Realistic HDR photography

Limited dynamic range is something that plagues many photographers who have gone digital. Or rather, the range itself isn't a problem per se; the problem is with how the two different media perform at the limits of their range.

I don't know the mechanics behind dynamic range, but that doesn't matter here. What matters more to me as a photographer is how they look.

Digital systems tend to clip highlights in a very abrupt manner. Film tends to handle the highlights in a more gradual, elegant manner.

But frankly, in today's day and age, most of us wouldn't want to commit the time to shoot in film. Digital systems simply provide too many conveniences. Solution? High dynamic range (HDR) photography.

First, a note on HDR photography in competitions. HDR photography can either be a multiple exposure technique, or a single exposure technique. The multiple exposure technique involves taking a series of images of the exact same scene with different exposures (such as EV-2, EV0, EV+2), or taking a single RAW image and then manipulating it to make three images of "different exposures". In other words, the first technique would, strictly speaking, be disallowed for competitions requiring entries to be made from a single exposure. The second technique may yield less desirable images, and will most probably present a grey area in such competitions.

We've most probably seen some stunning examples of surreal-looking HDR photography. These are most probably the result of tone mapping by plugin (for Photoshop, Lightroom, Aperture etc) called Photomatix Pro.

By hto2008 on Flickr

Results from Photomatix Pro are easily identifiable - incredible detail in the entire range of the image, and often saturated colours. Aesthetically, this may or may not be desirable depending on what you wish to achieve. Clearly, however, Photomatix Pro isn't an option if more toned down or realistic HDR images are required.

Thankfully, Photoshop has its own HDR funtions that do a pretty good job.

I'm working with Photoshop CS4, but most recent versions should be similar. My tutorial will be based on three separate JPEGs taken handhleld at EV-2, EV0 and EV2 using the bracketing function on my D5000. When the shutter release is held down, what the exposure bracketing function does is to take quick successive exposures in the pre-defined increments (2 stops in my case). White balance exposure is also available on my camera, but I haven't really found a use for it since the Auto WB does a good enough job for me most of the time.

If you require more detail in the final image, some cameras may have a bracketing function for up to 5 images, or you're really going all out and require even more, or if your camera doesn't have a bracketing function, you'll need a steady tripod and a static subject so that you can set the exposures manually.

Go to File>Automate>Merge to HDR. This brings up the following dialogue box.

Browse for the desired images, and if you've taken your shots handheld, check the "Attempt to Automatically Align Source Images" box for Photoshop to line up your images (since they composition wouldn't have been identical due to shake). This works very well for most of the time, but when it does occasionally fail, you'll have to align and crop your images manually by overlaying them on each other.

When you click "OK" after you're done, this appears:

First thing you'll have to to do here is to ensure that the Bit Depth is set to 32 bits/channel. Even though our computer displays wouldn't be able to display this much bit depth, it helps for conversion to an 8-bit image later. Next adjust the slider such that as much detail as possible is visible in your merged result. Remember, the image doesn't have to look good yet, just as detailed as possible. If your merged result just doesn't cut it no matter how you adjust the slider, you may then choose to exclude certain exposures by unchecking the appropriate checkboxes on the left. When you're done, hit "OK".

Now you should be left with a rather unimpressive-looking image. Don't worry, the HDR is there, just that our woeful displays aren't quite capable of displaying 32 bits/channel yet. The next step, which involves the conversion to an 8-bit or a 16-bit image that is capable on our displays, is absolutely crucial.

Go to Image>Mode>8 Bit/Channel (or 16 Bit/Channel if you prefer, but that means some filters for further processing won't be available).

You'll get a dialogue box that gives you four methods of converting the bit depth of the image. Only two of them have settings that can adjusted by you. (Guess what, they're my favourite methods!) As usual, I'm not too sure what the sliders do, but what's more important is that the image looks the way you want it to. So play around with the sliders until you get the effect you want.

In particular, Local Adaptation allows you to adjust the Toning Curve of the image. Play with it like you'd play with a normal curve, except you can be a lot more liberal with clipping the highlights and shadows if necessary since your HDR image has a much larger range than a normal image anyway.

After more processing, this is what I got.

Hope this tutorial has been helpful. As always, constructive questions and comments are warmly welcomed!

EDIT:
I just put my paws on a copy of Photomatix Pro. It can produce realistic HDR images, but the purpose of this tutorial remains. Firstly, it's more convenient to do everything (HDR image generation and processing) in Photoshop. Secondly, local adaptation curves are likely to be more familiar to Photoshop users than the sliders in Photomatix. Thirdly, of course, sometimes you just may not have access to Photomatix Pro.

