Better HDR images

HDR or High Dynamic Range photography has been a rage long enough now, that the rage has started to take a turn. in the inception of the this technique the goal was to capture the greater dynamic range of a scene. Digital camera's only have so much exposure range, therefor they can mot capture a sunset in one shot. They have to expose for the shadows(blowing out the sky), or the sky crushing the shadows. Solution? HDR. The concept is fabulous but the practice has become something else. This is where peoples paths will part company. I do not like over sharpened extremely glowing whacked out landscapes. I use HDR to capture the details and exposure range, But I do not use programs like Photomatix that always put their own animated spin on my image. Lots of people use Photomatix  because it is easy to use and produces results that the average viewer will find acceptable, but it also teaches you nothing and make you  a complacent photographer with the same processing and hundreds if not thousands of over photographers. The two images about are processed entirely with Adobe merge to HDR and finished in adobe Photoshop. The first image is more complex then the second. This is a Home Depot Kitchen design. I wanted the home owner in the image. So  set my camera on a tripod, and photographed the scene with her in it using strobes. I then moved her out and  shot a seven exposure HDR with available light only. Back at the lab, I merged my seven shots into something very low contrast and boring looking. This is step one to a good HDR or any image with complex details, color and hue. Your starting image should be much softer then what you intent the final image to be. I adjust my HDR sliders for maximum range (no loss of highlights).   Once the image was merged. I opened the raw file of my subject in a small adobe raw window and hovered it over the HDR image on my Photoshop screen. I adjusted the color temp and contrast to be similar and opened the image in Photoshop with the same color and bit depth info. (I always use 16bit for color gradients) I  dragged my subject image over the HDR and made it a new layer, created a mask, filled with black and painted her back in. I now have the best of both world a kitchen that does not look artificially lit, and a perfectly lit subject.

So the above technique may scare some people like my wife who says "I'm scared of layers," Well don't be. Layers and good masks are the key to independent control of any image. I use layers, and masks to adjust the image contrast, color, hue and sharpening. I do not sharpen the sky and I feather my sharpening with my depth of field. I like to use curves a lot to pull the contrast in to the HDR image that I converted to look dull. Now I can work the image all over it's regions independently. Photomatics would make all of these controls globally, affecting the whole image rather then the areas of my choosing. Nix software does now have and HDR program with their U-point controls to affect areas with some separation control, but still no where near as powerful as Photoshop masks, and layer blending options can do. I am not writing this for people who just want to have fun with HDR, but rather the frustrated photographer looking to create a truly professional Landscape or architectural image. Here is a list of common errors in HDR proccessing and what to avoid if you would like your work to stand out.

Halos: These are glowing edges were trees and land masses such as mountain ranges meet the sky. They are cause by over processing and specifically pushing the the radius of the any sharpening algorithm to far.

Ghosts: These are cause by moving object in the image. Photoshop Merge to HDR pro has a good detection for this. A good trick if the remove ghosts is struggling is to erase the moving object from that frame and merge tiff files rather then the raw files.

Chromatic aberrations: these are the natural assurance from lenses fragmenting the colors of light. check and correct all your files in Lightroom or camera raw before merging. if they are still present in the merge you have to clone them out of the final. It sucks but not to bad it you use a Wacom Tablet. I do stress using clone and not the healing  brush, because the CA will be on the edges of things with very different color and contrast, and you need these to be crisp. 

Crispy over sharpened sky and clouds: keep the sky and clouds soft people unless you are making an abstract image but the client will probably want a pleasing sky. So again if you merge a soft image you can selectively sharpen the regions you want sharp and keep the sky soft as God intended. Sharpen the image last and doit on a duplicate layer with a mask and a soft brush. paint the sharpness on by verrying the opacity of the brush 100 percent for you most focussed regions and feather back to 50,25,and 10. Then Gaussian blur the mask to blend it out with 10 to 20 percent. then choose the mask edge... control in CS5 choose and overly veiw to see the red mask adjust the feather and shift edge to get a good blend of how you mask should feather out to the edge of the skyline.

Color is a huge subject I will not get into now because it deserves it's own post entirely. So I have given you some of my opinions and tips. Now I challenge you to Make the Photo you set out to get with out software programs taking you for a ride. Have fun people...

My Shoot for Aveda

This is not the first time I have shot for the Aveda Institute In Tucson Arizona, but it have been a while. When I was asked to shoot their concepts for this years Moda Provocateur, I knew the concepts would be wild, and That I would have a very limited time to shoot Over twenty models. I have learned from experience These looks do not lend them selves to plain backdrops. So I build this Victorian set, and borrowed the Chair from a friend. The set was entirely inspired by Mellisa Rodwell, a fantastic fashion photographer in LA.  I designed the set and built it in about three hours. (I'm Good I know) just kidding. The thing I am most happy about is not compromising. If you want your images to stand out, you have to go the extra mile. That means work and attention to details. I will be building more sets in the future first and foremost for an upcoming advertisement I have with a local Hair and Tattoo Salon. So far 2011 is looking Good.   

Creating a composition image

Creating a composition image is not an easy thing when done right, but the results are worth the effort.
Step 1: find an interesting backdrop and shoot it preferable with a wide angle lens on a tripod with multiple exposures for and HDR composite.

