This is the first in a series of articles that address the fascinating topic of High Dynamic Range or HDR.  HDR not only refers to situations you face when photographing in the field but also the digital darkroom techniques for processing HDR images.  This first article will lay the groundwork necessary for understanding HDR.

How often do you look at your photographs and are dissatisfied because the images appear washed out, or at least parts of then.  Maybe you took an outdoor family shot at a gathering or picnic.  The people may look great but the sky is washed out.  Or perhaps you were on vacation and something similar happened – part of the image was washed out.  The opposite could also happen.  The image could be too dark.

Normally modern digital cameras have very sophisticated built in light meters that give you excellent exposures.  But often the conditions of the scene you are shooting are simply beyond the capability of camera to capture, regardless of whether you’re shooting digital or film.

If you’re collecting pictures for the family album these defects may not be a problem at all.  It’s the memories that the photograph conjure that are important, not the technical merit of the image.  These are photographic records of important events in our lives.

But if you’re intention is to create a work of art, a washed out image is one sure way to frustrate your efforts.  If you’re shooting RAW you have some ability to recover washed out highlights or black shadows.  However, once you’ve completely lost your highlights and/or shadows there’s nothing you can do to recover them.

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In our family, Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate our blessings, the greatest of which is each other.  This year we gave thanks in our most cherished place on the earth – Zion National Park in southwest Utah.  Over the years it has truly been our refuge and a place we go to rekindle our spirits.

We never fail to take the River Walk trail to the Gateway to the Narrows.  With camera firmly attached to tripod and tripod jontily perched on my shoulder I traveled the trail, open to that one scene that captured the beauty of the canyon and what Zion has come to mean to us.  This is it.

Click here to see more photographs of Zion and the American Southwest. 

Some photographs require weeks and even months to find their voice.  This one came together in just a couple of evenings, almost as if it was meant to be.

For those interested in the technical details, here’s a quick outline.

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We’ve had some good rains so far this winter with 8 inches total as measured in my back yard.  Already that’s 4 times the total rain fall compared to last year.  But then, last year was the driest year on record.  Two inches – that’s desert weather.

We had a storm come through Wednesday night and yesterday with another due to grace us today and over the weekend.

The effect on the hillsides continues to amaze us.  I reported below that grass was growing on the flatter, more level areas.  Now some of the slopes are starting to show hints of green.

Also, large areas were hydro-mulched.  There’s no seed in hydro-mulch.  It’s just ground up newspaper stained with a green dye.  (Read the post.)  The green stain has quickly faded away and now those parts of the hills are a rich brown.  It’s really beautiful at sunset.

So I can’t really say that looking out our back yard the scene is one of devastation any more.  It’s really very beautiful.

For more photographs visit http://RalphNordstromPhotography.com/santiago_fire/santiagofire01.html .

Well, the 2008 Joshua Tree Gathering was this past weekend (Jan 18-20).  The Saturday morning sunrise shoot was down toward the Pinto Basin on the road to Cottonwood Springs and the park’s south entrance.  It was nice because it was much warmer down there, above freezing by several degrees.

The plan was to shoot a sunrise series.  The challenge was to shoot the series as 360 degree panoramas.  And it was made even more challenging by not having a pano head.  So for the next good hour we shot these sequences.  I learned a lot, one thing being I’d have to try again the following morning.

On the way back we decided to stop at Cholla Gardens to catch them drenched in early morning sun.  We pulled into the parking lot and grabbed our cameras.  Ignoring the path I wandered amongst the chollas, ever mindful of their disastrous beauty.   And beautiful and terrible they were with their halos of densely packed spines.

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It’s time to do some controlled testing with the III.  The sensor’s dynamic range is always something of interest and very important.  So I set up a test and came up with some results.

The test consisted of shooting an inside door this evening.  The door has a bit of a pattern so it’s not flat.  The high exposures show was adjusted so it just barely produced clipping.  Then the exposure was decreased by one stop until just before the detail disappeared into black.  The results are in; the sensor captures 7 or 8 stops of dynamic range.  From what I read Velvia is about 5.

But wait; there’s more.  There’s a feature called Highlight Tone Preservation that’s supposed to give you more on the high end.  And it does indeed, adding another 2/3 to 1 stop to the top end.  So the grand total is 8 or 9 stops of dynamic range.

 Click here to see my photographs.

Well, no shooting with the new toy yesterday or today.  As I haven’t given up my day job yet it’s necessary to get some consulting hours in to bring home the bacon.  Besides, the client is happer when I pay some attention to them.  However, the RRS L bracket came today.  So I’ll be able to attach the camera to the tripod without having to use the long lens – always a good thing to be able to do.

But this weekend is going to be very exciting.  First of all, it’s the 1st Annual Joshua Tree Gathering, open to anyone who owns a camera and isn’t afraid to use it.  See the post.  But I’m going to attempt a series of sunrise shots from first light to the sun fully up.  The thing that makes this interesting is I’m going to attempt to do this as  360 degree panorama.  I hope I don’t have to add HDR to the mix.  Arg!

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Last night I did some shooting with my 70-200 on a tripod.  I wasn’t pleased with the sharpness with that lens when shooting hand held.  Duh!  So I set everything up and snapped a few shots.  A quick review last night and I still wasn’t satisfied with the sharpness when shooting at 200mm.  Now, I must confess, one of the problems could very well have been that I was taking 2 min exposures.  It was getting late and I wanted to shoot at f/11 or better.  There was probably enough of an evening breeze to move the subject (shrubs about 400m away). 

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Got a chance to work on some images last night.  Had to pull myself away at midnight.  Here are a couple of thoughts.

RAW file size is about 20 MB as expected.  The TIFF file with just the Background layer is 120 MB.  That’s about four times larger than I’m used to.  I worked on one image using my regular workflow and it ended up at over 800 MB.  A second TIFF was over 500 MB.  File size has become an issue overnight.  And I just added a 1 terabyte external drive to my workstation.

Now, my normal workflow begins with a PS action that does three things -

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I have a question for anyone that reads this post.

One of the exciting features of the new generation of Digital SLRs is a function called sensor clean.  Every time you power up or power down the camera, it vibrates the sensor at an ultra-sound frequency to shake off any dust that may have accumulated when you change lenses.  My understanding that, in addition to the vibrating sensor, there is a statically charged plate below the sensor that attracts the dislodged dust particles.

My question is this – Does the orientation of the camera have an effect on how well the sensor is cleaned?  Is it better to have the camera sitting on its base (lens pointing horizontally)?  What if you’re holding it in your hand and pointing the lens down; is sensor cleaning still as effective?

If you have a thought on this, please feel free to leave a comment.

See the photographs on my website.

Here are details about the Joshua Tree Gathering.

•  When: Friday, Jan 18 to Sunday Jan 20, 2008
• Where: Jumbo Rock Campground will be the base of operations
• Who: Anyone with a camera – digital, film, glass plate, it doesn’t matter
• Why: to photograph the wonders of Joshua Tree National Park and share experiences with other photographers
• Cost: There is no cost for the Gathering but the entry fee to the park is $15 and camping fees are about $15/night.

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