Tracks Along the Water’s Edge

Someone was here before us.

This past Saturday afternoon was really just perfect for being outside. Not too hot, and not too cold. We’re talking about nice South Florida weather here. Apparently the birds thought so too. They were busy.

The tide was low, and the light was right for hauling my Canon 100-400mm f4.5L lens, and Canon 5D Mark II body out for a few hours of shooting.

A mangrove branch bathed in that great, golden afternoon light.

When stepping down onto the sand, I come across the canal and out to the water’s edge, I am always drawn to the shapes created by the big, dead, tree that stands as a sentinel at the entrance to the canal from the intracoastal. During high tide just a small part of the tree is visible, but at mid and low tides it serves as an ideal perch for all kinds of shore birds.

The Sentinel

Looking back toward the canal I just crossed.

My first guest was a yellow crowned night heron busily hunting nearby. Hunting for them consists of pretty much just standing around waiting for their prey to swim by. They eat mostly aquatic invertebrates and some fish, crabs and crayfish. I have no idea why they are called nocturnal, I’ve seen them looking for food from morning until evening. This particular heron let me get very close before flying off.

The first guest, a yellow crowned night heron.

I continued walking along listening to the sounds of the herons up ahead, they make a funny, growling kind of sound. I was surprised by the warning call of an osprey directly ahead of me. The osprey I usually visit and photograph, I named her Koko, was hanging out in a tree I’ve not seen her in before. She was a little difficult to pick out surrounded by the foliage. I moved in as close as I dared, and stopped when she gave me the warning call. I even switched my Canon 5D Mark II to video mode and shot a few videos of her, before she took off. I got too close for her comfort.

Koko, the osprey working on keeping me at a distance.

Koko, the osprey, says see ya later.

Walking along the water’s edge I came across these incredibly shaped pieces of driftwood that litter the shoreline. One piece in particular is about 7 feet high and maybe 15 feet wide, it looks like the skeleton of an old ship’s hull to me, but it’s really just the roots of a large tree that fell over a long, long time ago. The driftwood looked so cool, that I shot it from crazy angles, backlit, from below, and with the water’s edge blurred behind the branch shapes.

The huge tree that looks like the skeleton of the hull of a ship to me.

Here's one of my crazy, angular shots.

Glenn, an avid photographer, and friend of ours came walking along then. He started shooting that wild looking piece of dead wood too.

Glenn taking photos looking south along the intracoastal.

Just a bit further down, by the barnacle covered sea wall, which stands at the furthest point one can walk to, we spied a little blue heron checking us out while scouting around for a meal. This heron really showed the blue color he’s named for, and the purplish color in his neck and head was really showcased by the low afternoon light. Sometimes these birds run when they’re hunting, with those legs, it’s funny, don’t tell them I said that though.

The little blue heron checking us out.

We came across this dead branch, coming out sideways, and shooting up and out toward the water. Check it out. I thought the whitish part of the trunk looked a bit like a heron’s head as he stalks his prey. Ya think? Too much imagination, huh?

Doesn't it look like the head and neck of a heron?

On the way back we caught the yellow crowned night heron busily searching among the moss covered rocks for dinner. He got some too.

A yellow crowned night heron stalking its prey.

A little blue heron flew on shore just behind us, and as you can see he was obviously on patrol, because he was too darned interested in what we were doing. Here’s a fun fact about these guys, the male usually chooses the nesting territory before he goes about courting a female. I sure hope he’s good at decorating!

The little blue heron that was very interested in us.

My pal, Koko the osprey, was not overly pleased about the fact that we had the nerve to hang around near her trees, she had to retreat to the opposite side of the intracoastal to wait us out. She did just that – we weren’t gone 20 minutes before she flew right back to her favorite spot.

Koko on the other side of the intracoastal waiting for us to leave.

A couple of ibis flew in for a landing on the big branch outside of the canal. They were quite brave while we shot away and totally invaded their space. We were really close. I guess they’re not just brave during hurricanes. These birds are the last to take shelter before a hurricane, and the first to come back when the storm has passed. It makes me want to ask them, what are you thinking?

