HDR Photography

  1. The Mighty Sequoias of the Mariposa Grove

    This is an HDR photo taken in the Mariposa Grove which is located in the Yosemite National Park. It's about a half hour from the Yosemite Valley. At some point in your life you've probably seen a small car or beetle driving through a giant Sequoia tree. That tree use to be in this grove until it collapsed. Turns out you can't cut a giant hole through a tree and expect it to live. I guess they didn't realize that in the 1960's.

    To create this look I used three exposures, each two stops from each other. Combined them to form a single HDR photo in Photomatix then used Photoshop for a bunch of color and I applied a texture that I layered a few times mixing the blending modes between Overlay, Hard Light and Darken. 

    Today's HDR Photo

    Mariposa Grove Sequoias. Some of the mighty Sequoias of the Mariposa Grove. With a few texture layers.

  2. The Great Yosemite Valley

    This HDR photo is taken from the view right as you enter Yosemite Valley. It's pretty breath taking in real life. There is so much scale and scope to this place you feel so small driving through it. Kind of like the Grand Canyon. I like this place better though. More stuff to do.

    I did my usual processing on this photo. It's a three exposure sequenced combined in Photomatix then only processed in Lightroom 4. Usually I'll bring my photos into Photoshop for a little extra color and touch up work that just can't be done in Lightroom, but in this case there was no need. 

    Today's HDR Photo - The Great Yosemite Valley

    The Great Yosemite Valley of California This is an HDR Photo of Yosemite Valley right as you enter from the upper road. I never came this way last time I was here so this view was new to me. And pretty much one of the most amazing things I've seen.

  3. Top of the Yutoku Inari Shrine

    Those photo was a tricky one to process. Took me a couple attempts. At first I went to crazy with the colors. I wanted really dark heavy contrasted colors. But then it lost a lot of it's rich saturation. So I took one of the more vibrant processed images of a totally different look, layered it on top and adjusted the opacity. It's a cool trick I've learned with HDR when you push it to far. I'll process the photos with two extremes then blend them in Photoshop to meet in the middle.

    For the texture look, I used some free textures by Sirius-sdz on DeviantART. I love that sight. I believe I set the blending mode to Hard Light and adjusted the opacity until it looked right. 

    For the final coloring I did it all in Lightroom 4 using my Retro Collection to get a base look, then tweaked from there. That's usually how I get that sort of old look that I love with my HDR photos. 

    Here is my DeviantART profile: http://alikgriffin.deviantart.com/

    Today's HDR Photo -Top Of The Yutoku Inari Shrine

    Top Of The Yutoku Inari Shrine Once you travel up the structure of the Yuoku Inari Shrine you come to this spot. I was lucky and the shrine was nearly empty the day I was there. It allowed me to get all sorts of fun photography of this awesome place in Southern Japan.Read more about the Yutoku Inari Shrine at AlikGriffin.com

  4. Low Tide at Miyajima Japan

    I like shooting HDR. You can pull so much more color and shadows out of a scene. A lot of my photos I shoot HDR but I try to avoid that 'HDR Look' since that's not really my thing. I do encourage people to shoot HDR though so they can get deep and rich colors out of the scene.

    This HDR photo is from Miyajima Japan. I've taken several photos at this location on two different trips to Japan. And this place is awesome. The weather this time around wasn't that great though. While taking this shot it was very windy and pretty cold. I had to make sure my stuff didn't blow into the water. Or the wind didn't actually push me over into the water. It was that windy. 

    Today's HDR Photo - Low Tide at Miyajima Japan

    Low Tide at Miyajima Japan. Miyajima Japan is one of the greatest beauties in all of Japan in my opinion. It's an island of culture and tradition that makes you realize how awesome people can be.

  5. Jungle Rice Fields of Bali

    While touring a temple deep in the jungles of Bali, we immerged to this awesome sight. Some rice fields in the clearing. It seems that in Bali Indonesia, where there are no trees you can almost always count on there being rice fields. 

    You can actually see my wife in the picture way in the back. In this temple we had to wear a covering over our legs so they were not exposed. 

    Today's HDR Photo - Jungle Rice Fields of Bali

    Jungle Rice Fields of Bali. While in Bali, we went to this awesome temple deep in the jungle. On our way out we found this awesome sight. In the clearing between the trees they were managing to grow rice.

