HDR + People? Absolutely

3 shot HDR - Thanks Martina!
Canon 5D Mk II, EF 70-20mm f/4L, Induro C213, and RRS BH-55
Processed with Lightroom, Photomatix Pro, and Lightroom
HDR and people photography? Yes, it is possible and opens some interesting creative opportunities. As ya'll know we are in Maui teaching at IVA. Today we spent about 4 hours in the lab and then ventured out to shoot some more. One of the course participants volunteered to model so we could try out some HDR with people. Our location was amazing; it looked as if it was a movie set more than a strange outpost in the middle of a sugar cane field. We'll be posting more images from this shoot as the days progress and I have the opportunity to process.
Having an incredible time here in the islands but looking forward to returning to our daughter and the amazing Central Coast.
Fiat Lux!
Hal

Interior Real Estate HDR


Took the class to a golf course model home this afternoon to shoot HDR. Tremendous opportunity to learn high dynamic range shooting in a controlled environment.

The attached kitchen shot is a merge of six exposures. The total dynamic range of the scene was about 12 stops (we learned to measure dynamic range today using our camera's spot meters and manual shooting mode.)

After the real estate shooting we headed down to an incredible beach for some sunset shooting. HDR and slow shutter speed work kept us busy for a couple hours. I won't lie, I like shooting after sunset in Los Osos and Morro Bay but... Shooting here where the water is 75 degrees with 80 degree air temps is incredible.
Fiat Lux!
Hal

At the Bamboo Forest in Maui


Hanging out on top of waterfall number one in the Bamboo Forest of Maui. Unbelievable location, tough sitting as still as possible for 15".
I set up the shot with a Canon 5D Mk II, Ef 24-70mm f/2.8L, Induro C213, RRS BH-55, and Singh Ray neutral density filters (5 stops.) Ended up with a 15" shutter speed to blur the waterfall. I shot a few tests, hiked to the top, and had Victoria shoot.
Beautiful out here.
Just booked Maui again in January 2010. Shooting and workflow (mostly shooting.) More details online soonest.
Fiat Lux!
Hal


Hal at Momma's Fish House Beach


Victoria shot me yesterday while I was in the middle of the pano process.
Just booked a shooting and workflow course at Insititute of Visual Arts next year. We'll have dates out in the next day or two.
The images we are getting here are amazing. We're out shooting so much there is almost no time to execute the after capture workflow.
Shot for over four hours this morning. Downloaded while searing a beautiful Ahi tuni steak. A little review while enjoying the seared/very rare tuna and some beautiful, spicy wasabi.
We just had a great random trivia discussion after Victoria wondered why there were so many "Christmas" trees all over Maui. She's seeing the huge Norfolk Island pines. Very cool tree and loved by some of the early Pacific explorers since the trees grow so straight. The trunks were used to replace the masts of their ships when needed on long voyages. Always fun to throw out the cool, random trivia.
Back out to the Bamboo Forest for more shooting soonest.
More when we can.
Fiat Lux!

Shooting for the Fun of It in Maui

4 shot HDR - 11-stop range required more than my normal 3 shots
Canon EOS 5D, EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye, Induro C213, and RRS Bh-55
Processed with Lightroom, Photomatix Pro, and Photoshop CS4

Traveled around some of the island today. We stopped into the Randy Jay Braun gallery and shot a few shots both from the outside and looking outside. Great work inside. Most everything is available on gallery wrapped canvas and conventional media either framed or unframed. Thanks to Rachel for showing us some incredible hospitality.
I have about 600 other shots from today. We shot waves, windsurfers, incredible "God" rays, and more. Need another 6-10 hours per day to complete my workflow.
Everyone else is in the jacuzzi with the Veuve. Time to socialize.
Up early tomorrow to shoot sunrise down at the beach.
Good living.

Just Another Antique Rusty Truck

3 shot HDR
Canon 5D Mk II, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, Induro C213, RRS BH-55
Photomatix Pro and Adobe Photoshop CS4
Turns out, I like shooting old trucks. Ben Willmore introduced the subject matter to me here about 18 months ago and I still find it very interesting. I find a lot of folks these days rail against HDR in general and HDR of old, rusty things takes a beating most of all.
The above image is a 3 shot HDR. Processed in Photomatix Pro 3.2 and then worked in Photoshop CS4. I will have a video up later this weekend showing the Photoshop work I do after the tone mapping process is finished.
Off to the winery for some tasting and shooting.
Fiat Lux!
Hal

Breakfast for a New Generation

Canon EOS 5D Mk II, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, 580 EX II, Induro C313, RRS BH-55

One of my favorite shots from yesterday's shoot. We shot over 500 images documenting and showing a huge collection of gear, souvenirs, history, and promotion from Supertramp's 1979 Breakfast in America album.
Shot most everything yesterday with only 3 Canon 580 EX II Speedlights, very versatile pieces of gear.

Jelly?


All images with Canon 1D Mk III, EF 70-200mm f/4L, hand held
Learn the Basics/Fundamentals of Your DSL this weekend. We shot yesterday afternoon in Morro Bay. As the tide came in, hundreds of jelly fish started to float by. The class was out on a small pier working the Manual mode. We turned our attention to the water below and shot a few of the jellies.

The top and middle images show a single jellyfish and the green/black swirls are reflections on the surface of the water. To optimize the images, I worked a little in Adobe Camera Raw 5.4 and then sent the images to Photoshop. Shooting into the water which was heavily laden with particulates necessitated a quick Dust and Scratches filter to clean up the water.

I added another layer and ran the Topaz Adjust plug-in (www.TopazLabs.com) to add a little depth, contrast, and a hint of saturation. Back in Photoshop proper I changed the Topaz layer blend mode to Soft Light and then ran a little High Radius Low Amount sharpening to add shape and form.