Beijing - A Lesson in Travel Photography During Winter

I recently went on a guided tour to Beijing, the capital of China. As expected the chilly winter presented many challenges for a photographer like me who's more used to shooting in tropical Singapore.

I'll list out the challenges that I faced, and how I managed to overcome them.

Cold!!!

First of all, I had a little trouble adapting to the cold. It was so uncomfortable that I had trouble focusing my mind on compositional elements and the likes of that. To make matters worse, within a couple of days, my discomfort increased as I had a perpetually blocked nose and cracked lips due to my refusal to use lip balm despite the very dry climate of Beijing.

Hence, we have lesson number one, which may seem like a no-brainer, but should never be under-emphasised - take very good care of yourself not just when shooting in winter, but more generally, when shooting in a climate different from the one you are used to. Know the new climate, and bring the appropriate attire. Have sufficient sleep every night. If not, you'd be busy thinking of how to keep yourself alive instead of concentrating on your photography!

Clumsy Fingers

However, sometimes the appropriate attire brings about even more restrictions on your photography, as was in my case. Thick leather gloves made it difficult to operate the the buttons of my Nikon D5000. Most of the single buttons were still usable, but I had trouble pressing the Fn button (which I had programmed to control ISO when pressed while turning the control dial), the D-pad (which meant I had trouble selecting the focal points) and worst of all, at times I couldn't feel the shutter release button! As you can guess, I probably missed a few good shots due to a combination of these.

Shooting without gloves wasn't much of an option for me as they'd take too much time to remove, allowing for golden photo opportunities to flash pass way too easily. Not wearing gloves at all is even worse, as I lost all sensation in my fingertips within 10 minutes if I left them exposed.

My solution was simply to get used to shooting with gloves. I did get better with operating my camera with my gloves on towards the end of the trip, so that method worked.

Another possible approach is to learn to anticipate that golden moment. Start taking off your gloves when you think there's a high chances of something interesting to capture. However, this method may not be very applicable in even colder climates, and you'll never learn to shoot with your gloves on (admittedly, only DSLRs can be operated with gloves on - point-and-shoot cameras have buttons that are way too tiny).

Zap!

Another problem was that of static electricity. Static electricity accumulates due to the dry climate of Beijing (while static is usually discharged into the water vapour that's in abundance in Singapore's air). This causes two issues for the photographer.

Firstly, a discharge of static electricity from your hands into the electronic contact points of your camera could easily fry its electronics. I was worried about the exposed hotshoe of my D5000 (I don't have a habit of putting on the hotshoe cover, so I didn't bring it to Beijing), hence I minimised contact with my bare hands. That's why all exposed electronic contacts on your equipment should be kept covered.

Secondly, a buildup of static electricity on your equipment attracts dust. It didn't help that Beijing is an extra-dusty city with air pollution and sand blown in from Mongolia. That's why it's important to use a blower to blast dust particles off your equipment at the end of everyday. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT BREATHE ONTO THE GLASS ELEMENTS OF YOUR LENSES IN COLD WEATHER. While this is a good method in clean your lenses in hot weather, in cold weather, the condensed water droplets from your breath will instantly turn into a layer of solid frost on your lens, which will have to be melted before it can be removed. If not, the minute ice shards will do a pretty nice job of scraping the delicate coating off the glass. Not nice.

I forgot to bring my blower along for the trip, but thankfully I had a UV filter on the only lens I brought along, so I could simply wipe off the dust using a lens cloth. UV filters are definitely recommended when shooting in dusty environments as I was.

Safety

I was sure about the safety level of Beijing, but walking around in dark alleys of a low-income district at night while carrying expensive camera gear sure got me jittery. Carry a discreet camera bag if possible. I like Crumpler's camera bags as they don't scream "CAMERA BAG!" like other brands such as Lowepro, Domke etc.

If you already have a camera bag and don't want to spend more money on getting a new discreet-looking one, you can always buy one of those neoprene camera sleeves for your camera, or fashion one out of foam and/or a small towel, and chuck the whole bundle into a large rucksack.

Another thing is, as much as possible, you don't want to hang your camera around your neck. Sounds like another no-brainer? You'd be surprised.

What To Bring

Don't bring too much gear when you're travelling. Firstly, most tours will involve a lot of walking, and unless you're some hyper-muscular beefcake, you probably wouldn't last a few days lugging a heavy camera bag around for 5 - 6 hours daily. Locking many pieces of supposedly unneeded gear in the hotel room defeats the whole purpose of bringing all that gear anyway. Secondly, the more equipment you bring, the more you're likely to lose or damage.

