Which One is HDR?

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If you guessed secret answer ‘C’, Both, you’re correct. Above are the photos used to create the two HDR photos in my post “Thoughtful Thursday ~ HDR or Not?”. How can both be HDR? The answer is in the purpose of HDR and how it’s used.

The dynamic range of a camera, or more correctly a specific camera system/setup, in practice, is the number of stops in which the system is capable of resolving detail from dark to light. Film has generally been considered to have a dynamic range of 5 stops. Digital cameras can vary from 5 stops and depending on who you talk to and how much math you want to get into, they can can be about 6-8 stops. The human eye can see more than 20 stops.

Ok, now in English.

  1. Select a scene you want to photograph
  2. Using a spot meter, in-camera or handheld, meter the darkest part of the scene where you want to see at least some detail
  3. Using the same spot meter, meter the lightest part of the same scene where you want to see some detail
  4. Compare the two readings

If those two exposures are more than 5 stops apart there is a good chance you will not have detail in both the darkest and the lightest areas of the photo.

Example:

    Your dark area meter reading is 1/60th @ f/8
    Your light area meter reading, keeping the f/8, needs to be 1/2000th or slower. Anything faster and you start entering the “HDR zone“.

HDR allows you to increase that 5 stop range by any amount you want. The technique is pretty simple really. Mounting your camera on tripod makes things easy, but with today’s software it’s not completely necessary. (I did not use one with these photos.)

However you decide to hold the camera, the next step is to take at least two photos of the same subject (more is better because you have more control over the final results), one set to expose for the darkest parts of the scene and the other to expose for the lightest parts. When I say to “expose for”, that does not mean you use the meter readings you just took. Don’t forget, all light meters will meter for “middle gray”. So, when you expose for the dark area you want to increase your exposure. For your light areas, you want to decrease the exposure. Since you’re going to use an HDR technique, you can increase your exposure by whatever it takes to get the amount of detail you want in the dark areas and decrease the exposure as much as necessary to get the detail you want in the light areas. The next step is to combine the photos so the result shows details in the dark and the light.

For “Demolished Buidling_01” I used a trial version of software that had a lot of wizards and controls etc. Specialized HDR software gets used quite a bit and is the reason we see so many of these “grittier” or “cartoony” versions of HDR photos. It makes it very easy to create this type of artwork using something called “tone mapping”. I will not even attempt to get into that one.

For “Demolished Building_02” I used Photoshop, but I did not use the built-in HDR function. I wanted a more realistic look to the final photo, something more like the human eye sees without even thinking about it. I added the photos into one file, each on a its own layer. It took a lot of work with masks, brushes and blending modes, but I got the result I wanted. I had actually done this version before trying HDR software, which is why I tried HDR software. While exploring the trial software I was able to create an HDR version that was indistinguishable from the version I made in Photoshop. The process with the trial software took about 5 minutes. I don’t use Photoshop for HDR any more.

I’m hoping I haven’t been too vague on the explanation of all this. If you have any questions, please post a comment so others can see your questions and my answers.
~ Daniel Kmiecik

Price Slashing!

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Rays of Sunshine After the Storm-BELIEVE

“Rays of Sunshine After the Storm-BELIEVE”

After the first storm had passed I saw these rays of Sunshine bursting through the clouds. One minute before this the rays were not visible.


I’ve started changing my prices on all art photo paper prints. The price change is due to my main supplier reducing their prices so I’m passing the savings on you my customers. The new prices are 1/3 to 1/2 my previous prices. Enjoy!

If you click on a photo that does not have the new pricing and you want to buy it, just let me know and I’ll change to the new pricing asap.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Thoughtful Thursday ~ Critique This

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Red Dahlia-A Bee's Eye View

“Red Dahlia-A Bee’s Eye View”

Taken in a planting at a roadside park on Michigan’s Lake Huron Circle Tour.

Critiquing (anything these days) has become all to negative for me. I don’t mind anyone, everyone in fact, having their own opinion about anything at all. There is no such thing as a wrong opinion; you believe what you believe for the reasons that are uniquely your own. What does bug the hell out of me is people believing “to critique” means to “find fault with”. Yes, I know, several dictionaries will tell you this is true, but it’s not the definition I choose to use. You’ll hear critique used this way on all the performance reality shows and you’ll see it used this way in most, if not all, of the online photo clubs. Movie critics do it, art critics do it. It needs to stop.

I’m not sure why this happened, but as you’ll see below in the etymology of the word “critic” this is not its original meaning. So I’m taking back the word critic and its verb, critique.

Etymology of the word critic:

critic (n.)

  1. 1580s, “one who passes judgment,” from Middle French critique (14c.)
  2. from Latin criticus “a judge, literary critic,”
  3. from Greek kritikos “able to make judgments,”
  4. from krinein “to separate, decide”
  5. Meaning “one who judges merits of books, plays, etc.” is from c.1600
  6. The English word always had overtones of “censurer, faultfinder.”

In short you don’t have to find fault with what you critique. A critique can be an assessment of everything that is good about a work. Next time you’re asked to critique something, remember this post and find everything you can that is good in what you are critiquing. Nobody wants to hear everything that is bad about their work. They probably do that enough on their own. Also, don’t think you have to have years of experience in order to critique someone’s work. Your opinion matters to them as much as the next person’s. Let them know what you like about the work. If you truly can find nothing you like, you can choose to not critique it. No one will ever know.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Wednesday’s Impressions ~ Buy an Area Rug

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The area rug will make a great impression on your guests and you’ll leave an impression every time you step on these super soft rugs.