Step 2: shoot a good model with good dramatic lighting to fit the final scene Using edge lighting adds drama also shooting on light grey or under exposed white is the best way background to cut them out after, Green screens make color casts.

Step Three: process the HDR background to your liking with photomatics Adobe HDR pro or any other HDR software you would prefer.

Step 4: Open the HDR background in photoshop create levels layer and a hue saturation Layer above it.

Step 5: Open the image of your subject. Choose the select/color range. click the backdrop around the subject, add and adjust the sensitivity till you have a good separation between the subject the the background. click okay, you have the marching ants on the screen know. click the mask icon in the layers palette. You mask is now made. Clean up the mask to reveal anything masked off on the subject with a white paint brush, Black brush anything still showing from the background.

Step 6: edges and hair: this is were the work really pays off.
Press CRTL G To create a group layer Name the group subject. Your subject is now in a group separate from the background. Press CRTL and click and drag your subject mask to the group layer. Now this mask will mask out any other layers we will be adding to the group. You will use the mask to get tight on all the edges. Zoom in 300 % and get all the way around the edges with a medium hard brush. The hair should be feathered with a soft brush let the background bleed through a bit and make all the edges soft like hair should be. Course edges around the hair are the first big mistake people make in these kinds of shots. Just above your subject layer create a blank layer and name it clean edges. Use the clone tool at 70-80% with a 3 pixel brush to clone around the edges this gets rid of the white halos from the backdrop.

Step 7:  Evening out the luminance and tone.
The background and subject images have different color and brightness we have to make the mood the same so they look like they were shot together. We will accomplish this with separate layers for the Group and separate layers for the background. we have already added hue saturation, and levels layers above the background. We will now create a color balance layer at the top of or group. Change the blending mode to Color. This this will give you control over the shadow mid tone and highlight tonality without Changing the contrast or brightness of the subject. Add a levels layer if you want to change the brightness and contrast. as long as these layers are in the Subject group they will only affect the subject. You can even mask these layers and paint them on for dodge and burn purposes. Do the same with the layers above the background anything below the subject group will affect the background only.

Step 8: Finishing touches. when the image looks balanced. You should save the psd file. they get pretty big and could crash PS. once save you could flatten the image. Now you need to polish a couple things. if the subject's feet are touching the ground you will need to create a blank layer and paint some soft shadows with a black brush. I then blur the shadows a little bit and the paint then a bit darker near the edge of the feet. Another good trick is to create a fill layer with black as the color. then drop the opacity to 40% and graduate the mask for a strong vignette.

Photography with available light

 So often I Post an image that I shot in available light (sunlight), and the comments come in "What kind of lighting are you using?" I think that in this "Strobist" driven age of photography many new photographers, forget to start from the origins of photography. I was not immune to this illness, But I am happy to say that I am well on my way to recovery. I am 33 years old, and I and a recovering Strobohalic. A stroboholic does not know when to use strobes, and when not to use strobes. It's not their fault though. There has been a continuing movement in the last few years to use portable lighting in the middle of the day, or even the golden hour. Why, because their is a consensuses that it is cool. People are convinced if they can overpower the sun with thousands of dollars in lighting gear they will have a good image. I have been to the top of the mountain. I have overpowered the sun. And you know what? It didn't make a better image unless I used the strobe for a reason other then to fight the ambient. I do use strobes outdoors when necessary. I have a few techniques for mixing available light with strobe lighting. These days I think more about the mood and composition of the image first. 
 I live in Tucson Arizona. We have a lot of natural light. Some of my friends say the light here is no good for photography. I do not believe them. You have to work with what you are given. I shot the two image above between the hours of 4 and 5:30 pm in January. The light was great. Since I shoot in Raw I can adjust color and contrast infinitely after the shoot. In fact these days I preview my images in Black and white on my Camera so all I see in tone. All I want is the Grey scale for outdoor shoots.

So what is the best way to get Great shots with available light?

Shoot in  manual mode only.
 You have to control your camera, or it will control you. without control over your Depth of field and the motion freezing shutter speed. You can not accurately paint the image in your head. Say you want to shoot an image with a soft background with a slight  motion blur to the subject at 1:00pm. It can be done. Set you camera for your best lowest Fstop (aperture) ,set your shutter speed under 1/60, set the lowest ISO of course. Now shoot the set in a shaded area, or use a Neutral density filter/polarize, Or two stacked polarizers to dial in the exposure.

Use the environment don't fight it.
 Play with the shaded areas look at the face of your subject, and  watch out for a heavy mix of shadows and highlights from overhead objects. Move the subject around till they land the right lighting for your shot. use reflectors if they permit. use the side of buildings as reflectors. 

Pick the right time of day for the right mood of the shot.
You can shoot all day, but the light will change and you will have to change with it. You must keep varying your exposure, And watching the position of the sun and how it falls on the subject. Again find and area with shade and move the subject to the edge of the shade and see how the light fall changes on the subject. Moving them one inch can make a big difference. this is like moving a Softbox in and out. The contrast will change on the face and body. For high contrast fashion images I shoot between 3:00 and 5:00 pm or 9to10am. Of course around fie you have near perfect soft warm light.

So before you buy a lot of gear, Set your camera on manual and go play with what is already free.