Category Archives: HDR Techniques

Old Car City USA

Feb
11
2013
by Jessy | 0 Comments

This past weekend I packed up and headed to Old Car City USA in White Georgia.  It’s about 6 hours away but well worth the drive.  I love my cars, and I loved this place.  There are acres of cars and random buildings.  There are cars with trees growing through the grills even!

Everything is for sale or trade, but I would just pay the extra and take your camera for a few hours and enjoy the experience.

*Please note, a few hours will far from cover the amount there to photograph.

Being from Florida now, I was not prepared for the 37 degree weather, but once I saw the place I just could not leave.  Dean, the owner, was very nice and gave advice upon entering and didn’t rush me out the door when I was late to go.  There was a lot of crawling over vehicles and under trees to get to some decent shots that I wanted but the entire experience was more than worth the time and effort.  I left feeling cold, dirty, and very tired, but I am ready to go back, for a few days.

 

So many things and so many opportunities for more photos, or something to buy and fix up.  you can still see the glory in what once was of these amazing cars.  I know there is a photo workshop coming up that RC Concepcion has been talking about.  I would message him and find out the details to go.

While you are there keep your eyes open for amazing HDR opportunities as well as any other edits you can do to increase the dramatics of a photo.  With cars and shooting, the secret is in the details.  I can only hope that I get a chance to make it back out to Old Car City USA some day soon for a few days….

 

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A Barn in Kansas

Feb
25
2012
by Jessy | 0 Comments

Growing up there was this barn on the side of the highway by my little town.  It becomes one of those landmarks that lets you know you are close to home.  As I got older and started seeing things a little differently the barn become something more.  I always wanted to go look inside, see what’s there, etc.  Finally, last year at Christmas I asks my Dad to take me out there so I could take some photos.  This only prompted him to say “You mean to XXX’s barn?”  Of course we knew the family that owned it, if only I would have asked earlier.

I was able to get some great images of it with the snow all around, and I have found I am partial to the black and white, that must be how I’ve always seen it in my head as a child.  The barn is nearly 100 years old so I think the black and white is fitting.  For the images below, you can see them larger here.  I used a few presets that I have in Light Room and then of course tweaked them a little, I’m never happy with pre-sets.  I did import a few of them into Topaz BW but I decided that I liked them better straight from Light Room.  Take a look and let me know which one is your favorite.

 

 

This is the first image I completed.  This is HDR using Photomatix, I love how the sun turned out…

 

 

 

 

 

This is an image of the back of the barn.  Something about how the door was hanging from the hinge and resting on the ground drew my attention.  The red with the sun hitting it was so bright and beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

An image from the side in the snow path of the trucks and tractors.  Just to the right was a huge snow pile that I did clime up a little to get a different perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This image is my favorite.  I used a few presets from Lightroom then  kept tweaking them until I was happy.  something about that old Black and White photo is how I have always seen it in my head.  It gives this image some of that old story and mystery to it.

 

 

 

This is a different Black and White process I did.  I love the sun as the focal point, but you cannot ignore that barn.  I think this makes a unique panorama of the whole place.

 

I will be putting these up on my fine art america site but I am still looking for another printer that is a little cheaper.  Fine art america charges so much and I get so little as I try to keep the costs reasonable.  If you have suggestions let me know! 🙂

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Processing old images

Feb
08
2012
by Jessy | 0 Comments

I once read an article by Trey Ratcliff at StuckInCustoms.com where he mentioned that you should not process your images for a year after taking them.  This gives you time to learn new things and process them in a way that you are happy with.
Did i listen to him?  NO!  But, I did learn a  valuable lesson from all of this the other week.  While I am too impatient (yes, me, impatient…I think my parents told me that at least once a day growing up) to wait a year to process after taking them I have been going back and re-precessing a few old images.  The images below are not necessarily the exact files that I processed the first time but they are in the same group of raw files from the same day.

These images were taken about a year ago the day after I purchased my Nikon D7000 just so I could bracket and do HDR.  I of course processed them immediately, and learned Photomatix on the fly.  Knowing nothing about bracketing, hand holding for the images, and using these photos as my first lesson in Photomatix I would say they turned out well.

      

 

The images above have been sold and even won a few contests, but his weekend with some of the new things I learned from watching HDR tutorials by Brian Matiash and Trey Ratcliff I was able to produce images that impress me more.  The level of realizim is closer to what I prefer for these scenes while still capturing the dramatic affect.  I was also now able to see more images out of the series that I wanted to develop becasue my experience of composition has grown to better understand what I want/need and had in those images.

       

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Storm Breaks Image Sold!

Jan
25
2012
by Jessy | 0 Comments

I sold my second print on Fine Art America!  The image is an HDR of two people down the beach and the amazing clouds as the storm was breaking up.

Check the announcement page here: sale announcement

This image was taken the day after I purchased my amazing Nikon D7000.  Of course I got the camera just so that I could bracket and learn how to do HDR.  I barely put the camera down anymore, I have learned to love it so much.

I woke up very early, then had to wait for the storm to end.  Being paranoid about such an expensive piece of equipment I could not get myself to go to the beach with it still raining.  As soon as the rain subsided I was out the door and at the beach trying to figure out the bracketing.  I finally figured everything out and was getting some amazing shots of the pier when I noticed two people way down the beach, the clouds above them, and the sun breaking, it was just perfect.

Once again this sale is just amazing to me and I thank all of those that have been with me through the process, I couldn’t have done it without all of you!

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HDR eBook

Mar
01
2011
by Jessy | 0 Comments

Finished another ebook last night.  There was a lot of great information about the 10 mistakes when creating HDR images.  I saw many things that I have done and some of my images have all 10 of the mistakes!  This weekend I am going to re-do some of my images to correct the mistakes that I have made and I will post them concurrent of each other to help show others, and myself, the reasons, and small changes that can be done to make an “OK” HDR photo a “Great” photo (well hopefully they turn out great)!  This is a practice that I am going to start here on this site and continue to do to help myself learn and remember techniques as I keep attempting to be a photographer.

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