Boston Photowalk

eoren1 · July 21, 2009

I participated in the World Wide Photowalk on Saturday which took place in Boston. Though I posted some of these in the designated flickr group, I felt remiss if I didn't post them here as well.
The dismal gray skies at the start of the walk seemed to lend themselves to hdr/tone mapping so I decided to try my hand at it for some of the shots. Hopefully, I haven't gone overboard with the technique.
Appreciate your thoughts!
E

1. Fan pier (tonemapped)

2. Laundry day (tonemapped)

3. Parked (tonemapped)

4. Mike's Pastry

5. Nico's

6. Driving the Zakim Bridge (tonemapped)

7. Cooling off (tonemapped)

8. Underneath the Clock Tower (tonemapped)

boblu262 · July 21, 2009

Love these! #7 is exceptional! Nice job on the HDR Tone mapping.
Wish I'd have known about the Boston photo walk. I would have joined you!

dlplumer · July 21, 2009

These are excellent E. I really like 1,3, and 8. You did a good job with Photomattix

Dan

Jonnyyaya · July 21, 2009

MMM is this once a year? I am in Boston 4 times a year this would be fun...

marcpro · July 22, 2009

E, are these pics made up of multiple exposures? Or is it only one picture, manipulated and tweaked using PS or Photomatixx? I've never tried HDR before, thus the noob questions.
Marc.

thapamd · July 22, 2009

Excellent wide angle photography! #7 (the one with the kids) is fantastic!

eoren1 · July 22, 2009

Thanks for all the great comments! Not sure why but I'm very much into the tone-mapped approach to landscapes for the moment. Tried to get similar results from LR2 and the photos look flat in comparison.

marcpro - these are all single raw files that were tone mapped with Photomatix Pro 3.2. I had changed my custom (C1 dial) setting on my 50D so that it would take three shots in high speed mode at +/-2 exposures. However, I was relying on hand-holding through that rapid burst and noticed some minor movement when I tried to build out an HDR shot. Therefore went with the tonemapping effect on a single shot instead. For #2, I did open up the tonemapped one and another -2 exposure and replaced the tonemapped sky with the bluer one.

Jannyyaya - Yup, once a year for the formal World Wide Photowalk (July 18th was this year's date and it is done via Scott Kelby's blog). That's not to say that a group of photographers couldn't meet up at other times of the year... Will you be in town for the Smugs event?

Dan - thanks for the comments. Still getting the hang of the program as a lot changed in the jump to 3.2. I see you are working with it as well for those Arizona shots.

E

Eia · July 22, 2009

All of these are great. I enjoy the one with the kids; all the elements are there for a summer city shot!

hawkeye978 · July 22, 2009

E,

Great series and I love #7. I really like #1 but feel the contrast is a little low on the buildings. Maybe go into Photoshop and use a curves adjustment just on the building to build a little contrast?

One thing I've tried with HDR when there is ghosting, use your 3 exposures to develop the HDR image. Then take your 0EV exposure and adjust the exposure to match your HDR as close as possible. Then take both images into Photoshop as layers and mask out the ghosted parts of the images and bring up the 0EV layer where there won't be any ghosting. This works well with skies also if they get that 'Addams Family' effect.

eoren1 · July 22, 2009

Hey Tom,
You're write about that first one - it's been bugging me a lot! Went back through the process. Added back sky from the underexposed shot in the series and did a bit of level adjustments in photoshop. Hopefully it 'pops' a bit more now.
I was hoping to see some local dgrinners on the walk but I was the only one sporting the smugmug strap :cry. Oh well, maybe next year!
E

marcpro · July 22, 2009

eoren1 wrote:

Thanks for all the great comments! Not sure why but I'm very much into the tone-mapped approach to landscapes for the moment. Tried to get similar results from LR2 and the photos look flat in comparison.

marcpro - these are all single raw files that were tone mapped with Photomatix Pro 3.2. I had changed my custom (C1 dial) setting on my 50D so that it would take three shots in high speed mode at +/-2 exposures. However, I was relying on hand-holding through that rapid burst and noticed some minor movement when I tried to build out an HDR shot. Therefore went with the tonemapping effect on a single shot instead. For #2, I did open up the tonemapped one and another -2 exposure and replaced the tonemapped sky with the bluer one.

Jannyyaya - Yup, once a year for the formal World Wide Photowalk (July 18th was this year's date and it is done via Scott Kelby's blog). That's not to say that a group of photographers couldn't meet up at other times of the year... Will you be in town for the Smugs event?

Dan - thanks for the comments. Still getting the hang of the program as a lot changed in the jump to 3.2. I see you are working with it as well for those Arizona shots.

E

Thanks E,
Have you heard of PTGui? It would allow building an HDR shot from multiple exposures, still handheld. It aligns the pictures before processing. I use PTGui for my panoramics, although I've never done any HDR yet.
Cheers,
Marc.

Boston Photowalk

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