Donkey

Bluebonnet Belle

A gorgeous aircraft, HDR from a single JPG.

Ominous F-18

Old Dance Hall

Just NE of Austin, Texas

Old General Store

Denton, Texas HDR

Below are some HDR shots taken around Denton, Texas over the recent Thanksgiving holiday.

Derelict Jets

Taken at the Denton Regional Airport, Texas

Union Pacific Locomotives

HDR processed from a single JPG.

Texas State Capitol - HDR

This didn't come out too badly! There are some weird, digital artifacts in the sky at upper left that I can't seem to clear out. Otherwise, happy with the detail and color with this. Under a blue sky this would look brill!

Old Post Office

Messing with HDR again. This is very mild but this is what I prefer, as opposed to pushing the settings too far and creating something that just doesn't look real. Across the image, it's very sharp and vivid, and almost 3D.

















Below is a shot that is pushed a little further...

Experimenting with HDR Pt. II

So tonight I took a photo from my recent Israel trip. It's one of my favorites - sunset at the ancient port city of Jaffa. It's a single .JPG file, so not much to work with...or so I thought! The original .JPG is below...

















I ran this single .JPG file though the trial version of "Dynamic Photo=HDR" and the result is rather stunning.

















The sunset is enhanced, and there is brighter detail within the sea and closer to shore. That's really pretty good considering this is from a single JPG file!

Experimenting with HDR

The other night I was reading about High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. In a nutshell, this is a method where you combine photos of the same object but with varying EV values into a final images with a greater dynamic range of color and luminance. This intrigued me as some of the results were truly stunning. Admittedly, some folks tend to stretch various settings a bit too much, resulting in odd looking images. Still, it's a cool technique and if done subtly, can produce some stunning and very interesting images.

So, I spent a bit of time messing with some images I had taken of the old Lime Mill building around the corner, and then used some HDR freeware entitled "FDRTools". You have to play with the settings a little bit, but after a bit of patience you can get some interesting results. (The combination and layering of files is done really easily and mostly automatically using this software). I took the first picture using the Aperture mode in the camera. For the second, I went down to EV-1, and for the third I went to EV+1.

Below is the original image taken with the D40. It's a nice image, really, and what I would expect when shooting a building like this.

















Now, below is the HDR image. Much more vibrant color, more vivid, the sky is more intense and the brickwork stands out much better. This was done with rather conservative settings adjustments.

















Just for grins, I ran this series of images through a reasonably priced software package called "Dynamic Photo HDR" which has options for much easier image processing. Pretty good results, too...



















So, this is a neat area of DSLR photography and one I am looking forward to exploring more fully...

Austin Pow Wow and Heritage Fesitval

Tonight was the annual Austin Pow Wow and Heritage Festival, where American Indians from all over the country come together. It was a night rich in color and sound. Below are some of my better images from the evening.

Israel Highlight - Christian Cemetary

Israel Highlight - Recess at the Yeshiva

Israel Highlight - Dreams and Prayers in the Wall

Israel Highlight - Books of Worship

Israel Highlight - Market Youth

Israel Highlight - Contemplation

Israel Highlight - The Game

Israel Highlight - Young Warrior

Israel Highlight: Ethiopian in Prayer

Israel: Jerusalem - Old City

Israel: Jerusalem - New City

Israel - Tel Aviv

Here are some various snaps taken around Tel Aviv. Picture titles indicate names of places.