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Jeremy > February 19, 2009; Day 293. Construction in Style. I visited the home of my friend Scott for the first time today. He has spent the past few years converting an old mill building in downtown Manchester into a sweet living space. I was astonished at the beauty of the space and what he has done with it. I came to his house in order to photograph the construction’s half-way point, but after two hours I had covered less than half of the main living space on the top floor. The entire floor is a photographer’s dream come true. Subjects abound everywhere I looked, and I haven’t even seen the space in natural light yet. I will be back. This is an HDR composite of 3 exposures. Here’s the original scene at +1 EV for comparison. I posted additional photos from this shoot in this separate gallery. Camera: Fixed aperture: f/5.6; Fixed ISO: 200; Bracketed 5 exposures, whole stops between -2 and +2 EV. Selected the -2, 0, and +2 exposures (shutter speeds 1/3s, 1.3s, and 5s) to feed into Photomatix Photomatix: (Generate): Selected Ghost Removal set for Ripples and High detection; Selected “as shot” white balance Photomatix: (Tone Mapping): Strength: 90; Saturation: 5; Light Smoothing: High; Luminance: 1; White Point: 0.995; Black Point: 0.111 PS: Healing Brush to remove flare PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > February 12, 2009; Day 286. The Future. Today was my last day in Waverly, New York. Dad and I spent the morning with Aunt Alice. While we were watching the Weather channel, I noticed these photos of her 9 grandchildren on the sill. The cycle of life continues. Although these kids are young, someday these shots will be pasted on cardboard and put on display at funeral homes. But not today...that's the point I think. Since the window was an inescapable part of this shot, I decided to make a bracketed set of exposures for a possible HDR combination. You may not think that this view is the greatest but it hasn’t bothered this family much in the past 40 years. I like how un-HDRlike this shot is. After breakfast Dad and I went our opposite ways; he to Ohio and I to New Hampshire. I was very glad to have made this trip, and I know that Aunt Carol is in a better place. As always, my life did not go on without me; it was all waiting for me when I got back! Thanks to everyone who wrote kind words of support. I will post more photos from this trip in a separate gallery. Camera: Fixed aperture: f/2.8; Fixed ISO: 1600; Bracketed 7 exposures, whole stops between -3 and +3 EV; Selected the -3, -1, +1, and +3 exposures to feed into Photomatix Photomatix: (Generate): Selected Ghost Removal set for Ripples and High detection; Selected “as shot” white balance Photomatix: (Tone Mapping): Strength: 60; Saturation: 60; Light Smoothing: Medium; White Point: 1.416; Black Point: 0.010 PS: Curves adjustment for more contrast PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > January 25, 2009; Day 268. Greenhouse Effect. My friend Al lives in a house in Deerfield that he built himself. It’s carved into the side of a hill that faces south. Thus, the north side is short and embedded in the earth. The south side is tall and is mostly made up of this magnificent two-story greenhouse, which is so warm in the January sun that it heats the remainder of the house throughout the day. Inside the greenhouse are many flowering plants that are as lush and happy right now as they’d be on a warm Spring day. This is a 3-exposure HDR, handheld. I overdid the saturation just a bit in Photomatix so I dialed it down a pinch in Photoshop. Camera: Fixed aperture: f/11; Bracketed 9 exposures, whole stops between -4 and +4 EV; Selected the 0, +2, and +4 exposures to feed into Photomatix. Photomatix: (Generate): Remove Ghosting: Ripples/High; White Balance: as shot Photomatix: (Tone Mapping): Strength: 50; Saturation: 60; Light Smoothing: High; White Point: 1.834; Black Point: 0.132 PS: Saturation: -5 PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > January 23, 2009; Day 266. Henniker Sky. I really enjoy the Monadnock region of New Hampshire…there’s so much to photograph, and I’ve only scratched the surface. This is a library in downtown Henniker. The Henniker town motto is "The only Henniker on Earth." Catchy. This is an HDR composite using 4 raw images. This is my first handheld HDR. It is also my first bracketed sequence using Nikon’s bracketing function. I simply dial in the number of exposures I want (3, 5, 7, or 9), select the aperture I want, compose the subject, and press the shutter. The camera generates all exposures rapid-fire one after the other, adjusting the shutter speed to achieve over/under exposures. I did have a few pixels of camera motion between each exposure, but Photomatix’s ripple ghost remover seems to work very well. Here’s another HDR as an alternate daily. These buildings are next door to each other (you can see part of it in the lower left of the photo above). I didn’t pick the church as my daily because I didn’t like having to chop the building in half to get such great sky. I love the potential of HDR. I’ll bet I’ll love it more when I learn to create photos that don't have that HDR "look." Still, this is not bad. Camera: Fixed aperture: f/8; Bracketed 7 exposures, whole stops between -3 and +3 EV; Selected the -3, -1, +1, and +3 exposures to feed into Photomatix. Photomatix: (Generate): Selected Ghost Removal set for Ripples and High detection; Selected “as shot” white balance Photomatix: (Tone Mapping): Strength: 70; Saturation: 80; Light Smoothing: High; White Point: 1.084; Black Point: 0.031 PS: Crop: 10.5MP PS: Lab b channel adjustment: “Soft light” at 50% opacity PS: Hue/Saturation: Hue: +5; Saturation: -5 PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > January 15, 2009; Day 258. In Session. At 9 p.m. today it was already -3 