The ibis come in for a landing.

The ibis version of hopscotch.

One of the brave birds that posed for the humans.

I think Glenn enjoyed himself shooting in our own little wildlife refuge. He got some great shots. He needs to have a blog to show them off. Marcella came down to the seawall to see what she could see, too.

Glenn shoots me, while Marcella walks over.

Marcella spots something to show Glenn.

It really was a beautiful walk along the intracoastal, but once the sun started to go down, those creepy little sand flies, also known as no-see-ums came out chomping away with their nasty little teeth. The bites from the female hurt and itch, that sent us packing. Next time, insect repellent will be in my camera bag.

One more look at that beautiful, golden light.

It was a really, good time while it lasted though. Until next time, happy shooting.

A Great, Big, Catalog, Adobe InDesign and Teacup Software’s DataLinker At Play

Sorry, I’ve been gone for a while, and with good reason. I was offered the opportunity to work on a contract basis, for several weeks, for the company I used to work for full time. I’m one of the 1 in 10 Americans that are currently unemployed. I have the skills, but I cost too much.

Back to the subject…I created a 388 page master type catalog last year, using Adobe InDesign CS2, and I linked pricing data with the DataLinker plug-in. DataLinker is a very cool plugin for use with InDesign, it allows you to automate the update process for information in your document, by connecting directly to a data source, saving hours and hours of production time. Here’s to you Teacup Software!
Check them and DataLinker out at http://www.teacupsoftware.com/products/datalinker.html

When building the 2009 catalog, I used the DataLinker plug-in for Adobe InDesign CS2 to link every item number and price in the catalog, approximately 10,000 items, to a CSV file, a big CSV file, listing each and every item the company carried, by item number, along with the product’s description, and current sale price. I linked the item numbers and prices to the CSV file using the DataLinker plug-in, and doing it by myself, it took several weeks. It’s not a difficult process, just time consuming, but the reward is great. Read on.

Fast forward to this past December. The person that replaced me, was not familiar with DataLinker, and asked the owner to bring me in to handle the DataLinker process. I accepted the challenge.

In order to fully appreciate this story, you need a little background information. Last year we were running Adobe InDesign CS2, on an Intel iMac, with the appropriate DataLinker plug-in installed. Since the production of the catalog last year, we had updated our software to Adobe InDesign CS3. When I came in I made sure we purchased the update for our DataLinker plug-in, and we installed it with ease. We opened the 2009 file, and saw what we thought were the links from last year. DataLinker puts these nice brackets around the linked data in your document. The brackets were there, I assumed (I know I have to watch out for that assume word) that the data was linked, and we just needed to replace the data source (the .csv file) with one reflecting this year’s pricing, and synchronize the data. I was elated. So elated that I made the mistake of telling the “new me” to link the newly added product’s item numbers and prices to the 2009 CSV file without properly naming the data source. DO NOT make this mistake. It burns. I’ll explain in a bit.

The main love of DataLinker’s life, in your document, is the name you gave your DATA SOURCE or sources. This is big. Remember this name, it’s important. I did not. I didn’t realize its importance. I just went ahead and made up a new name for the data source in our 2010 file and just assumed, there’s that word again, that the links would be just fine. I decided to synchronize the document and found that the links were broken. I freaked out. All I could think about was how my eyes were crossing as I linked all of the items last year, and I could not possibly entertain the thought of a repeat performance.

It’s a good thing the nice people at Teacup Software really do respond to e-mail pleas for support. They are amazing. I was a bit, a bit? ok, very freakin’ concerned at first because they do not publish a telephone number for support. All that the freaky, little monster inside my head wanted was to talk to someone who could help me fix this problem really fast! Instead I wrote a heart felt, informative email to the nice people at Teacup explaining my circumstances, and begging for their help.

