Took a day away to experiment with some HDR photography in Yokohama. I am still trying out a few techniques. Here are the first attempts at what might look more like art than photography.
What is your favorite Yokohama scene?
For those who have been following along, I started a Facebook page recently for quick snapshots of my traveling photos with the iphone. You can find it at http://facebook.com/JapanTravelGuide
12 comments
I really like this type of photography, will try it myself sometime soon I hope! Especially the first and last photos are amazing, the way metallic surfaces work in HDR photos is spectacular.
Thanks. I like the way the light plays off the different surfaces. Metal is cool as is brick. Watching the light catch on trees and grass is also quite cool.
Utterly awesome pics Shibuya!! Really putting my town on the map!
Glad you like them. I always enjoy a quick trip to Yokohama. Something about the town which is different.
Hi Hi ! Glad to see you exploring new and exciting pieces of photography 🙂
This is a very good first attempt! Better than mine 🙂 Personally i think the grey in the skies is a bit odd.. but the scenery itself is grand. And funny enough; I almost went to Yokohama today myself too as the weather has been treating us quite well.
But in the end I did what I always do on Sundays in Tokyo; go to Meiji jingu/Yoyogi Koen and Harajuku 🙂 Such a sucker for the greasers and seeing people doing what they like best.
Anyway. Two suggestions if I may?
You are already using bracketing mode (3frames, 1 exposure stop between each) setting on the D700 for these right?
(if not; it will make your life easy for these things) – second, best to do is set your camera on CH mode on the left dial.
This will give you 5 frames a second, or 8, if you have the optional MB-D10 battery grip.
Just hold the button down and it will have your 3 framed bracketed shot done in about 2/3rds of a second 🙂
Now , since each consecutive shot will technically be slower; you might want to bump your ISO up to 400 on a sunny day, hell even 800 (you wont see the noise/grain anyway on this) so that your next consequtive shots will be at top speed; giving you the 3 frames you need in half a second? This will minimize motion blur of moving people to an absolute minimum !
No tripod required kids 🙂
Now if you haven ‘t looked into it already; try a polariser filter for these beatiful autumn shots.
Circular polariser is the one you’d wanna go with, make it a good brand like B&W otherwise you get a fake one.
Polarisers simply remove non-metallic reflections; you can shoot trough water as if it were clear; you can shoot perfectly trough windows if they werent there (as the reflections are gone) – but also it will make your landscape shots look better as the highlights of the sun on the leaves and such are gone too 🙂 Also it makes the blue sky more blue!
Examples? Check out some of my pics from this week that used a polariser, all straight out of camera shots; no post processing aside from adding the watermark.
http://www.lithiumstate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/DSC_2850.jpg
http://www.lithiumstate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/DSC_2997.jpg
http://www.lithiumstate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/DSC_3010.jpg
http://www.lithiumstate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/DSC_2728.jpg
http://www.lithiumstate.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/DSC_2811.jpg
Sorry for the long post, and if you already knew the above.
But if not, hope these tips help!
Very good tips. Thanks as always.
I had the bracketing set for 3 shots and as normal have the CH mode set. I had the ISO set to auto and probably could have bumped it up more. What would you do for the F stop?
I used photomatix for bringing the frames together, but didnt do any masking in photoshop. I saw a tutorial that said always go back and make sure the sky is blue. That must be an advanced step. Next time 🙂
I was thinking of looking into filters as well. Will visit Yodobashi Camera soon 🙂
Thanks for the examples.
Not sure why the formatting doesnt turn out right. I might take a look at the code. Maybe there is a problem.
p.s.
I have been meaning to ask but your blog sure doesnt like me formatting my posts properly with multiple “Enters” etc. to space things out. Any tips? Do i need to use a certain tag?
For the F stop I set something that gets “more things into focus” so anything lower than F/5.6 is a no no 🙂
Depends on the scene, if half my frame is with a sky; then F/5.6 is good. But if there is allot of detail in the frame and less sky I go F/8 this gets my entire scene in tac-sharp focus. But since you are going down several F-stops .. you will lose your “speed” – hence the “bump up the ISO” tip.
You can do the ISO thing two ways. Either bump up auto-iso to something like: Minimum shutter speed: 1/200, maximum ISO 3200 (should provide no grain during the day for sure so no worries) this will ensure that all shots in your frame are 1/200th of a second at least. Or do it manually and check your viewfinder first if it’s up in the 200 + area before bumping it up as required.
Also if you are using one of the latest photoshop? There is a “merge to HDR pro” function in it (under file, automate I think)
I like it’s results better than Photomatix, but this is personal taste. (also seems to do it’s job faster too)
Thanks. I will take a look at Photoshop shortly. I’ll keep an eye on the shutter speed also.
The first pic is probably my fav! This is awesome, looks almost like painted scenes.
You take great pics!
Very nice of you to say so. Thanks 🙂
super like this !! actually all of your photos 🙂