I decided to try something today. I took a few photos in Louisville that I did not bracket, so I only had one RAW image file of them. I opened one of a large propeller in Adobe Bridge and adjusted the exposure four times so I had five images that were "developed" at varying exposures. So in the end I had exposures at EV -2, -1, 0, +1, and +2 with the 0 exposure being the original.
Next I opened them all in Photomatix Pro and started playing with them. Here are the results of my experiment. First, the original photo.

As you can see it appears a little overexposed and the colors are washed out. Some of that is due to the propeller being out in the elements and the paint fading, but part is the exposure settings in the camera. The human eye can see a much wider range of lights and darks than a camera, so it does the best it can with the light available.

I made two adjustments and I like them both. You can see a lot more detail in both of them and the colors appear better, but I didn't do anything too drastic. Here are both of the adjustments.

I just added some contrast and a little warmth, and played with the white point and black point to come up with these final images. 

The lesson here is that you don't really need to take multiple images and merge them, you can use a RAW image and do the same thing that you'd be doing by taking multiple exposures by simply adjusting the RAW image files. I have Bridge, but as I understand it you can also use Adobe Lightbox to do the same thing.

My father and I have been having an e-mail conversation about HDR photography the past couple of days. Some people seem to feel that the more bizarre they can make their photos appear, the better they are. I don't agree  and neither does Dad. To show you what I am talking about I have three photos from the same original. First is the photo as shot. Kind of bland looking but not entirely bad I don't guess. Considering it was a cold rainy day.

Next is the image adjusted just a little to darken the sky and show some of the detail in those overexposed areas.

Again, not too bad. I like this one a little better as it shows detail in the pumphouse and gives a dramatic effect to the sky.

Now for what I don't like.

This is just too much. Too unrealistic and overdone in my opinion. Some people may like it, but I prefer to go for something that just adds a little. But to each his own I suppose.

I thought I'd give an example of HDR photography so people can understand a little better what it is I am talking about. So here are three photos I took of The Heigold House in Louisville. It's just a facade of an old house that sits in the middle of Frankfort Avenue where it meets River Road.

This one is a "normal" exposure, what the camera judges to be correct. There are some deep shadows inside the doorway, but other than that I kind of like it.

 This one is overexposed but you can see some of the colors and details that were lost in the shadows in the first shot.

This one is underexposed and shows the details in the areas that were too bright in the other two shots. In my opinion this is the most important shot.

This last shot is the combination of the other three. It is completely unadjusted in Photomatix Pro, so it is just the three images with no more correction But even at this basic phase you can see the details and the shadow much better than in the originals.

Of course I can play with the colors and saturation a bit more from here and come up with something a little more dramatic.

And here is the finished product. Bright colors and good detail.

I took a few photos at a reservoir in Louisville, KY last month with my old Pentax *ist. It was limited to three shots instead of up to nine on the K20D model. For those people not knowledgeable on the topic, HDR photography is High Dynamic Range photography. It uses several shots of the same subject that are taken at different exposures. So here are a couple of shots taken in Louisville. I went a little overboard to see what I could do with these, making them a little unrealistic.

An update on software. I am using Photomatix Pro 5.0 for main post processing of my RAW photo files. I decided to take a few shots of my old shed behind the house just to experiment with the new camera and software. I just installed the software yesterday, so I have a lot of experimentation to do. Here is a photo of the shed that I worked on for a little while. This is a combination of five exposures at 2 stops each.

While it's not the most beautiful subject I like the overall effect of the multiple exposures.

Since I was close to home today I thought I might go back in the woods to the hunting cabin we built many years ago. I helped my brother-in-law and nephews build it a long time ago.

The beginning

I used to do quite a bit of outdoor nature type photography but somewhere I lost the dedication and exuberance and I let my cameras and tripod sit for several years. Recently I saw some HDR photographs and was amazed at what detail you could see in them. I tried a few shots using my old Pentax *ist and a monopod and got decent results. But I was not pleased with the limitations of the camera itself, so I sold it and got a newer Pentax K20D instead. All photos contained in this blog will be made with this camera, and if I make a huge change later on I will let you know.

So my equipment consists of a Pentax K20D camera, a Bogen 3221 tripod with a 3047 head. I am using a remote wired shutter release right now but I am going to get a wireless remote soon. I was amazed at the prices these days. When I first got a digital Pentax I thought about a wireless remote, but at the time they were almost $200 each! I did a quick search on ebay the other day and found tons of them for $5 a piece! WOW!

What will I focus on? (Bad pun, I know) I don't think I will be strictly looking at any one area of photography. I used to really be into macro photography, flowers and such. I will probably do a little of that. I also like buildings and architecture so I'll probably shoot some along that line. I've never enjoyed photographing  people, and my feelings have not changed on that subject, so probably no people, but you never really know. Animals and sunsets are a sure thing of course, but I'm going to let things germinate and see.

For post processing I will be using Photomatix Pro and Photoshop. I am really impressed with Photomatix and have just played with it a little on a few photos I took in Louisville, Kentucky last month. I will be making my own adjustments with Photomatix and will not be using the presets. Don't get me wrong, the presets are nice, but I want to make my photos my own and not something that anybody could do by just tapping a mouse button. I also don't really care for the painterly or grunge settings as I feel they are a bit too much, making the photos look completely unreal.

That's where I am for now. I'll be posting some photos soon and then you can let me know what you like and don't like.