Category: HDR

Blog, HDR, Tips

Why HDR?

Dave Wares

So I’m not the first to show the benefits of using HDR but I thought I’d do a short post on it anyway. 🙂

While going through some photos of our holiday to the south of France last summer, I stumbled upon a set of brackets that I hadn’t done anything with, that of an empty street in Provence (above). Now I’ll admit there’s nothing that special about the shot, but there was enough I liked for me to press the shutter. I think it was the beautiful weather and peacefulness that I found pleasing. Whatever my motivation, it shows the usefulness of bracketing your photographs to make an HDR image that  represents a scene more accurately than a single shot can.

These three shots show the different exposures needed to capture all of the elements within the scene. The one on the left is the cameras recommended exposure, the middle is -2EV and is needed to retain detail in the white door which had blown out in the left example, finally the right shot was +2EV and was needed to  capture the areas in shadow. Now to my eye, the areas in shadow on the overexposed image are pretty much as I saw them on the day, so as you can see, due to the huge contrast that my eye compensated for but the camera couldn’t, combining the three shots was the best way to achieve a photo with the tonal range more accurately reproduced.  (Whether you use an HDR program to combine your shots or merge them by hand in a program like Photoshop is up to you). Once I have the tonal range sorted I can then continue to work on an image, giving it the look and feel I have in mind, if I so wish.

The main image was produced using Photomatix Pro with final adjustments done in Lightroom. There are plenty of other HDR software programs out there but it’s up to you to give them a try to see which you prefer, I always seem to come back to Photomatix.

I hope this has been of some use. Like I said, it’s a post to show the benefits of HDR rather than being a tutorial.

Thanks for looking.

Blog, HDR, Urbex

Everythings covered

Dave Wares

Just a short post today. Taken behind the public library and probably one of the few places left where CCTV hasn’t been installed, hence a great place to perfect your graffiti talents.

This is a similar view to a shot in a previous post, but this time taken much further back. For this one I explored various angles in an attempt to come up with something a little different to what I had taken before. I quite like the bin as a dominant object to use in the foreground and the low angle to try and make the perspective that little bit more interesting.

 

Blog, HDR, Tips, Urbex

In the undergrowth

Dave Wares

Sometimes it takes a little while to decide on how to process an image, if at all, and this is one of them. The car itself was almost all obscured by trees and twigs but there was enough showing at the front to make an interesting picture. I like the way nature has enveloped it, as if to hide it from view as it slowly decays.

I had an idea that I wanted to remove the colour from the scene to help enhance the sombre feel. Sepia toning was my first thought but something didn’t sit right when I applied it. Then I had an idea…A while back I had put an exposure through Photomatix to try and enhance the grunge within the scene, this was then exported back into Lightroom and I started to play with the different presets the you can use to give your pictures certain appearances. And what a difference these effects have on your photos after being tonemapped. I found that the one that really stood out was the ageing preset, though initially blowing the highlights and giving a bleached out look, this could be easily brought back playing with the exposure and brightness sliders. It was a revolution in how I was to go about working on some of my images, especially my dereliction shots.

So this was to be the approach I used for this shot, and it worked a treat. I was still unhappy with the slight sepia colouration that the preset gave, so I changed the colour temperature sliders until I settled on this very subtle blue tone. With some additional dodging and burning and a slight vignette I eventually ended up with a shot that satisfied the initial feel that I had in mind.

So have a play with those presets, not as a one click solution, but as a bases to take your shots in a different direction. Remember, photographers have been working on and changing how they present their work for years and years, well before the digital age. I was listening to a recent podcast from Chris Marquardt interviewing a chap by the name of George Smyth who develops his pictures using a process called Bromoil . It was very interesting indeed and although this is very different from my working digitally, the ethos is very much the same. I highly recommend checking the podcast out.

Blog, HDR, Urbex

A glimpse of the past

Dave Wares

Another shot from the trio of rusty cars I found the other week.

I had mentioned in an earlier post that I was keen to get an interior shot of one of the cars, but unfortunately all the doors were either locked or jammed. I did accidentally pull the back door off this Morris Minor as the wood frame had totally rotted away, but there was too much junk in the back to try to climb through, plus I was wearing a half decent pair of jeans that I wasn’t prepared to ruin.

I was really taken with the view through the drivers window and though initially I would have preferred to have shot this without looking through the glass I now think that it has worked out for the better. I’m rather fond of the reflections and think this helps with the overall effect, making you feel like a person who is having a nose around.

I love how simple cars used to be too. No air-con or fancy electrics, even a radio was probably a luxury in some cars, and with the amount of fancy gadgets to go wrong in modern vehicles I sometimes wonder if going back to more simple controls wouldn’t be that bad of an idea. I could live without having to use a choke though. I remember having to use a washing peg to keep the darn thing out during the winter months.

On a separate note, I would like to thank all of you who have visited, commented and spread the word over on  Twitter. I’ve only been doing this for a week and the response I’ve had has been fantastic. Cheers!

 

Blog, HDR, Tips, Urbex

Back alley revisit

Dave Wares

The great thing about locations that attract graffiti artists is that they are constantly being changed. I took a visit to a back alley behind my local library in June of last year and was delighted to see such a photographic feast, with all sorts of art, tagging and detritus to hone in on. Looking at the version below shot in June of last year, you can see that all of the graffiti in this section has completely changed. The picture above was taken about a week ago and I decided that I would replicate my past attempt to see how the scene had changed. Somebody has also come along a tidied up all the rubbish that was scattered about the floor, which was nice as I didn’t see any rats this time.

I processed the version above without the intention of wanting to totally copy the first version but it turns out that I seem to like a certain look when it comes to this particular place as they have ended up looking very similar. There is a slight difference in light but that is because the shot below was taken on a bright day, whereas the shot above was taken in overcast weather.

I’m sure that in another six months time it will have totally changed again, I’ll definitely be making another visit to find out. So if you ever have been to a location and thought that you had photographed every possible angle you could think of, give it six months, maybe even a year and revisit it, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Oh and the first time I went here a pigeon pooped on my head. I got away with that this time.