Category Archives: Everyday HDR In Use
HDR Concert #3: Long Term Solution Is Up!
Stroll over to the HDR Concert Page and take a look at all of the amazing entries into this month’s HDR Concert. While you are there you can download the brackets and experiment with them yourself!
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To Grandmother’s House I Went
I recently traveled back to, what I like to call my home town, Scranton Pennsylvania. The circumstances were less than ideal as a death in the family never finds anyone well. However, the family came together and celebrated the life of the most amazing woman I have known, my dear Grandma, Mary Regan. As a tribute to her and many fond memories, my sister and I ventured off to the old house that we spent many Christmas’. I took the liberty of snapping some HDR shots to see what I could do with such a treasure.
We then strolled around the corner and took a look at my other Grandma’s house. It is in rather beautiful shape, as the current owners are taking very good care of it.
Tip For The Week:
When Photographing houses, take many shots at varying focal lengths. You will be glad you did as many times the surrounding background can open many opportunities for the architectural foreground. It is very easy to get stuck fitting just the house into the frame. Next time you go out shooting houses lower that focal length if possible and allow the background to become a frame for the structure.
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A Few More From Union Station
Last weeks Union Station trip has provided me with many brackets to process and as I have been working with them I have been trying new things. Well, I wouldn’t necessarily say new, but revisiting an old friend. I started my photography journey at 17 in the darkroom in High School printing 35mm black and white negatives. I used to swear by black and white and be so against color, but as soon as I started shooting digital I strayed away from black and white. Out of sheer curiousness I processed some of the Union Station photos in grey scale, and I must say, I am impressed. HDR images hold a lot of information and detail for a high quality black and white photo.
Tip For The Week:
While you are processing your photos, throw some black and white on them, see how you like it. Sometimes you might like the effect it brings and who knows, maybe it can bring back an old friend you haven’t seen in a while.
Check out an old post of mine that shows you the many ways you can process an image in Black and White in Photoshop.
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When All Else Fails… Redeem Yourself!
I recently signed up for a meetup to go on a Photo walk in the West Bottoms of Kansas City. That place is awesome and I was stoked to attend. The buildings in the area are run down warehouses, factories and all kinds of HDR friendly. The West Bottoms are almost post apocalyptic looking, you really feel like you are in a Fallout game when you are strolling through there.
So the email came through for this meetup and the time said 7am-9am. I was thinking, “holy crap that is early for a Saturday, but here goes nothing”, and I clicked RSVP. I got to the West Bottoms at 655 and to my surprise there was no one there when 40 were scheduled to attend. I whipped out my handy dandy Smart Phone and found that the meetup didn’t START until 9 am. For some reason meetup does this to me all the time. It says in the initial email that it is from 7am – 9 am. Look here is a screenshot:
Meetup.com got me good! I sent the wife a few expletives that I may or may not be proud of and stormed away from the West Bottoms. I figured I had already driven 25 miles to Kansas City anyway, I may as well redeem myself from last week. So I went over the 12th street to shoot the Foxx Equipment pano that was an epic failure last week. I got creative with it and busted out ye ol’ Fishe Eye, and boy am I glad I did, the perspective is something to be desired. The fish eye doesn’t always create the best results but this one worked very well. I went a little against the grain from my normal processing on this one, but the colors deserve the attention!
After that I strolled over to Union Station after Ketih Moyer suggested it last time we shot together at the Kauffman Center. Now I made it to Union Station at about 735 AM. I had the whole place to myself! I have never been there in the afternoon or at night, but it seems as if this place gets pretty poppin! Driving through KC at 735 on a Saturday morning is pretty awesome, there is nobody anywhere. I felt like I owned a chunk of the city, like I could call a part of it mine, have you ever felt that way? I have been to almost every major city in America and I must say, it is a tough battle between Seattle and Kansas City for me. I love this city!
I dug into my old bag of tricks and turned Union Station into what I was imagining as I was shooting it. The old steam engines and architecture made me wish the photos I was taking were 100 years or older. So naturally I Photoshopped it using the Stieglitz Action in the Tidbits of Awesomeness action package for sale in the EverydayHDR Store.
Photo Tip For The Week:
There is always time for redemption! When a scheduled shoot doesn’t go as planned, don’t sweat it! Take my Dad’s advise, “Have your little pity party then get over it!” There is always time for redemption, find a spot you shot a while ago and revisit it, shoot it in a new light. The one thing you do not want to do is go home angry. You allotted that time for shooting photos, don’t pout and go home, take some photos elsewhere!
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Foxx Equipment Graffiti
I was on my way to the Kauffman Center last week to shoot it through sunset and couldn’t help but stop and take a few shots of this epic graffiti mural. I planned out a Panorama that would have captured this mural in it’s entirety, however, I made a HUGE mistake!
I thought to myself, “you know Photoshop’s perspective panorama stitching is a pain in the ass, what if I moved while I took the pano?”. After every set of brackets I took a sidestep and took 5 more brackets. I did this 4 times and was stoked to get home and process them. To my demise you do not want to sidestep while taking a Pano. I know now that the perspective changes as you move therefore you want to stay in one place. There is no stitching you can do that can fix that!
The funny thing is I knew that while I was shooting it too. I had one of those brain farts, well this was more of a brain shart! Now I have to go back there when there are no cars in their lot, sorry no pano today…
Tip For The Week:
Think about the basics when you shoot, take that breather and think about all that you know about the shot you are trying to get. I was in a hurry and I forgot to think and brain sharted, don’t be a victim of brain sharting. Think about the basics so you don’t make an epic fail mistake.
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HDR Concert #2 Is Live!
HDR Concert #2 is now available for your viewing pleasure! Head on over to the HDR Concert page to see all of the submissions and their tone mapping and post processing techniques. Quite a bit of talent in the group as usual!
