March 3, 2007
Surreal Sunset
The first time I saw an HDR photo, I was amazed. These vivid, almost surreal images just vibrate with color and light. But the quick research I did suggested you needed Photoshop to do High Dynamic Range photography, and I wasn't willing to shell out $700 for software that I was going to use only as an HDR toy. Then, via BoingBoing, I found a link to O'Reilly's Short Cuts on HDR photography. For less than $8, you can download a 57-page guide to producing HDR images, including suggestions on HDR software that are much cheaper than Photoshop. This is my first attempt, shot off our back deck at sunset. It's a compilation of three images shot under-, correctly and over-exposed. If you want to see examples of HDR that are truly mind-blowing, check out the Flickr HDR group. I'm hoping to take something at some point that's worth submitting there. But for a first attempt, I'm pretty pleased with this one.
Posted by Bob Benz at March 3, 2007 7:44 PM
Comments. . .
very cool, bob! where have i been that i have never even heard of this technique before?! i look forward to seeing your further attempts. you're off to a great start.
Posted by: jo at March 4, 2007 3:49 PMI think we were lucky enough to see this same view in person. I took several pictures, but all had a building or powerlines abstructing the shot. Your image makes it look like we were there again only HDR'd :-)
Posted by: Nita at March 7, 2007 9:03 PM
Ka and I were out running errands when this magnificent sunset started to form.
The farther the sun crept downward, the more those speckled clouds almost looked like a neon abstract.
And then we had a near total lunar eclipse this evening. Hmm ... spooky ...
Posted by: Jay Small at March 3, 2007 8:58 PM