Bill Exley Photography

Exploring HDR

I’ve been thinking lately about how best to optimize photographs without diving deep into the bowels of Lightroom or Photoshop.  I took a good look at what my eyes see vs. what the camera actually captures and decided to explore the world of HDR.

In a recent blog post to Photoshop or not to…, I talked about the limitation digital sensors have over what the eyes see – I remain in awe of the human eye and its ability to adjust exposure, so to speak, to such fine levels.  Consider in even the brightest days, the eye sees great details in even the darkest shadows.  In a nutshell, HDR involves combining multiple images together at varying exposures to convey a better representation of what we see.

Last week, a photographer friend and I went on a scouting trip which included a side trip to Golden, Oregon – a ghost town with an outcropping of a few buildings – so I brought my tripod and gave HDR a try.  The verdict…a wonderful experience encouraging me to incorporate more HDR into my photography.  Here is my favorite shot and below it the three exposure-bracketed images.

HDR can include a number of images at varying exposures. For this project, I opted for 3 images, with an exposure bracket of -2, 0, +2. Click here to view more HDR images.

I guess I could have tweaked the normal exposure image in Lightroom or Photoshop to mimick what the combined HDR image revealed. I am much more please with the results that HDR provides and encourage others to take a look at this method to render a more realistic tonal balance.

H2O

Go figure, a Pisces and water. We go together like peanut butter and jelly – btw, an obsessed favorite childhood meal of mine.

I find something amazing and powerful about water. Wet, fluid, translucent, reflective, and oh so many photo opportunities. I love a good reflection shot. I find it’s really that simple, just add water.

(mouse over for larger image)

A visit to Tashi Choling, a Buddhist center outside Ashland, and an inspired attraction to water drew me to take these 1st two shots. The water ripple brought the red temple to life with it’s 5 colored prayer flags and yes, it’s upside-down. It was included in their 2010 calendar. The cattails was an unexpected summer shot, which has me thinking about shooting all 4 seasons from this same location.

Last May, I took a drive up to Crater Lake. Ready for a hike, I found the park still in snow so taking pictures was limited. I did make it to the rim of the crater to frame this nice shot.

Standing at the edge, the Crater spoke,
on the distant shore a creation awoke,
with the strength of an arrow,
Great Spirit split the world…
and I wept.

I find this reflection of Crater Lake brilliant and can’t help but to be in awe at the magic that can be found in nature. The last shot is of the Wild and Scenic Rogue River in late September. More work using the slow-shutter panning technique and voila, my Matisse I call Rogue Fall.