This is a shot of the Old Customs House in Brisbane. This is the view from the Brisbane Riverwalk.
This shot is another HDR Panorama, this time blended at stitched from 12 photos. It is stitched from 4 HDR images in a 2×2 layout using Autopano Giga, and each HDR image was shot at +/- 2.0 EV and then blended using Photomatix with the Batch Processing function, using Details Enhancer for Tone Mapping.
Shooting and Processing
Shot all 12 photos in Pentax RAW (PEF), 4 lots of +/- 2.0 EV brackets
Imported all images from memory card using Lightroom 2.5
Exported all 12 photos to a new subfolder as 16bit TIFF files
Opened Photomatix and ran Batch Process over the new subfolder
Opened Autopano and selected the 4 resulting TIFF HDR images to stitch
Rendered the created panorama to another 16-bit TIFF
Imported final TIFF into Lightroom 2.5
Edited white balance (its a hard one because the Riverwalk is lit with different colour lights to the lights on Customs House and cropped image
The sunrise at Wellington Point in Brisbane is a popular location for local photographers. The sun is rising just to the right of frame in this shot, you can see the orange/red glow off the top of the clouds. This is landmark #7 in my Project 52 Brisbane Landmarks for 2010.
Taken with the Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II @ 18mm, Kenko CPL, TianYa ND8 and TianYa ND8 Grad Filters (thats a whole lotta filters…I didn’t need the ND8 but it was already in the holder from an earlier shot).
Single exposure processed in Lightroom 2.5 with exposure graduated mask, clarity, white balance, contrast, exposure and fill lights adjustments.
EDIT: I just realized I had this marked as landmark #6! It is actually landmark #7.
The Brisbane General Post Office. Located on Queen St, facing Post Office Square is landmark #6 in my Project 52 Brisbane Landmarks for 2010.
As you can see it is lit up at night with red lights (Australia Post uses a red logo).
I’m not 100% happy with the stitching on this. It is a HDR Panorama (yes again…) composed of 4 HDR images, each HDR is 3 shots at +/- 2.0 EV. Unfortunately 1 of the HDR’s came out quite soft for some reason, so the stitching on that 1 is not the best.
This was shot with the Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II lens at 18mm.
Shoot and Processing was as follows
Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF), 12 images
Imported to Lightroom 2.5
Exported to TIFF
Blended with Photomatix batch processor, Tone Mapped using Details Enhancer, resulting in 4 TIFF files
Stitched 4 HDR TIFF files with Autopano, resulting in a single TIFF
Edited stitched TIFF using Photoshop to correct some perspective distortion, saved to TIFF again
This is an example of using Startrail software for something other than star trails. Here I have taken 44 photos from the same location, each with a 6 sec shutter speed, then used startrails.exe to stack all 44 photos together into 1. This gives the sense of speed and action in the shot.
A single 6 sec shot results in maybe 1 or 2 “car trails” which do not travel through the entire shot. If I were to adjust the aperture such that I could get a much longer exposure then the car trails themselves would be dim and barely show up. Also on long exposures noise can become an issue, by stacking the photos, you end up with less noise, although you do get the odd gap in the trails, which you may notice in this shot. This occurs while the shutter is closed between shots.
To make this method of shooting work effectively I would recommend getting a cable remote for your DSLR which has a button lock down feature. This will keep the shutter button locked down, without you having to sit there with your hand on the camera.
The St Stephens chapel was the first catholic church in Queensland. It was completed in 1850. It is located next to the Cathedral of St Stephen on Elizabeth St in Brisbane. The cathedral was built later to cater for a larger congregation.
This shot is another HDR Panorama – as are a lot recently! I think I need to get a wider lens ;-). This shot is composed of 2 portrait orientation HDR’s stitched using Autopano. Each HDR is 3 images, shot at +/-2.0 EV and blended using Photomatix Batch Processor using Details Enhancer for tone mapping.
I have had a few enquiries about my HDR processing methods. I will be doing up a detailed step by step post over the weekend to share with everyone, so stay tuned.
This is a 9 shot HDR Panorama of the inside of the Cathedral of St Stephen on Elizabeth St in Brisbane. It is composed of 3 landscape orientation HDR’s. Each HDR is 3 shots taken at +/- 2.0 EV. This is landmark #5 in my Project 52 Brisbane Landmarks for 2010.
The shots were taken using my Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II lens @ 18mm. I also used my tripod to support the setup for the required long exposures.
Processing Details
Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
Imported into Lightroom 2.5
Exported 9 images to 16 bit TIFF
Blended using Photomatix Batch Processing using Details Enhancer for Tone Mapping, this created 3 16 bit TIFF files
This is a HDR of the Twin Falls waterfalls at Springbrook National Park in the Gold Coast Hinterland. It was a very cloudy and very wet weekend, so I had to use HDR to prevent the sky from blowing out badly.
These falls are quite high and an impressive sight. If the weather were better I would have been keen for a swim in the pool. Maybe next time
This was blended from 5 photos. To get the 5 shots, I set the camera exposure bias to -2.0 EV, then took 3 bracketed shots at /- 2.0 EV (giving -4, -2 and 0 EV) then quickly set the exposure bias to 2.0 EV and took 3 more bracketed shots (giving +4, +2 and 0 EV). I then have shots ranging from -4 to +4 EV in 2 EV steps. I delete 1 of the duplicate 0 EV shots and blend the remaining 5 in Photomatix.
This is a neat little trick if the normal +/- 2.0 EV bracketing is not enough for the scene being shot. In this case the white cloud above the waterfall was blown out in every shot except -4 EV.
Here is another HDR Panorama I took at Springbrook National Park on the weekend. These are Antarctic Beech Trees, which are quite rare, as you will notice if you read the wikipedia article. This shot was taken with the K200D, Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II kit lens, and Slik 500DX Pro tripod. It was raining lightly when I took the shot. I setup the tripod just on the inside of the fence which protects the trees from the path.
It was because I was so close that this had to be a panorama. I was not able to fit the base of the trees in the shot. I was also forced to use HDR for this shot due to the extremely bright white clouds behind the tree trunks. I did not want to lose the detail in the roots.
The shoot and processing details are as follows
Shot in Pentax RAW (PEF)
Imported into Lightroom 2.5
Exported to 16 bit TIFF
Exposures blended using Photomatix Batch Processing with Details Enhancer Tone Mapping
Photomatix resulting images were then stitched using Autopano
Resulting panorama was imported back into Lightroom 2.5
I haven’t posted for a few days as I was off exploring the world. A friend and I travelled to Springbrook National Park for a weekend of camping and photography, only to discover that the weather was against us. It rained very heavily most of the time, so not much photography happened!
Here are the first of the processed shots though.
This shot was taken using the Pentax DA 18-55 AL II lens @ 18mm. It is 3 HDR images stitched together (HDR’s were 3 images each @ +/- 2.0 EV). All shots were taken in Pentax RAW (PEF), imported to Lightroom 2.5, blended using Photomatix batch process with Details Enhancer (quite extreme one too!) and stitched using Autopano.
I also took another HDR panorama from the other side of the shed looking back to the bridge I took this shot from. This is the link to flickr
A Blog of my Photographic Journeys, Equipment, Techniques and Images.
