TECHNOLOGY SETS FREE AN ALREADY FREED MIND FOR A FREED VISION

Night Time HDR Cy-Fair Campus

According to Saint Ansel of Adams "Craft facility liberates expression, and I am constantly amazed how many artists think the opposite to be true."  Simply put technology sets free an already freed mind for a freed vision.  Adams was a technology freak he predicted the digital age and the digital darkroom and if he were alive today he would be a digital uberman (superman) but he was not a slave to technique-technology,  he did not allow his vision to be compromised nor superseded by technology. He struck in my opinion a productive balance between the two.

HDRI ("High" Dynamic Range Imaging) , HDR for short is nothing new, it has been the goal in photography from its inception and the first HDR image was produced by Gustave Le Gray in the 1850s, that's right 1850.  Like the "Zone" system HDR is nothing more than a CONTRAST MANAGEMENT TOOL (here forth "CMT").  Contrast is the difference in luminance and/or color that makes an object , its representation or literal image distinguishable. Contrast is how we paint with light (photo-graphe). The luminance differences gives birth to our tones and the range of these tones  from the high to the low gives birth to the tonal range in a scene or image and is the DYNAMIC RANGE (DR). Simply put the DR is the difference between the lightest detail and darkest detail in the scene or image and is the ZONE of tonal values.  Thus this completely captured tonal range or zones  with its subsequently controlled contrasts has been and is the desired goal in Photographic history starting with that first 1850s "High" Dynamic Ranged Image (HDRI) by Gustave Le Gray, moving in to the 1940s with Adams and Archer's "ZONE" system and presently with our current HDRI digital dark room tools (Photomatix Pro, NIK HDR, PS blend modes HDR, et.al.).

There are those today who would have you convinced that the "ZONE" system was all Adams was about, that it has no place in the digital age and is  strictly for film. This assertion is absolutely false!

I put the "High" in HDR/HDRI in quotes because the term HIGH is subjective, it is relative, if something is  high then there must be a "low".  All scenes have their own unique tonal range and these ranges are best expressed in exposure values or EVs. These EVs are the individual exposure readings in all the tonal areas of your scene and is how your camera's sensor or film sees these zones but does not necessarily captures all these values.  Our digital camera's all have unique DYNAMIC RANGE values expressed in EVs or stops which can be found on line here (http://www.dxomark.com/). I will use my D3 and P7100 as an example; the D3's value is 12.2 EVs and the P7100's value is 10.7 exposure range of capture. This does not mean that if I point and shot at a scene with a range of 10 EV's that I will get a raw file with all 10 perfectly exposed zones with one shot and exposure setting. I have to collect images exposed for those tones/zones and merge them together.

Proper Exposure is the key and your work flow is important, it is not hard, just important. So one needs to really understand exposure and what our cameras are doing exposure wise. Most Landscapes, properly exposed should only take 3 exposures and no more than 5 in order to blend into your HDR software of choice (mine has always been Photomatix Pro, I do have NIK's and have used PS). Some night scenes might take as many as 7 depending on the EV difference from the high-lights to the shadows.  We are talking about exposure bracketing here look it up in your manuals. Some of us  are blessed or cursed with auto bracketing functions. 

Let us assume I have spot metered(SM) my scene's lights and darks, I carry a hand held spot meter, you can use the spot meter function in your camera with your zoom lens and you have a spot meter. I have also metered the whole scene with my matrix averaging meter(AM) mode. The High-lights, the brightest SP meter reading is f-16-1000-ISO 200, the Shadow detail SP meter reading is f-16-60-ISO 200 (HDRI-ing we want the same F-stop for each blended image) and the overall AM metered  scene reading is f-16-250- ISO 200. The results are +2 stops(EV) from the averaged metered middle reading and -2 stops (EV) from the middle reading.  In making the spot readings remember to set the exposure for the tone, if it is white and you want white the exposure reading needs to be increased by 1-2 stops (EVs) if not your whites will be gray and the shadows if you want them black you will need to decrease the spot exposure reading by 1-2 stops (EVs) are your blacks will run to gray. Remember to keep light from entering the eye piece of your view finder as that will affect the cameras meter reading and thus give you a false reading.

Using a tripod with a preset white balance (I do not use auto white balance for Day light Panos or HDR, I will use it for Night time HDR)  I will manually shoot the -1, -2, +1 and +2 exposures and Aperture Priority the middle averaged meter exposure. If the + and - EVs fall within the auto bracketing function of my camera I will often use that function.

I am well aware of the "Spray and Pray" group who never use a tripod and blast away with hand held AUTO-bracketing including white balance set at auto. If that fits your vision of the image then there is nothing wrong with that. I have done it (sans auto white balance) when a tripod was not allowed or available.  However the results are always  better with a tripod! Slow down and use the tripod as to tool to help / force you to pre-visualize your image. Use the live view function with your camera on the tripod and a black tee shirt as a viewing cloth if needed,  people might think you had the world's smallest view camera.  

Now with the 3-5 properly exposed images go to your favorite CMT (Contrast Management Tool) AKA HDR software be it Photomatix, Nik, PS, et.al. and season your image to taste. The only thing holding us back is ourselves. What's the best way to master the CMTs available , that's easy sit down and use them, the free tutorials all the software producers have and You tube.  

If anyone wants a face-to-face tutorial on the proper exposure and capture as delineated here in, I can have you up and running in less than 2 hours (most only take 1 hour). You will have the skill sets to properly expose and captured images to run through your CMT of choice and NO you do not need a separate hand held meter.  What's the cost of such instruction, absolutely nothing,  except your time to invest in yourself.

Learning is not always easy, but it is extremely useful.

Until Next Time- Safe Imaging Photo Fans.

Namaste,

Michael L Young

www.y2photo.net