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

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!

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!

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!

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

 

 

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 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?

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!