Taking on HDR

In my photography class we are doing some work with HDR images.  HDR, high dynamic range, involves taking several photos of the same scene and them merging them together in software.  In this case, I combined five images of this scene.  By changing the shutter speed of each image, different parts of the scene are shown in detail.  Combining the images gives you the ability to see everything at once.  The other challenge to this assignment was to shoot at night, making lighting that much more of a issue.  Here is one of my images:

ISO 160 50mm 0ev f/6.3 shutter speed varied

Getting the candle to turn out in the photo was a bit tough.  One of the combined images was one where every thing turn out black except for a little bit of the flame.  I used that image to make the candle less bright in this final image.

So, what do you think? Can you even tell that it was taken at night?  HDR images are sometimes very otherworldly looking.  This time I was going for a more natural look.  Leave your thoughts in the comments section if you like.

Cheers!

Just here, trying to take a picture

I’m guessing that if you are reading this, you can relate to what I am going to say.  It’s a busy time of year.  For me recently that has meant I have fewer opportunities to take pictures and edit them.  Like everyone else, I do the best I can.  I take pictures as often as possible, which is what led to this photo.

ISO 2500 50mm 0ev f/1.8 1/200

I took this a few nights ago at a local park.  I just happened to be there for another event, and had my camera with me.  My thought was to do a bracketed exposure, but I didn’t set my camera correctly, and so I just had a single image.  In Aperture I created two other versions of this photo and changed the exposure value on them.  So then I had three photos each with a different exposure value, -1, 0, and 1.  Then I put the three into Photomatix to make an HDR image.  Of the different versions, I liked a color version best. So I exported that back into Aperture.  Then I changed my mind.  About the color that is.  I converted the image into sepia and the result is what you see above.

Cheers!

A Flower for Your Monday

I have been working on night photography for my digital photography class and here is a photo from that assignment:

ISO 160 f/18 0ev 50mm

This photo has an exposure time of 105 seconds.  My camera was on a tripod and I was using my remote release shutter.  During the exposure I used a laser pointer to color in the flower.  I will also tell you that even though this was night photography, I took the photo in the very early morning, while it was still dark.

Cheers!

Travel Theme: Spooky

I could not pass up this week’s theme, spooky.  A lot of pre-Halloween fun going on over at Where’s my backpack, so I thought I would join in.  This past week in my Digital Photography class we have been working on night photography so a bunch of my posts in the near future will have that as a theme.  Here is my spooky night photo taken this past week:

ISO 160 f/18 18s 0ev 50mm

It was lurking in my front garden! This photo was taken at 6:13am using a tripod, flashlight, and laser pointer.

Cheers!

 

Photography at Night

Something I don’t do a whole lot of.  I took my camera along to a carnival that was being held in my local area and I got this shot:

ISO 2000 28mm f/14 0.5s

To those of you that do night photography, check my settings, what might you have done differently?  There is a lot of light coming off the ride and it was moving pretty quickly.  The only editing I have done on this version is some cropping and straightening.

Cheers!