Site and HDR News and Notes
August 28, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
Just some assorted news and notes about the site and some HDR developments:
- I’ve settled into a bi-daily photo posting schedule (the every two days bi-daily, not the twice a day bi-daily). I think I’ve now got enough of a backlog of photos that even if I didn’t take pictures for a while, I should be able to keep that up. My writings, reviews, process documents, etc…won’t count towards this. It will be exclusively front page images and snapshots that will be on the bi-daily schedule.
- Speaking of writings, I’ve added two new tabs to the top navigation: reviews and process. The review page will lead to all of my reviews (some of which I forgot I had even written). The process page will be an examination of how I create certain images, blog postings, and other item. Currently, I’ve got one in the works for my Worldwide Photo Walk submission and one about how I prepare an image for printing using Aperture, Genuine Fractals, and Nik’s Sharpener Pro.
- I made two major HDR related purchases recently: (1) Nik Software’s new HDR plugin, HDR Efex Pro and (2) Trey Ratcliff’s new HDR instructional DVD. HDR Efex Pro became a no-brainer when I learned that if you already had the Nik Complete Collection, you got the new HDR software for $99. As far as the DVD goes, I feel that Trey is the master of HDR, and since there is no way I’d be able to get to one of his workshops, I figured the HDR would be the next best thing. I have pretty high expectations for the DVD and I will be doing a review as soon as I have received my copy and had time to really sit down and process it.
Quiet Night at the Clubhouse
August 21, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
It was a quiet one night when I was walking by the Brier Creek clubhouse, and since there was still a decent amount of light out, I set down my tripod and took an HDR. They say photography is about compromises, and this is a perfect example. Photomatix handles lights in these kind of HDR shots better than any other program I’ve tried, but the Photomatix Aperture plugin’s ghosting correct is not up to par with Photoshop’s HDR Pro. So do I go for the cool lights with the ghosty flag or get the flag right and have slightly less than ideal lights? I decided the lights were more important in this shot.
I Hear Mars is Gorgeous this Time of Year [Concept Experiment]
August 15, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
In order to take a bit of a brake from some of the cases I’m analyzing, I decided to take 20-30 minutes to go through and process some photos for upcoming snapshots on the site. I had taken an HDR image of dirt to test out something else I’ve been trying to experiment with, but the various shots of the reddish clay made me think “I wonder if I can make that look like a version of Mars”. With Nik Software‘s Color Efex Pro doing most of the heavy lifting, I ended up getting the image I was looking for.
If You Build It
August 12, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
I’ve driven by this particular construction site a bunch. It’s fairly amazing to see how quickly they cleared out this lightly forested field, and turned it into this mass of red dirt and clay. I’ve always meant to stop and take a few pictures once all the workers have cleared out, but I really didn’t want to end up covered in red dirt. Last night I made a special trip, including wearing shoes I figured would get destroyed. I ended up getting some pretty good photos….but my red mud covered shoes are now in the dumpster.
Time for some HDR News
August 11, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
(UPDATE: Trey Ratcliff’s HDR DVD ( Basic Edition and Premium Edition ) are now officially available for sale on his website. I’ve embedded his preview at the end of the post).
Last night was kind of a big night on the HDR news front, with two major bits of news breaking.
First, Photomatix 4′s beta program is now open to the general public. Photomatix is the leading HDR creation program and their new beta has some solid improvements over previous versions. I have used the beta some, however, their lack of an update to the Aperture plugin means that I have not used it as often as Photomatix 3. With Nik Software’s HDR plugin (most likely titled HDR Efex Pro) getting closer to a release, HDR Soft had to start getting Photomatix 4 in front of more people.
Also, on the instruction front, a huge announcement from Trey Ratcliff. His HDR DVD should be available on Friday (yes, the 13th…gullp). This DVD is going to follow him in both Photomatix and Photoshop as he creates his HDR images. The DVD will be available in a Basic Edition for $197 and a Premium Edition for $397. I consider Trey to be the foremost authority on HDR Photography, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the DVD. I hope to have a review of it up in a couple of weeks.
UPDATE: The following is video Trey created to show the type of things that will be available in his HDR Training Video:
The Sky is on Fire
August 10, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
Last night was one of those nights where I went out to take a certain picture (which I did end up getting, though I’m not as blown away by it as I thought I would be) but ended up getting a whole bunch of other photos to go through. I use Nik plugins on almost all of my images, but sometimes I forget that I have the full suite of Topaz Labs plugins as well. One plugin that gives some particularly interesting results is Topaz Simplify. It allows you to give a painterly look to your photos. I used it to create the image of the Old Well that now hangs above my television and also used it on this photo. I was interested to see what would happen with the red sky contrasted against the green foliage in the foreground and I ended up really liking the result.
