Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Final HDR Image- Sanibel Sunrise



And here is my final HDR image, created from the five images that I posted yesterday.

Pretty cool, isn't it? Notice how the people walking on the beach have been mostly removed from the final image. The software isn't perfect, as you can still see a their faint outline, also called ghosting. Still, without a tripod, and only balancing the camera on a railing, the Photomatix software did a fairly good job aligning the images. The Australian pine tree in the upper left was waving in the breeze, and in the final image, it looks as if I took this shot using a long exposure with motion blur.

The Australian pine (Casuarina equisetifolia) is a nasty invasive in Florida. There are so many of these trees there, that most visitors would just pass them off as an interesting part of the native flora. But they are a non-native invasive, and they grow quickly, replacing native dune vegetation. I first had experience with this plant when I was traveling around Australia in 1999 with Hiram College.

So, have you tried to create your first HDR image? It can be addicting--beware. I have a great guide called the HDRI handbook that I'm reading now, and it comes with software and image demonstrations. I found it in the catalog in the Columbus Metropolitan Library, and to show you how popular HDR is becoming, I had to wait three months before it became available. Who knows, future cameras may be engineered to take pictures without any post-processing to create these incredible images. For now, it takes a little bit of work, but I think the final results are worth it. Just another tool in the bag of the nature photographer.

Update: After Gale suggested I clone out the sunspot, I gave it my best shot using Paint.net. I am by no means an expert, but my cloning doesn't look all that bad! Now if I had photoshop...just think of the possibilities!




Tom

12 comments:

  1. Tom very nice sunset image. You might want to clone stamp the sunspot out. You might want to try photomatrix it's one of the best hdr programs aroung.

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  2. Gale- That is a really good idea! I'll try it and see what I can come up with with, and post that image as well.

    Tom

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  3. I think the cloning looks good- very cool! :-) Hard to believe we were in warm weather in FL recently...

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  4. Is there a difference between the free download and the one you buy as you can only use two photos in the freebie?

    Very nice photography.

    Abraham Lincoln in Brookville, Ohio

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  5. I love what can be done with digital photography. Some purists might say that manipulating an image is not right. To me it's all about capturing what your eye sees. Our eyes are a lot more sensitive to the differences between highlights and shadows than the camera sensors are so using this HDR technique allows you to share what you were actually seeing at the time. Great job and great lesson.

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  6. Very lovely image! Be careful: Photoshopping can be a total sink-hole for time... But oh man is it ever fun!

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  7. Very cool. You make it sound much easier than I'm sure I'll find it. We'll see what happens, anyway. Thanks for the tips!

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  8. Wow Tom it looks so real, well done!, Anna :)

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  9. Megan- Wasn't that a dream?

    Abe-I've only downloaded Photomatix basic, and you can use more than two photos to create an HDR, and then you tone map them. I'm not sure what they are talking about when they only talk about two images- I don't know enough yet. You can download the fullblown software and use most of its functionality, but I think that the final image will be watermarked.

    Thank you!

    Thanks John- Glad to here your snow is starting to melt, I really hope it has all melted by the time I'm in Maine during the 3rd week of May!

    Jennifer- That is definitely true- Hard to balance outside time taking pictures with inside time making them look their best.

    Anna- Thank you very much. You should give HDR a try as well, it is really pretty simple.

    Tom

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  10. Beautiful! And if you didn't mention the people, I wouldn't have noticed!
    Good job.

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  11. Hi Tom, yes I got some free software that does HDR automatically, and some of my 'not so good photos' came out as 'wow'. Thanks for the info, I like learning new stuff. Anna :)

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  12. I had heard of HDR before but never really knew what it was. This looks great, I don't have photoshop either but use GIMP - I suppose you've heard of it it's the "alternative" to PS that is free too.

    Cheers,

    David Webb: Nature Pictures

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