My first real Photo Shoot - Audi TT

Moro Blue Audi TT Coupe, originally uploaded by hermanau.

The pressure was on, and I was seriously getting quite nervous. I found a few guys over the Internet willing to show up with their rides for a photo shoot last week at my "private studio". I had Bernard with me that night who really relieved me from quite a bit of stress and pressure helping out and shooting as well.

I planned things out pretty well and tried to get as much all thought out as I could, but still there were things that went unexpected. Instead of the 2 cars we scheduled, we had 4 showing up. No big deal really, but it wasn't easy when time was limited while we did not want the shoot to go endlessly. And then I struggled a bit with the 2 cameras with me and managing the tripod, while still trying to coordinate the cars and communicate with the owners all at the same time when the primary thing I wanted to do was to shoot. I also made mistakes here and there when I had so many things on my mind, while there were distractions around particularly when there were others driving around the lot being silly... some guy with a modified car was revving his engine being stupid; some other guys drove up to the empty lot with unknown intentions; and later 2 cops also showed up but was being nice and didn't interrupt at all and actually waved at us. I actually felt better that knowing there were law enforcements around... :)

But here are the results... this is particularly the one shot I liked the most. After many, many experimental shots shooting everything, endlessly looking for inspirations from magazines and the Internet, and portraying different angles and scenarios all in my head randomly, I think I'm finally getting to a point where I feel comfortable to proudly call this my work.



Big thanks to all 4 owners who were very cooperative throughout the 3 hour process, putting up with my endless request of moving the cars, turning the wheels, etc. I'm also very glad that everything went under control and everybody was very friendly.

On a side note, I developed some of my pictures at Target and I find the whole service very impressive and easy to use. From my home computer to flickr to picking up at a local Target = 1 hr? AND the quality was better than what we got from Samy's? That's an easy call for me... :) Be sure to try it out flickr users!

on a side note, some of my work of this Audi Shoot is published here on German Car Blog

Shot with Sigma 105mm Macro, Nikon D50

I have a few shots published on flickr from the shoot last week with a few friends of mine. This probably is the last one with my car in the same lot since I think I've gotten enough practice with the place and I'm ready for the real thing. I'm getting more comfortable with my different arsenal of lens and how to get the shots I want. Although I must admit that there are some angles with the wide angle that I still don't feel perfectly comfortable with. Anyway, next week I have my first shoot coming up with some new cars, stay tuned. :)


Shot with Tokina 12-24mm wide angle with Nikon D70

This was shot with my wide angle lens on the 20mm end for less distortion. It appears to work pretty well but I still see that slightest distortion that makes me want to try the 24mm end next time. The light that I decided to include when I shot this seem to work pretty well with the HDR effect.


Shot with Sigma 105mm @ F/5.6 ISO200 with Nikon D50

Transparency and Reflections

Transparency and Reflections, originally uploaded by hermanau.

The side entrance of Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles. On a hot sunny day, my friend and I were shooting the famous Disney Concert Hall, which is a hot spot for architectural photography. Not sure if anybody has shot ths angle before, but I'm definitely falling in love with my 12-24mm and it's distortions :)

Note to self: HDR works extraordinarily on reflective materials like metal, glass, etc; and also textured materials like concrete walls. Use it to your advantage. :)

Subaru Impreza WRX

Subaru Impreza WRX, originally uploaded by hermanau.

rmed with the proper tools, I went back to my favorite HDR location last night hopefully to get a little inspiration. Knowing the right spots this time, I got lazy and stopped exploring and started exploiting my favorite spot with my dirty car.

It took me a while and 2 attempts to get the post processing of this to look the way I anticipated. Although this may still not be perfect, but it made to my personal favorite HDR shot I've made so far. It took me a while to get the color to look right fumbling with my D70 at night (even after the fact that I snapped 10 shots to try to get the color balance right, it still came out to be off), but then I think the effort is worth it.

Featuring my Subaru WRX wagon that has a long list of modifications that I'm sure you don't know to know. :-)

Bugeye WRX Wagon

02 Subaru Impreza WRX, originally uploaded by hermanau.

Alright, I'm trying some a little different on this shot. I actually took 7 shots of different exposure on this but I only used 4 of them. Instead of using a wide range of exposure to get a perfectly exposed shot all over, I actually managed to control the "feel" of the image and re-create the lighting environment, but dramatically enhance the feel of it to create this surreal dramatic lighted parking lot look. I actually like this shot the most out of all the HDRs I've made so far. It looks HDR'ish, but you'll question your eyes, and the lines that are usually quite subtle on the car is showing themselves with pride. :")

BMW 330i

Shirley's BMW 330i, originally uploaded by hermanau.

My 2nd HDR attempt. This time I talked to my friend to get his advice to clean up most of the distracting visual elements before uploading the final version. I'm confident that this is really really close to getting my HDR the right feel. I don't want my HDRs to scream out loud that they're HDR and want attention. I want to stay low right below the line where people will notice it's HDR... so here you go ;-)

HDR Tutorial with Photomatix and Photoshop

Forewords: I hated HDR. Why am I even bothering with it and writing this? It's only because there are too many that really give HDR a bad name, and I finally got around and decided to learn how to do it well myself. I'm not claiming to be an expert in this and I'm only sharing what I've learned so far.