I finally decided to do a little more clean up with the Spot Healing Brush.

On the bottom image, I simply launched the Filter Gallery to see if anything looked fun. I ended up using the Plastic Wrap filter and then reducing the layer opacity. Playing in PS never hurt anyone (as long as it was non-destructive.)





Fiat Lux!
Hal

Morro Bay, California Fog/Moody

7 Shot stitched panorama
Canon EOS 5D Mk II, EF 70-200mm f/4L, hand-held
Stitched and optimized in Adobe Photoshop CS4
Took a friend out shooting yesterday during the class dinner break. We weren't blessed with the best light for shooting birds but the moody feel made for some good panos and landscape.
As you know I shoot panorama all the time but my friend from Michigan had never shot one. We had a quick five minute tutorial and then shot the segments. Our tripods were in the car so we broke some of the rules and shot hand held. We can overcome the problems of hand held by following a couple rules.
-Use a telephoto lens. There are normally fewer parallax problems with telephoto so not as much need to sweat the entrance pupil location.
-Keep the shutter speed fast enough. The basic rule of thumb is to shoot with a shutter speed equal to or faster than 1/focal length (we shot at @100mm so our shutter speeds were at least faster than 1/100.
-Shoot horizontal panoramas with a vertical/portrait camera orientation and vice versa
-Shoot with sufficient overlap. 30% for telephoto and 50% for wide angle
Once we returned to the lab, we stitched the segments together in Adobe Photoshop CS4. He had never done this before either but it is very easy. Following the above guidelines, you will have nice source material and everything will stitch easily.
We optimized the image and then printed a 16 x 44 for him to take home on one of our Canon ipf5100 printers.
Fiat Lux!
Hal

Big Change of Subject - No HDR Today

Canon EOS 5D Mk II, EF 70-200mm f/4L, Induro C213, RRS BH-55
Bouquet from Los Osos Flower Market
Yesterday we shot with Hanson Fong at the Mission church in San Luis Obispo. During one of the sessions when the class focused on the "groom" our "bride" was resting. Perfect opportunity to grab a shot of the bouquet.

Thanks to everyone who made yesterday happen. A special mention for Los Osos Flower market (www.LosOsosFlowerMarket.com) for providing a spectacular bouquet.

Fiat Lux!

Hal

The Sammon Swirl - Thanks Rick!


Took the image above using the "Sammon Swirl." Rick Sammon, http://www.ricksammon.com/, spent last week with us here in California and taught this fun technique. If you have not attended a seminar or workshop with Rick, you are missing out!
Took me a bit of practice to get the technique down but once you have it you will have fun.

To try this yourself set up your camera as follows:
-Select the center auto focus point
-One shot focus
-Continuous shooting mode (I like continuous High)
-Set the ISO to 100 for Canon and 200 for Nikon. Adjust ISO if necessary to meet exposure requirements
-Set the shuter speed to between 1/15 and 1/8
-Adjust the aperture to your desired exposure
-If you prefer, you may set Shutter Priority or Tv mode and set the shutter speeds above, the camera will then adjust the aperture automatically
-The technique also works great with a point and shoot!

Compose your shot by placing the subject in the middle and focus on the leading eye (if your subject has an eye, that is.) When you are ready, pull your eye away from the viewfinder with focus locked (keep holding the Af On button.) Begin to rotate the camera around the longitudinal axis of the lens (a straight line from the middle of the lens' outer element to the sensor.) Just after you start to rotate, shoot and hold down the shutter release for a burst of 3-4 shots. The camera will travel about 90 degrees during the maneuver.

Evaluate your shots on the LCD and try again if necessary.

I always shoot a burst so I have multiple source files. If I like the swirl in one and the subject in another, you can combine the two for the best of both worlds.
Thanks again Rick for sharing this fun technique.
Fiat Lux!
Hal

Playing is Good for the Creative Process



I was playing with a beach sunset shot earlier today and decided to see what I could create from a relatively simple photo. The image above is the result. Not spectacular or earth shaking but it was a fun process. Every now and again I find it helpful to just play with an image and see where it takes you.





The sunset here was the starting point. I decided to try some mirror imaging and the result is shown below.




I duplicated the layer and ran a little swirl with the Liquify filter. I think it is always interesting to play around with Layer blend modes and decided on Linear Burn for the Swirl Layer. Playing even more, I copied the Swirl layer and looked at the blend modes again. Finally deciding on Overlay for the Swirl Copy Layer.





I ultimately flattened these layers and duplicated the result one more time. To the Radial Blur Layer I tried out a Radial Blur filter set to Zoom. Just like above I played around with blend modes to see what looked the most interesting ultimately choosing Lighter Color.




To complete the experiment, I brushed in a little text. Before I could do that I created a custom brush using the word "Light." After modifying the new brush's Shape Dynamics, Scattering, and Color Dynamics I once again modified the blend mode ending up with Lighter Color. After a quick Layer Mask I decided to have some lunch.

I'll show the custom brush creation on a later blog post.

Cheers and have fun playing around it's good for you and your photography.

Fiat Lux!

Hal

Caption Ideas?

Canon 5D Mk II, EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, Induro C213, RRS BH-55
I took this shot last week and am looking for a good caption. The expression can be interpreted multiple ways. Thoughts?

Here in class Day Two of Hanson Fong. We're having a good time this morning discussing flash. As Hanson stated a few moments ago "Raise the roof! Hanson in the house!"

After this morning's lesson we will shoot a family of five here in the studio. We have the ProFoto lights courtesy of MAC Group dialed in. With Hanson's direction there will be some incredible portraits.

Later today we will shoot a tri-generational family portrait up in the Paso Robles wine country.

Once again, good living here at LIGHT.