  6. Old Couple of Yosemite Valley

    I haven't been doing too many HDR's lately but this shot called for it. There was this old couple just sitting there and soaking up the beauty of Yosemite Valley and the epic Half Dome. I love having people in my landscapes. It really helps with scale and just seems to add a whole new element.

    When my generation is old we'll be sitting there but playing on our ipones since we are too a.d.d. to just stop and enjoy what's around us. 

    Today's HDR Photo - Old Couple of Yosemite Valley

    Old Couple of Yosemite Valley It was pretty refreshing seeing this old couple pull out some chairs to just sit and soak up the beauty around them. You don't see people doing this much anymore.

  7. Looking up at the Yosemite Falls

    I was lucky enough to get to go to Yosemite for my second time this weekend. One of the many great thing about being married to my Japanese wife is when her friends and family visit from Japan, they always want to go on awesome road trips. This time we were thinking of going to the Grand Canyon but opted for Yosemite instead. Reason being, the Grand Canyon is only exciting for about 20 minutes, the you're bored. At Yosemite National park you could live there and never get bored. So much to do and see. 

    It's nice to be doing photography again. Bronchitis kicked my butt for about two weeks.

    Today's HDR Photo - Looking up at the Yosemite Falls

    Looking Up at the Yosemite Falls My second time to Yosemite National Forest. I went last year when I first started to get back into photography. Since then I've got a few new lenses and a whole new perspective. Weather was a bit nicer this time as well. Everything was a bit greener, and more wildlife was out and about. It's truely spring there.

  8. My Experience with the HDR Software Photomatix

    If you're looking to get into doing HDR photography, I recommend trying out Photomatix. It's easy to use and fun to play with if you're looking for some new photography techniques.

    You've probably noticed I do a lot of HDR photography, but really I think only about half or maybe 60% of my photos are HDR. A lot of times I get that HDR look out of a single raw image since you don't always need to take three shots to get the Dynamic Range you need. And I often do it in either Photoshop or Lightroom. Photoshop has a nice Shadow/Highlights function that helps compress an images dynamic range to give that HDR look. I use that often times when I'm doing a single raw, like a long exposure on the beach where I'm not able to shoot bracketed shots. But Photomatix works great too even on single raw images. 

    Be sure to check out my Photomatix Pro Review it's really a great software for HDR photography.

    Sample Image from the Photomatix Review

    To get this look I used Photomatix Pro for the HDR look then used one of my Lightroom Presets.

    This photo is from the Ricefields of Bali Indonesia. 

    Palm in the Fields, Walking through the rice fields of Bali was an awesome experience. Everywhere you looked it was so beautiful and clean.

  9. HDRSoft Photomatix Pro Review and Sample Photos

    HDRSoft Photomatix Pro Review and Sample Photos

    Photomatix Pro is a software designed to create stunning HDR Photography by taking several photos captured at various exposures and combining them together into a single HDR image. 

    You can pick up this software for about $100 bucks.

    Amazon: Photomatix Pro 4

    Initial Thoughts

    This program took me awhile to really understand. Not that it was hard to use because it isn't, the hard part is that technical learning curve of wanting a photo to look a particular way and having no idea how to get there. This is one of those things that just takes awhile and comes with repetition. To really know and understand how all the various sliders work with each other to produce the desired results.

    I started by ignoring the default presets and creating my own. Every time I got a photo the way I liked I'd save it as a preset. Then over time it became much easier and quicker to go through my 20 or 30 presets to find a unique style or look for the photo that was close to a look I felt would compliment a scene. That's pretty much my workflow now. And the software is great. I don't even bother with any other HDR software anymore and it's much better than Photoshops in my opinion.

    The Preset

    The presets are great, always create your own, or find some free ones on the Internet or buy mine. Can't go wrong there. This will help you quickly find looks that may or may not work for the scene. Every scene is different so not having presets is very hard. I wish the program came with some better ones that created more natural looking scenes. I like the natural looking HDR photography vs the crazy surreal looking images.