degrees in Concord and the sky is clear. That should make for a fun commute in the morning. I didn’t expect to venture out tonight in search of a photo of the day, but I drew a complete blank for subjects in my house tonight. Luckily I noticed these lights on in the back of the State house, so I grabbed them. Quickly. As I was wrapping up, a security guard in another building was rapping on the glass. I have no idea why, I was photographing a public building from a public place. I guess it was too cold for him to come outside and explain what the problem was. It didn’t matter anyway, I got my shots. I recognized the high dynamic range nature of this scene, and having recently watched the teaser chapters from the “Real World HDR” class at the Kelby Training website, I decided to bracket this scene (-2, 0, +2). I’m glad I did. Although the bulbs are a little hot, I got good detail in the base. This is not sepia. There’s not a lot of color in this scene to begin with. And although I expected the pastel action to flatten it further, I actually liked the effect it produced. If I shoot this again some day, I'll eliminate that window. Many thanks to everyone who commented on yesterday’s photo! In camera: 3 exposures at fixed aperture (f/2.8) and varying shutter speeds: (1/1.6s, 1/6s, 1/25s) Photomatix: Auto White Balance selected prior to HDR generation Photomatix: Strength: 79 Photomatix: Color Saturation: 35 Photomatix: White Point: 1.889% Photomatix: Black Point: 2.975% PS: Rotate 2 degrees PS: Crop to 7.9MP PS: Channel Mixer: Several settings for pastel effect PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > July 14, 2008; Day 73. The sky in Portsmouth tonight was very pleasant. Urban settings are tough because buildings cast long shadows and telephone wires are everywhere. I was happy to find this combination of colorful buildings, dusky sky, and no wires. I used HDR to overcome the shadows. Photomatix didn’t do so well with the green house (looked like a neutral density filter was added halfway) so I played with the Shadows/Highlights sliders in Photoshop to flatten it without sacrificing the nice saturated colors. This came out better than I hoped! Photomatix: Reduced strength, increased saturation, white point, and black point PS: Shadows: 16%, Highlights: 20% PS: Curves adjustments to increase brightness and contrast
Jeremy > June 20, 2008; Day 49. Today was the Summer Solstice, stage 2: Longest Day. Here in New Hampshire we’re getting more than 15 hours of daylight. What kind of subject would you pick to represent that? Beats me, although probably not a photo that shows the actual separation of church and state! This is Concord's capitol and a church who's name and denomination I forgot to pay attention to. The grounds at this church are pretty and filled with birds…I’ll have to come back. For this shot, I wish that bench in the distance was a lot closer. This is an HDR composed from 3 exposures. The camera is resting on a concrete post. The aperture is f/11 and the shutter speeds are 1/6s, 1/25s, and 1/200s. If it wasn’t past midnight already I would piddle more with the Photomatix sliders to smooth out the light better. Post-Photomatix processing: Unsharp Mask (20-30-0) and crop (~10 percent).
Jeremy > June 14, 2008; Day 43. Did you know that the Summer Solstice is a 3-stage event? I didn’t either until I started studying the Skygazer’s Almanac. Today marked stage 1: Earliest Sunrise. In Manchester, sunrise was 5:06 a.m. I had planned in advance to capture it today as my daily. To do this, I set my alarm for 3:55 and made my first shot at 4:47 a.m. At that hour, unfortunately, I’m not thinking clearly and forgot to check whether auto focus was on. Next, I should have scouted for better location. I picked a nice, high spot from which the downtown skyline is easily visible. But the sun is rising too far from downtown to allow it and the skyline to co-mingle in the frame. Plus there’s the 10-foot chain link fence along this stretch, without a hole in it anywhere. The sky was great for a sunrise, though. Too bad the foreground is a ho-hum roof access tower. It is possible that this will be a great spot to mark the Latest Sunrise next January, but I'll check first. After the sunrise disappointment, I proceeded to the location you see above, which is Sewall’s Falls bridge in Concord. This Pratt thru-truss bridge was built in 1915 and is in pretty rough shape. Its still being used, and its steel-grate deck reverberates with each car that passes over it. HDR was necessary to bring the sky down and the underbelly of the approach up. The low still-golden sunlight really brings out the rust. This shot was created from 7 exposures, all at f/11. The focal length is 14mm. Note to self...time to clean the sensor!
Jeremy > June 12, 2008; Day 41. I’m scouting for just the right place to put my camera when I start the “Four Holidays” project, which hopefully will be ready to go on July 4. I must think ahead for this, as each holiday will have separate lighting requirements as well as ideal placement of subjects that identify the holiday. In this spot, I have a lot of flexibility for a subject dancing around with a sparkler. But if I want to see kids in costumes standing at the door next to the Jack o’lantern at Halloween, I might need to get a little closer. This is an HDR image taken from 6 exposures and assembled with Photomatix. The aperture is a fixed f/8 throughout; the shutter speeds were 25s, 13s, 6s, 3s, 1.6s, and 1/1.3s. Within Photomatix, I increased the white point and saturation but decreased the smoothing (more “glow” near the top of the house) and luminosity (less noise). Bet you wonder how I got this shot with a 1000mm lens! (Actually, the EXIF is wrong, the Sigma was at the full 10mm for this.) PS: Used healing brush to remove power lines. PS: Unsharp Mask: 10-30-0
February 19, 2009; Day 293.

