Happy Valley Park

Happy Valley Park

Nestled right next to Portland is Happy Valley, a sprawling residential area with a cool park.

On the surface it looks like any other park, meaning it has ball fields, tennis courts and a dog park. But, unlike any city park it has acres and acres of wetlands that are next to none.

I took a few shots with my Nikon Point and Shoot. I love to experiment, so I converted them to HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography through Photomatix software.

Single shots, mind you. I'm trying to prove a point that you can develop maybe some different and interesting kind of photography with just a point and shoot.

Actually, I can take a full range of exposures with my Nikon (bracketed shots) if I use a tripod. But, this day I wanted to see what I could do with one exposure.

Happy Valley Park

Happy Valley Park

Happy Valley Park

   

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North Oregon Coast Photography | Fort Clatsop

Front Of Fort Clatsop - Winter Stay For Lewis & Clark Expedition

Oregon has a beautiful coastline. No matter where you go on the coast, even inland, you are bound to find beauty.

A lot of Oregon's history is on the North Coast. This is because of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The mouth of the Columbia and the Pacific Ocean is where they ended up on their lengthy exploration from the east.

They stayed a winter in a place called Fort Clatsop, which is just south of Astoria and not to far from the Pacific. This winter retreat has been recreated to reflect on this monumental period in US history and I had the opportunity of photographing it.

Also, I had the opportunity of photographing parts of Astoria and Seaside., Oregon which will be featured in future posts.

All the photos are in High Dynamic Range Photography (HDR) which brings out all the detail in a scene. Please enjoy!

Inside One Of The Fort Clatsop Cabins

This is the Lewis River, this is how Lewis & Clark got to Ft.Clatsop

Part Of One Of The Excellent Walking Paths At Ft. Clatsop

Sacajewea

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Oregon City Photography In HDR Two

The Above photo is actually the rear portion of this home in Oregon City. The owner let me photograph the front of the property which is actually on a bluff.  As always all the shots are High Dynamic Range Photography (HDR).  Remember to stay tuned for photos of other homes in Oregon City.

The Front of The Home

One Cool Tool Shed

The next house is actually a museum..."The Rose Farm Museum"! 

Rose Farm Museum c1847

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Oregon City Photography In HDR

Oregon City, Oregon is full of cool historic homes.  Pre capita, probably more than any place in Oregon, and it is the seat of the original "End of the Oregon Trail".

My wife came up with the idea of featuring different period homes in Oregon City.  And, there are a slug of them so I doubt that I will get to them all.

It's also impossible to do them all in one post...so, stay tuned!  Also, I am very appreciative of people's privacy.  All photos are taken with home owner permission.  All the photos taken here are High Dynamic Range Photography or HDR.

The home owners were busy working on a wing of the fist house featured here, so you are not seeing all of the house. Of all the cool houses in Oregon City, this is my wife's favorite.  My photos are not doing it justice...believe me.

Morton Mathew McCarver House C1850

Ainsworth House C 1851

The Ainsworth House grounds are a setting for weddings and special events and occupies which looks like a half a city block.  There are all kinds of outbuildings and gardens. A beautiful setting!

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Troutdale Photography In HDR

Troutdale Gazebo

Troutdale, Oregon is a tad off of I84, maybe fifteen minutes east of Portland, and on the way to the Columbia Gorge. It possesses a quaint, little and cool downtown, with neat cool facades in front of most of the buildings.

So, if you are a tourist, it is located close to a major tourist-trap-type-outlet-mall...Drive a block up the street. Hey! And, when you get there, I guess you could call their downtown a bit of a tourist trap, too, but "without the gouging thingy"!  It's a must and wonderful place to visit..so, make a decision...VISIT!

They feature a nice/neat/sanitary General Store, that I would have immensley liked to have gone to inside and photographed , but they plain don't allow it. Their store displays are outstanding and I can understand them not wanting to divulge their trade secrets to sneaky low life competitors.

My wife and I had lunch at a place called "Ristorante Di Pompello". Absolutely outstanding!  I'm giving them a plug...maybe PLUG! They deserve it! Best and Italian food around! And, I am a mean Italian Food Lover!

All the photos here were shot in High Dynamic Range (HDR) and processed thru Photomatix and Photoshop Elements. Please enjoy!

Troutdale General Store

Down The Street

Ristorante Di Pompello

Some Troutdale Frontage

Tattoo Parlour

 

 

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Baker Cabin And Pioneer Church | Carver Oregon

Whether you are a photographer, getting married, or a casual visitor a cool little spot to visit is Baker's Cabin and the Pioneer Church in Carver, Oregon. It's located about 15-20 minutes a little southeast of Portland.

Baker's Cabin has been sitting on it's original site since 1856 and is on the National Registry of Historic Places. The Pioneer Church, on the same site was built in 1895 but was relocated from another place close by.

The site is huge, the sun was out and my wife, puppy and I were the only ones on the property. I just happen to have my camera and tripod. So! It was time to take some High Dynamic Range Photography!

I did not take a shot of the Baker Cabin as a whole.  Enjoy!

Pioneer Church

Baker Cabin Storage Shed

 

Baker Cabin Outside Stairs

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Learn HDR Photography | Photomatix Review

Updated 8/16/16

1934 Ford Coupe (LINK)

With the advent of the modern digital camera it is fairly easy to take High Dynamic Range photos (HDR). See Phase One and Phase Two of “Learn HDR Photography.

Even on most of the latest point and shoot cameras you can adjust the Exposure Value manually to cover the necessary exposure range, as long as you use a tripod, and that the total exposure range is at least a total of four, plus and minus.

