I loved how humble Trey Ratcliff was on the beta podcast called MostlyPhoto with Leo Laporte and Lisa Bettany. Leo said that Trey was the HDR King and other really nice things. Trey responded in a way that said he is simply part of the community.

Trey really is one of the leaders in the HDR Photography world. It goes without saying. Love him or hate him.

Who are the other great HDR Photographers? Share the name and/or website but you cannot say yourself. No self-pimping :)

For some reason, unknown to me, the first few comments were lodged under a different HDR post: What HDR Photography is Not.  There are a number of HDR photographers listed and I’ll recapp them in a future post.

Photographers have an interesting sense when it comes to perception. For some reasons, some photographers find it amazingly self-fulfilling to really rip into other forms of photography or tools of photography.  In the photography world, it’s HDR Photography that’s been taking a beating for a long time now. However, different styles of photography exist because there are different schools of throught, different applications, and different values (to the photographer and the subject) – HDR included.

Unfortunately many photographers classify photography in 2 ways: What they like and what they don’t like. The photography that one photographer likes should then become the basis for what all photography is defined upon – instead of treating different types of photography differently.  You know the type of photographer and it becomes their life mission to get everyone else to agree with them.

Well…

HDR Photography is not different from any other type of photography or technique of photography. HDR imaging is but a tool for which a photographer or artist can express vision, craft, feeling, emotion, or nostalgia. You must understand the value at which that type of photography offers:

• What value does it offer the photographer?
• What value does it offer the subject?
• What value does it offer the viewer?

HDR Photography is not a fad, gimmick, trick, or trend in the photography world – as any quick research will teach you. Our technology is advancing at an excellerated pace, making HDR Photography extremely interesting to the masses.  It offers value to all variables, if required or desired.

There is no denying that HDR Photography is not for everyone and I love that about it. But best of all:

HDR Photography is not going  away.

One my my most recent HDR Photographs from Toronto:

Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands (or SAID) is a principle from exercise physiology – Probably mentioned in Outliers as the 10, 000 hours buzz.  Post-Processing is a lot of personal experimentation and play that yields results over time. Paying attention to tutorials and webinars let information play with your past experimentations as you sleep.  And something else can play a part in your own personal post-processing development – software advancements. If you’re anything like me, you’re awake at night with iPad post-processing ideas and sugar plums dancing in your head.

Anyway, I can’t fully blame any of my past processing woes on software because, at the time I was trying to play with HDR Photography, there were other photographers not having nearly as many problems as me.  Those HDR Photographers had the jump on time and exercise.  With advancements in HDR software, a newer photographer can easily skip over some of the issues of my wretched past.

When editing images, it’s so easy to become self conscious – perfectionists know this especially.  The thing is that even those images you felt were great are now on verge of the delete key. Many photographers love to hide where they came from or maybe it’s as if they are packaging it up for some random DVD release in 2015.  While Flickr is never ever to be used for commercial gain, it’s a pretty good record of a photographers track record with photography and post-processing.  I’d argue that Flickr’s entire TOS is a contradiction, but I won’t get into that here.

My HDR photo posted on the photoblog today was originally created (and post-processed – see the old version) at the end of September 2007 – Photographers at PPE or WPPI or WPEIOWIERIII would probably smash my camera and sit at the cool table after seeing it.  I still have the original brackets available to create a new radiant file, tone map it, and finalize in Photoshop, onOne PhotoTools, and Nik Color Efex. I have the ability to re-edit a photograph without looking at the old image and then see where I am years later. Remember that there are so many factors that will play into our processing at any particular time too. I don’t believe your style is developed or found and then you just create photos that way forever. Style is not a static element.

The point is, I have pretty much edited a new photo, and more, every day and my ability for in the digital darkroom gets better over time.  If you’re happy or unhappy with your own processing, you’ll get better and your photography will improve as a result too. You’ll never master the digital darkroom.

Or As Chogyam Trungpa put it,

The path is the goal.

I’m not going to lie, I was semi disappointed with the HDR Tennis game last week.  Game 2 encompassed a cool photograph but it was far from HDR photography material. There was no need to even attempt to use 2 of the underexposed images.  I felt the game was totally lost in the sense of creating an HDR image for it.  The game turned out to be more about cropping and applying filters.  I felt game 2 brought out a bunch of the stuff people hate when they it comes to HDR Photography.  It was about using the technique for the sake of using the technique.  This kind of challenge does little to help others attack the serious challenge of a high dynamic range.

