Shut in! Shudda gone to the Seashore
The weather forecast scared us out of our trip to Padre Island National Seashore. It is ugly outside ... and C O L D!!! Jane is under a blanket, napping. She worked last night and is scheduled to work all day tomorrow. I'm entertaining myself with photography and a new piece of software. It probably is miserable along the coast as well. I'm disappointed though. I was so looking forward to a few seascapes and bird photos.
Instead, I'm taking pictures from the back porch and converting them to HDR images. It is interesting. And, I'm learning much more about Adobe Photoshop Elements. I found the necessary Adobe plugin for processing Nikon's RAW format files. Nikon has their own proprietory format known as NEF. I don't know why we can't settle on a standard. I think it has to do with money. Nikon wants $200 for the software to process their proprietory format. Thank goodness for the internet. It took some digging but my persistence saved $200. Maybe I can convince Jane that the $200 I saved should be applied to another Gigabite of RAM for my computer. :)
HDR is a process for expanding the latitude of an exposure. It is intended to save extremely contrasty scenes.
To accomplish this, multiple images at different exposures are blended. This image, for example, was created by sandwiching images exposed at two stops over exposure, two stops underexposure and one exposed properly. In the overexposure, the clouds were clipped (or washed out). In the under exposure, the shadows were nearly black. The resulting image maintains details in both the highlights and shadows. Click the image to see a larger example. I may have made it a little dramatic by adding a few "personal" touches. :)
This technique is pretty much reserved for landscapes. Aligning multiple images of racing motorcycles is a bit more than I want to try. As a matter of fact, wind-blown limbs, leaves or waves will discourage any combining of images. But, for landscapes and many seascapes, it's a blast.
I guess the bad weather has a few benefits. I'm thrilled with what I have learned today. And, I'm just getting started. Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks? :)
l8r
Instead, I'm taking pictures from the back porch and converting them to HDR images. It is interesting. And, I'm learning much more about Adobe Photoshop Elements. I found the necessary Adobe plugin for processing Nikon's RAW format files. Nikon has their own proprietory format known as NEF. I don't know why we can't settle on a standard. I think it has to do with money. Nikon wants $200 for the software to process their proprietory format. Thank goodness for the internet. It took some digging but my persistence saved $200. Maybe I can convince Jane that the $200 I saved should be applied to another Gigabite of RAM for my computer. :)
HDR is a process for expanding the latitude of an exposure. It is intended to save extremely contrasty scenes.
To accomplish this, multiple images at different exposures are blended. This image, for example, was created by sandwiching images exposed at two stops over exposure, two stops underexposure and one exposed properly. In the overexposure, the clouds were clipped (or washed out). In the under exposure, the shadows were nearly black. The resulting image maintains details in both the highlights and shadows. Click the image to see a larger example. I may have made it a little dramatic by adding a few "personal" touches. :)This technique is pretty much reserved for landscapes. Aligning multiple images of racing motorcycles is a bit more than I want to try. As a matter of fact, wind-blown limbs, leaves or waves will discourage any combining of images. But, for landscapes and many seascapes, it's a blast.
I guess the bad weather has a few benefits. I'm thrilled with what I have learned today. And, I'm just getting started. Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks? :)
l8r
posted by Warren, Dad, Papa at 5:53 PM
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