What you need to know about HDR

Click on image for a better view

This image is a 3-image HDR with each expsure 1 stop above and below the correct exposure.

Most cameras and that includes the better point and shoot models can bracket their exposures. The thing about HDR is not super saturated colors as a lot of people think, but a greater dynamic range. For a well made HDR there should not be any black shadows nor any blown highlights.

The funny thing about HDR images is that most photographers hate them and most people that don't do a lot of photography love them. It's a funny disconnect that has more to do with being afraid of gimmicks in the case of professionals and the love of a crisp, beautiful picture in the case of everyone else.

HDR photography has come a long way since I started working in HDR about four years ago. There were a lot of problems with the software and to be sure, a lot of folks just blasted away and created some really ugly pictures in HDR. I initially loved the idea of having high dynamic range but then cooled on HDR because of the crap software.

Adobe's Photoshop CS5 has changed all that. Ghosting is no longer a problem because of that cute little "Remove Ghosts" button. It works!

Photoshop does not bother you with a bunch of stupid questions you probably have no answer for anyway and just goes ahead and produces the HDR.

After PS has produced the HDR, it only takes a few seconds, you are given some sliders to tweak the image. I generally don't do a lot in that panel except to crank Vibrance up to around 80%. Vibrance is cool and smart, it only saturates those colors that need it. Thanks Adobe!

At any rate, now that I have PS5 and have seen how well HDR Pro works, I'm going back to shooting a lot of HDR. There no longer is any reason not to. The software works exceptionally well to the point where most folks don't know it's HDR unless you tell them.

I learned a long time ago on FlickR that my images were a lot more popular if I did not state a picture was HDR.

The smart asses that know all about how bad HDR is don't know it's HDR unless you tell them.

Photograhy is changing rapidly, the equipment is so much better today than five years ago and so is the software.

Even though I shoot in RAW, I still don't have to sweat memory space because memory cards have become dirt cheap.

HDR is not a good choice for any kind of action shooting, but for architecture, landscapes, car shows and that sort of thing where you have a static subject, I think HDR is a great tool.

So, go ahead and shoot some HDR if you have PS5 because you will love the results.

If you don't have PS5, you should. Yes, it's pricey but the cheaper software is cheaper for a reason.

If you like the post then please use the provided links for your shopping. Stay safe and have a fun time with your camera.

Don't forget to write me if you have any tips, or news. I like to hear from you!

My Flicker Photostream
My babe photostream on Flickr
My SmugMug account

You just can't beat a Nikon!

MIAMI – Paul Shultz was walking along the pier of a Key West marina when he saw what looked like a rotting tomato pounding against the rocks.

The Coast Guard investigator waded ankle-deep into the water to fish out the ocean rubbish: a bright red Nikon camera, small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Its waterproof plastic case was covered with six months' worth of crusty sea growth, but the camera itself was almost pristine when he found it May 16.
However, clues to tracking down its owner were few. So Shultz decided to test his investigative skills.
There were photos of two men preparing to scuba dive and a towheaded family nestled together on a couch. There was a mysterious relic settled deep into the sea floor. And even a puzzling video clip of splashing water that appeared to have been taken as the camera thrashed around under the control of something that wasn't human.

"There was nothing on the pictures that said this camera belongs to so and so," Shultz said.

After looking through the pictures, Shultz adopted the screen name of "Aquahound" and took his hunt online.

He uploaded the images on Scubaboard.com, hoping some diving aficionados could help identify where they were taken. Within days, the Internet sleuths had parsed the pictures and found some clues all pointing to Aruba, a Dutch island off Venezuela's coast that's 1,100 miles from Key West.

There was a plane's tail number — and a computer search showed the aircraft was in Aruba the day the photo was taken. There was a blue-roofed building that searchers pinpointed to the island using Google Earth. And there was a school poster written in Dutch.

But could the camera make such a trip? Villy Kourafalou, an associate professor of physical oceanography at the University of Miami, said such an odyssey is possible. The buoyancy of the plastic case combined with various currents could have taken the camera to Key West, she told The Associated Press in an e-mail.

With Shultz's search narrowed, the resolution came quickly. He posted the pictures on the travel websites Cruisecritic and Aruba.com, and within two days was contacted by an Aruban woman who said she recognized the children in some of the photos as classmates of her son.

She contacted the family, the de Bruins, and all the pieces came together.

"I have a smile on my face ... I can't stop laughing about it," Dick de Bruin said in a phone interview from Aruba. "It's really big news (on the island) and in Europe."

De Bruin, a sergeant in the Royal Dutch Navy, has been stationed with his family in Aruba for three years. The camera floated away from de Bruin while he and a dive team were salvaging an anchor from the USS Powell for a World War II memorial. The American ship protected Aruba, a major oil producer, from German forces during the war.

"There's a big connection between America and Aruba ... first with the anchor, and now the camera brings us together again," de Bruin said.

The camera is on its way to the de Bruin family via FedEx and should be there any day.

Shultz said he's thrilled the story is ending well — for a brief moment when he first viewed the mystery video, he feared the camera's owner had met a tragic end.

There was footage of the divers recovering the anchor, and then in the next video, "the camera started thrashing around and a fin came into the picture," Shultz said. "Then 20 seconds in I realized there was no blood."

The culprit: a hungry sea turtle trying to take a bite out of the floating camera in January, two months after it was lost. The camera's leash apparently got caught on its flipper, and the animal's splashing turned on the video camera. Shultz's best guess is that the episode happened off the coast of Honduras.

That video clip has been seen more than 200,000 times on YouTube, with viewers everywhere from Alaska to Africa to Australia. It's de Bruin's favorite part of the whole story.

"When I told people what Paul had done, they were astonished. They didn't believe it," he said. "But we have the sea turtle on film proving the camera floated from Aruba to the U.S. It's unbelievable, but it's true."

The video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E43sg-Ytt58

Photos from the camera: http://travel.webshots.com/album/577735131ZvBWTi

If you like the post then please use the provided links for your shopping. Stay safe and have a fun time with your camera.

Don't forget to write me if you have any tips, or news. I like to hear from you!

My Flicker Photostream
My babe photostream on Flickr
My SmugMug account