Storm is Brewing
August 8, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
I need to work on fixing ghosting more in HDR images (especially in the trees), however, in this case, I wouldn’t have done anything with the clouds anyway…maybe a little touch-up work if I was going to print this photo, but I like the motion of clouds in HDR, especially in black & white.
I wonder if Photomatix 4 (which I still don’t believe has an Aperture plug-in for its beta) or Nik’s new HDR offering (whenever it’s released in “late summer”) will be able to handle selective ghosting correction
Night and Day
July 30, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
With Brier Creek golf course closed, I had a few ideas for shots that I wanted to take in different parts of the course. I ended up running into a couple of problems though, including some storm clouds blocking the sun and me bumping up against the technological limitations of my Nikon P6000. So what am I to do with a bunch of shots taken for HDRs that don’t quite come together correctly? I decided to try tand do some “concept” images. This one is an experiment where I tried to get both the silhouette of the trees, in almost pure black, against the clouds in the sky, while keeping the green and the sand traps lit. In other words, I wanted to see if I could get the picture to look like I actually lit the green at dusk.
I’m not quite sure I managed to get that look without the picture looking too over proceed, but it was a good experiment for working with Photomatix, Aperture sliders (black point especially), and Aperture brushes (especially a shadows adjustment). Even if this image isn’t something that I’ll put in my portfolio, I hope the skills I used to create it help me become a better photographer.
A New HDR Contender? Nik Software’s HDR Efex Pro
July 29, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
This HDR image comes from Nik Software's HDR Sneak Peak. Image rights are retained by the original copyright holder.
UPDATE: The Nik Software FOCUS Newsletter for October says the release date for HDR Efex Pro will be October 11.
UPDATE: Details about Nik Software’s HDR Efex Pro have been released, including a slightly more targeted release date (October 2010) and a price point ($159). The site mentions that if you purchased the Nik Complete Collection in July 2010 or later, you get the HDR product for free. The site does not mention that if you purchased the complete collection before July 2010, you can get HDR Efex Pro for $99 if you pre-order (I confirmed this when I made my purchase of the software). Additionally, they created an announcement video which is embedded at the end of this post.
UPDATE: Rick Sammon was recently on an episode of Nik Radio talking about Nik’s HDR Efex Pro. I’ve put in a few notes from his appearance.
Today I attended a Nik Software webinar on their upcoming HDR product. There is currently no official news as to what the HDR product is going to be called, but the title bar did say HDR Efex Pro (which would make sense as it would fit in well with their other products like Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro) [UPDATE: Rick Sammon referred to the product as HDR Efex Pro in his interview]. The instructor was using the Lightroom version of the plugin, but mentioned that it would be available for Photoshop and Aperture as well (he also mentioned that the plugins would be in 64-bit.) There was a question about a “stand alone” version like Photomatix offers, but the instructor seemed to think that was not in the works. I have not used Lightroom to any large degree, but it looked like the process for opening the plugin is very similar to the process I use for creating a HDR with Photomatix from within Aperture (namely, just select the group of images you want to use and then select the plugin). The instructor was unable to answer a question about how the interface for selecting images would work in Photoshop, but speculated it would probably be under the “automate” menu (much like Adobe’s HDR Pro is). You can also use the plugin on a single RAW file (the examples of this turned out quite well).
The HDR Efex interface looks like a “best of” from Silver Efex Pro and Viveza 2. There are the presets from Silver Efex on the left side and then a control point / slider interface on the right that looks very much like Viveza 2. Of particular note are two sliders: (1) structure, which is something that is creeping into all NIk products and that I frequently used in Silver Efex Pro (it’s also available in Viveza 2); (2) warmth, which I specifically asked about and the instructor demonstrated (it provides an effect very similar to the “Brilliance and Warmth” filter found in Color Efex Pro; the instructor did not know off hand if the algorithms are the same, but he demonstrated the effect and it looked very similar). HDR Efex also includes some advanced vignetting controls (including some vignetting presets) and Nik’s familiar “Control Points” interface, that provides the ability to make very targeted adjustments without the use of masking (Anyone who’s used any of Nik’s products, especially Viveza 2, knows how powerful these are).
This is the HDR Efex interface that was used during the webinar. As with any piece of software that hasn't been released yet, there is still a chance this interface could change.