3 exposure settings
EV 0 for the first shot
EV -2 for the second shot
EV +2 for the third shot

As shown the best order of bracketing is Meter (0) /Under/Over.


The majority of P&S cameras shoot in JPEG. For HDR that's great! But, if you are going to shoot HDR photography with a P&S make sure you shut off all the automatic stuff. No automatic flash and so on.


Concentrate on getting the different exposures right. Practice without the tripod.  Sit in chair and set the EV at zero and see what the standard shot is going to look like, and then move the EV up and down and you can see the difference in exposure before you take the actual shots.


On most modern DSLRs you have what is called Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) built in.


Instead of having to manually change the Exposure Value for each of these three shots the camera does it for you. The camera is usually set on AV or aperture priority and you set the f/stop.


Ninety five percent of HDR shots I take are with a wide angle lens when using my Pentax DSLR. In daylight almost everything is shot at f16 or f22 for a consistent depth of field and, of course aperture priority setting.


I shoot in RAW, although JPEG works just as well in HDR photography. I set the ISO to 100.


I have used f22 inside a building and it has worked great. Night time may be a whole different ballgame and I will report later on that.


For my HDR processing I use Photomatix. It's reasonably priced and it is the best HDR software I know about. They have an excellent built in tutorial.


The software is like magic...it does all the work for you...alignment of the various exposures, de-ghosting, removal of chromatic aberrations and other things that can go wrong in HDR. And, “poof”out comes this magical photo.


The best part is: You don't like your HDR photo, there are super controls within Photomatix that you can play with to finite your masterpiece.


I have Elements 13 as of 2015. If I want to do further minor tweaking I use that. The combination of Photomatix and Elements works great! As of 2013, I also have added Lightroom 5. It is excellent in post production, adding contrast, clarity, alignment and so forth.


Whether you have an inexpensive P&S or an expensive DSLR there is no excuse but to try your hand at HDR Photograph. It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

Spot On EV 0

EV -2

EV +2

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Learn HDR Photography | Phase Two

In Phase One of Learn HDR Photography we learned that HDR is basically the culmination of three exposures taken in succession...a standard exposure,  an overexposed one and an underexposed one. 

If done properly, taking the photo at three exposures will add greater tonal detail that will not be found in any one single shot. Try it!  Three things you are going to need:

One: Essential to HDR Photography is exposure compensation. Your camera must have the capability of letting you change the exposure setting (Exposure Value (EV)) within your camera with relative ease. And, whether it be a digital DSLR or a Point and Shoot a total range value of 4 EV is a must.

New term:  The process of taking several or more shots of the same thing using different camera settings is called Bracketing. Here's an example:

3 exposure settings
EV 0 for the first shot
EV -2 for the second shot
EV +2 for the third shot

As shown the best order of bracketing is Meter/Under/Over.

Two: Remember you are shooting the same scene three times in a row and you want the shot to line up properly without blurring it. So the use of a tripod or prop is a must. There being an exception, and that is if your camera has Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) built in.

Three: Some type of post production HDR software. The latest additions of Photoshop have it. And, one dedicated HDR software is Photomatix which is what I have...combined with an older version of Elements for cropping and organizing I do just fine.
 

I have a bottom-of-of the-food-chain Nikon L22 point and shoot that has EV. It is fairly easy to change the EV. However, I have to do so manually, making the use of a tripod mandatory. Any movement of the camera while changing the EV without a tripod would result in tons of distortion.

Here is an example of the photos taken with the Nikon P&S:

EV 0 For The First Shot

EV -2 For The Second Shot

EV +2 For The Third Shot

Final Photo Processed Thru Photomatix

In Phase Three I will explain more about HDR Software. So get with it! Go out and practice...take some shots at different exposures. The processing can come later.  

All Rights Reserved My Oregon Photography Blog, Thom Zehrfeld, Copyrighted 2013-2014. Also, please see bottom of page for Product Disclosure and Privacy Disclosure! Thank You!

Learn HDR Photography | Phase One

What is High Dynamic Range Photography or HDR.  It is the culmination of basically three exposures taken in succession...one that is underexposed, one overexposed and one that is “normal or standard exposure” of the same subject.

They are fused together to rectify the blown out part and the underexposed part. Your camera must have the capability to take these shots. Some take them manually while some automatically.

Your camera may or may not have the capability to combine them, but special HDR software like Photomatix is highly recommended to process them into HDR.

The lastest versions of Photoshop and Elements also have this capability.  You may find Photoshop is expensive while Photomatix and Elements within budget.  My preference is Photomatix...it's awesome!

HDR Photography

HDR Photography

HDR Photography

I subscribe to “Outdoor Photography” magazine and there was an article, complete with some outstanding photos that demonstrated this fairly new art form as well as it could be demonstrated.

Just had to find out more! I started to buy books (See below for a slew of them) so that I could learn more about HDR Photography.  I have Rick Sammon's HDR Secrets for Digital Photographers, High Dynamic Range Digital Photography For Dummies by Robert Correll and the Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Digital Photography by Ferrell McCollough .

The Sammon's book is a little more concise and is a great primer. The book has hundreds of HDR examples, plus he gets a bit into just plain "how to take great photos".

The Correll book tells you everything you need to know about HDR Photography and then some.  Both books are highly recommended.

After learning some of the basics, finding out that my digital camera is capable of the HDR process, and after taking some shots in the HDR mode, I'm hooked!

Some folks either love this type of photography or they loathe it. Some consider it manipulation and “right up there” with taking a photo into Photoshop and altering the devil out of it. A satanic practice that could only lead one into hell's fire!

As far as manipulation, one can say the same about today's color film...it can bring out the mundane and convert it into stunning definition and color. Is this getting the best shots you can, or manipulation?

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