Within hours I received a response. The Teacup Software Support Team came to the rescue. They were actually sorry I ran into this issue. What a great team! They went on to explain that the data source was no longer part of the document. I had two choices to fix the problem: 1. Recreate the data source, naming it EXACTLY as it was named in CS2. 2. Pull in the CS2 data source file from your old preferences folder, to your CS3 preferences folder. You can do this by quitting InDesign, then go to your user folder > Library > Preferences > Adobe InDesign. Look in the folder named “Version 5.0” for a folder named DataLinker. This contains your CS3 data sources; rename it to something different to make sure you backup any data sources you’ve created in CS3. Then look in the folder named “Version 4.0” for the folder named DataLinker, and copy that folder to the “Version 5.0” folder. Then restart InDesign. You should be good to go.

I should have been good to go at that point too, except for one small, no big, problem. I had trashed every single file that Adobe CS2 had installed on the computer used to produce the catalog file in the first place when we updated to Adobe CS3. Bye, bye CS2 data source information! So much for option 2’s saving grace.

Enter option 1, and another fine rescue effort by the Teacup Software Support Team. Of course I wrote back to the nice Teacup Support people, explaining that I threw all of the old preference files that could help away. In desperation, I asked if there was folder installed anywhere on the computer that I could check to verify the name I gave the DATA SOURCE in CS2.

The wonderful angels that work at Teacup Software responded with the elusive answer to solve my dilemma. They told me all I had to do to see what my data source was named, was to look in the XML pane in InDesign CS3. You can get to this pane by selecting View > Structure > Show Structure. The XML panel shows up on the left. All you have to do at this point is select some text that you linked with DataLinker, and then open up the XML tree and scroll down until you see an item that’s underlined, that will be the text that you selected. You’ll see that most of the DataLinker items are tagged as “teacup-tag”. Open up that underlined item and you will see the attributes that define the record, the column, and the pot of gold I was searching for — the name of the DATA SOURCE I used last year. Ahhh, sweet relief.

All I had to do was make sure the new data source I made had the same name as the original data source from last year. It worked like a charm. Once I properly named the data source, and synchronized the document, the previously linked items updated themselves from the new 2010 CSV file just like magic, and as fast as lightening. Voila, success! All that remained was to relink all of the items I told the “new me” to link when we were using the wrong DATA SOURCE name.

Now do you see why remembering the name of your DATA SOURCE is so important? It’s almost as important as remembering your anniversary! Sort of.

I wrote this entry in my blog as a tribute to the Teacup Software Support Team, and to offer my sincere thanks for their outstanding customer support! For those of you that may have run into my situation, and are desperately looking for the answer right now, here it is, in black and white.

If you are considering the use of the DataLinker plug-in to connect data to your InDesign documents, I can assure you that doing so, although tedious to set up, is well worth the effort. You will recover the time you spent in set up, the very first time you update the linked data in your document. DataLinker is a simple, efficient, solution to managing data in your InDesign documents. Visit them today and check out their products, they deserve this plug.
http://www.teacupsoftware.com/index.html

Big Surf in Delray Beach, Who Knew?

This is amazing for Delray Beach.

Surf's Up!

This weekend in southeast Florida was unusual in that we had waves, big 5 to 6 foot waves. Exciting stuff for all of the surfers in our area. This only happens once or twice a year, and only when the weather is just right. The weather was just right this weekend and people were loving the big, crashing waves. They were such an incredible color too, it looked like they might have gotten some of their color from the sand they picked up as they came roaring toward the shore. That picking up sand business is not such a good thing, the erosion has been out of control this weekend too.

The wind is blowing the tops right off of these waves.

Of course I had to head out to the beach with my camera, and big, heavy 100-400mm lens which let me get in pretty close on the surfers and the surf. I had to shield my lens from the salt, the wind was kicking up pretty good out of the north. I actually just pulled the bottom out of my camera bag (it was a small one) and used it to semi-protect my lens from the onslaught of salt. Even though my camera and lens are weatherproof, I try not to abuse that. In fact, it’s a very good idea to clean your camera and lenses when returning from a shoot at the beach. You don’t want to leave all that salt on your equipment.