The question now is, how much is too much? The maximum amount of equipment you should bring is the amount that you can physically carry around daily, and comfortably, over the entire duration of your trip. You probably wouldn't need to cover every focal length, unless your life depends on capturing every single moment during the tour.

A fast standard zoom would be a good idea. I brought along just a single Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8. If you're feeling brave, you could bring along a few prime lenses instead, such as a 24mm, 35mm and a 50mm if you're using an APS-C camera. A flashgun isn't necessary unless you expect to take lots of pictures of people in low light, or if your lenses are not fast enough (of course I'm biased in that I tend to avoid using flash as much as possible). Tripods are most definitely too cumbersome to lug around in a fast-paced guided tour.

All Grey!

Physical challenges aside, Beijing in winter presented some interesting challenges to the style of my images. The first of which would be the lack of colour. The trees, without their leaves, are in shades of grey. Evergreen conifers, shrubs and grass are in a shade of dull grey-green. Modern buildings are, you guessed it, mostly grey. To make matters worse, Beijing is known to be dusty, so the sky was mostly in a sickening shade of grey as well!

I dealt with the lack of colour by doing away with it altogether in the most extreme cases. I concentrated on the composition of my images instead, as though I was shooting in black and white (my camera was still producing coloured JPEGs). I then processed these photos to look like blue and white Chinese porcelain (like the one above) by meddling extensively with gradient maps.

Remember, if you can't beat them, join them!

Contrast and Dynamic Range

The greyish surroundings resulted in many high contrast scenes. Focusing on foreground subjects often resulted in the sky being completely blown out. I'm not sure if the greater dynamic range of film cameras will fare significantly better, but my solution was to use the bracketing function of my camera to fire off a quick succession of images at EV-2 , EV0 and EV+2 for high contrast scenes. Unfortunately, I'm no good at composing them into HDR images, so I'll probably touch on this when I get better at HDR photography.

I Can Take a Photo Like That Too


At the more famous places of interest, we often have a crowd of people with cameras packed at a single location jostling for the best spot for that cliched shot that we've all seen.

Which I think is completely not the point. Don't bother with joining the crowd. Wander off to somewhere nearby to look for an alternative angle to capture the image in an innovative new way (well, I do lean quite a fair bit towards abstract photography anyway). For example, try going really low for a low angle shot like the one above. Lie on the ground if you must (though the flippy screen of my D5000 means I rarely have to do that)!

If you really must take that picture, by the time you're done, they'd be done as well, and that spot would probably be empty enough for you to make a quick snap.

Serendipity


Sometimes, interesting photos may await in the least expected of places. The photo above was a long exposure shot of street lights and traffic taken hand-held through the glass window of the moving tour bus!

That's why you should always be alert and ready to get snap those photos that no one ever thought of!

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That's about as much as what I can wring out of my photography experiences in wintery Beijing, but please, do add on about your experiences in travel photography. I hope this article was helpful for you!

P.S. You may find this article about shooting in the snow by The Photo Argus useful as well.

A Fresh Start

Hello and welcome to Happy Got Rho, a blog dedicated to still photography and filmmaking.

My name is Kenny Chua, and I've recently graduated from Victoria Junior College. I'm currently awaiting the commencement of my temporary job at the Ministry of Education of Singapore, and also awaiting the release of my GCE A Level results before entering two years of compulsory military National Service in April 2010.

With plenty of inspiration from filmmakers and photographers like Philip Bloom, Tom Guilmette, Todd Owyoung, Dan Chung, Stu Maschwitz and Leon Neal, I've started this new blog with the intention of dedicating it to my photography and filmmaking hobbies.

I do not consider myself a professional photographer, and I currently have no intention of going into full time professional photography or filmmaking at a career. Since I'm neither a genius with words nor music, still photography and filmmaking are ways in which I seek to express myself, i.e. they are artforms to me. As such, I hope not to be influenced by commercialisation and the likes that will inadvertently creep in if I were to go pro.

I'm also not a pure hobby photographer per since I'm willing to do simple freelance jobs every now and then to support my photography and filmmaking. No doubt, I'm relatively inexperienced in photography, but do take a look at my portfolio (under construction) on my Flickr page. If it impresses you, I'm available for hire (details on the right sidebar).

Brief updates on my photography are usually available via my Twitter account (follow it!) before a blog post. Comments on my blog posts are most welcomed.

A brief note on my policy on comments though. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Comments can help to make this blog a better resource for everyone out there. But if yours doesn't, I will delete it. Blogger allows anonymous comments, but if your comment is constructive, what's stopping you from putting it under your name? Anonymous comments are likely to be deleted.

Now that that's out of the way, enjoy!