High Dynamic Range or HDR has become a standard and often used tool when I’m in the field.  For example, a few weeks ago when I was shooting sunrises in Bryce Canyon we would arrive well before sunrise.  Generally I would start shooting when it was light enough to get a good exposure at 30 second, ISO 100 and f/16.  That’s a good 20 to 30 minutes before the sun peeks over the horizon.  In that wonderful pre-sunrise light the dynamic range is very low, maybe a total of four or five stops.  There is no need for HDR because under those circumstances I can get a good 8 and if I want 9 stops of dynamic range from my sensor.

But as soon as the sun is above the horizon all that changes.  The dynamic range jumps to at least 8 stops, probably more.  (I don’t take the time to scintifically measure the dynamic range because things happen so fast in those first few minutes.)  I don’t want to take any chances with that incredible light so I switch to HDR, just for insurance if nothing else.

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Like many photographers, I use a remote release when shooting landscape photography.  Why?  So that I don’t jiggle the camera when I push the shutter button.  (The camera is on a sturdy tripod of course.)  However, I found a better way to keep the camera steady.

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The download and installation (re-installation) of DxO is complete.  It took the better part of an afternoon however. The DxO technologies site is (in)famous for slow downloads.  It literally took a couple of hours to download the 500 MB file.  But it’s done, DxO is installed and I had a brief opportunity to use it.

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I’ve been having a discussion with a friend regarding the benefits and challenges of JPEG and RAW file formats.  There’s already a lot of discussion on this topic out there but here’s a bit more.

The challenge my friend has with RAW is that the images are not as striking as JPEG.  In fact, she says the RAW images are rather flat and she’s right.

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I vividly recall avidly reading Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, savoring every idea, every concept, every technique they discussed.  I guess I’m a zone system kind of guy at heart.

One thing they both said that baffled me were their comments on previsualization.  Seeing the final image in one’s mind’s eye before snapping the shutter was beyond my ability.  Boy, was that ever intimidating.

Well, umpteen years and thousands of photographs later I still feel challenged by the notion of previsualization.  But I think I may be getting a glimmer of a hint.

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This is not so much a comment on Genuine Fractals as it is on the workflow end game, namely, resizing (Genuine Fractals) and output sharpening (Photokit).  Here’s the test.

• Resize a 6 M pixel image using Genuine Fractals to 16″X24″.
• Create output files at three resolutions – 180 ppi, 240 ppi and 360 ppi
• Sharpen the image using Photokit output sharpener for 180 Matte, 240 Matte and 360 Matte respectively.
• Examine the resulting images on the monitor for image quality.

And quickly, here are the results.

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Here’s a follow up to a comment I made about 800 MB files in a previous posting (see Canon 1Ds Mark III Workflow).  There were a few incredulous responses along the lines of, “How could anyone have an 800 MB image file?”  The answer was pretty straight forward.  Start with a 20 MB RAW file, convert it to tiff (now you’re around 100 MB), add a few layers and presto, an 800 MB gorilla.

But I have that one topped.  Give this one a try.  Shoot a 360 degree panorama.  Now at 15 degrees between shots it takes 24 images to make the full 360.  Let’s see, that’s 1680 MB of RAW files.  To make life simpler, convert the RAW files to JPEGs.  Then stitch them together in CS3 using Photomerge.  Don’t flatten the layers; just save the file as a PSB (you have to use Adobe’s large file format) and there you have it – a 2 GB image file.

Here’s an interesting tidbit for the Lightroom version of Trivial Pursuit:  LR can’t import the file – too big.

All I can say is, “It’s a good thing they now have 1 TB external drives.”  And to think my very first computer had a 90 KB single sided, single density 5 1/4″ floppy drive.  Yep, just one of them.  Come to think if it, with its 4 MHz Z80 CPU it would have taken about a week (maybe more) to stitch together the 24 images assuming I could have found enough storage to hold the file once it was done.  We’ve come a long way baby.

I want to set the record straight on my experience with DxO.  In the interest of fairness, it appers that the troubles I was having was a result of .NET issues that existed on my machine before I tried to upgrade DxO.  How do I know this?  Well, the process I had to go though to fix the problem caused by the DxO upgrade fixed some other problems I was having with my computer.

So here’s my final conclusion:

The .NET problem, it was lurking in the bowels of my computer waiting for something to come along.  The DxO upgrade was just that thing.  Now the .NET problem is resolved.

I’ll wait before giving DxO another try but when they come out with their upgrade for the 1Ds Mark III I probably won’t be able to resist.  The concept behind the product is still fascinating.

Well, I’m very pleased to report that I heard back from DxO.  They expressed regret for the problems I was facing and hoped I’d reconsider.  I was impressed they responded.  So often companies don’t bother with a disgruntled customer.  So I’ll keep an eye on the product and if it appears it is stabilizing I just may give it a go again.

Read the final posting in this saga to see how it all turned out.

The plot thickens.  Now, since the failed installation of DxO, not only does it not work but at least one key program no longer works.  It tries to launch and then just disappears with no error message or anything.

 Several Hours Later….

Everything is back up and running again – except DxO.  I uninstalled it after reinstalling it and it still didn’t work.  A little research for the other program that wasn’t working suggested .NET 2.0 was corrupted.  Fixing it required using a utility to uninstall it as the Windows Add/Remove Programs wouldn’t touch it.  If you run into the same situation, here’s the link to the Microsoft support site.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922377/en-us

That fixed the problem.  But I’m afraid I’m not going to risk going through this again by reinstalling DxO.  I got along fine without it in the past and I’ll get along fine without it in the future.

Read the final posting in this saga to see how it all turned out.