HDR Photography

All posts tagged HDR Photography

Wednesday ~ June 28, 2017

Posted by Dave Updegraff on June 28, 2017
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

Happy Wednesday!

I have two images for you today.  Busy work day filled with a variety tasks.  I taught leadership to some staff and our interns in the morning.  Paperwork in the afternoon and then around 3:30 p.m. I did one of my favorite things to do with photography, corporate head shots.

I photographed our five interns and then some employees for our websites and finally some who just wanted to update their business image.

After work I went with my friend Roger to his farm where he has a magnificent 150 year old barn.  I made a lot of images of the barn for a presentation he is doing and then photographed the interior of the barn.  The lighting wasn’t too bad in this section of the barn but to do it justice I did a five shot HDR image.  I would encourage you to click on the image to reveal a larger more detailed version and just spend some time looking at the construction of this amazing structure.

Thanks for your time.  Enjoy your day and be careful.

Thursday ~ November 19, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 19, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

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Happy Thursday!

A couple more HDR images for you today and one regular image of a tree.  I appreciate all the kind comments on yesterday’s post.  It is gratifying to know that some enjoy my photography.

Photography gives me the opportunity to share with others the beauty I find in this world.  Thank you again for visiting my blog.

The image above is a large Catholic Church located in Bankston, Iowa.  I had the tripod set up to capture the farm scene that I showed yesterday but if I turned the camera 90 degrees South this is what I got.  🙂

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Finished up the benefit meetings in Cedar Rapids yesterday evening around 4:00 p.m. and then drove back to Marion to meet Mark for a coffee and some catch up time afterwards.  It was great to see him again and to learn about what he’s been doing.

Had to drive in a pouring rain most of the way home.  I kept thinking to myself…  this is better than snow.  Then the morning forecast is for 4 – 8 inches of snow starting tomorrow night.  😦

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This is the same scene I showed yesterday from a different focal length and at a few minutes later then the other one.

Back to a “normal” day today.  I’ve been leaving the house the last couple of days long before light and getting home in the dark.  It will be nice to see the road without headlights.  🙂

That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your day.  Be careful.

Wednesday ~ November 18, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 18, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , .

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Happy Rainy Wednesday!

Only time for a short post and one image today.  An over cooked HDR image that I took this past Sunday.

One of the things I like about HDR is that you can really take it to some extremes to express some creativity if you like.  This has more of a painterly look and feel and is obviously over done but I do like the looks of it.

So I started the post this morning and the first thing I’m greeted with is another new editor.  I do not mind change and in fact I often embrace it with great joy but damn change just for the sake of change is annoying.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.

Tuesday ~ November 03, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on November 3, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Happy Tuesday!

Another Selfie.  I had a great day yesterday.  Played a couple of levels of the new Halo 5 game.  Awesome game so far.  Excellent story, which makes one want to get to the next chapter, to find out what’s going to happen next.  To me, that is what a great game is.  I’m really not much into running and gunning, but enjoy the immersive story of the game.

Then I grabbed a couple of cameras, lenses and a tripod and headed out to see what I could find.  Mid-way through my photographing I called Angie and was delighted to learn that she and the grand kids could join me for lunch.  We had a wonderful time at Champs.  It’s always a delight to spend time with my children and of course the grand kids as well.  🙂

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I have three HDR images for you today.  I was out at mid-day which means the sun was harsh and the sky was pretty boring.  So I looked for interesting things in the shadows.  Of course the problem is the camera can only capture so much detail in shadows so I thought these landscape images lent themselves to HDR Photography.

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I found this small tunnel located under a railroad track at the end of a dead-end road.  I missed the sign that said “dead-end” but no matter.  When I was turning around I caught a glimpse of this old structure that looks like it has been there for a long time.

I would have liked to have gotten a closer look at the interior of the tunnel but the land was heavily posted with “No Trespassing” signs, so I stayed away.

After three hours of driving and photographing (and I really didn’t get that many usable photos) I came home and went for a 4 mile walk.  🙂

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So a really great day filled with a lot of the things that enrich my life.  I thank God everyday for all of his blessings.

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy your day.  Weather wise it’s going to be in the 70s in our part of the world.  Really nice for November.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Monday ~ October 26, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on October 26, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , .

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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.

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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.

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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.

Tuesday ~ September 22, 2015

Posted by Dave Updegraff on September 22, 2015
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , , , .

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Back at it today.  I wanted to show you this 3 image HDR rendition of the sunset I captured on Sunday.  This is really more representative of what I actually saw.

The problem with DSLR cameras is that they can only capture about 5 levels of Luminance.  The human eye can see about 9 levels.   We can see detail in highlights, mid-tones, and shadows.  By that I mean if I were to set the camera so that the sky was exposed correctly the shadows would turn to pure black and the mid-tones would be very dark.  If I were to expose for the shadows then the sky would be pure white (blown out.)

I shot this using a technique call bracketing.  The three shots were 1 full stop above, the mid-tones, and 1 full stop below.  So you are able to capture the full dynamic range of luminance.  Normally call HDR or High Dynamic Range.  You can get pretty carried away with the finished product but this image is reflective of what I actually saw.

Look at yesterday’s post and compare the difference.  Both were shot at about the same time.

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I saw this guy coming over while I was waiting on the sun.  At first I thought it was a regular plane but then as he got closer it was obvious it was an ultra light craft.

I only had the 80 – 400 mm lens with me so this is as close as I could get.

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I’ll leave you with this image of a farm in the distance.  Another shot I captured while waiting for the sunset.  It wasn’t exactly what I wanted but wasn’t going to take down my tripod and go looking for something that might not be there.  🙂

That’s it for today.  I hope you enjoy your day.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.

Thursday ~ January 16, 2014

Posted by Dave Updegraff on January 16, 2014
Posted in: Daily Posts. Tagged: , , , .

Bridge near Anamosa, Iowa

Happy Thursday.  Back to the archives today for an image I shot on February 22, 2013.  I was coming back from Cedar Rapids and have often thought about shooting this scene but never got around to it.  It was a cloudy, gray, overcast day and so I stopped on the way back to Maquoketa and shot a few images.  I used a 3 shot bracket because of the lighting conditions and I don’t remember now why I didn’t use this image before.

I did give it a bit of an HDR look and some folks don’t like that I know.  Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t but in this particular case I do.

One thing that makes this day stand out for me is it was the day that my new Nikon D4 arrived.  In fact it came about 15 minutes before I needed to leave for my meeting in Cedar Rapids.  I just remember how hard it was to leave that box on my desk and get on the road.

Just a quick story about yesterday.  I hate to admit it but I haven’t been very good at attending Rotary.  My boss asked me if I was going to Rotary and I didn’t have a reason to say no so I rode with him and attended.  It felt pretty good to be there.  During the meal one of my friends from Rotary and the owner of KMAQ Radio in Maquoketa asked me if there was anything new on my blog.  Another friend said, “Yes you should see his ‘drone’.”  Well that got everyone’s attention so I gave a brief description of the Phantom flying camera and then one of my other Rotary friends said, “I am responsible for the program next week, how about doing a program on your drone for that meeting?”

What could I say, I love to talk about photography, gizmos, and geeky stuff so I said sure.  Now I have to do some flying this weekend and shoot some video and still images so I  have something for my presentation.  🙂

I also want to see if the eagles are flying and fishing this weekend.

That’s it for today.  It won’t be much longer before there is enough light after 5:00 p.m. for me to start shooting again.  I hope you enjoy your day.  Thanks for stopping by the blog and be careful.