CSB-Photography HDR imaging

skyline

2009-05-18T19:57:00.001-07:00

Here is an HDR image that does not look like an HDR image. I took it from a hotel room and is the Dallas Sky line. It was 3 shots at 2 f/stops apart. I composed it in Photomatics.

A nice stream

2009-05-17T20:11:00.001-07:00

This was caught while walking our dog at the park in our neighborhood. The photo was composed of 3 photos which were 2 f/stops apart. I then composed them in Photomatics.

The trouble maker

2009-05-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

Here is our trouble maker. She was in the back yard playing with Simon and I got this photo while she was taking a break from moving. She is just like a child and never slows down. The photo was taken using 3 images at 2 f/stops apart and then using Photomatics to merge them into an HDR image.

Our little trouble maker

2009-05-15T21:15:00.000-07:00

here is our trouble maker looking to get in more trouble in our backyard. The image was composed of 3 images take at 2 f/stops apart. It was composed in Photomatics.

Trying HDR with Fire

2009-05-14T19:17:00.001-07:00

Ok I tried taking HDR photo with fire and it did alright. It did make the ghoting of the fire since the fire was moving quite a bit, but it also makes the fire look a bit more interesting too. The photo was taken at 2 f/stops difference and then combined using photomatics. I could have used Photoshop to fine tune it some if I had more time tonight but dicided not too.

An orange ghost

2009-05-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

Our cat Simon has a ghost in this image. This image really shows why moving object are hard to do with HDR but I will say that some ghosting adds artistic value,. I think the ghosting in this image adds appeal. This image was taken with 3 images which were 2 f/stops apart and composed in Photomatics.

A nice blue sky once more

2009-05-12T19:27:00.001-07:00

I took this shot when I got home from work today. We have finally go blue skies. We still have clouds but the skies are bluer. The shot was composed of 3 images shot at 2 f/stops apart. I composed them in Photomatics

2009-05-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

This is a bit old fashion but this is part of the front house. Even though it is spring the treeS are not getting its leaves. I will say though it also was the last to loose its leaves this winter too> The image is composed of 3 images and processed in Photomatics.

A blue sky shot

2009-05-10T18:47:00.001-07:00

We it ws not a total cler day but it was not overly cloudy either. Hopefully there will be more and more Sun as we get into Summer. This shot was done using 3 images shot at 2 f/stops apart and processed in Photomatics.

Another painting from our house

2009-05-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

Ok it was kind of late and considering it was once again a cloudy day I took this photo in doors. This is a painting that we have above our fire place. I used 3 images at 2 f/stops apart. I used Photomatics to compose the image and Photoshop to get the perspective right. I will say I could have used better lighting considering I had longer exposures right around 1 second. I was using a tripod as with all HDR images.

Finally more blue sky days

2009-05-08T20:08:00.001-07:00

Well we had more blue sky today. The Sun was out and it has started to dry things up. Lets hope it stays dry for a while. This shot was done in the front yard. It is 3 shots at 2 f/stops apart. It was processed with Photomatics.

A little art for yet another rainy day

2009-05-07T20:23:00.001-07:00

Ok, I dcided to shoot some of the painting in our house since it was raining again today. This is a painting that we got when we were up in Portland,Maine. This image is composed of 3 images shot at 2 f/stops difference. It is processed in Photomatics.

A little bit of blue sky

2009-05-06T16:33:00.001-07:00

Well if you have been reading my blog the last few days you knowI am getting tired of the rain and overcast days. So today I set out to find out what color the sky is since for the past 2 weeks it has been dark and grey. I found out that they sky is blue. Ok so coming off my soap box about the rain and over cast days, this image was taken in my backyard. It is composed of 3 images 2 f/stops apart and processed by Photomatics.

Another overcast day

2009-05-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

It is yet another overcast day which makes me sleepy like our cat Simon. Here is Simon taking a cat nap in the backyard. As you can see the grass is growing nicely but due to all the rain we have not been able to mow the yard. The image was taken with the Canon 5D original which will now be called the mark I. I am looking forward to the mark II which I will be getting soon I hope. back to the image above though. It is composed of 3 images taken at 2 f/stops apart. I then used Photomatics to comppose the image.

I finally saw some blue sky

2009-05-04T19:59:00.001-07:00

The clouds started to break up today. I finally saw a little blue sky. Hopefully tomorrow will be more blue sky. The image was composed of 3 images taken at 2 f/stops apart and then processed with Photomatics.

an older photo since it was raining again today

2009-05-03T19:34:00.001-07:00

Ok, this was an older photo that I took back in April. I did not shoot today since it was once again raining. I am really getting tired of the rain. I hope to see the Sun again soon. This image though was composed of 3 images taken at 2 f/stops apart. It was processed in Photomatics. No other alterations were done.

