Hey Shutterbugs

[pooon]

Thought I'd come over and join you guys at forum 88 (coffee lounge ain't what it used to be). Here's some shots I took around Vancouver recently:









I bought the Canon Rebel XT shortly after Christmas but haven't used it much until now.

[mneil]

great shots. i like the first one and how the reflections off the windows hit the street below. They are pretty crazy down there!

[frex]

Any HDR used?
Not sure about unequal vignetting in #3...
...nice to see you here pooon!

[WannaBe_80z]

I really like the shots as well. I looked at your photo stream and see that these are HDR. What do you use to process?

[pooon]

Yup, it's HDR. I use photoshop CS3 for the HDR merge and tonemap, then I use lightroom for the color corrections.

[hidef1080]

Very good work you've done.

[Googooboyy]

Impeccable! My first thoughts without reading your paraphrase was 'Wow, nice 3D works!' - but now I know better!

I'm not sure how it works, but I'm gonna find out more about it.

[pooon]

I'm not sure how it works, but I'm gonna find out more about it.

My method is to take 3 photos (some people do more but 3 works for me) at 3 exposures, correct, two stops over, two stops under. My camera has bracketing so it'll do all three automatically. I think most SLRs have this. Shoot in RAW.

In photoshop open the three pictures and pick merge HDR under automate in the file menu. When it makes the HDR image drag the slider to find a good even exposure. Now pick 8-bit under mode in the image menu. Pick local adaptation and drag the two sliders off to the right. From here is the tricky part. Play around with the tonal curve histogram until you find a good balanced lighting for your scene. Nothing too over or under exposed. I can't really explain how to use it, I just play around until I find something pleasing.

Save the psd file and open it in lightroom (or just edit it in photoshop). I prefer lightroom because it has the clarity slider (I don't know what the photoshop equivalent is). Bump up the saturation, contrast, black levels.

Not all pictures make good HDR pictures. Look for areas where there's a lot strong sunlight and dark shady areas in the same picture.

[frex]

Great tut pooon!
Thank's for sharing!

[kevin_smithers]

Love the pics poon and great tutorial, I been tryign out HDR but got as far as merging then didn't know what to do it get the image spot on, now I know I will give it a go

Cheers

[el-Ignoramus]

pooooooooooooooooooooooooon


Give me a Hug bro

Nice seeing you here dude, how's sunny Vancouver, might be visiting sometime before this year ends, any suggestions for photogenic locations??

[Googooboyy]

Wow Poon, that's excellent! However I have this feeling that my Fuji s100FS had that bracketing feature too! Problem is, I've yet to play with it as often as I'd liked, so I'm not sure how to go there yet, but with your tutorial, I'd like to try it (hopes). Thanks!

[pooon]

pooooooooooooooooooooooooon


Give me a Hug bro

Nice seeing you here dude, how's sunny Vancouver, might be visiting sometime before this year ends, any suggestions for photogenic locations??

*hug*

You really can't go wrong shooting anywhere in Vancouver. One of my favorite spots is Granville Island. It has boat docks, a public market, a view of the ocean, and it's under two bridges. Downtown has a lot of great architecture and you can see the mountains around the north end.

[ctranter]

lovely and crisp