial details the process he uses – based upon a set of textures he’s captured on his travels around the world.
I’ve put together two examples of this texture technique – based on the same image – shot on New Years Day 2010 from Fort Point in San Francisco. These aren’t HDR – but they were shot using the Canon PowerShot S90. The first is blue, the second is gold!
Enjoy!
[Update: Feb 5, 2010: Here’s the Flickr group Stuck in Stanford with photos from the group that walked with Trey Ratcliff last night.]
Late today, in a light drizzle, about 50 photographers joined ace HDR photographer Trey Ratcliff for a photowalk on the Stanford campus. Trey’s website StuckInCustoms.com is the best resource for HDR photography on the planet. His new book, A World in HDR
The weather was just mild enough for us to enjoy ourselves – and perhaps the best time was had by all inside the Stanford Memorial Church where we spent the bulk of our time. Here are two shots of mine taken inside the church using my Canon PowerShot S90 shooting HDR. These were post-processed using Photomatix Pro, Photoshop CS4 and the Topaz Adjust and Noiseware filters.
You can also follow Trey’s HDR exploits on his Stuck in Customs Facebook page. For my Canon PowerShot S90 HDR setup instructions, see this post.
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[Update: These same techniques apply to the Canon PowerShot S100
A friend has asked how I’ve been setting up my Canon PowerShot S90 to take the HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos I’ve been sharing.
Here’s what I’ve been doing:
- Put the S90 into Aperture Priority mode by setting the mode dial to Av. By shooting in Av, you ensure that the camera isn’t adjusting the aperture (which could cause focus issues) but, rather, only shutter speed.
- Select a fixed (not Auto) ISO (see p. 76 in the S90 manual). In daylight, choose 80 or 100. You want a fixed ISO so that the camera isn’t trying to adjust ISO between shots.
- Select Large format JPEG or RAW (see p. 72 in the S90 manual). (I find the Large JPEGs are the easiest to post-process while purists say to shoot in RAW. The S90 does a superb job of processing in-camera, so just choose Large JPEG when you’re getting started.)
- Turn on Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB mode – see p. 93 in the S90 manual). Chose the middle option – “Takes 3 different shots at different exposures”. While still in that setting, press the DISP button and turn the dial to select +/- 2 stops. This ensures that the camera takes 3 shots: one properly exposed, one underexposed by 2 stops, and one overexposed by 2 stops. These three photos are what Photomatix Pro then uses to create the HDR image.
Now, the S90 is ready to go.
For best results, mount the S90 on a tripod to prevent any movement as the three shots are being taken. If you don’t have a tripod, you can try handheld HDR – just try to brace your arm against a support to minimize any camera movement. When you hit the shutter button, the camera will take the 3 shots – about a shot per second. After 3 seconds or so, it’s done.
I post-process in Lightroom – using it to import the photos from the S90. I then use Photomatix Pro and just point it to the 3 shots in the file folder to begin generating the HDR image. Once the image has been generated and tone mapped, I save it back into the same folder and then import that image also into Lightroom – telling Lightroom to just add it to the catalog but not to copy it as the image is already in the folder.
For the best overall tutorial on HDR processing, be sure the see Trey Ratcliff’s Stuck in Customs HDR tutorial.
I’ve continued to be very pleased with the HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos I’ve taken using my relatively new Canon PowerShot S90
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For my S90 HDR shooting, I’ve been using a lightweight Manfrotto tripod that, frankly, I was about to get rid of because it’s just not substantial enough to support my Canon 5D Mark II. But, as it turns out, this tripod is absolutely perfect for shooting with the Canon S90! I’ve been getting a bit of a kick out of walking around with this tripod – with this little tiny camera mounted on it!
If you’re looking for an entry-level digital camera that shoots RAW, includes auto-bracketing suitable for HDR, and almost disappears in your hands, be sure to checkout the S90 – it’s an awful lot of digital camera in a tiny package – and continues to amaze me!
Yesterday, a day with some dramatic clouds here in the San Francisco Bay Area, I took the opportunity to head up to San Francisco and shoot a few HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos using my Canon PowerShot S90 – here’s a link to the slideshow – and below is one of my favorites taken at the Palace of Fine Arts.
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!
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!
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.
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!
We had a quiet New Years Eve last night at home – beginning with a delightful pasta dinner – see the recipe on Scott’s Kitchen!. We worked a jigsaw puzzle while watching Hulu.com’s excellent coverage from Times Square in New York City – conveniently three hours ahead of our own clock. Couldn’t get into the weird Anderson Cooper/Kathy Griffin coverage on CNN. Hulu was a great, high quality HD alternative – delivered, as they say, “over the top”!
This morning, we had this wonderful light overcast that seemed might make for some interesting pictures – so I slid my Canon S90 into my shirt pocket and headed north to San Francisco – initially to Inspiration Point at the Presidio (appears to be a great place for a wedding but photographically a bit of a disappointment) but then on to Fort Point, the overlook off Langdon Drive above Battery Boutelle, and an old favorite, Baker Beach. As these things go, it was a quick trip – a bit over 2-1/2 hours roundtrip.
The triptych below captures shots from each of those locations – a way for me to remember this New Years Day from each of those locations! Here’s my Flickr set for these shots.
Hope you had a wonderful New Years 2010!