One of the many great waves to be had this weekend.

There were lots of waves for everyone.

Another great ride on the unusual waves in Delray Beach Florida this weekend.

The waves just kept on coming this weekend.

Look at the color of these waves. Incredible.

This young man is quite the surfer dude.

I can’t seem to go anywhere that an osprey might be without seeing one, so I’ve included some pix of a young male osprey that circled by me several times on Saturday and another one came by on Sunday. What a beautiful sight silhouetted against the deep blue sky.

We had a really great beach weekend. The surf looked more like Daytona Beach than Delray Beach, ok, I’m pushing it, but one can dream!

Check out the sights for yourself!

The view looking toward the south on Delray Beach.

Waves, Waves, Waves!!!

This osprey was busy cruising for some chow.

This osprey took a moment to check out my camera lens on his way by.

A young girl on the shoreline checking out the surf.

Whoooooshhhh!

The spray is still hanging in the air as this wave crashes down.

Photo studio lighting purchasing decisions, scarier than Halloween!

For me, I found it to be easier to choose a home and buy it, than it has been to try to choose decent, long-lasting studio/location monolights for photography!

How on Earth is one to make a decision?

I really had to walk away from the computer and stop looking at all the variables, and information and comments out there on this subject. It’s a very, very personal subject for many photographers. After all, it is the paintbrush one uses in photography. I know I like to have the best watercolor brushes I can afford to create my watercolor paintings.

I have been so busy for the last four days, yes—four days, researching studio lighting. Lighting that isn’t too much light, or too little for my needs. What do I need them for you ask? To shoot my watercolor paintings, so I can make giclées, to create unique fine art photographs, to shoot product, and stock photos, with the occasional studio style portrait, one or two people, head and shoulders, or outdoors with pets. The lights need to be portable. I’m not ready to get batteries to take them to the beach, but down the road I want that to be a possibility.

I’m looking at purchasing two monolights, total 1000ws or less for now. I want something I can grow into, rather than out of. That said, I talked to a few photographer friends, got their opinions and I headed off to check out what I could learn but doing research on the web. Good idea, and huge mistake. I am now, totally undecided.

By the way, I have only looked at opinions from buyers in comment sections at retailer sites, or at reputable photography forums and the like. I also watched a lot of the lighting demo video on the web made by some real pros, that helped me see many of the products in action. I checked my pro photo mags reviews and such too.

I have narrowed my choices down to Elinchrom, Photogenic and Calumet monolights, and the kits offered. There are many more great lights out there, but for me, these work. I did manage that much after reading as much info as I could absorb in my four days of research. Let me say first off, the kits that include the lights, umbrellas, stands and all, according to the comments and reviews I’ve read, leave people wanting more. They don’t seem totally satisfied with their purchases. Some portion of the kit is sub par in almost every case, and will need to be replaced. I also didn’t really want the umbrellas that most of the kits offered, I would replace them with octagonal and rectangular softboxes anyway.

So that leaves one to go out there and look for the best lights here, and the best softboxes there, and the best studio stands and backgrounds from over there. Now that’s all good too, but can you do it for a price close to that of the kits? Not really, but you can get close. Being a member of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) helps a lot here too. $99 a year, gets you a great informative magazine and access to product discounts, tutorials and way more. Info from Scott Kelby’s blog helped me a whole lot in this decision-making process too.

After about a good 30 to 40 hours of research, here’s what I’ve decided. I want something that has consistent color output, something that will last a long time, is durable, not too heavy, something that offers enough power, but not too much power for my space, and I want a decent modeling lamp, I read that 100 watts just doesn’t cut it. I do not want to be one of those that realizes about a month into the purchase that I should have spent that extra $500 bucks on what I really wanted, rather than settling for “affordable”. Nothing is a deal if you want to replace it six months after you buy it.

