urban ku # 4

Do you ever feel the prick to explore landscapes other than the "natural" kind? Is the emphasis placed on the "pure" nature experience of the photographic kind a bit myopic? Is there an element of koyanasquatsi at play? I know that at least one of you out there - Mary Dennis - is scratching the itch to explore other landscapes.

Anyone else?

urban ku # 3

A lovely afternoon for a stroll in Old Montreal. It seemed that no matter which way you looked, something beckoned from around the corner, down the street, or in the air - glances, glimpses, and glimmers of curiosities all around.

HDR Stab no.2

It struck me in a bit of a news flash in my head that a "delicately" created HDR/Tone Mapped photograph bears a striking resemblance to my all-time favorite photographic print medium of large-format, color-negative-generated C prints. Perhaps this epiphany (and the recent election results) heralds a new era - Happy days are here again - perhaps.

Joel Truckenbrod wrote, "...what do you think the deal is with all of the "plasticy" HDR work out there? Simple user incompetence? I'm not familiar with the controls available, so I'm unsure of where the pitfalls are in the process. Regardless, It's somehow strangely comforting to know that photographer is still important to the final result.

Also, what implications does this have on photographers today (in a more global sense)? I've certainly noticed a shift in accepted tonal aesthetics since the day's when Velvia ruled the calender club's world. It will be interesting to see what HDR is seen as in time, when the novelty of the idea wears away."

Quick Answer - The creation of an HDR, like image editing in any other software, is definitely governed by user input. In effect, it is another extension of the photographer's digital darkroom toolbox, and, like all tools, they can be used to create all manner of output for all manner of "taste".

Joel also wrote, "When HDR is simply used a tool to confront the limitations of the medium, I find myself embracing the idea..." At the moment, that sentiment pretty much reflects my idea on the subject.

The photograph published with this post is a great example of using HDR/Tone Mapping to create a result that was nye unto impossible using Photoshop alone. Without going too deep into technique - which we don't talk about here - the final image file was created by generating an HDR file from 4 files created from 1 RAW image file processed 4 times - one for deep shadow detail, one for highlight detail, etc. Then Tone Mapping was applied and it is with this step that the look of the final image was created.

Tom Gallione ~ Flaming Grasses

The fields of Indian grass at Pennypack Ecological Trust are set ablaze as the sun sets on Huntingdon Valley.

I have looked at this image numerous times and have waivered on my opinion of it, even when I was making the photograph I wasn't sure what was drawing me to it. The native aspect ratio is 35mm and it wasn't until I cropped it square that everything came together for me. I realize now that I am beginning to see more squarely, so to speak. Not sure if it is the Hobson effect or what...

Short of taping my mirror, anyone know of a way to convert a 35mm to see squarely in the field? I would prefer the square format to be part of the image making process in the field rather than an afterthought. Hopefully someday camera manufacturers will make the square format an in-camera option.

A quick stab at HDR and Tone Mapping

Can and HDR/Tone Mapped photograph still look like a photograph and not like a photograph that's pretending to be a painting? Quick answer - Yes.

After a little time messing around with Photomatix and some very tricky to process photographs, I can say that I am impressed with HDR's capabilities to produce a digital file with an amazing amount of dynamic range information. And it can do it without ending up with the heavy-handed look that is evident in a lot of HDR work that is currently surfacing.

IMO, it's definitely worth getting to know your way around HDR and Tone Mapping.

Joel Truckenbrod ~ A Man of Few Words

Fallen Pine, Near Cascade River, Minnesota.

Publisher's Note - I have a backlog of photograph submissions (a good thing). If you have submitted recently but not been published, keep the faith. At the moment, I am concentrating on "new faces", but I will definitely be getting back to the "regulars".

Please, keep the submissions coming. If I have to add a "gallery" thing to keep up, I'll figure out how to do it.

Larry Lynch ~ HDR and Tone Mapping

HDR There are those who are making the claim that HDR - High Dynamic Range - and tone mapped photographs are, to state it simply, the way/wave of the future. Who knows, maybe, maybe not. In any event, it is a technology that is very interesting, imo, for both "straight" and as means of "expression".

I have been following a few practioners of HDR/Tone Mapping with interest. Larry Lynch (sneaking up to 7 decades - as he puts it) is one such photographer. Larry does not have a website (that I am aware of). His body of HDR photographs is small and seems to be in the fledgling-work-in-progress stage.

Nevertheless, he has been posting HDR photographs on NPN and several have caught my attention and piqued my interest.

My interest in HDR is twofold: #1fold - as a landscape photographer who is NOT addicted to the light (i.e. soft warm earlyAM/EarlyPM), I photograph whenever and sometimes that means hard/harsh direct sinlight that is a contrast/dynamic range challenge for both sensors and film. HDR/Tone Mapping addresses this problem directly. #2fold - While most of the HDR photographs I have seen to date are way overbaked, it nevertheless seems, in the hands of a "sensitive" photographer, capable of creating photographs which I would label "hyper" real.

I use the word "hyper" because, frankly, at this stage of the photographic game we're just not acclimated to viewing photographs with such an extended dynamic range throughout the entire photograph (as opossed to photographs with GNDed skies over realatively full-ish range foregrounds). The viual effect can be quite disconcerting, and to my eye and sensibilities, interesting/intriguing as well.

Here's a link to Larry's photographs on NPN. I don't know if it will link directly or ask you to sign in/ register//whatever (will someone please let me know). Pay particular attention to Busy, Busy, Busy, Rare Morning, A Fall Image...(another version), and A Canopy of Color.

A Canopy of Color is as "natural" a photographic rending of a high contrast scene as I have ever seen.However it exhibits less of the "hyper" reality than I find in the other mentioned photographs.

What do you think?

Learn more about HDR/tone Mapping here. Be sure to check out the "View examples" page. You can also download a free full featured version of Photomatix - an HDR/Tone Mapping program.

FEATURED COMMENT: Joel Truckenbrod wrote: "The problem that I generally have with HDR, especially when it is used in a "heavy" fashion (such as it is here), is that to my eye, it denies what I hold to be the true power of the medium - some greater, objective relationship to perceived reality. The "hyper-real" aspect of the technique doesn't translate for me. Rather, I find myself lost as to what I'm supposed to be getting from the image. I see some connection to the seemingly never-ending desire for many photographers to actually be painters."

ku # 437

Urban landscapes of the postmodern kind most often connote a sense of coolness and alienation. And deservedly so - modern urban architecture and environments tend to reflect the corporatization of American life - sterile, efficient, no-nonsense, and bottom line/to-the-point. The fact that modern buildings devoted to commerce are also "secure" and, in effect, "gated" creates a moated-fortress mental wall that is very emotionally islolating.

Amazingly, at least to me, is the fact that, for the spend-and-get worker-drones, the beat just goes on (seemlily unquestioned and/or, worse yet, un-noticed), and on, and on....