Landscape 2

2009-05-02T13:46:00.000-07:00

This photo was taken at the shops of leagacy also. It has been raining all week it seems. I have not seen the Sun in a long time it seems. The image was composed in Photomatics using 3 images shot at 2 f/stops apart.

A new landscape

2009-05-01T13:11:00.001-07:00

I took this today at the shops of leagacy which is just down the street from us. I travel by there on a daily basis so I thought I might look around some and found this nice little park area. The shot was done with 3 images which were 2-f/stops apart. It was processed in Photomatics.

A photo of Dora

2009-04-30T19:51:00.001-07:00

This is another photo of Dora. I did one of her last month also. As usual, this was done with 3 photos done at 2 f-stops apart and processed with Photomatics. I will say Dora was fairly still and thankfully I was able to use fast shutter speeds so no ghosting took place.

more cloudy skies

2009-04-29T19:02:00.000-07:00

It was another overcast day here in Plano,Tx. It rained most of the day and we had a few moments when the Sun would break through the clouds and this was one of those moments. The image was done by taking 3 images at 2 f-stops apart. It was composed in Photomatics.

Our main oragane cat

2009-04-28T17:35:00.000-07:00

This is our main organe cat Mr. Simon. He was out in the yard today enjoying the nice cool weather. I took 3 photos of him and combined them with Photomatics. As you might seee, there is a bit of ghosting around his ear.

Dark skies once more

2009-04-27T18:59:00.001-07:00

If you were to ask me I would say I see a butter fly here. Once more we had an over cast day. This image was composed of 3 images processed in Photomatics.

railroad tracks

2009-04-27T02:52:00.001-07:00

This is one of the railroad tracks in Garland that we found. This was taken with 3 images at 2 f/stops difference and composed in Photomatics.

blue bonnets

2009-04-25T16:34:00.001-07:00

I set out today to find some of the Texas wild flowers called blue bonnets. We found these in Garland. I took three images at 2 f/stops apart and then used Photoshop to remove some power lines in the photo. The image was composed in Photomatics.

Dark skies

2009-04-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Today started off over cast and then this afternoon the skies started to break up and the blue sky come through.The image was made from 3 images shot at 2 f/stops apart and processed in Photomatics

a small natural bunch of roses

2009-04-23T20:16:00.001-07:00

This was a quick shot that I did out in the backyard again of our roses. They are really great looking. The image is composed of 3 images shot at 2 f/stops apart and processed with Photomatics.

nother macro shot of a rose

2009-04-22T19:31:00.001-07:00

Ok, I might have over done the color saturation in this photo but I still think it is a good photo. This image was processed by Photomatics.

macro roses

2009-04-21T20:10:00.001-07:00

I took some macro HDR shots of the rose bush since I needed some macro shots for one of my clubs. I took the shot around 13:00 and did it using a 100mm macro lens. I took 3 shots at 2 f/stops apart. It was processed with Photomatics.

early morning light

2009-04-20T13:11:00.000-07:00

The was shot early in the morning while walking our dog Milo. The HDR images shows a lot more due to the fact that it was really dark when I took this. The low resolution image can not pick up some of the details here but the light case some interesting shadows on the tree. The image was composed of 3 images proceed by Photomatics

roses by the dozens

2009-04-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

These are our climbing roses and they are in full bloom now. This image was composed by taking 3 images which were 2 f/stops apart. I composed them in Photomatics.

stormy weather still

2009-04-18T19:31:00.001-07:00

Lately the weather here in the DFW area has been rainy and finally today the rain has stopped. Here is an image that I took while in Canton,Tx of the clouds as they past over.Again this HDR image was taken with 3 images composed in Photomatics

Interesting building shades

2009-04-17T19:45:00.001-07:00

You more than likely can not see the interesting shading that is on the red building but because of ghosting and the way the Sun was hitting the building there is a shine that is coming off the build which is interesing. The photo was composed of 3 images at 2 f/stops apart. It was processed in Photomatics and Lightroom

a fountain

2009-04-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

First off I think this had a little bit to much processing. This is way to harry potter looking. As you can see the fountain looks a bit fake. This was processed using 3 images which were 2 f/stops apart. It was processed using Photomatics

landscape vs sky

2009-04-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

This shot is a bit interesting. The buildings are a bit dark but thge sky is a beautiful blue. This image came from 3 images and was processed by Photomatics

Stormy sky photo

2009-04-14T08:25:00.001-07:00

I love what HDR does with clouds. The harry Potter effect looks great on clouds I think. This photo was processed using Photomatics and used 3 photos at 2 f/stops apart.

