Seward's Study and the challenges of HDR

This image is a composite HDR taken from the Seward House in Auburn, New York. The kind people at the facility allowed me to shoot inside to gather material for a commercial renovation project at the Holiday Inn in town.

It was a tricky shot to composite. The sunlight coming in from the window and the incandescent light inside the room were of vastly different color temperatures. As usual, the results directly from HDR processing in the Photomatrix Pro program were a bit soft so layering and painting in Photoshop were necessary to get all the fine detail back. My other negative experience so far is that the blacks will block up coming out of PMP, and I have to do a bunch of processing on darker detail areas to make sure it won't come out in a print.

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Willard Chapel in Auburn, New York - an HDR conversion

Image copyright 2009 Byron O'Neal

I'm now getting back on my feet and getting the chance to review some of the images from my recent commercial photo trip to upstate New York. One of the highlights of the trip was getting to discover the Willard Chapel. It is the only chapel known to exist that was designed by the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company. The image to the left is an HDR conversion of six images taken inside the chapel. If you are in the Finger Lakes region, take a little time to drop by the chapel and marvel at the hidden gem of the area. 

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Little Cabin in the Woods

Image copyright 2009 Byron O'Neal

Burning through some commercial work for the Holiday Inn Express in Brevard, North Carolina and thought I'd share the latest, greatest. I'm still learning the Silver EFex Pro software that converts to black and white. The grey edge will be the sides as this piece will be gallery wrapped.

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Combining two images in Photoshop CS3 using HDR

I'm finally back home from a week long commercial trip to St. Petersburg, Florida with 1,375 plus images to sort through for an art  renovation of the Downtown Hampton Inn & Suites. Whew! Apologies go out to my readership for not keeping the blog updated much while I was out of town, I'll be frequently updating this week as I go through the shots from the trip and sharing some of my favorites.

I came across an interesting article in the March/April issue of Photo Techniques Magazine that suggests different options for using the HDR Automation in Photoshop. It gave me a few ideas, and the image to the left is an experiment in combining two completely different images and the very funky result. The first shot was of two gulls trying to swoop in and steal fish scraps at the Fort De Soto Fishing Pier. The second, not that you could tell, is a shot of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge taken at night with the camera positioned on the steering wheel while traveling at 65 MPH. The potential for combining images in this way is endless and a quick trip to Barnes and Noble or Borders is well worth it to check out the article. It's a great tool for inspiration and reminded me that we live in a very exciting time for photography. 

If you just can't wait, the HDR feature is under File/Automate in Photoshop. A word of caution that will save you time with this type of converting, make sure that the pixel dimensions for the images are the same. 

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On the Road in St. Petersburg, Florida

Day 1 - yesterday

Cased the Downtown with the Looper bus for only a quarter. Hit the Pier and chased a few pelicans then got on the pirate ship. Arrrghhh! Jumped on a boat that toured part of Tampa Bay and had a really cool dolphin encounter. I must have walked around seven miles trying to cover the plethora of historic stuff that's here. Got held up by the fence building going on for the Grand Prix in early April while trying to get from the Dali Museum back to the marina. Biggest thing I noticed is that after you have a child and are away from them, you notice kids more. They are everywhere.

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Hooker Falls near Brevard, North Carolina

I visited Hooker Falls early in the morning this July. This particular waterfall is a great subject. Unlike many of the other waterfalls in the area, it is easy to reach down a short hike on a wide trail that is relatively flat. I would recommend wading out to get a different perspective than you might normally see. The water is about knee deep where I jumped in and it's easy to set up a tripod. This shot was taken from the side after a short scramble across a few slippy rocks, be forewarned. 

Also in the close vicinity are a few other falls. The Triple Falls trail is across the road from the Hooker Falls parking lot and is a fifteen minute or so hike up vertical terrain. Triple Falls will provide a bevy of photographic opportunities from a bunch of different angles. It is significantly more exposed than Hooker Falls to morning sun and should be visited under overcast conditions or in the late afternoon. If you continue up the trail, you will eventually come to High Falls. It's not one of the more photographic falls in the area, and I would advise spending your time elsewhere unless you can catch it in the fall while the leaves are changing. 

If you are planning on visiting the area and want to hunt for waterfalls, I would pick up North Carolina Waterfalls: A Hiking and Photography Guide by Kevin Adams. It's a really good resource for directions and suggestions on where to spend your time wisely. 

Plan on staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Brevard. Recently renovated, you will find more shots like the one above from yours truly. 

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