HDR (High Dynamic Range) Photography

HDR or High Dynamic Range photography has been a concept that has been around since 1997.  Your camera sees a dynamic range of roughly 6 f-stops. Let me explain that a little further with the use of some images.  By merging the images together and performing some post processing techniques we can try to get that range up to 11 f-stops.  Still far below what our eyes can see but a huge improvement in tonal range.

This image is over exposed by 2 f-stops






This image is underexposed by 2 f-stops

This image is exposed correctly and is a pretty good image by itself.  Well what we are about to do is do some digital magic.  






We are going to merge these three photos together in photoshop with an automate function of "Merge to HDR".  This will automatically line up your images and put one on top of the other.  Photoshop does a great job of aligning images.  What it does not do so well is a process called "tone mapping".  Tone mapping is where your will bring out all the details and the range of the image.  I use a product called Photomatix.  This seems to be the industry standard.  There are several other programs that offer similar results such as FDRsoft, Qtpfsgui, and Picturenaut. Once Photoshop has merge your image you will need to save it as a 16 bit tiff file.  This file size and type provides you more flexibility in bringing out the details and highlights.  


Open up Photomatix and then open your tiff file.  Then play around with the sliders and see what kind of image you can produce.


If you don't have Photoshop, Photomatix does a very good job at merging an image to HDR. So, essentially,  Photomatix could be your one stop HDR software.


Here is our final image. It is a much deeper, more vibrant image.  

For more examples of HDR you can visit my website timbarronphoto.com or visit my fan page on facebook at Tim Barron Photography

Direction and Vision

As you all know, recently,  I launched my new website, timbarronphoto.com.  I appreciate everyone that has visited the site and shown an interest in my photography.

I have made some changes and I thought it was getting to where I liked it.  However, I am thinking of changing directions in my photography.  I love taking photos of everything.  I like the color and textures of flowers, the softness of snow on mountains.  I truly love the beauty of nature, but one thing keeps coming back to me.  The love of photographing my family.  As a parent there is not greater joy, to me, than capturing that moment in time that maybe gone tomorrow or in 5 minutes.  Believe me,  I have a 13 year old boy and because they have to be "cool" all the time, the smiles and the true emotions he had when he was 4 and 5 are masked a lot of the time.  However, when you do catch that moment of joy and fun spirit that he has, it brings me great happiness and the camera loves it.  That is why I love taking photos of him playing sports or just out doing things away from others his age, especially 13 year old girls.  As for the four year old, well they are easy.  They have so much energy and life that any photo you take of them has the potential to be a crowd pleaser.   My four year old loves to go out in the back yard and get his picture taken.  A real camera bug that one.

Well, back to my direction change.  Photos, to me, are all about emotion.  I want to be the best at capturing that emotion.  I thought that taking magnificent photos of flowers or landscapes would land me a million dollars because of the emotion that someone felt after seeing the image.  Well, you must admit, that is like winning the lottery.  Let's flip that emotion-less image of a flower to one of a child laughing and running on the soccer field or the frustration after that first strikeout in little league.  That is the true emotion I have been trying to capture.  Don't get me wrong, I still love taking photos of flowers, landscapes and still-life but I want to offer all of you my services as your family photographer.  In the upcoming baseball season and track season I will have camera in tow shooting away and of course I will be at tiny tots soccer with my little guy with my camera capturing those emotion filled days that we as parents know slip away to fast.

I find it interesting that for the most part senior pictures are the only professional pictures that parents have of their kids other than the family pictures at christmas.  I try to look back through my pictures from grade school, junior high and high school they are hard to find.  The one that I find that means the most to me is the senior picture.  Why? well perhaps it is because I had to pay for it.  But, what if it was because someone other than mom and dad were making me feel like a star.  There are other important milestones growing up in addition to being a senior in high school.  Take a look around at some photographers in your area, they may not be as expensive as you might think. Most of the photographers will put a premium on weddings but not on senior or family packages.  Like me for instance, my rate to cover a wedding is significantly higher than for a photo shoot with a family.

Over the next few days and weeks my website will be morphing again to reflect my vision of where I want to go in photography.  The first thing on the site I will be changing is the pricing, that section of the site is shut down until I can adjust my prices to reflect a more family oriented pricing. Then I will get with that 13 year old of mine and we will revamp the site to appeal to all ages... I hope...  Stay tuned and I will see you on the field and online.....

Much learned from my first wedding

As you may know I photographed my first wedding.  I had a great time and ready to do it again. I learned many things.

1. Make a shot list. (and take it with you)
1. Talk with your client to establish imtportan shots for them
2. Establish a time with the wedding party to take formal pictures
3. Use a low aperture to cut down clutter in the background and aid in low light conditions.
4. Know the limitations of your flash.
1. Shooting in low light is a challenge and in a later blog I will discuss how to deal with it.
5. Don't get to caught up on one thing, you may miss something important.
1. I think I foucused to much on details and forgot the wedding party. 
6. It is would offer better coverage with two photographers
1. This would aid in not taking away from the actual ceremony. An easy division of work would allow for better coverage.
7. Try not to be so obvious
1. I think I may have taken away from the actual ceremony with my movements in trying to get good shots. 

