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I took a few more pictures for HDR processing tonight. This time I used my new tripod, which is a lot more stable & solid than my old 48″ tripod (which I just sold), so I was able to position the shots more accurately.
You can see the rest of them at my HDR set at Flickr.
I also posted a screencast demonstrating how I produce HDR images at techblast.tv.
I’ve been doing more experimentation with HDR processing. I really like the glow effect I got in this one. Since Aperture 2.1 now supports editing plugins, it would be great if Photomatix made a tone mapping & merge to HDR plugin for Aperture, so I wouldn’t have to export to Photoshop as I do now.
I created this one from 3 exposures at -2.0, 0, and +2.0EV, with Photomatix tone mapping plugin for Photoshop CS3.
I’ve been trying out more HDR processing using the Photomatix tone mapping plugin in Photoshop.
Here’s one I took tonight, using 5 exposures at -2.0, -1.0, 0, +1.0, and +2.0EV.
Here’s one I took a few days ago, using only 3 exposures at -2.0, 0, and +2.0EV.
I wanted to take pictures of tonight’s sunset, but it was already getting late and it was pretty dark. I grabbed the camera and went out without a tripod. I managed to take this fairly passable shot with my new 55-200mm VR lens at 2.2 seconds just by resting the camera against the building.
Here’s an HDR image I created from three raw images. I imported them into Photoshop, used the ‘Merge to HDR’ automation, and adjusted the color, luminance & contrast with the Photomatix tone mapping plugin. The flowers moved slightly between the shots, resulting in some ghosting around the edges.
I bought the Tone Mapping plugin for Photoshop from Photomatix, which lets me do some amazing enhancements to my raw images. It takes a 16-bit per channel RGB image and lets you enhance the contrast, color saturation, and luminance range. The effect can be intense with a single raw image, but with a merged HDR image the results are simply stunning.
Here’s what I was able to do with a picture I took a few days ago using only a single raw image.
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The same bird I saw a few days ago was back in my garden again. With my new lens I was able to get a much better picture at 200mm focal length.
I got a Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6 VR lens for my D40x.
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So far this is my favorite lens. It’s bigger and heavier than the kit lens but it’s easier to use than the 50mm f/1.8 since it supports auto focus with my camera. The vibration reduction lets me use slower shutter speeds.