That decided, I went on to read about radio slave systems for the lighting, now I’m real interested. No cords for “Gracie” to trip over, that’s me, of course, ten years of ballet lessons and I’m still a klutz. It’s a good thing that all three of the manufacturers I looked at offer radio control of some kind.

One manufacturer offers a unit mounted on the hot shoe of your camera that apparently has too high a profile and it sticks up in your line of view. Remember now, this is according to consumer comments I came across. Range is another issue, I don’t need to shoot from 1500 feet away, or the next town over, so I think I’ll be good without that. So now I want to find the biggest bang for the buck in a quality, well-designed,  built in radio control unit, without having to buy more transmitters and transceivers, and adapter cords and so on. So, in my humble opinion, and for my needs, the EL-Skyport from Elinchrom wins for ease, design, and dollars. Although I do think the LiteLink radio option with the Calumet Travelite lighting is to be considered as well. It plays well with the PocketWizard too. Decisions, decisions.

I went on to look at the flash variability specs on these brands because it’s important to me to be able to have the widest range I can get because I plan to use these lights in lots of different scenarios. It seems to me that the Photogenic Solair wins in this category with the widest range. 8 f-stops. I really wish there were more comments and reviews from users out there about the Solair lights.

I then looked into how well each of the brands were for color consistency as one reduces the output of the light, according to the comments out there, even though I found a lot of people very happy with the Photogenic lights, many more were really happy with their Elinchrom Style 600RX lights. Again, I did find it hard to find a lot of comments and reviews about the Photogenic Solair lights. I don’t know why that is, but they do seem to be a contender. The “constant color” sounds so nice to me as I have spent hours with color correction people when working for clothing catalogs and doing color correction myself, and I know how long that process takes. I’d rather have my original shot consistently “right there” from the start, rather than having to spend hours in Photoshop “fixing the color”.

One more thing, the Photogenic Solair lights at 500ws weigh a little less than the Elinchrom Digital Style 600RX lights. Both are just under 6 lbs.

After vacillating back and forth, I’ve decided, I think, to buy the Elinchrom Digital Style Combo 600RX two monolight kit that includes only the lights, and EL-Skyport system.

Now on to the stands. There are millions, really just way too many! I like those rolling light stands, Avenger makes one called the “Baby Roller”.  Now this looks like one that ole “Gracie” might not be able to trip over. With the radio controlled lights, there will only be one wire, the plug. Yes! I chose the Avenger Century C stand for the other light. The C stand is another to keep “Gracie” out of trouble.

On to light control. I read that the Elinchrom Rotalux Octa softbox rocks, I also read that some don’t like it. It’s not too expensive so I think I’m going to get the Mini Octa softbox, which is a 39″ model. I also like the 14″ x 35″ Rotalux Mini Recta softbox from Elinchrom. I did learn that Chimera makes some fabulous light banks and when I’m able, monetarily, I’ll look into those too.

Reflectors are a necessary accessory too. I haven’t put any time in on researching them, that’s next. For now I will make due with white foam core and black cardboard.

Last decision….a good light meter. I really like the Sekonic L-358. Lots, and lots, and lots, of good comments out there about it. They say it’s accurate and reliable and well made. I’m sold. For fans of the PocketWizard, compatibility is easy. You can add an accessory that will let you fire your lights without removing your transmitter from the hot shoe of your camera each time you want to meter your lighting. The Sekonic looks like it’s fairly straight forward and intuitive to work with to me, and many buyers say the same. Now, when : ) I have an unlimited budget, I will go for the Sekonic L-758C Cine Light Meter, that’s really hot!

Oh and backgrounds, I think I’m going to go to Calumet for these, they have a good looking heavy duty stand for paper. I don’t have a space to use a wall mount or I would go for that. I did find stronger seeming background stands, but for my needs the stands Calumet offers should do just fine. Or maybe I’ll do a bit more research. I’m over it, but obsessed. For now, I think I’ve made my decisions, or I hope I have, until I run into a devastating comment regarding one of my choices, and the indecision will start again.