I did learn some things before the wedding that proved invaluable. A flash deflector proved invaluable and it was cheap and easy to make.  Check out the link here flash bounce .  This was a great tool that only cost two dollars.  It really even outs the skin tones and makes for a more professional lighting effect.  And saves a lot of work in photoshop later.

Stay tuned next week when I discus in depth some solutions for low light photography.

Playing with lighting

Tonight I took some time to play with the lighting kit before I break it out on Sunday for the wedding I am covering.  Everything seems to be working fine.  I really need to get a more attractive model.

These are examples of a using a gel on a white background

This is what the gels look like on the darker background.

Now, let me explain what the gels are and how they are used.  A gel is simply a heat resistant piece of  transparent plastic, that has translucent color added to it.  The gel will be placed over your light source to create a coloring effect to your image.  To create the effect like the one I have done, the light and gel is placed behind the subject pointed directly at the background.  I chose to slightly angle the light up, which allowed more coverage over the background.  This does not have to be done with an expensive light kit. This can be done with a colored flood lamp.  It is also important to note that I placed another key light at nearly a 45 degree angle about 5 feet in front of the subject (yes, that would be me).

Now, I want to just throw out some images that I took tonight using some other lighting techniques.  I am not sure what I will have more my next post.  Hopefully, I will be able to successfully pull off this wedding and have some photos of that up here next week.

Been a while

I know it has been a while since my last post.  I have been trying to get settled in to my new place in Bremerton.  As you may have seen, I finally launched my website with its own domain name,  Tim Barron Photo.  My projects for the next couple weeks will be stock photography.  I have my photo studio set up in my new place and am looking for some suggestions for still life photography.  So, if any of you have suggestions on what still life photograph would be interesting  let me know and I will try to shoot it and post it up here for everyone to check out.

Happy New Year Microstocks

In 2009 I finally got the confidence to take that next step in photography.  I started with baby steps and started in October with submitting images to various microstock sites.   In keeping with the theme of my blog I thought I would give you all some insight about these microstock sites.

Microstocks were first introduced by Bruce Livingstone, who created istockphoto.  This site was originally a free photo stock site which grew rapidly.  Livingstone sold istockphoto to Getty Images in 2006 for a reported 50 million dollars.  Today the number of microstock sites continue to grow.  A few of the larger ones include dreamstime, fotolio, bigstockphoto, shutterstock.

Microstocks are all fairly similar in submission and selection criteria.  Most offer submissions via java enabled uploader and a easy HTML platform.  Still other offer photographers that have large volumes of files to upload via file transfer protocol (ftp).  Photos must meet certain file size requirements, usually 3MB.  If you meet the file size requirement and successfully upload your photo you must enter keywords that describe your photo.  These keywords are essential in getting your image seen.  Once you have established your keywords, your images are submitted for a stringent review.   If your images are approved your are set.

Here are a few of my portfolios for examples.  While you are there if you see any thing you like feel free to purchase and use as you like.

Dreamstime Portfolio
Fotolio Portfolio
Big Stock Photo Portfolio

Thanks for looking and you too can get your images to be making money for you, just take that step outside your comfort zone and post some images.  As for me, I am attempting to get the benchmark of 100 photos uploaded and accepted by June 2010.  With any luck and some creative photography I may be abel to achieve this goal.  

The Photographer's Christmas Wish List

Everyone loves to take pictures and I have put together a list of items that are sure to be at the top of a photographers wish list.

1. Memory cards- be it SD, SDHC, compact flash or the Sony Memory Stick.  Memory cards are without question a must have and lots of them.  They are an inexpensive gift or stocking stuffer that will be greatly appreciated by any photographer.  
2. Aftermarket camera strap.  If you are an avid photographer these 15-20 dollar beauties are invaluable if you are hiking or are in need of carrying your camera for an extended period of time. 
3. Cleaning kits-  These kits have become increasingly less expensive over the past couple years.  These are a great purchase and one that will be appreciated so much, especially after a few outings of  missed photos due to artifacts on your image.
4. Remote Shutter Release-  These are great for taking your own family portraits or a great creative tool if you are looking to do some self portraits.
5. Gorilla Pod-  A great invention that has come on the scene recently.  These flexible small tripods can attach to numerous structures making it an extremely versatile and lightweight tripod.
6. Extra lens caps-  If you have lost one,  you know that a spare can prevent you from scratching that expensive lens that a 5-10 dollar lens cap could have saved. 
7. A photography magazine subscription.  Prices for subscriptions have came way down and why not give that photography a gift that comes every month.

Well, that is my top gifts for 2009 for under $30.00.  So, if you are still searching for that perfect gift for the picture taker in your life, I hope this helps.

I also wanted to share some photos with you all of the past few weeks.

The search for the Barron Family Tree

Found it!!!!!  Cut down by KeeJ "Paul Bunyon"  with his might axe, or bow saw.

Then it was placed on the Sleigh.  Most likely the fattest tree we have ever had.