A nice sky shot

2009-04-13T06:04:00.001-07:00

This is a nice sky shot that I got today. When you look at the sky for long periods of time it starts to look a bit like the ocean. This was processed with Photomatics.

More roses

2009-04-12T18:55:00.001-07:00

Thankfully the weather finally got better and started to clear up some.I took this photo at around 16:00. 3 images were taken at 2 f/stops apart. It was composed with Photomatics.

Another city shot

2009-04-11T14:04:00.001-07:00

Ok, not to difficult of a shot. This was composed of 3 images 2 f/stops apart. It was composed in Photomatics and cropped a little in Lightroom.

Another one of our Cats

2009-04-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

This is our cat Sasha. The grass in our backyard got a little tall and was above sasha's head. If you look closely you will see a bit of ghosting. I did not correct the image for the ghosting. It was processed using 3 images shot 2 f/stops apart using Photomatics

a look at a polluted city

2009-04-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

I will say it was an overcast day but just look at the haze. Even though this photo displays nothing for HDR images, I just found it ashame to see so much haze out there. The image was composed of 3 images shot at 2 f/stops apart and composed in Photomatics.

A nice rose for a peachy day

2009-04-08T16:14:00.001-07:00

I might have gone a bit out of control with the color on this one but it is a beautiful rose bush. It has about 50 blooms out and just looks great. I took 3 images with 2 f/stop difference. I developed them using photomatics.

A beautiful blue

2009-04-07T07:54:00.001-07:00

I really do like this photo even though the composition is not all that good. It is the color that I like on this image. It is a beautiful blue color. This was one of the images I got yesterday which I processed this morning. It was processed with Photomatics.

A nice sunset but a bit windy

2009-04-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

This was a quick shot I got on my way home. It was a windy day and as you may see there is a bit of ghosting in the image with the trees. This was done with 3 images 2 f/stops apart.

Mre sky shots

2009-04-05T12:20:00.001-07:00

I really love HDR when it comes to sky shots. It does some nice touches to clouds and the different shades of blue that the sky is. In the shot above, I darken the horizon but punched out the sky a bit. I used Photomatics and Lightroom.

nice cloud formations

2009-04-04T13:38:00.001-07:00

This had to have some more work done to it since when the image was processed, the cloud came out with a lot of yellow in it. So within Lightroom I worked a bit with vibrancy and tint to and the curve line to make the yellow not so strong. I need to see if there is a better way, but I do like how this image came out. Thew image was processed with Photomatics and Lightroom. as usual it is composed of 3 images.

A beautiful sunset

2009-04-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

Some of the detail is lost due to the fact that I had to convert the image to a jpg but in a shot like this the Sun would have caused some problems since most camera would have under exposed the image there by loosing detail in the clouds but with HDR we are able to pick up the clouds more. The image was processed with Photomatics with 3 exposures which were 2 f/stops apart. I used Lightroom to do some cropping and that was it.

From a park north of us

2009-04-02T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, I will say I do not like the fountain in this image. Processing made the fountain come out a bit blown out. I will have to play around a bit and see if I can not get the image a bit better. This was processed with Photomatics.

A beautiful sky

2009-04-01T18:50:00.000-07:00

Some of the most interesting photographs are above us and not in front of us. I think I will do a series of shots on clouds. They have some interesting shapes and with the evening times and morning times beautiful colors. This image was taken around 17:30 from my back yard. It was composed of 3 images using Photomatix and Lightroom.

Another shot from the front yard

2009-03-31T17:53:00.001-07:00

This was another shot I took from my front yard today. Taking shots of the Sun is usually fairly hard to get the lighting down but this shot shows that HDR is great. You can make out details on the house that is just below the Sun. I will say we still loose detail in the trees a little but the shot looks fairly good. This was processed with Photomatix.

Lets start the day off with a lesson HDR ghosting

2009-03-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

One of the biggest problems with HDR is ghosting. It took me a bit of time to figure out how to over come the ghosting but I think I have finaly done it. You will need to use Photoshop or gimp to do this. You will also need the normal exposure in your bracketed exposure. The steps I follow are like this
1) Open HDR image you have ghosting in. This will open in 16 or 32 bit mode depending on how you saved the image.
2) Open the normal exposure in camera raw.
3) Looking at the HDR image and the normal exposure looking where you have ghosting. Try to get the same tint and exposure setting as the HDR image. That will help a lot with blending.
4) From camera raw open the normal exposure as a smart object.
5) Copy the smart object into a new layer in the HDR image
6) Verify the image is the correct exposure.
7) Rastersize the layer then
8) Align the layers
9) Create a layer mask and fill it with black so you see the hdr image with ghosting
10) Take a white brush/pencel and draw over the ghosting image. As you will see it disappears.
11) If the exposure on the normal exposure is not correct you will see it when you do this step. If it is wrong you can use an adjustment layer mask some to correct the issue.

