bd43
New member
One of the things I find that go hand in hand with motorcycle touring is photography. Touring on a motorcycle tends to take me down roads less traveled to locations I don't normally venture with the 4-wheeled cage. Along the way, the scenery, or the places visited, are so breathtaking that one would be so inclined to snap a photograph, but discovered when you got home, you totally botched the shot or what was captured was not as breath-taking as you perceived. Great, now what?
Oddly enough while waiting for the wife at the grocery store I ventured to the magazine section and pulled out the Photo Pro edition , Something that I just discovered, which is not a new technique is HDR (high dynamic range) imaging. There was mention of some software from Photomatix that makes HDR possible, simple, and cost effective. Well, when we got home I googled it and sure enough I came across their website.
What's nice about their website is they offer explanation about why HDR and for evaluation purposes you can download a non-time limited trail version which is 100% functional with the exception of their watermark on the final picture. Also a light version of their professional software just came out. Who could loose? I downloaded it and tried it, and thought I would share my findings here.
The technique requires a camera capable of capturing the same image multiple times at different exposures. Again the website explains why you need to do this. Most DSLR cameras come with an option called AEB (auto exposure bracketing). With AEB you can dial in how much under and over exposure the picture will be. When set up, three consecutive shots will be taken of the subject, under, normal, and over exposed. The three photos are brought into the software, tweaked if you like, then processed. The result, was just short of amazing. The process I used here was "photo fusion" to obtain a more realistic photo.
Shot 1, under exposed by -2
Shot 2, over exposed by +2
Shot 3, normal exposure
This is what you would normally take in a single shot. The bright light from the window has fooled the camera to expose under and the objects in focus are under exposed.
The HDR process final result
Note the details of the objects are clearer to see, and even things through the window are now visible.
The only downside of this is you have to take three shots every time which consumes camera memory, and you have to remember to set it up every time the camera is turned on.
This certainly isn't for every shot you take, but if you want to make sure the ones that need to be picture perfect, consider this. Once the riding season starts up again, I am going to try this for sure.
Oddly enough while waiting for the wife at the grocery store I ventured to the magazine section and pulled out the Photo Pro edition , Something that I just discovered, which is not a new technique is HDR (high dynamic range) imaging. There was mention of some software from Photomatix that makes HDR possible, simple, and cost effective. Well, when we got home I googled it and sure enough I came across their website.
What's nice about their website is they offer explanation about why HDR and for evaluation purposes you can download a non-time limited trail version which is 100% functional with the exception of their watermark on the final picture. Also a light version of their professional software just came out. Who could loose? I downloaded it and tried it, and thought I would share my findings here.
The technique requires a camera capable of capturing the same image multiple times at different exposures. Again the website explains why you need to do this. Most DSLR cameras come with an option called AEB (auto exposure bracketing). With AEB you can dial in how much under and over exposure the picture will be. When set up, three consecutive shots will be taken of the subject, under, normal, and over exposed. The three photos are brought into the software, tweaked if you like, then processed. The result, was just short of amazing. The process I used here was "photo fusion" to obtain a more realistic photo.
Shot 1, under exposed by -2
Shot 2, over exposed by +2
Shot 3, normal exposure
This is what you would normally take in a single shot. The bright light from the window has fooled the camera to expose under and the objects in focus are under exposed.
The HDR process final result
Note the details of the objects are clearer to see, and even things through the window are now visible.
The only downside of this is you have to take three shots every time which consumes camera memory, and you have to remember to set it up every time the camera is turned on.
This certainly isn't for every shot you take, but if you want to make sure the ones that need to be picture perfect, consider this. Once the riding season starts up again, I am going to try this for sure.
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