HDR - High Dynamic Range Imaging

Searching new photographic techniques I recently ran into technique called HDR. Unfortunately I didn't found much records concerning HDR on internet. That's why I contacted few photographers which already had great HDR photos and it was obvious they knew this technique very well. Soon I get desired answers and find out, that such kind of photography is considerably simple and at the same time quite fascinating.

There is no great wisdom concerning HDR technique. Actually taking photography suitable for HDR is very simple. Processing in computer demands some extra time.

Photo camera can't show extremely contrast pictures. If some parts of the scene contain a lot of light and some almost no light, we can find compromise with HDR technique. On High Dynamic Range images there are no bright and no to dark parts. There is almost impossible to take such picture in one step. Photographic sensors are not so adjustable jet. That’s why we take at least five photos. God tripod is very useful. When appropriate shot is chosen, we set camera's perfect time and aperture. Beside this “perfect” photo, we also make two or three differently under exposed and over exposed photos. I usually make 5-7 photos.
Most times for HDR I use wide angle lenses. With my Canon EOS 350D I've got Canon 18-55 EF-S lens. Probably with better lens, my HDR-s would be catchier. Once I will probably afford Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5,6 EX DC HSM.
When we took 5-7 differently exposed photos, we can continue our work on personal computer. Thou I use Photo Shop CS2, I will describe this procedure. There is several other photo – programs. Sometimes I also use Photomatix Pro.

We open PhotoShop CS2. Click on drop menu: File › Automate › Merge to HDR…
We pick photos we want to merge in HDR, and then click OK. Your probably not so fast computer will take some time to analyze and merge all photos.
Window above it shows merged picture. On the left side, you can see thumbnails of photos used for this HDR. You can select or deselect photos you wish to include in further treatment. I pick them by feeling. Try some combinations, and pick the best one. With slider you can adjust intensity of dynamic range. We save file in 32 bit mode. The file will get extension *.PBM (Portable Bit Map). For better representation on our screen or printer we must convert 32 bit photo to 16 or 8 bit photo. For that, we use Image › Mode › 16 Bits/Channel… It appears window below:

If you press F1 (Help in Photo Shop CS2), you find out, you heave four different choices to convert 32 bit photo in16 bit:

Exposure and Gamma Lets you manually adjust the brightness and contrast of the HDR image.

Highlight Compression Compresses the highlight values in the HDR image so they fall within the luminance values range of the 8- or 16-bits-per-channel image file. No further adjustments are necessary; this method is automatic. Click OK to convert the 32-bits-per-channel image.

Equalize Histogram Compresses the dynamic range of the HDR image while trying to preserve some contrast. No further adjustments are necessary; this method is automatic. Click OK to convert the 32-bits-per-channel image.

Local Adaptation Adjusts the tonality in the HDR image by calculating the amount of correction necessary for local brightness regions throughout the image.

For me, best choice is »Local Adaptation«. With click on Toning Curve and Histogram, you can totally adapt photo by your taste. Mostly we want to rid of to bright or to dark parts on our photo. When we are pleased with our choice, all we heave to do is confirm our settings, and photo is ready.

Some times photo demands some more treatment to become perfect photo. I use some noise reduction. Levels correction. Brightness and contrast. Shadows highlights.

Some final results:
Most of this pictures are taken with Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens.
I also use Canon EF 28-105/3.5-4.5 or Canon EF 50/1.8
I just bought Sigma 28-70 f2.8 EX and I think it will be quite suitable for HDR.

Christmas – New Year's Concert

On Saturday 23 December 2006 I visited Christmas – New Year's concert of Muta's wind band. On such events I Usually don't take my camera with me, but this time it was otherwise. With future mother-in-law, who owns florist's shop in this village, we took care of decoration.
This year’s trend is black-white or black-silver deco combination. Happily I adapted myself to such contrasting trend. That we would emphasis contrasts even more, we added two highly conflicting elements water and fire. How exactly this looked like, you can see on picture below.
Entire decoration got really magnificent, when they put off the lights.
Moderator Jure Brloznik announced main actors of event. With excellent repertoire and numerous guests they entertain visitors for almost two hours.
Guests, who fascinated me the most, were drummers. With their rumble they completely shocked visitor.
Drum majorettes were second delicacy of the night. We could admire their performance three times. Fist they appear in dark with shiny sticks. They blew up all my candles and I had to turn them on again. Second appearance was famous Can-Can…
…third time, they did traditional drum majorettes performance.