That is pretty much it. You will have to do it a couple of times to get the idea. It does work though. It cleans up HDR images quite nicely

A door closes yet another one opens

2009-03-30T17:29:00.001-07:00

Well today I got notified that I will be part of the restructuring at Sun but I am not down cause I know for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction and hense the say when one door closes a new one opens. This shot I like cause even though today was a somewhat bad day, the Sun shining and all seems to be beaconing a new door openning. This was shot with 3 exposeure which were 2 f/stops apart. It was processed with Photo matics and Lightroom.

Another one of our Cats

2009-03-29T18:57:00.000-07:00

Here is Dora one of the 4 Cats we have. This image was processed with Photomatics, Lightroom and Photoshop. As usual, it was done with 3 images 2 f/stops apart.

One more park on a cloudy day

2009-03-28T16:57:00.001-07:00

We have had some interesting weather lately. It seems to be winter once more instead of spring. This image was taken while we were traveling home. It was compposed of 3 images. It was processed with Photomatics

Late but still on time for a daily post

2009-03-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

This one is a bit late but it has been a long day. This was taken on my way home from work. This is a nice memorial done by Plano off of Custer right before Spring Creek. This was done with Photomatics and Photoshop. The ghosting of the flag was fairly heavy so I had to do a lot of touch up work. The HDR image was done with 3 images taken 2 f/stops apart.

From a Small park near the house

2009-03-26T08:40:00.000-07:00

This is yet another park near our house. The normal images the vibrancy of the colors would not show up as good as in HDR, You would have to use some photoshop stacking techniques to get the vibrancy as nice as this. The image was composed of 3 images at 2 f/stops apart. It was composed with Photomatix.

A small park near our house

2009-03-25T08:30:00.001-07:00

This was taken at a small park near our house. The image is composed of 3 images which are 2 f/stops apart. It was processed using Photomatix. I had set out to capture the sun rise but considering it was an over cast day the Sun was not really any where to be gotten.

Another angle on the Children's hospital

2009-03-24T06:26:00.001-07:00

Here is another one of the Children's hospital. The interesting thing about this photograph is what seems to be a halo around the building. I need to investigate some more but it could be I had the gamma turned up to high on the image which could be causing that halo. Also the contrast could be causing it. The images is processed with Photomatix with 3 images which are 2 f/stops apart.

Childrens Hospital

2009-03-23T11:30:00.000-07:00

The new Children's Hospital in Plano has a nice fountain that I have been wanting to photography and today I finally stopped on my way back from a customer's site to take the photograph. It is a HDR image and was processed using 3 images which were 2 f/stops apart. Photomatix Pro was used. I like the cloud structure that was there. It gives a lot of details.

Not all HDR has to be surreal.

2009-03-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

Marie and I took Milo out for a walk today and we went to a park in Frisco called the Commons. This was the war monument that they have up there. This is an HDR image but I did not make it seem to unreal. I will say when doing things like this. HDRI makes the images seem more colorful. This image was done using 3 images and having 2 f/stops apart. The image was done with Photomatix pro.

Out for a walk

2009-03-21T08:39:00.001-07:00

I got this image while out walking the dog. I love the colors and the vibrancy of colors. The image was done at 2/stops apart with 3 images. It was processed in Photomatix.

Went out looking

2009-03-20T15:27:00.001-07:00

I went out to Frsico today looking for hdr shots for a contest I am in and I like this image with the sky. This was taken at a park when I play softball at. I used photomatix and took 3 photos at 2 f/stops apart.

Our orange cat

2009-03-19T06:51:00.000-07:00

This was taken in our backyard. I used only 2 photos since Simon was moving quite a bit and ghosting was a bit of an issue. The exposures were 2 f/stops apart and the image was post-processed using Photomatix Pro.

See how good HDR is

2009-03-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

OK this shot is not the best composed image but it does show how good HDR can do. In a shot like this, the Sun would have over exposed much of the photograph. I bracketed the shot in 2 f/stops. I used 3 images total. In all the individual images, the house under the Sun would is either blown out or black and as you can see from the image it is not. You can make the color along with the texture of the wood on the house. The image was developed using Photomatix Pro.

First image of HDR-daily blog

2009-03-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

This was taken in my front yard with a 2 stop difference. I wish you could see the actual image since the screens do not do a good job of showing the image. For example in the actual image, the sky which looks to be blown out here is more blue with the Sun shining from behind the house.

The start of HDR Daily

2009-03-17T07:11:00.000-07:00

This blog will be my daily posting of HDR photos. I am doing this to get me to practice taking a daily photograph in HDR format. Please feel free to leave comments. Look for the fist HDR image a bit later on today.
Chris