Photoshop CS5 and HDR

One of the features I was excited to try in the new release of Photoshop was the upgraded High Dynamic Range (HDR) functionality.   In the past, HDR required additional plugin products or a lot of labor intensive work.

After doing a photo assignment today, I had the opportunity to photograph a couple of South Dakota landscapes with some dramatic clouds in the sky.   I shot three rapid fire photos with a bracketing setting on my Nikon D300 as I often do these days to open up options in post production.

When I arrived at home, I was thinking I wish I had CS5 already as it would make some of my editing go easier (referring to other features – perhaps a future blog post.)  I decided I’d download the trial software as I will probably be upgrading in the next month.  Of course, the FIRST thing I needed to try was the HDR! 

I started in Lightroom and identified the set of photos I wanted to work with.  Here is the landscape in the photo exposed at the level I decided was “correct”.

Right from Lightroom, I selected “merge to HDR in Photoshop”. 

There are many presets and much more control in the new release.  I selected a preset for “surreal” and then played with sliders to more closely match what I saw with my own eyes a few hours ago.

And along with a frame from onOne Photoframes, here is the finished product!

 

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Through the Viewfinder (TTV)

I discovered a photography technique that piqued my curiosity on PhotoJoJo some time ago.   Their posting described how some photographers have been shooting a photo of their subject through the viewfinder of an old TTL camera for an interesting effect.  Here is the original posting:  Photojojo

I decided to give it a try and so I found an old vintage Voigtlander Brilliant on eBay for the right price.  I didn’t want to spend a ton of money at first – at least until I saw some results.  The Brilliant is a pseudo twin lens reflex camera (TLR) that was manufactured in Austria in the 1930’s.  You can read more details about this camera (and many others) here: Camerapedia. 

My first chance to really try was last week while I was doing a photo shoot with Taylor Kearns, Miss ND USA 2010.  We had found a wall that had a great shade of red on it.  The setting sun was shining on the wall with a relatively intense light.  I figured that would be a perfect time to try.  Taylor and the wall would be well lit and I could block the sun on the viewfinder of the Brilliant with my body.  I’m sure holding the vintage camera at waist level with my left hand and trying to focus and compose a shot with my pro DSLR had to look ridiculous, but I was excited about the results.  In this first photo, I’ve cropped a bit, but still included my hand and the camera in the shot.   Did a little work in Photoshop to remove the color in all except what is in the viewfinder.  I also added a border from onOne’s PhotoFrame tool.

 

I went on to finish the “real” shoot with Taylor – you can see some of that series on my Facebook page here: Taylor.   As we were packing up, I happened to notice a bicycle leaning up against a fire escape on the next building.  Now THAT was exactly the sort of subject I had been looking for.  I grabbed the Brilliant and fired off another shot.  In this one, I cropped the photo down to just what was seen in the viewfinder.  

I can see this is going to take a bit of practice and maybe some trial and error.  Even still, I think this is going to be a creative way to produce some interesting photographs!   Hopefully, there will be more to share in the future.

PJ