I just thought I should throw this out there for anyone else that might be suffering the anxiety associated with the purchase of a decent, quality lighting system and the necessary accessories. I really hope the time I put in can help others too!

And if any of you out there has anything to tell us all about this, go for it, we’re listening. Knowledge is Power!

Now back to doing what I love, enough research. I’ll let it all marinate for a few days.

Take care all!

Photos from the beach this evening.

The osprey after one of his dives into the water.

My friend Norah and I took a walk along the beach this evening. The sun hadn’t set yet but it was getting ready to. It was still so very hot out, not much of a breeze either. We’re hoping things will cool off down here in South Florida soon, real soon. I know, no sympathy from those freezing up north.

Of course I brought my camera along, just in case I saw something that intrigued me. We weren’t too far into our walk when I noticed an osprey fishing with wild abandon up ahead of us. This guy was throwing himself into the water time and time again. He just could not catch a fish, but it sure wasn’t for his lack of trying.

Male osprey flying high above the beach looking for fish.

I was hoping to catch the osprey in a dive. I’ve seen one dive, but I’ve yet to photograph one successfully, and tonight was no different. I got some great shots while he was flying and starting the dive, but the final descent is so fast, and the bird reverses and hits the water and pulls himself out so fast that every image I shot during this time is totally out of focus. I was shooting at 1/1000, that was clearly way too slow a shutter speed. I can see this is a challenge I will have to overcome.

The osprey beginning his dive toward the water.

Further down the beach we came across a crab that was quite busy by the shoreline. When we approached he turned right around and came after us, both claws raised. He meant business…..don’t come any closer ladies, I predict pain! I imagine having the two of us and a great big lens staring at him was pretty scary from his perspective. I did notice that crabs have eyelashes. Yup, little hairs growing out above those crazy tubular eyes. Check them out.

This crab has eyelashes, he does! Take a look.

Well that’s it for today. Until next time I will be trying to catch that elusive osprey diving into the surf photo.

Catching the full moon digitally

My friend Janet and I went to the water’s edge, wine glasses in hand, Sunday evening around 7pm to wait for the moon to rise. As I set up my photo equipment, the sky was just starting to turn that really great cobalt blue color that it gets right before dark sets in.

The moon was due to rise at 7:07 and we didn’t see anything until our friend Marlene called us over to a spot where you could see through the Australian pines, and there it was….big, beautiful and amazing. It was already 7:21 by then.

Check out the cool shot of the American flag and the moon. Janet worked hard to try to get that flag to fly and it did.

It was so nice to slow down and enjoy all that nature had on display for us Sunday evening.

For those that might be interested;

I was using a Canon 100-400 mm f4.5-5.6L series lens on my Canon 5D Mark II body, I had it mounted on a tripod and had to use manual focus, auto focus only worked for the super close ups.

Most of the shots were hit or miss. I tried different exposures until I got the ones I wanted. Even though, it was impossible to get detail in the moon and get the reflection of the moon on the clouds. I had to overexpose to get the clouds, which ends up blurring  the moon somewhat, and underexpose to get detail in the moon. I decided to combine a properly exposed shot of the moon with a good exposure of the overall shot. That worked.

The early shots, with the dark blue sky were shot at 1/40 f5.6 -1EV. The night shots were 0.5 sec at f7.1 and 0.8 sec at f5.6.

The Full Moon on October 4th.

The full moon rising and losing it's yellow orange color.

The full moon behind the American Flag.

Photo of the moon as it rises higher in the sky and reflects on the intracoastal. Great clouds.

In this photograph the moon has risen above the clouds.

Photographs of the birds that flew by in less than one hour.

I just had to share this with you.

I needed a break from working on the computer, so I walked down to our little slice of unspoiled nature along the Intracoastal Waterway with my camera and telephoto lens. Within minutes I saw so much, I just stood there and shot photograph after photograph while the parade went by, it was like watching a Mutual of Omaha Wildlife Show. :  ) It was about 4:30 in the afternoon, so it was getting close to supper time in the bird world.

