Hyper-Realistic HDR

Creating 'hyper-realistic' HDR photographs has not really been a forte of mine. Hyper-realistic means going beyond creating a realistic photograph (HDR or otherwise), and taking it into something perhaps a bit more extra dimensional. Critics tend to cause this style 'over-cooked', meaning they have taken the HDR too far. This criticism is completely justified in many cases, but I think the hyper-realistic look is one of the key looks of HDR pictures, and encourages many photographers to give it a try.

I have tended to go for a look that uses HDR techniques, but still tries to give the photo a realistic look, and not providing an image that was an unrealistic representation of the scene. However, I have tried my hand at more hyper-realistic techniques recently, to give a particular scene more edge, and yes something beyond reality. In another sense, going for a bit more detail in architectural pictures. It is important to note that the hyper-realistic look is not suitable for all HDR scenes, and I will certainly stick to my usual HDR techniques for landscape scenes, away from an urban environment.

This picture was taken on the Oxford photo walk recently, and the idea as stated above, was to give it a look perhaps beyond reality (even though of course all the details were there when I took the picture). 

I hope you like it, but in any case, let me know what your thoughts are on 'hyper-realistic' HDRs.

iPhoneography

This is undoubtedly a party I am arriving very late to, perhaps even to the point where all the other guests are leaving. However, having finally acquired an iPhone in the last month, I have added a new tool to my photographic repertoire - mobile phone photography.

When I was lured (completely willingly) into photography 3 and a half years ago, mobile phone photography was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to get the best possible images I could, meaning expensive cameras and editing software. I had been noticing though, the advances that were being made on the photo apps market, and whilst not willing to buy a phone just to have a go, now that I own an iphone, I have waded into the thick of iphoneography.

I have 3 camera apps for my iPhone - 1) Snapseed - The best, the king, the one I could not do without. It was created by Nik Software (now owned by Google), which is basically all you need to know with regards to credibility. 2) Mextures - A relatively new app I believe, based primarily on adding textures to your iphone photos. It's pretty good but only gets used occasionally in conjunction with Snapseed. 3) Camera+ - I used this app once after downloading it. I don't like it, never use it, and have no further intentions with it.

It's important to get straight, that though an iphone can take great pictures, it is not a patch on any DSLR camera (which of course it is not intended to be). I will always continue to take out my D700 for  the very best quality. What an iPhone can do though, is provide great images, whilst being a constant companion, being right there in your pocket. There has been more than 1 occasion recently (look at the black and white bridge image above for example), where I have thought 'what a shame I don't have a camera on me', only to then remember, I have a pretty good camera in my pocket.

The other good thing about iphone photos, is that once edited, they are easy to upload to Twitter, Facebook, or any other platform you wish to share them on.

Hope you like the selection of photos above and below, plenty more iphoneography to come!

Meat Specialists

I had planned to blog some pictures from the Oxford Photo Walk (part of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk) sooner, but there has been a new addition to mine and my wife's household; a little Cockapoo Puppy called Chester. We bought the little fella a week ago, and he has given me a very exhausting week. I have never had a dog before, so this is all a new experience for me, but am thoroughly enjoying being a dog owner. Naturally, everyone who meets him falls in love with him, so we can't wait until we can take him out walking in the big wide world (in less than 2 weeks after his 2nd vaccinations).

Back to the Oxford Photo Walk though, and this easily qualifies as my first photo walk with a large group of people. It was led by Glyn Dewis, and he organised a fantastic walk and event in general, and though it is perhaps a cliché, I can honestly say I met a great bunch of people. Meeting other keen amateur photographers, plus the opportunity to visit sights in Oxford I would not have thought of myself, made the day very worthwhile. Looking forward to going on more!

One part of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk are the competitions, and though I am not really motivated by these things, I decided to enter the picture above nonetheless (taken in the Covered Market in Oxford). Whether it is the best picture I took on the day, I don't know, but it is one of the few HDR's I took that day, and ultimately, that's what I do.

Sticking my neck out a bit now, but I have so many photos to post that are fully developed, that I do anticipate being much more active on this blog from now until the end of the year.

Should the Krakow Bubble Burst

Been too long again since my last photograph, but hoping to post a few times this week in anticipation of the Worldwide PhotoWalk next weekend, of which I shall be participating in from the city of Oxford, led by Glyn Dewis.

There is no tedious link I can state from Oxford to Krakow, but never mind, here is a photo I tried hard to get while I was in Krakow last month. The city square is indeed a beautiful place, and amongst the many musicians and artists to be enjoyed, there were a couple of people blowing these enormous bubbles, which inevitably led to many children chasing after them to put them out. I was chasing after them too, but that was so I could capture a picture like this, with the city in the backdrop to a picture of these great bubbles.

This was created from a single RAW image, and indeed I put quite a lot of work into retaining the colour and detail of the bubble, without going too far.

The Wroclaw Saxophonist

Taking a mini break from the southern most part of Poland (and HDR processing) to the south-western city of Wroclaw. It was near this city that I was based for most of the recent 2 weeks I was in Poland, as it is the nearest city to my Wife's family in Poland.