    My Workflow using Photomatix Pro

    This is important and I went through a lot of trial and error getting it right. I've come to the conclusion that you absolutely need to remove the noise from your HDR photos before you send them into Photomatix. Otherwise the algorithms that the software uses to combine the images and tonemap them ends up enhancing the grain into super HDR grain. And it gets messy. The software I've found that works the best is Topaz Denoise. 

    Once denoised and into Photomatix, I'll find a preset and tweak it to my liking before exporting back out to Lightroom. You'll notice creating HDR images tends to soften the image a little bit. This is partly from two things. Slight camera shake between the three shots so they don't line up perfect. So make sure your tripod is steady and sturdy, the other is from how the software blends the light as well as the micro smoothing effect. So go easy on that micro smoothing.

    After the photo is back in Lightroom I always send it to Photoshop to do some sharpening and cleanup. I'll either use the Highpass Filter, or the Find Edges Sharpening Technique. You can watch my tutorials for those by clicking either of those links. They work absolutely great, especially the Find Edges Technique. I've seen other photographers using Topaz and other sharpening enhancing tools as well. I'm sure those work fine also.

    In Photoshop I'll then do either a little more photo touching up, sky replacements from one of the raws if needed, or some extra denoising by hand before doing final color. And that's how I get crazy sharp HDR photos with Photomatix. 

    Photomatix's HDR Process

    Photomatix has two different ways of creating HDR images.

    Tonemapping, which manipulates the various tones of the images. Meaning, you can shift the highlights and shadows around so everything looks properly exposed, or shift all the tones closer together so everything is a Midtone. Then the software will create halos around each tone causing a separation. This gives that surreal look that HDR is so famous for. 

    Exposure Fusion, works similar with Tonemapping in that it will shift the exposures around a bit. But this doesn't seem to try lift the shadows to a midtone or pull the highlights. It seems to use more of what's there, and it doesn't create the halo effect that gives you that famouse HDR look. I use this method maybe on 25% of my HDR photos. It often times looks more natural but has less controls.

    Negatives about Photomatix Pro

    Stand alone the software is only 50% awesome. You need the rest of the tools and techniques I mentioned to really do great HDR work. In my opinion of course. And there are tons of other techniques, this is just what I've been able to figure out on my own. I wish Photomatix had some better sharpening and denoise tools but it just doesn't and it forces you to use all these other applications around it. Maybe it makes more sense for you to just do everything in Photoshop and stay in Photoshop. But personally I don't mind bouncing around from program to program. Once you have your intermediate tiff file you're fine to do as many tweaks as you wish.

    Sample HDR Photography for the Photomatix Pro Review

    Sample HDR Photography for the Photomatix Pro Review Bali Rice Fields, These are some of the Rice Fields of Bali Indonesia. This is the view from the famous Sari Organik Cafe.Read more about this at AlikGriffin.com Bali Local Market, This place was awesome. Lots of rats, but awesome. There is so much color and texture and craftsmanship. Only an HDR photo could do this justice. The Walt Disney Concert HallThis is probably the coolest building in Los Angeles. It was designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry in 1991 and construction began in 1999.I went out to shoot this location in HDR. I was really hoping it would rain to get , nice slick reflections on the ground but the opposite happened. The weather cleared up giving me nice skies which I'm also happy with. Read more about this photo of the Walt Disney Concert Hall and my HDR method at AlikGriffin.com Palm in the Fields, Walking through the rice fields of Bali was an awesome experience. Everywhere you looked it was so beautiful and clean.

  10. Ave of the Stars

    A night HDR photo of Avenue of the Stars in Century City. This runs right by the Westfield mall. A cool mall that's not too crowded it's kind of 'my mall' since it's only a few miles from my house. Century City is in Los Angeles if you were wondering. In the UCLA, West Los Angeles, Westwood area.  

    This photo I had fun with. Many many blending layers mixed and matched in photoshop combined with an HDR effect. Came out kind of Matrixy sort of. Night HDR photography really isn't any different than regular HDR except you have to do a bit more blending of layers and noise reduction with some sharpening. I used my Find Edges Sharpening Technique. You can find a tutorial at that link if your into that sort of thing. 

    Today's Night HDR Photo - Ave of The Stars, Century City

    Avenue of the Stars - Century CityThis runs right by the Westfield Mall in century city. It's a night HDR photo of the street Avenue of the Stars See more of my HDR Photography at AlikGriffin.com

Pages