Test Post Linking To 500PX

I'm just testing how to link to photos on my 500PX account here on Blogger.
Crane - HDR by Chris Lemmen

Did it work? Looks like it did.

Chris.

What To Do With Mid Afternoon Light?

What do you do with mid afternoon light that is just very uninteresting and a bit boring? Why, make an HDR out of it of course!

I took this photo during lunch today. Just to get out and make some photographs.

It's a bit boring but I still liked it. It makes sense to me what it is but it's really not all that interesting. So, I exported 3 versions of the image at and exposure of -2, 0 and +2 and created an HDR from that.

Much better! Interesting color and detail. There we go. Mid day lighting issue solved.

Chris.

191.365 Storm Clouds Fork Lake July 9 2011 - HDR

 

Sunday July 10 2011.

We had some very cool stormy clouds that really screamed HDR to me. The detail in the clouds and the stones on the road just popped in the processed image.

Chris.

198.365 Bike Carrier

Saturday July 17 2010.

It's become very important that we take mine and the boy's bike on vacation to the lake with us. He insisted.

So, I bought a bike carrier for the truck that would fit in the hitch receiver. His bike is small and I had to modify the carrier a bit to get his bike on it but it's there. This should be a great vacation this year. Only one more week to go!

PS. I know how dirty my truck is in this photo too.

Chris.

HDR Makeover Just For Fun.

I've been playing around quite a bit with Photomatix lately and must say I'm getting hooked on HDRs. It's so easy to do with Photomatix.

I took this photo back in the spring when the snow was almost gone. I was really struck by the reflection of the crane in the water.

But today I was wondering what it would look like as a surreal HDR.

What do you think? I liked it so much, I printed it for my office wall! I'm quickly becoming hooked on HDRs that much is true. I'm looking forward to deliberately looking for situations that would be ideal for an HDR be it surreal or a little more realistic looking. It's going to make my holidays much more interesting this year from a photography point of view.

Chris.

195.365 Cat Under The Big Sky HDR

Wednesday July 14 2010.

You can thank Bruce for getting me started on this. :)

Chris.

To HDR Or Not To HDR? That Is The Question.

I've been noticing a huge increase in the number of HDR images showing up lately. Some are very surreal and some are much more natural looking. I've been thinking about trying it and have been convinced that I need to by my Flickr friend The Bruce. Bruce has been dabbling in the HDR world lately and I've really liked the images he has produced. So I thought I'd give it a go. Why not.

So, I downloaded a trial of Photomatix and started to experiment. I used a single photo and outputted a normal exposure, -2 and +2 to simulate the bracketing. Hard to bracket when the wind is blowing so hard.

I took this photo of my kids on Canada Day and I like it but it's missing so much of the contrast that was there for my eyes to see. I'd like you to see more of what I saw.

The first one I completed was this one but the white flags went to gray. I love all the detail in the clouds, leaves, and the kids clothing but the flags really turned me off.

I opened it up in Lightroom and used the adjustment brush to increase the exposure on the white areas being very careful to use the auto mask feature and not bleed into the surrounding areas too much.

This one I really like. Look at the detail in their clothes. All that was lost in the original even though I used my flash. The range just was not there.

I think you can expect to see more HDR work in my Flickr stream from now on. I really like how this turned out.

Chris.