July

Beach Cabana

How I did it - I thought this was a great example of the advantages of HDR, Exposure Blending or Exposure Fusion. Obviously this is a scene that has way too much contrast for the camera to show. The original sequence included 5 exposures to get the best set to merge into PhotoMatix. After the merge, the image was brought into Lightroom 3 to crop and make additional exposure and color corrections. This is a photo that I wish I had more time to play with when I shot the picture. I think it turned out to have a lot more potential than I thought.  Below is one of the exposures.

COMMENTS:
 

Marie Altenburg	The difference in your before and after images is amazing, Brad! You’ve really opened up the shadows without blowing out the highlights. I have questions, though. Knowing you’re a Nikon user, would your Nikon’s Active D lighting setting help to open up those shadows? And do you prefer to use Lightroom rather than Photoshop software for processing? Thanks for the demo.
Louis Duncan	For me this image shows a good range of exposure and color from the dark porch to the bright clouds. The green hose seems like a distraction.
Margaret Price	Brad you have done a lot of work here and the result is pleasing. My only concern is the hose that is on the right hand side, I find it very distracting.
Vicki DeVico	Brad, you've done a superb job of processing throughout the range in this HDR image. The beach scene beyond the cabana is really beautiful.
Stephen Byard	There is some unexpected brightness in the areas surrounding the beach and sea area. This is one of the reasons I think hand blending can sometimes be smarter than HDR software        The RHS of the image has the main interest and I suggest cropping the LHS off to see what you think. The character is interesting in the middle distance, but tidying up the hose would have de-cluttered the foreground       A great idea, but for me, a little more work to do.
Carol McCreary	The beach area of the photo is nice. I agree that HDR would be the only way to create a useful photo to include the dark and light areas in this photo. For competition, this photo needs more subjects.

Member Bio

Brad Ashbrook - Biography    My father, Stan Ashbrook, got me started at a young age and have been shooting for over 30 years. I shot the newspaper and yearbook all through middle and high school. I attended Rochester Institute of Technology and received my bachelors in Imaging and Photographic Technology in 1987. The first couple of jobs were photography related including a sales manager with Sinar Bron. After that, I worked in the computer industry for several years and finally landed in the audio visual industry for the past 14 years.      I started out with Minolta film cameras and purchased my first 1.3mp camera in 1999. I then upgraded to a 3.1, and finally bought my first DSLR, the Nikon D70. I have since upgraded to a D300 and absolutely love the camera. I have a few lenses, Nikon 16-85, 70-300VR (having troubles, I think I got a lemon), Sigma 10-20 and a Tamron 200-500 (which works fine around F8 only). When I am going to a good race (Sebring or Road Atlanta), I usually rent a 70-200 f2.8 VR and 1.4x from LensProToGo.       I really enjoy shooting sports photography, such as my kids playing football or soccer and motor racing. I also shoot nature and travel. Recently, I have been experimenting/playing with HDR and panoramic. I love a good challenge and I have really enjoyed these two techniques. I have been a member of PSA a couple of different times and at one time participated in Stereo Exhibitions. I using primarily Lightroom2 and a little bit of Photoshop CS3. I am still learning CS3 (not sure there is an end to this..) and hopefully will get much better over time. I use PhotoMatix Pro for HDR’s and AutoPano Pro for the panoramic landscapes.