At the end of this posting I'm adding a photo of entire wind band. On the right side two members of wind band are singing, while the bandmaster on the left is playing accordion.

Invisible experience (IR-photography)

Unlike many photographers that quickly specialize for one certain kind of photography I'm always testing some new techniques. Recently I tried infrared photography. All I needed was IR filter and few basic advices, which I searched out on internet.
Infrared filter only leaves light in the part of the spectrum which we can't see with the naked eye, but CCD can capture this invisible light. If we look through IR filter we can't see anything.
The most fascinating thing about IR technique is world in colors, we almost don’t recognize. Green leaves turns red, skies turns into the most incredible deep sea blue. Parts which reflects sunlight turns snow-white, etc.
About taking the photographs there is no big science. You simply put your camera on solid tripod, set aperture and suitable time, and shoot. Capturing IR photos usually takes quite few seconds, that's why use of self-timer, wire or remote actuator is recommendable.


When photos are taken, we must do some work in computer. I use Photo Shop CS2, but it is similar in other photo editors.
Fully basic treat to catchy IR-photos would look like this:

Basic photo direct from camera:
With click on Auto Levels I get something like this. Usually Auto Levels is sufficient. If not, I use manual corrections.
Now we must change red and blue channel in Channel Mixer.
For catchier photos we must use some more time playing with various settings. For better results I sometimes use combinations of IR and usual photos. I also tried IR+HDR. On pictures below, you can see how final results should look like.

Close-Up World

On Friday, December 15th 2006, I went to see the photographic exhibition of a macro photographer Danijel Kropivnik, also known as CZY. When I entered, the place was already quite full of people. The exhibition was set in Mezica, in a place called ‘Štiblc’. The location itself with all the lights and brightness was a great place for such photo expo, but the problem was its size since it soon become really crowded. Buying new lens for my Canon 350D that day, I decided to bring it with me and test how my new second hand Sigma 28-70 f/2,8 will do indoor, with lack of natural light. In all this crowd I hardly found enough place to take some photos, but just as I usually do, I succeed this time as well. The exposed photos were all in size of 30x45 cm. In my opinion, the content of photos was great, but the photos kind of got lost in a big glassy frames. I was also a bit sceptical about the quality of prints. Others, who do not see macro photos every day, were absolutely enraptured with extreme close-ups. Author really knows what he is doing. Most of his work I have already admired on photo portals like www.slo-foto.net or www.photo.net. It wouldn’t hurt, if the author provided some names and information about insects beneath the photos. Most visitors did not know what kind of animal they were looking at. Photos were named quite reasonably, sometimes even funny, dependent on a contents.
First they gave us some time to see the photos and then a short art performance began. In a small room it soon became unpleasantly hot. At first, a soprano singer Vesna Pučl, sang a song, then Miss Ida Paradiž read a story, but don’t ask me what was it about. By the third sentence, I was already completely lost. And I wasn’t alone. I was quite relieved, when she finally finished. To sum up, Miss Mateja Kunc read the words Mr. Matjaž Intihar wrote about the author.
I couldn't agree with some of the words he wrote. Quoting Mr. Matjaž Intihar: "In Dani's photos we shouldn't look for a composition and other photographic elements….« Listening to this I wandered why should macro photographers even bother with composition, lightings, fictive stories, etc. Like Mr. Intihar said, knowing the technique it's enough to make great macro photos.
After those words, also the author himself spoke a little bit about his work. He explained the techniques he uses and told us some things about his equipment. He shared with us the backgrounds of some of his photos. Later he devoted some time to anybody who wanted to speak to him.
Besides me, there were few other photographers, and even a guy from a local TV.
After official part, all visitors were feasted with in-country kindnesses. Some of us were eating, others rather dedicated their time to drinking.
I think that this photographic exhibition in without doubt worth visiting. I, having lots of experiences with macro photography, have noticed few things that I would change, but less trained visitors will surely be charmed.