The initial preset that was applied to the first image was very much a “realistic” HDR. In fact, the image looked just like a well exposed, well lit, standard image. There were a number of presets that the instructor previewed, some of them looking better than others The “subtle HDR” preset looked very similar to the Trey Ratcliff inspired style of HDR that I frequently used. [UPDATE: Rick mentioned how both realistic and surrealistic HDR images are easy to create with HDR Efex Pro] Additionally, there was a black and white preset (I’m not sure if it would be better to create the HDR image in color and then take the image into Silver Efex Pro for black and white conversion, but I have a feeling that I would use that workflow) and then a “vintage” preset that created a really interesting effect that combined both HDR and a faded, desaturated look. The instructor mentioned that the plugin would have “anti-ghosting” functionality (pretty much a “must have” feature now), but did not give any demonstrations of it. [UPDATE: Rick mentioned that the anti-ghosting in HDR Efex Pro is very strong. He mentioned that you can take out the ghosting "quickly" and "easily". Additionally, he said the alignment features of HDR Efex Pro were good.]
The biggest question of the webinar was, as expected: What is the release date? Apparently the company line on this is “late summer” (I’ve heard it from 3 Nik represenatives). The version of the software being used by the instructor was listed as “Alpha 2”, and there were a few performance hiccups present, so it seems likely that there is a bit of work left before it’s released to the public. Also, there was no information available on the pricing of the software.
Ultimately, the webinar left me really excited to try out the software. The early rumors I heard were that the software was going to be really geared to “realistic” HDR images instead of “surrealistic” ones, however, the instructor demonstrated that the software could be used to create images of both styles. Out of the HDR programs I’ve used, Photomatix is still my clear favorite, however, HDR Efex Pro looks like it could be a strong contender. For me, it will probably all come down to how it handles lights at dusk…
An example HDR image, processed with Photomatix, to show how nicely it handles lights.
UPDATE: Nik’s HDR Efex Pro announcement video, featuring Trey Ratcliff
Surveying some HDR Programs and Some HDR Education
July 17, 2010 by Kivus · Leave a Comment
UPDATE: Trey Ratcliff has updated the eBook I review below. This review will be updated to reflect those latest updates once I go through the new content.
As some of my recent work would indicate, I have been experimenting, to a fairly large degree, with HDR photography. The primary thing I’ve been experimenting with is the different programs that can be used for creating HDR images. I have been using Photomatix Pro since I first started my HDR work, and am generally pleased with the results. I have, however, also been exploring some of the other alternatives. The main other program I’ve used to this point is the new HDR Pro in Adobe Photoshop CS5. Though I liked the anti-ghosting feature in CS5, I found that the way lights are processed in surrealist HDR images does not look as good as the way lights look in Photomatix. Additionally, the new beta of Photomatix 4 that I’ve been using has anti-ghosting features that seem even better than those found in CS5. Though I could go into more technical detail about the differences between the HDR products, I’ll instead point to Trey Ratcliff’s write-up on the topic.
Along with Photomatix and Photoshop, I have done a little bit of experimenting with the new HDR Expose from Unified Color. I had never used Unified Color’s previous HDR products, so their interface was a little alien to me when I first started using it. I found that for “realistic” style HDR images, that the software was quite good. and quite powerful. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to create the surreal looking HDR images that I like to make. I am not sure if this was a limitation of the software or simply a side effect of my unfamiliarity with Unified Color’s interface.
In addition to the HDR products that are currently out, NIk Software has announced their own HDR offering. I apparently missed the webinar that was debuting the software, but there is a short “sneak peak” video on Youtube that gives a very brief explanation of the software. Since I use all of Nik’s products already, I have high expectations for their HDR product. Scott Bourne recently did a write up about his experience viewing the software. The main pull from the write-up for me is that the software “has a bias toward more natural-looking HDR shots.” I do not know what this means for people who want to create surreal-style images. Since Scott made a point to comment on the speed of the software, it makes me wonder whether the end of July release date rumors I’ve been hearing are a little optimistic.
Though new software offerings are one of the primary ways the HDR photography space is evolving, I have also been exploring ways to get a little more HDR related education. Since the starting point for HDR education is Trey Ratcliff’s HDR Tutorial, I decided to try out his latest eBook offering: Top Ten HDR Mistakes. [NOTE: This eBook was recently updated. This review still applies to the original version of the book, however, a new review of the bonus version will be posted shortly ]As you can imagine, the book is filled with some great HDR images to compliment the instruction. Unfortunately, I am a little less excited about the instruction offered by the book. A lot of the solutions that Trey offers seem to indirectly point you back to the HDR tutorial. Maybe I was expecting some kind of “silver bullet” that doesn’t actually exist, but I was hoping for more concrete steps on how to fix some of these HDR problems. Ultimately, the book only costs $10, so it’s not a huge investment, but as a student who pays close attention to how much money I’m spending, I think I would have felt more comfortable paying $6 for the content I received with this book. If I think to myself that I paid $5 for the book, and made $5 as a donation to Trey for all the work that he’s done to help me learn HDR, then I am a little more okay with the amount I spent on the book. Overall, I’d recommend this book is you’re an advanced beginner to intermediate HDR photographer who is a particularly large fan of Trey’s work.
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