Photomatix -
HDR Photography - Just What I Needed, A New Toy! LOL
Thanks to Mike Hendren's posts on High Dynamic Range Photography, and the wonderful examples he and Andrea Swiedler have posted, I finally climbed on the bandwagon. (Is there no end to the $$ we can spend, guys?)
I have always been a fan of vivid color in my photography, and often shoot with, or post process with saturated settings for that reason. But this gives me the ability to take it to a new level. While I have played with psuedo HDR in the past, this is a whole new ballgame!
Photomatix seems to be the #1 HDR software on the market to date. I always seriously check out the software I'm interested in before downloading it, and the reviews definitely steered me in this direction. That and Mike's recommendation. I won't go into the process involved, please visit Mike's post, Sunrise Reflected - HDR , for that detailed information, but I did want to share my first efforts with this very cool software.
These shots can be sharpened up for a more 'crisp' look, but I decided I really liked the softer, dreamy effect.
Now, it's not all about super saturation, Photomatix also has the tools for 'natural' looking results that give a very well defined finished product.
(Note on above photo: Cooper, the infant son of Edward Smith and his wife, was the first to be buried in the Lake George Cemetary in 1872, his sister, Elizabeth, following him to the grave 2 years later).
Simply put, the process reveals highlight and shadow details in an HDR image created from multiple exposures. You need to be using a camera with the ability to 'bracket' multiple exposures.
This is my VERY BOLD HDR rendition of an old car found in a field next to the highway. (Apparently, someone has attempted to repaint it.... Nice.)
This is the original photo of the car, no processing, (Guys, is this a rambler?):
Oh! How I love TOYS!
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