For those that don't know what HDR is, basically it involves taking the same photo at several different exposures. This is useful if the picture you're taking has an area of serious brightness and another area that is a lot darker. Taking exposures that give good contrast values to both the bright portion of the picture (very low exposure) and the dark portion of the picture (very high exposure) allows you to later combine the pictures in post processing for a photo that has fantastic constrast values everywhere.
Now HDR is considered by some photographers to be the coolest digital trick ever, and is considered by other photographers to be ugly, overdone and just plain cheesy. One thing is for certain, though: HDR makes what would be a normal, boring shot look absolutely otherworldly. I have always been a photographer that likes presenting realistic photos, that is, presenting photos that are true to life. Not too much camera manipulation, not too much post production. But I decided to try HDR for the first time in my life and... man is it fun.
These two pictures are taken from the cliffs above La Jolla Shores, showing largely the same view. Usually HDR can come out very cartoony and unrealistic but since I am a big fan of realism, I decided to keep the cartoonyness that comes from HDR to a minimum. There were taken on a very sunny day so a very high exposure was needed for the sea and the cliff while a low exposure needed for the bright clouds in the sky. Each of these photos are a composite of 5 exposures at f/13, ISO 100 with exposures ranging from -4 to +2.
From under the pier. Very dark, shadowed pier under a bright, bright sky made HDR a natural choice here to really get all the gritty details of the pier out. f/16, ISO 100, and I don't really remember the exposure details but I believe I went from -4 all the way to +4 to get every last shadow out of the pier.
This is a "fake" HDR. I only took this shot at one exposure and digitally altered the exposures from -4 to +2, and merged the digitally altered exposures together. This one came out a little more cartoony than I wanted and the placement of the camera is not ideal; truth be told this shot was kind of an afterthought, plus there were runners running towards me so I had to snap it off quick. I'll probably go back and take this photo again.
Coming back from the beach, i realized my camera had picked up a great deal of dust on the sensor. I left my blower back at home which means I'm stuck with a dirty sensor (or very large aperture shots) until I get back to LA. Also, more and more dirt keeps seeping into the view finder, need to find a way to get that stuff out too. Sigh!
Until next time, zai jian!
-Justin
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