As a photographer that really loves HDR Photography, I still feel that we don’t have to use it all the time. I love trying to balance myself with different types of photography and processing.  I believe that HDR photography helps me with my portrait photography and vice versa.  Fully grasping what HDR photography is about, I understand if HDR could be used to seriously do something special for a scene. I ask if HDR will truly show my vision.  In Game 2 of HDR Tennis, all the grunge in the world could already be achieved with the original bracket. Many people tried to add even more grunge with filters – I know they were trying to achieve a specific mood for the scene but I felt it was just over done. If the brackets had been shot at a different time of day – perhaps sunrise or sunset – there would have been a different mood for me.  I believe this game is what made me really want to attack the above image.

Look over the above HDR image again and you’ll see that people are in a huge block of shade.  You’ll also see there are people in direct sunlight too.  Expose for the people in the shade and the sky and people in direct sun become bright white.  Try to expose for the sky and buildings and you’ll get no detail in the middle of the street where we find the main action.  This is the kind of scene that would challenge anyone with a camera.  Most people would be seriously challenged here and become a bit frustrated on how to shoot it.  This is challenging and what I’d love to see more of within HDR Tennis.

Browse Screen Shots of Creating the HDR in this Post

There were intense issues with creating the final image you see.  Take a look using the slideshow below! I took a few screenshots as I worked through my own HDR workflow. The final image in the slideshow is the tonemapped image before it went into Photoshop.  Remember that HDR photography is about seriously challenging situations involving light.

The final image in the slideshow is the tonemapped image before it went into Photoshop.  Remember that HDR photography is about seriously challenging situations involving light.

The use of HDR within Diggnation feels as if they played it a bit safe too. That or there was no other video editing done with the HDR footage before releasing. I could see this looking even better with some tweaking and I don’t know much about video editing. I can’t give any harsh criticism because I’m not like that, nor do I want to because this is the very beginning of HDR video being done. Wider adoption will get more minds and artists experimenting.

Here is the HDR video demonstration from Soviet Montage:

It will be interesting to see the quality of these photographs and how they may deal with ghosting & alignment – frequent issues in HDR photography. HDR photography refers to High Dynamic Range photography and is used by many photographers now.  It’s a technique that allows photographers to take multiple exposures of the same shot to capture the levels of light and detail within the light. The images are then merged to form an HDR image, however that HDR image needs to be tone mapped to produce a photograph that we’re able to properly see and connect with.  With this in mind, that’s why it will be so interesting to see how the iOS 4.1 devices will handle the merge and display of the final HDR photo.

Here’s the thing: Quality or garbage, the capability is on the way very very soon. I’ve been playing with the idea that my iPhone camera is my new toy camera.  By toy camera, I mean the movement in Lomography using a Holga, L-CA, Diana, etc.   I”ll be writing more on that but the continuous shots feature that will be possible in iOS 4.1 will become another tool for devices with a camera.

What could this functionality mean for camera app developers? Not being a developer, I wonder if there is something about the new iOS that will be great for development of powerful applications.  I would love to see Camera+ back in the appstore with some way to utilize this ability better than the native camera app.

I’ll be interested to see what other blogs discuss this feature and update. High Dynamic Range Photography on the iPhone is taking this technique all out mainstream.

I can’t wait to see what some new professional cameras may be able to accomplish in the near future too.

Related Reading on Wired: Apple Announces New Version of iOs

While holding a camera, I imagine someone like Picasso holding a paint brush. I don’t imagine Picasso holding the paint brush creating a cubist work of art for the construction of a new building in his home town. The tool was used to create art and impact people through that art. Such art wasn’t set out to be a technique to follow so that the structural integrity of your new car was safe to drive. Why is the HDR technique looked at from a technical point of view in most photography circles. I believe this is why many photographers create initially poor images. I intend for this post to help you realize why a different approach can improve your images.

Artistic Experience

When you come to Nuwomb, you’re not arriving at a photography website for forensic photography. If you’re looking for the use of a technique to help you with forensic photography, you’ve come to the wrong place. Most of the High Dynamic Range photography you’ll find on Flickr isn’t being used to save the world with it’s technique. However, I do believe that we could still save the the world with HDR photography.

HDR isn’t a technique for me and I hope you do understand why. While I will try and do my best to explain and show everyone the way I end up creating my HDR photographs, I want to let it be known that I approach HDR photography with an artistic mindset.

High Dynamic Range imaging shouldn’t be looked at or approached as photography by numbers. Why not embrace your terrible initial attempts at this ‘newer’ form of photography? In my opinion HDR has become a mindset that says to bring out your artistic vision here. This helps translate every single photograph into an “HDR” even when I’m not using multiple exposures. It helps me realize that the term HDR is irrelevant because we don’t term every photograph entered into Photoshop a PS Photograph or PS Photography.

