My good friend and blogging buddy Judy Jennings of Plymouth, MA shares many of the same passions I do. She loves milk, loves cows, old barns and really loves silos! Judy grew up on a dairy farm, for those of you who didn't know that. Anyway, I was out this morning taking pictures of the new fallen snow in New Milford, CT, thinking of Judy. This particular photo I took just for Judy. And then I played with it!
I play around with HDR photography. (High dynamic range imaging) Usually you set your camera to take 3 bracketed photos, the exposures will be different for each shot. Then you run them through a program like I use, PhotoMatix Pro, which puts them together and makes a hi def photo. I could NOT trudge through all the snow and carry a tripod. Taking bracketed photos requires the use of a tripod as you want each of the three photos to be identical in everything other than the preset exposure level. When this is the case, I make 2 copies of the original photo and let PhotoMatix Pro tell me that the exposure levels are identical. I set the program to make changes to 2 of the photos and voila, a hi def photo!
The program was under a hundred bucks, it was worth its weight in gold. Try it, I think you will like it as much as I do. And Judy, I hope you like the silo photo. And I am throwing in one more of the old "bull pen" covered in snow.
Andrea Swiedler, Realtor® & Liddy Adams, GRI, Broker Associate
Cell: 203.460.1775 Email: andrea@andreaswiedler.com
Swiedler & Adams, we know real estate!
Prudential Connecticut Realty, New Milford & Litchfield, CT
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Call us at 203.460.1775
© Andrea Swiedler, 2009 - 2012
Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. - Mark Twain
Andrea - Great snow shots! I am trying to expand my knowledge of these cameras, and your info here was waaayyy over my head! Love to learn, though! How does one start? (to learn)
Andrea, you are pretty handy with that camera and the editing program. One of these days I'll make the time to learn that stuff. It looks fun. And the pictures are wonderful.
Andrea -= That's cold. Not the gift to Judy, but the feeling your HD photography sends. Nice work.
Dagny, I learned much from a few people here. I bought a mid range DSLR camera 2 years ago, a Pentax. Then I found out about hi def photography and never looked back! Try reading some of Mike Hendren's older posts. He is not around much anymore, but I learned a lot from him.
Karen, thank you! I do enjoy taking photos, and of course the end result. There are many far more talented than I, what I lack in talent I make up for in exuberance?
Glenn, LOL, thank you! If it gave you a chill or 2, then I was successful.
Andrea - I take HDR photos of my listings using a tripod and the Photomatix software, but had never considered the possibility of taking one photo and using the darkness/brightness settings in a photo editing program to create multiple copies to run through the Photomatix program. That's brilliant! Do you have a Flickr account where I can see some of your photos?
OK, I just learned yet another new thing here on AR! Beautiful photographs, Andrea! So, when you were doing what you do with the exposure levels, did that bring out the saturated red tones or did you add that?
Gail, Photomatix will do it for you, I set it to 1 when it asks me. So if you don't have the tripod, try it that way. I have a Picasa account, I hardly use Flickr, you can see it here. Andrea's Picasa Photos And thank you!
Melanie, HDR brings out the red color, I can intensify if I want to. Usually I have to back it down with HDR. I changed the tone a bit as it was a wall of clouds when I took the photos this morning. Only now do we have a bit of blue sky. Perhaps I can get out of the house and find other wonderful photos to take today!
Andrea, I just love how you share thinks with everyone here in the rain! Especially giving a shout out to one of your friends... that is so kind.
Love the pics, and I'm w/Glenn, they give me a shiver too!
Hi Lee & Pam, I might have to combine those names since I never know which one of you I am talking to, LOL... Lam... or... Pee? Or Leam, oh well, I think I have to stick with Lee & Pam... Anyway, thank you so much! Just put on a sweater before you visit my blog. :D
Judy should be very pleased with your silo photo and you too Andrea. The silo definitely is chilling...would love to see in Spring when the vines are in full green too!
Oh WOW! I am beyond pleased with this photo and the very nice mention. This is great. I was just having a conversation last night with one of my very dear friends how he could see our silo from his house many moons ago. The silo, just like the cows are long gone, but the memories will last forever. Thanks Andrea you have made my day!
Oh and the other thing is, I now have a big girl camera (Nikon D5000) so I might just have to experiment with the HDR program you mention.
Judy
Andrea -- great photo -- I had no idea someone could do HDR photos in that manner. I am going to check out the photomatrix program for sure!
PS -- any reason you use Picassa over Flickr?
Andrea, really like the photos and I will be checking into the photomatric program as well.
Wanda, I just love taking pictures of silos, so I am sure you will see this again!
Judy, when I was walking up the hill you were on my mind, I just had to walk through the snow and shoot this for you! And I can hardly wait to see your photos with the new camera. Glad you liked it!
Alexsandra, you can do so many cool things! And I have had Picasa for a long time, I just find it easier to use. I got it with my gmail account, so there is no real reason.
Rebecca, do check it out, you will love it!
Great shots Andrea!
Great shots, Andrea, and interesting camera-talk! Until I became active here on Active Rain, the photography bug never bit me--I have to admit, I'm now curious. Maybe someday!
I still don't get it, but I'm glad you do! You do it so well!
Joshua, thank you, glad you stopped by!
Lottie, the photography bug bit me pre AR, but I didn't know what to do with anything. I got some great advice and tips here. I have a long way to go, but love it!
Patricia, thank you so much!
If your camera will take RAW images (and almost all DSLR's will), you can use one properly exposed RAW image to do the HDR magic.
I've also had pretty good success taking bracketed exposures without a tripod as long as there was good lighting. You just have to hold your breath while you take all three photos =).
Great shots. I love that silo!
Julie, thank you for reminding me about the RAW setting. Mine is always set to that. And no way can I take 3 photos that are identical, no matter how long I hold my breath! You are damn good lady!
Love the silo. New snow is always a great photo op. If you love barns you would have been in heaven if you had been at my monthly ASHI meeting the other night. Our speaker is an old home restoration contractor. Part of his talk, and it turns out his passion, is old barns. He has restored, built and continues to work on Connecticut's old barns in addition to antique homes. I learned there are two distinct styles of barns, English and American. Who knew?
If you're interested here is a web site dedicated to the preservation of Connecticut's historical barns. The contractor who gave the presentation to us, Steve Marshall, is listed on the web site. I found it to be very intersting.
Jim, you are right, I would have been in heaven! I just love the barns around here, it is always sad when one goes down... Thank you for the link!
Hi Andrea,
Great tip. You're right, Photomatix is a great program. And shooting RAW is the only way to go for this technique. However, I might suggest going ahead and trying hand-held bracket shots. You'd be amazed at how well Photmatix can do at aligning them. I will do bracketed shots with my camera in the air on the end of a hand-held pole - and it works!
Michael, I have tried to do it hand held, no such luck. Perhaps I am too excited while taking the pictures? Who knows...