HDR Image Test

For a while now I've been looking into purchasing a digital SLR camera and have been researching the specs of all the Canon's that are always talked about; 650D, 7D and 5D MK II and III.

One thing I really want to do with the DSLR is take HDR images. So yesterday I borrowed a friends camera and took these three photos, however I forgot to shoot in RAW and use a tripod!..

High Exposure

Mid Exposure

Low Exposure

Using an image compiling software, the photos were automatically aligned and blended together.

HDR result

I'm going to try again with tripod and shooting in RAW soon and will hopefully have an even better result.



Soundtrack: John Scofield - I Brake 4 Monster Booty

Shutter Cal

I've just joined Shutter Cal from reading Rob's own experience with it so far. I think what finally got me to sign up for this though was today when I read that another blogger, posted one image everyday for three years! I can compare that with my facebook account, because i started it in my first year at uni, so it really documents my uni life for three years quite well. But i'm not using it that much anymore, so that made me think what I could do with taking a photo a day. One thing for sure is that my attention to seeing things will be more focused.

The process of updating photos is a long way off from being convenient. At the moment I have to upload my photos to dropbox (so that they're on my computer) and then upload them to the calender. iPhone users have the upper hand with an app, so i'd like to see an Android app! But as soon as they make the update I can see this catching on.

The Incredible Results of Viveza 2

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a piece of software for manipulating photos with exact precision, that I had never come across before. Nik's Viveza 2 is a wonderfully simple tool to bring the most out of your images.
I am very excited by it as I will want to improve the final shots of my trip to China when I come back in September. So to test this software I created a simple render from maya...

The text uses an ambient occlusion material and the three balls are using a car paint material, both are mental ray materials. The light was setup using an HDRI I pulled from my buddy Rob, who i'm sure won't mind =) and applied it to a IBL dome. The final render was at 720p and these are the results...

1) The original - straight from Maya


2) The edit - from Viveza 2


The results to my eye, are quite staggering. I was able to ramp up the colour and contours of the balls individually and then the whole scene using a circle border which gave it that soft vignette round the corners. I love this tool and will probably be using it for a long time. If you've had positive or negative experiences with it I'd like to know.

New Pictures

I've added some more pictures to my Photography Portfolio. They're of a couple of bands a saw at the Dot 2 Dot Festival this weekend, so it's in the Bands and Music section. Just click on the title above to open the web-page!