Constantly labeling our work as HDR, Macro, Lensbaby, Camera Phone, or whatever becomes photography based on technique or gear. I blame this on search engine optimization though. Some terms will never disappear because we want our websites to be found by people that search for that technique.

By approaching my photography as an artistic experience and not a technique, I embrace experimentation and mistakes. My most used combination of keys become Command + Z or Command + Option + Z. If you’re not sure what that means, they are the hot keys for Undo in Photoshop.

You can start out trying to follow a step by step technique for any type of photography; there’s no shortage of websites competing to get your eyes on their own HDR Tutorial. I encourage you to go beyond the technique into style and personal experimentation – both at the camera and post processing level.

As I move forward, I will try my best to not get into the technique used as I post or display the image artistically, within a portfolio, or on a photoblog. There will be other times to get into that kind of content for people – I’ve thought of sharing small and interesting tips I’ve learned with people through my newsletter. Consciously leaving out bits and pieces on the blog for those that really want all the goods.

I couldn’t do another Banff title for today’s daily photo.  It’s unusual for me to post 3 images from the same location in 3 days. Obviously it is another expansive view from the top of Sulpher Mountain in Banff, Alberta though.  Other than the wicked view, I wanted to point out something that we need to understand with HDR Photography.

In capturing the entire dynamic range of a scene, many may feel as if you want to eliminate all the shadows and collect the light within them.  This image from Banff should show you that you can still capture the dynamic range of a scene but still have wicked shadows.  The shadows are not completely black, but you can still see them across a beautifully delicious landscape.   Being able to see a bit of the detail within those shadows is awesome.

Beyond the HDR photography technique, isn’t it amazing to see the shadows cast by clouds?  It not something we get to see very often at all.  As my memory serves me, I usually only see that kind of effect whlie in an airplane.  One of the little things to appreciate in life.

I hope you enjoy photo 46 of the Nuwomb 360. Click it and it will expand to a nice size – especially on a large monitor.

I’ve been going through my Alberta and British Columbia photographs from our trip a couple years ago. This photograph today was shot from the top of Sulpher Mountain in Banff, Alberta. It’s a place that requires you to take a cool gondola ride way up the mountain.  You can check out more info on the gondola here.   I never process every photograph from shoots right away – referring to personal images. I believe that you’ll process the images at the perfect time. By not processing all photographs the night I get home, I don’t rush the vision and I also allow the memory to marinate in my mind.

This process gives rebirth to the entire vision. I spend the time recreating the feeling of the memory and peak experience. Sure those tree’s in the foreground were pretty bland and boring at the time. Marika and I kept wishing we were back when the trees were more vibrant green and other flora in season. The odd thing, is that when I remember the scene in my mind, everything was beautiful. The sky was so expansive because we were up so high on Sulpher Mountain, and the mountains in the background were freakin’ majestic. Shooting partly into the sun helps to create the nostalgic lens flares and light rays.

Daily photo 45 of 360 is an HDR created from 5 images shot on a tripod. Let me know if you’d like to hear more on the post processing workflow. *Reminder: You can click the image and it will load a lightbox.  If you’ve got a large monitor, you’ll see the image at 920px wide, but if you are on a smaller monitor it will give you an way to see the image fully too.

Looking at a scene like this from Banff, Alberta I cannot help but think the world is our oyster.  I’ve received negative comments in the past related to talking about my issues with depression and anxiety, but those comments don’t get to me when I look at photography that shows how expansive life can be. A negative comment is dwarfed by this vision below, thanks to HDR Photography.

This photo is one that I would like to discuss in a room with artistic photography nerds.  The recent Vision-Driven workshop was so cool to me because the people there were in such a safe place to talk about photography as art.  They didn’t need to get into technical things like sharpness, what lens was used, was it the right f-stop, or is the focus spot on?   They got into the feeling, the vision, the artistic aspects that make the photo.  Feel free to leave comments about those aspects.  I’d love to hear what you think.

This is image 44 of 360.  If you’re feeling stuck in your own creativity, try this exercise:

Look at the image for a few minutes.  Study it. Move your eyes all around the view.  Try for 2-5 minutes.  If you can close your eyes and hold the image for a few seconds, you’re good.  Then go sit or lay down in a relaxing place and bring the image back to your mind.  Try and hold it for 5, 10, 20 minutes while breathing deeply.   Guaranteed you’ll feel connected and it may unblock you.