Construction in Style.

I visited the home of my friend Scott for the first time today. He has spent the past few years converting an old mill building in downtown Manchester into a sweet living space. I was astonished at the beauty of the space and what he has done with it. I came to his house in order to photograph the construction’s half-way point, but after two hours I had covered less than half of the main living space on the top floor. The entire floor is a photographer’s dream come true. Subjects abound everywhere I looked, and I haven’t even seen the space in natural light yet. I will be back.

This is an HDR composite of 3 exposures. Here’s the original scene at 1 EV for comparison.

I posted additional photos from this shoot in this separate gallery.

Camera: Fixed aperture: f/5.6; Fixed ISO: 200; Bracketed 5 exposures, whole stops between -2 and 2 EV. Selected the -2, 0, and 2 exposures (shutter speeds 1/3s, 1.3s, and 5s) to feed into Photomatix
Photomatix: (Generate): Selected Ghost Removal set for Ripples and High detection; Selected “as shot” white balance
Photomatix: (Tone Mapping): Strength: 90; Saturation: 5; Light Smoothing: High; Luminance: 1; White Point: 0.995; Black Point: 0.111
PS: Healing Brush to remove flare
PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
Jeremy > February 19, 2009; Day 293. Construction in Style. I visited the home of my friend Scott for the first time today. He has spent the past few years converting an old mill building in downtown Manchester into a sweet living space. I was astonished at the beauty of the space and what he has done with it. I came to his house in order to photograph the construction’s half-way point, but after two hours I had covered less than half of the main living space on the top floor. The entire floor is a photographer’s dream come true. Subjects abound everywhere I looked, and I haven’t even seen the space in natural light yet. I will be back. This is an HDR composite of 3 exposures. Here’s the original scene at +1 EV for comparison. I posted additional photos from this shoot in this separate gallery. Camera: Fixed aperture: f/5.6; Fixed ISO: 200; Bracketed 5 exposures, whole stops between -2 and +2 EV. Selected the -2, 0, and +2 exposures (shutter speeds 1/3s, 1.3s, and 5s) to feed into Photomatix Photomatix: (Generate): Selected Ghost Removal set for Ripples and High detection; Selected “as shot” white balance Photomatix: (Tone Mapping): Strength: 90; Saturation: 5; Light Smoothing: High; Luminance: 1; White Point: 0.995; Black Point: 0.111 PS: Healing Brush to remove flare PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
February 19, 2009; Day 293.

Construction in Style.

I visited the home of my friend Scott for the first time today. He has spent the past few years converting an old mill building in downtown Manchester into a sweet living space. I was astonished at the beauty of the space and what he has done with it. I came to his house in order to photograph the construction’s half-way point, but after two hours I had covered less than half of the main living space on the top floor. The entire floor is a photographer’s dream come true. Subjects abound everywhere I looked, and I haven’t even seen the space in natural light yet. I will be back.

This is an HDR composite of 3 exposures. Here’s the original scene at 1 EV for comparison.

I posted additional photos from this shoot in this separate gallery.

Camera: Fixed aperture: f/5.6; Fixed ISO: 200; Bracketed 5 exposures, whole stops between -2 and 2 EV. Selected the -2, 0, and 2 exposures (shutter speeds 1/3s, 1.3s, and 5s) to feed into Photomatix
Photomatix: (Generate): Selected Ghost Removal set for Ripples and High detection; Selected “as shot” white balance
Photomatix: (Tone Mapping): Strength: 90; Saturation: 5; Light Smoothing: High; Luminance: 1; White Point: 0.995; Black Point: 0.111
PS: Healing Brush to remove flare
PS: Curves adjustment for additional contrast
PS: Smart Sharpening: 180-1-Lens Blur
See photo in gallery
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