Happy Monday!
I have three HDR Images for you today. If you are viewing this on Facebook you will have to click on the link below the text to come to my blog to see all three images. Since I never look at my posts on Facebook, until yesterday, I’m wondering if you can always see all the images I post or only the first one? Can someone let me know?
I’ve wanted to get down to the Millwork District and do some building photography for some time now. They have spent millions of dollars on refurbishing these old warehouse buildings turning them into upscale apartments, offices, and shops. Simply put it is a vibrant and fun place to visit.
Anyway, I didn’t start of with the intention of making HDR images. I was going to shoot for Black and White processing but I chose the wrong time of the day to photograph and so the only way to do the scenes justice was to photograph them in HDR.
So for the non-photographers who may not know what HDR is, it is short for High Dynamic Range. The normal human eye can see about 9 – 11 levels of luminance. Unfortunately most Digital SLR s can only capture 5 levels. If you expose for the highlights the shadows are pure black and have no detail. If you expose for the shadows the highlights are blown out and have no detail.
To compensate for that, you shoot a series of shots at the same aperture (like these were taken at f8.0) and the camera will “bracket” the shutter speed by 1 full stop (or what ever number you choose.) You can shoot a series of 3 images or 5 images (like I did here) or even up to 9 images. Then you (with the help of software) merge them into one image so that all the levels of luminescence are exposed properly.
Some people do not like HDR images because you can get carried away with the processing and they do not always look realistic. I happen to think it is just another way of expressing yourself in another art form. In other words “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” 🙂
Now that I’ve completely bored you out of your mind, I’ll say that’s it for today. If you live near the Dubuque area it’s worth your time to visit the Millwork District. I was really surprised at the number of people visiting some of the shops on Sunday morning.
There were also two photographers shooting. I assume they were professional, because of their equipment and cameras. One was photographing a young couple, probably for their engagement photo and another photographing a couple and their three kids in Halloween costumes. Great fun watching them work.
Thanks for stopping by the blog. Enjoy your day and be careful.
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