I have visited Wroclaw several times now and thoroughly enjoy it each time. I have written about it plenty of times on my photographic blogs, but it always springs up new sights for me to photograph.

This wonderful scene presented itself as we were walking towards the Wroclaw Cathedral, a saxophonist playing his heart out to the numerous tourists visiting Wroclaw. It was a great place to ply his trade, against the back drop of the cathedral, and it was only right that I gave him some (well deserved) money, for the opportunity to take some pictures.

I always envisioned this picture as a sepia/black & white image, as I feel it gives an authentic and historical feel to it.

Revelations

Going back to the theme of mountain climbing from one of my previous blogs 'The Mountain Hut', today's picture was taken on the same day, not too long after that picture. I had already been and walked around these lakes and by this time I was heading for the next lake, some 2 hours walk away.

As I spoke about in that previous blog, the visibility was not great when we got to these lakes, so high up in the mountains, but there were moments when it just drifted off (or drifted 'around' would be more appropriate) and gave glimpses of the magnificence of the surrounding landscape. I had no time to set up a tripod for this shot, so this is a hand held HDR taken from 4 exposures.

I may try this as a non-HDR as well, as 1 or 2 of the shots were able to capture the dynamic range of the scene within the exposure, but I wanted to make an HDR out of this first and foremost, to bring out the texture of the clouds. Plus of course I always like that arty look, that HDR brings.

Old Krakow Town

Having visited Zakopane at the very edge of southern Poland, I was also given the opportunity to visit one of Poland's most famous cities, Krakow. Krakow is indeed a stunning city and was once the capital of Poland (up until the 16th Century). With so much culture and history there, it is also a wonderful place to capture some photographs.

This part of Krakow is what the locals call 'Stary Miasto' which literally translates as Old Town. Krakow has many historic churches but aside from them, the Old Town is the place to find some authentic architecture. The second building on the left (the yellow one) was the home of Karol Wojtyła later known as Pope John Paul II, between the years of 1951 and 1967.

On a photographic note, I deliberately did not 'de-ghost' the crowd outside the the Pope's home, because I felt like it lost its 'feel', it just became to static an image. Therefore, to give the impression of movement and life, I left the slight ghost movements within the picture.

Mountain Hut

The 2nd offering from my trip to Poland and today's picture remains in Zakopane. I am by no means a mountain climber, but as you climb these high mountains there is a feeling you get which asks yourself if it will be worth it when you reach the top? This was taken on my first day in Zakopane and generally the weather was ok, but as we got near to the top of our planned destination, the visibility got less and less.

Having dodged Brown Bears, Wolves and Lynx's, we got to these lakes we wanted to see near the top of the mountains in this region, to see nothing much but the clouds right in front of us. However, rather magically, the mist began to clear after a short while at the top and suddenly we could see many spectacular sights all around us. One of my favourite 'revelations' was this little mountain hut, which I'm not sure what purpose it had (there was a visitor cafe hut just a little further away). It gave me all those wonderful mountain images in my mind though and was an obvious choice for an HDR photo.

Zakopane - A Photographer's Dream

There are not many places that can be called 'a photographer's dream'. Certainly Paris and Venice would be obvious examples, but normally the photographer has to work hard in any location to produce a worthwhile result. Certain locations though, give you plenty of 'raw material' to help you produce those great shots.

Zakopane is a well known beauty spot in southern Poland, and I was very lucky to get an opportunity to visit this special place, having spent the last 2 weeks in Poland. I have been interested in photographing Zakopane (officially called the 'Tatra National Park') since I watched a video of Charlie Waite, one of my favourite photographers teaching a class of Polish photographers. Here is a link to that video. In particular, after watching his video, I wanted to get close to the fast flowing streams that flow down the mountains of Zakopane, of which the picture above is the result.

It is an HDR taken from 3 images, and luckily I had the 'blurred stream' effect on all 3 RAW images. This was achieved by shooting at F/22 and ISO 100, but was helped by the misty and cloudy weather, keeping the light level low.

I returned from Poland very early this morning and have had my most enjoyable and (I believe) rewarding photographic trip of the year. Lots of photos to come...

South Beach, Miami

Just wanted to do a quick blog post today. The pictures above and below were taken from my trip to Miami in June. There are still quite a few pictures I have taken this year that I haven't posted yet, but posting (almost) daily on Facebook has helped me go forth and just publish pictures, I may have overlooked for this blog.

These picture as you can tell don't really look like photographs or HDR's, and that I would accept. Miami is of course so wonderfully unique and has a culture all of it's own (as most cities do right?), that I was inspired to create more 'arty' pieces out of these, rather than straight photos (plus it helped eliminate the heavy noise on the picture below!). This was largely achieved in Topaz Clean.

The first picture was taken outside the Art Deco centre along South Beach. The 2nd picture was taken in the Delano Club, which was once owned/part owned by Madonna. Not the cheapest club I have ever been in ($500 a table) but then I was with work, so all costs covered!