I’ll be adding more area rugs to my online store all the time…probably forever since a photographer’s work is never done. You can see the latest creations in my shop section “Pillow, Rugs and Tote Bags”

~ Daniel Kmiecik

InspireMe Monday ~ HOPE-DREAM-BELIEVE

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Without

Forget-Me-Not Flower Patch-HOPE

“Forget-Me-Not Flower Patch-HOPE”

A small patch of forget-me-not flowers partially lit by the Sun.


we don’t
"Pansies-DREAM" Pansies are one of my wife's favorite Spring flowers.

“Pansies-DREAM”

Pansies are one of my wife’s favorite Spring flowers.


Without dreams, we don’t
Rays of Sunshine After the Storm-BELIEVE

“Rays of Sunshine After the Storm-BELIEVE”

After the first storm had passed I saw these rays of Sunshine bursting through the clouds. One minute before this the rays were not visible.



~ Daniel Kmiecik

A Photo a Week Challenge: Stripes

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"Six String Guitar Fret Board"

“Six String Guitar Fret Board”

Closeup view of a six string guitar fret board. This photo has been viewed over 1400 hundred times on one of my web sites. The second most viewed photo is 500 views less. I was very surprised when I saw these numbers. I wouldn’t have thought this photo would be so popular.


"Building Abstract-Summit on the Park"

“Building Abstract-Summit on the Park”

This is a detail of the recreation center at Summit on the Park in Canton, Michigan USA. I love the curves and straight lines and how they move your eye all around the photo.


Join in the fun at nancy merrill photography.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Thoughtful Thursday ~ Natural Abstract

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Rock Slab Abstract

“Rock Slab Abstract”

I don’t remember what type of rock it is. I love the mid-century mod abstract look. The actual size of the long edge is about 1/4 inch.


I have been following Mike Moats for quite some time. One of my favorite themes of Mike’s Macro Nature photography is his macros of rock slabs. I’m pretty sure I contacted Mike to find out where he was getting the slabs. I ordered some slabs from dandyslab.com and this piece was added as an extra gift in my order.

Because we’re shooting in macro land (the long side of the photo is around 1/4 to 1/2 an inch across) perfect focus across the entire tiny area is critical. The hardest part of creating these photos is making sure they are sharp all the way to the corner of the photo. Things to keep in mind:

    The depth of field is tiny
    You can’t really crank up the aperture to make up for focus being off because lens refraction will start to creep in and reduce the sharpness. A problem for any photo, and magnified in macro land
    If you’re not perfectly parallel to the slab the corners will be out of focus at any usable f/stop (f/4 to about f/16)

After many failed attempts I finally came up with a simple way to make sure your sensor or film plane is perfectly parallel to the slab without using a level and making painstaking adjustments. You will need a tripod with a center column that allows you to move your camera up and down.

Here are the steps:

  1. Set the slab on a table close to the edge of the table. It needs to be close enough to allow you to move the camera, mounted on the tripod, directly above the rock slab
  2. Do not mount the camera to the tripod yet
  3. Set the camera on the lens hood, on the table, directly over the rock slab
  4. Be sure the bottom of the camera, where the tripod mount is, is pointing away from the center of the table
  5. Now move your tripod next to the camera, line up the tripod head with the mounting screw on the camera and carefully attach the camera to the tripod head. You don’t want to move the camera or you will lose your parallelism
  6. Adjust the center column on your tripod, with the camera now mounted, up away from the rock slab. Be sure to raise to at least the closes focus distance (a little more than that makes it easier for final focus)
  7. Now you can look through the camera and move the rock slab until you have a pleasing composition
  8. Adjust your focus manually and create your photo. The setup you went through in the previous steps insures your sensor or film plane is still parallel to the slab

If you’ve ever tried to set something like this up with a level you know how difficult it can be to keep everything parallel. This seems like a lot of work when you read it, but when you do it once you’ll see it really is very fast and easy.

~ Daniel Kmiecik

Foodie Friday ~ PIZZA! with Onions

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PIZZA!

PIZZA!

Who doesn’t love pizza? The perfect feel good food. The real trick here is getting the photo created before the pizza gets cold.

Onion Spouting

“Onion Sprouting”

This onion had been in the pantry a little too long. When we found this onion sprouting in our pantry I just had to create this photo. We sure weren’t going to eat the onion.

Photo Tip:
Both photos were created with the same single 150ws light from Interfit Lighting, and using a Photoflex 36 x 48 inch softbox.

  1. For the pizza photo the softbox was almost on top of the pizza just out of camera view. This would guarantee a practically shadowless light. I was literally under the softbox myself using a macro lens to create the photo.
  2. For the onion, the softbox was pulled back quite a bit so the shadows would have more definition to the edges. The light was set off to the side at about the same level as the onion to create the side lighting.

Remember, the larger the light is compared to the subject, the softer the shadow will be. Placing the softbox practically on top of the pizza made the light very large as compared to the pizza itself (it was a small pizza, 8″ I think). Placing the softbox further away from the onion made the light smaller compared to being right next to it (things get smaller as they move away from you).

Think of it like this, the Sun is an enormous light source. However, on a bright sunny, cloudless day, your shadow on the ground is very well defined. That’s because even though the Sun is huge, it’s practically a pin light in the sky. Conversely, on a bright cloudy day, one where can’t quite make out where the is in the sky, your shadow has very soft edges, if you can see it at all. The clouds are acting as a giant softbox. Knowing this can help you with how you light your subject the way you want to see it.

~ Daniel Kmiecik