Look at what I got. I shot a common tern, several pelicans, a male osprey (he looked young, I wonder if he was migrating???), and a female osprey coming in for a landing.

The (young??) male osprey that flew overhead really upset our local female osprey, Koko. Her alarm call was going full blast. My next mission is to use my camera to shoot some video of her. She’s got a great voice. It must be shared.

Here are my flying bird photos, they were shot at 1/800 with f5.6 to f6.3 using a Canon 100-400 f4.5-5.6L series lens on a Canon 5D Mark II body. I’m happy with the results I get with this lens camera combo, it’s the best yet. These photos have been cropped so you can see the details better. I hope you like them.

Photo of pelicans flying overhead.

A close shot of one of the pelicans.

This is the male osprey that flew by

Another shot of the "young" male that flew over.

The female osprey, I call her Koko, comes in for a landing.

Another in a series of shots of Koko coming in for a landing on her perch.

A common tern flew overhead.

HDR photographs, closer to reality, or not?

High Dynamic Range Photography gives you the power to produce perfectly exposed, noise-free images. You can capture and output a broader range of light than is currently possible using any other of today’s photographic techniques.

I promised to show you some high dynamic range ( HDR ) photography. Are you ready?

In order to produce a good HDR image you will need several things. First, you’ll need a high contrast scene in which you would like to capture the full dynamic range, or as close as possible. You’ll want to choose a scene without too much movement, ie. water, clouds, foliage in the wind. People are challenging to shoot for HDR images, but it can work if they stay still. You should use a tripod for the best results, hand held shots are challenging at best. Change only the shutter speed to achieve the EV’s you’re looking for. You don’t want to change the aperture because that will change your depth of field and that variable needs to be constant for your HDR image to work.

You’ll need to shoot three images, with different exposure values, although you can use less, or more images. The easiest way to do this is to use your camera’s auto exposure bracketing to capture the same image at varying exposure levels, to include all of the tones in your image. For example, use Auto Exposure bracketing to capture 3 images of a scene, one at -2EV, one at 0EV, and one at +2EV. You may need to include more exposures than this for your image. For instance, I used 4 shots to produce the image below. The images used to produce the HDR image below were shot with the following EV’s, +1EV, 0EV, -1EV, and -2EV. I found that adding a +2EV image was too much, that blew the highlights out, it really takes a judgement call as to how many images, and at what EV range you’ll need to capture the full dynamic range of your scene. I learned that sometimes less is more in this case.

An HDR image produced with Photomatix Pro and Detail Enhancer

Here’s the 0 EV image processed in Canon’s Digital Photo Professional software. I tried to get as close to the above exposure as possible. As you can see, no comparison.

This is the raw 0EV image processed in Canon's Digital Photo Professional

If your camera has Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) that allows you to predefine the number of images and exposure variation for your set of images, and if your camera offers continuous shooting mode, all the better because you’ll just need to press and hold the shutter release once to shoot all the exposures for the set.

Once you’ve captured the images for your soon to be HDR image, you’ll need to combine those images into one image. You can use several different apps to do this, including; Photomatix Pro, FDR Tools, Dynamic Photo HDR, Adobe Photoshop, or Artizen HDR. Many offer free trials. Today I tried Photomatix Pro, to process my HDR images. In addition to the fact that they offer a video tutorial, I found the program to be intuitive, and it produced good results, once I figured out what each image needed. I processed various images of different exposures until I got something I liked. You do have to get familiar with the process. You get out, what you put in.

