Falling Down the HDR Hole – by Tours Departing Daily

HDR photography may be one of the greatest revolutions since the beginning of the digital age of photography.  Although the concept of HDR has been around since the mid 1800s, its application has reached astounding heights with the creation of post-processing programs that allow users to create breathtaking photos of high contrast scenes.

During the rise of its popularity, HDR has received harsh criticism from people of all backgrounds, hoping it to be a passing fad. Because of the large flexibility of settings in post-processing, users can create images that range from realistic to ultra-surreal. That means that photographers have the freedom to make the scenes they shoot look identical to what they saw, or process them in a way that looks like an oil painting, or a computer animated film. And just like any form of expression, artists, in this case photographers, are bound to face criticism. HDR is no exception.

There are all sorts of misconceptions about how one achieves an HDR image. If you’re a novice photographer, you may think HDR is an “in camera” function or one click post-processing magic. If you’re the general public then it’s frequently defined incorrectly as “high definition resolution.” If you’re a hardcore medium to large format film photographer, HDR doesn’t exist. If you’re a teenager with an iPhone, it’s a cool setting on a new camera app. HDR is none of these.

Candid photography – the new, old reality TV – By Markus Hartel

Producers and directors in television believed for a long time that scripted television was more interesting than real life. But somewhere in the late 20th century both cultural tastes and advances in technology gave rise to the reality giant.  We were glued to the tube and invested in the lives of countless strangers.  However, over the years, these shows have evolved to become creative packages from the minds of writers and editors, always looking to “improve on reality”. They are only taking their cue from a culture where ads are retouched, photos are digitally composed from multiples, the colors are tweaked, animated films bring in bigger box office returns and so-called reality TV is usually scripted… 

Imaging the ISS – By Shane Murphy

http://www.shanemurphy.ie

Over the last while, I’ve had many requests via Twitter to write a ‘How To’ on imaging the International Space Station [ISS]. So I’ve decided to get the finger out & put a few lines down.

Where to start……

First things first, the most important thing to do is to plan well. Forward planning is vital to any night sky shot, along with a steady tripod and a warm coat. There are quite a few websites and twitter feeds that can help you with your planning. Even though it only takes about an hour and a half for the ISS to complete an orbit of the planet, you could be waiting quite some time under the night skies before the station appears above. The station only appears for a short time [about 1-2 weeks] & then re-appears again many weeks later. This is due to the orbit of the station above earth.

I started a blog in February 2005, as a sort of experiment, a way of catching up on how websites were created back then, away from the static HTML code from the Internet beginnings.   What would that blog be about?  I certainly did not a have a business plan, and as it turned out I mostly wrote about the books I read. At the same time, after more than fifteen years of not doing any photography for photography’s sake, there were no more excuses to further ignore the accelerating digital photography revolution.  At first I reloaded a couple of batteries in my old analog Nikon F-801 and bought a second hand Nikon film scanner (Coolscan IV).  Some old slide film shots I had taken in Greece when I was 17 years old made it first to my photo-blog.

Two of the most flattering compliments a photographer can receive are when people say ‘your photograph tells a story’ and when your work invokes a real emotional reaction. It is an incredible thing to witness a tear falling down the face of a newly wedded bride as she looks for the right words to simply say ‘thank you’. If you are ever lucky enough to experience this type of reaction you will understand how difficult it is to express those feelings in written word. That is the power of photography.