Monday, February 9, 2015

HDR Photography

In G.T. we are currently working on HDR landscape photography. HDR photography is a High Dynamic Range imaging. It is used to take 3 or more pictures of the same view at different lighting. Then turn it into one photo that is more than what the eye can see, more than what the camera sees. What I like about HDR photography is that, it makes photos amazingly beautiful! It also balances the lighting between different objects. But there's one thing I dislike about HDR photography. It's just that some HDR photos look unreal. If you were actually there when the photo was taken, the view and the photo wouldn't exactly look the same. Like if you were to see an HDR photo on the internet, you were to think, "Wow! I want to go there!". But when you actually go to that view, it's not as breath-taking as the HDR photo you saw on the internet. Hopefully you get what i'm saying.

In order to make an HDR photo, you have to go through a couple of big steps. First things first, you need to take 3 or more photos of the same view with no movement. But in different exposures. You have to make sure that your horizontal line is straight, you have a good rule of thirds, and a good focal point. Once you have all the photos you need, you put them on photoshop in HDR Pro mode. Photoshop will then combine all of your photos into one photo where you can see the darkest parts of the view and the lightest parts of the view clearly, the whole photo will be in balanced lighting. Once Photoshop is done with that, the next part is all up to you. With the photo you have, it's your choice to put as many effects as you want. You can make it realistic, surrealistic, leave it as it is, or ect. Once you have done all of those steps, you are done. Hopefully you'll now have an amazing HDR photo! This process is different than other automatic HDR functions, e.p. your cell phone, because with this process you can add as many different effects as you want. While on an automatic HDR function you don't really get a choice on how much effects you want to add to you photo.

My first HDR photo is a landscape photo that I took on a deck at my friend's house. I think for this photo I have a really good focal point but I could've put more thought into my rule of thirds. My horizontal line seems to be in the dead center of the photo, when it should've been a little higher or a little higher. I also added some effects to make it look surrealistic. I think it looks quite dramatic! My second HDR photo is a portait of my friend, Gabby Duran. It took quite a while to take this one, considering she had to stay in that position for about 2 minutes. I think my rule of thirds is perfect! But I think I could've made her turn her head a little more to the camera. I also added effects to make it surrealistic as well. I think it came out beautiful! My last HDR photo is a superimpost photo, where I combined both of my HDR photos into one photo. I cut out my friend out of the portrait and placed onto my HDR landscape photo. I also added some effects so the cutout looks smooth. Once I did that I added a word that is surrealistic and relates to what the photo is telling the audience. I put the word "imagine" and added effects so that it looks more eye catching. I think that photo came out beautiful, I wouldn't change a thing!

24 comments:

  1. I liked the kerning that you put into "Imagine".

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  2. Hi Leslie! Your superimpose image is pretty surreal and I can see a focal point (the girls face), and she lines up with rule of thirds. However, you can clearly see some jagged lines around her head, the cut out could be improved. I can see some custom layer effects as well. Overall, great finished project, I like it.

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  3. love your blog and i also like your picture and the text.

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  4. Great Superimpose I think it looks amazing! Just work on that cut out. :)

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  5. Nice Blog Leslie, I like the background and great job on being caught up.

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  6. Yayyyyy Leslie I love all of your photos:)

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  7. Awesome HDR's Leslie! I like how you used the rule of thirds in all your pictures.

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  8. Nice work on your HDR! I like how you placed your subject in the rule of thirds.

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  9. The image looks good. The cutout needs a little work.

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  10. Hi Leslie! Nice job on turning in your SuperImpose! You could work a little more on your Quick Selection tool (Don't worry, I have issues too) and the text effects. However, I do think your photo really comes together and the words are BIG!

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  11. Great work on the surreality and on the rule of thirds!

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  12. In my opinion, you did a great job matching up where she is. I think you should've matched her colors more to the sky, as she is much brighter.

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  13. This look really nice! I like how the colors match with the overall green. It looks really cool.

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  14. I really like the surrealism in both of your photos, and the cut out quality of her is very accurate. The focal point is very obvious and you drew the attention to her very well. You also followed the rule of thirds nicely and the layer affects were a nice touch.

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  15. Your portrait in this photo is my favorite thing about it. And I like that its very surreal. GREAT JOB!!

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  16. Great blog i love how long your writing is.
    Next time you could have refined your edge a little better.
    I also love how it looks like gaby is sitting on a rail.

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  17. Awesome job! I feel like the landscape is pretty surreal, however, your cut-out could be slightly improved as the edges look a bit jagged in some places. You did a great job with your focal point, as my eyes are drawn towards her face, and it's placed according to rule of thirds. Your layer effects could maybe be customized a bit more, but overall, everything was really well done!

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  18. Good job! I really like how you lined Gabby up with the rule of thirds. The text layovers could have been increased a little. The focal point I see is the top right corner.

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  19. Great job Leslie, the rule of thirds is really good in this photo, and it's very easy to tell that it's surrealistic. I think the focal point could be a little clearer, but overall, I think this photo is a 4.

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  20. Great job Leslie! The rule of thirds was great! (you didn't seem to have much trouble)!

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  21. Your photo is surreal with the person and the background. The cut out is not the best, but you made the rule of thirds line up really nice. The effects are text are nice, you could've costumed them more, but overall good job.

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  22. I like the picture a lot, and you did a nice job of fitting her in. However, you can see a dark outline and could have done a better job on the cut.

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  23. Good job, overall the photo is really nice.

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