Using Photomatix Pro, I chose to generate one HDR image to begin with. It will allow you to batch process, but I’m not there yet. Producing one HDR image is easy, just press the button for one image (Generate HDR Image), a dialog box comes up allowing you to drag and drop your images, or to browse for the images you want to use to generate your HDR image. Once you’ve loaded your images, and you have chosen the appropriate options,  press Generate HDR. In a few seconds, it really doesn’t take that long on a newer machine, you’ll have your results. They WILL be disappointing at first. You see, the tonal range captured is too great for your monitor or printer to render, the image has to be “tone mapped”. Photomatix Pro offers several options for tone mapping your image. One option is to use the Details Enhancer, and the other is to use the Tone Mapper. The results you achieve with each will be quite different, see below for examples. The Details Enhancer will give you a more detailed, or painterly, or even surreal version of your image. The Tone Mapper will give you a more realistic photographic effect. The one you use will depend on the effect you’re after and the image your using.

If you save your “raw” HDR image you can then process it in different ways to see which results you like the best. I’m really excited about the possibilities available to photographers with this new technology. It can only get better.

Here are some examples of today’s experiments. I call them experiments. because I believe the possibilities are endless.

The same image using the Photomatix Pro Tone-Mapping.

Two images combined and tone-mapped in Photomatix Pro using Detail Enhancer.

By combining three different exposures in Photomatix Pro’s Exposure Fusion, I got this result. This is easier than producing an HDR image and it doesn’t require the tone-mapping step that’s necessary with a true HDR image.

I used Photomatix Pro's Exposure Fusion to create this image.

This scene was very contrasty. Photomatix Pro did a good job using Detail Enhancer.

This shot of Tyler was made from three exposures. The scene was backlit and very contrasty before the HDR image was produced.

My friend Tyler stayed still for the three shots for his HDR image

By the way, my site is still down.

I am really not happy about the fact that the server my site is on has been down for over three days. MacHighway says they are working feverishly on it’s repair. I sure hope so!

Today the Osprey took me by surprise!

This Osprey came out of nowhere to eyeball me.

How cool is that? I dropped by my usual haunt down by the Intracoastal Waterway this morning with my camera and 100-400 zoom lens to see what I could see. The tide was pretty low so I was able to walk north along the shoreline and past all the cool trees that lay out over the water. This is where a lot of different birds like to roost. I sometimes take them by surprise, which was the case with this poor Great Blue Heron, I think that’s what this bird is, although I thought they were more gray than this bird. Anyway, at his expense, I was able to get these two shots of him or her, in flight.

This is the Heron I scared to death, he was big!

The same Heron a little further away.

I walked along the shoreline, then in the water when I had to go around the big branches that hang over and block my way. I saw several birds in flight and got some shots, but they were too far off. On my way back, I looked up at the branch above my head, the one the Osprey usually gets, just to check for her, and I came across this Ibis. The angle made it a fun shot. I’ve never really been UNDER an Ibis before!

A view from under the Ibis.

I decided to go and sit on the rocks to just watch nature go by. Next thing you know the entire branch I just shot the Ibis on, has a bunch more Ibis perched on it. I got some shots of them, they looked kind of artsy just sitting around on that branch. I decided to go in closer on the Ibis and walked out to the giant dead tree branch by the canal to prop the lens on, and shoot some more. I stopped shooting for a second, and just looked. All of a sudden, and I mean that, the Osprey arrived, she was stealth, she was just hanging out a few “floors” down on the same branch as the Ibis! I was so excited, she was right there. Looking at me. Close! I used the branch as a pseudo tripod and took about 20 shots of her, and I am telling you, she posed. These birds know I love them and they show off! I was not able to get any closer though. She wasn’t havin’ it!

Tah-dah! The Osprey finally came to look for me.

Here's a photograph of her other side. She WAS posing.

I checked back in on the area tonight at around 5 PM. No birds, just people fishing, and only the Catfish were biting for them. The light was beautiful though. I wish I’d had my camera so I could show you the pink streaks shooting up from the eastern horizon as the sun set in the west. Next time.

Oh I promised to do a post on HDR photography, I took some shots for HDR images today. I’ll process them and post them tomorrow. Here’s a shot of one of the locations that I used to shoot for the HDR photos. It was contrasty. Wait until you see how it looks after HDR processing.

This location I chose to capture the shots for the HDR image.