One of more controversial debates going on right now in the world of photography is HDR photography, short for High Dynamic Range photography. Please don’t ask me for an accurate explanation of the terms or even how it works. The first time I even heard of the term was during the MPIX New York photo tour last year. During the opening question-and-answer session, Rick Sammon explained that while the human eye sees about an 11-f-stop range, a single photo can only capture maybe 4 f-stops. Combining multiple exposures of the same photo can hopefully replicate the same amount of detail that ours eyes can see, from the details that are hiding in the shadows to what appears blown out in the highlights. You therefore expand the range visible in a photo, hence the HDR acronym.
I happen to like HDR, but I prefer it applied with a light touch—enough to remain realistic without going overboard and looking almost cartoon-like. (Although there are definitely artistic applications for that, too.) For example, I’ve always loved the photography of Ansel Adams, and found it interesting that he is often referred to as the first HDR photographer. It makes sense, because when you examine his photographs closely, you can see how much detail there is in the deep shadows and in the bright skies and reflections. His darkroom technique involved meticulously manipulating the contrast in the negative in order to display a wider range of visual information. In other words, HDR.
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Straight from the camera:
Slightly processed:
Black and white (because I thought the colored version reveals how out of focus the flowers are):
And now I’m not so sure. I think I’m leaning more towards the color version again. But that’s me. Flaky and changeable.
How about you? How would you like your hummingbird today?
Today, Ree (a.k.a. The Pioneer Woman) shared the first set of Photoshop actions in her blog. After an initial misstep which left me glaring at my PC for a few minutes trying to will it to cooperate, I finally got the set to load. I couldn’t wait to start playing.
I literally took the first photo I could find on my external drive. Which was this shot I took from my mom’s balcony a few months back. I quickly hurled a few of Ree’s actions at it, adjusting opacity here and there, and came up with this.
Before:
After:
This is going to be fun. And my house will slowly develop a layer of dust and possibly relocate in protest of the continued neglect as I spend the next few months glued to my computer.
If you want to join me in my downward spiral, head over to Ree’s photography section and download the actions. And be prepared to live on a diet of food products that you can eat while still leaving one hand on the mouse.
I wonder if I have enough straws in the kitchen.
This is an actual photo I took last night.
Pretty circles, eh?
Not one to leave well enough alone, I started playing around with it.
This is me playing with Photoshop.
I really need to get out more.
P.S. I may or may not continue inflicting random photos like this on you. If I start giving you a massive headache or make you want to never ever see anything that looks like gift wrapping paper ever again, you can thank George (a.k.a. Photophool of Flickr fame) for that. See, when I grow up, I want to be just like George.