Preparation: First off, you need an HDR software to make HDR shots. There are lots of HDR softwares out there on the market, and Photomatix is a popular choice and is what I used in mine. I believe Photoshop CS and above has the HDR feature if you already have a copy. Second of all, you need a tripod. This is very important because in order to generate a good HDR you'll need multiple shots of different exposure. You can generate HDR with 1 picture, but you wouldn't get a very good one and take the most advantage of it.

Before you start, you may consider briefly reading what HDR is really all about, what the results should look like, and what you want to achieve before you proceed. Here's a pretty good site for your reference: Cambridge in Colour


Step 1: Taking the shot:
First off, identify your subject. Find something with a wide variety of range in lighting. e.g. sunset silhouette; shooting from inside a building with windows in the middle of the day; parking lot at night. Also, make sure you find something that stays still and does not move. Set up your tripod, and then you'll be off to take multiple images. You can either use the bracketing feature of your camera, and if it's not available, manually take multiple shots of the same white balance, aperture, but vary the exposure. I did mine using different shutter speed in Manual mode shown above.



Take at least 3 shots, and review your shots. For best results, make sure your different shots cover a wide range of exposure of different parts of the picture.

Step 2: HDR processing:
This tutorial is not meant to give you a step by step tutorial on how to use your HDR software, and thus I'll try to cover the broader basics of what you'll encounter and prepare you with the information you need to get it done.

Open up your HDR software, and use it to open up all the images you have taken. Follow the instructions and start generating your HDR! (For Photomatix users, Click HDRI, -> Generate HDR).
When you're done, you'll see something like the following picture, YUCK!


Don't be discouraged yet like I was... :-) We're just beginning and this is only a part of the process. Review the image, and check for ghosting effects or visual blemishes. If you spot ghosting, chances are your camera moved when you're shooting, or your shots need to be aligned. In that case, you may have to go back to step 1 or try the aligning image feature of your software if it's available.

Step 3: Tone Mapping:
In Photomatix you'll see that little window hovering, and that's a preview window of what it could look like when you adjust it properly. The large preview window is only giving you an idea of the range of the image, and by no means it is going to be the final product. Then, go to HDRI -> Tone Mapping and adjust the settings to your preference. Experiment with the settings to your liking, but make sure you don't go too extreme here. You want to enhance the picture instead of generating a plastic wrapped 3D'ish looking piece of duno-what-you-call-it like a lot of those HDR-wannabes out there. This is where I can't really share much with you at this point because I'm not exactly an expert. But I'm sure you'll find a ton of reference out there that will assist you in this process. This is a process with many different approaches, and you'll have to master this if you ever wanted to get your HDRs right.

When you're done in this step, you'll be having an HDR image (yay!), but we're not done yet (duh!). Think of it this way, your HDR is like a RAW file that contains much more information about each pixel than necessary to dispaly on your monitor. Why? That's because when you're done, you'll be converting this 24-bit or even 48-bit HDR image back into an 8-bit LDR format, discarding the unused information. Save your image in 48-bit format to retain all the information you have created in the process in TIFF.

If you're a Photoshop user, you may skip the tone mapping in your HDR software and covert the HDR image into LDR in here. In that case, you'll notice a lot of tools normally available to you in Photoshop or the photo editor of your choice are missing when you open the 48-bit TIFF. You'll have to change it back to an 8-bit or 16-bit image before you can regain all the tools.

This is the step a lot of people skip, and fail miserably in their HDR resulting in a flat, overexposed, plastic wrapped like image. I can't stress enough in my tutorials about this, but remember you're trying to enhance the image instead of trying to create something from scratch when you retouch an image. HDR is no different from any photo retouching process, and could be very destructive if you go overboard.

Step 4: Post Processing:
Now, open up your newly generated HDR image with your editor (Photoshop, in my example). What I tried to do here with my image is to #1 reduce the color over saturation, #2 bring back some of the contrast lost in the process. See the image below:



I've applied Levels to first correctly expose the image, stretching the sliders on both ends to the histogram. Then I applied 2 different curves to the image to adjust the contrast of the image, and to bring out the details I wanted. Finally, adjusted the saturation down by a lot, yes a LOT... saturation makes beautiful colors, but over saturation results in loss of range of color and can be very destructive also. The results... you be the judge. :-)


Final Result



Another recent shot... Better looking? ;")


Finally, I have a few tip for you all if you are new to making better HDR shots:

1. An masterfully processed HDR shot would be a piece of crap if the shot itself is bad. Keep that in mind and watch your composition, focus, sharpness, noise, angle, etc.
2. Know what HDR does for you, and use it to your advantage; not to your disadvantage. HDR stands for high dynamic range, and it's basically stacking the same image of different exposures in order to better achieve the ideal exposure that cannot be captured in one single shot. Before you run outside holding your camera, think in your head what would be underexposed and overexposed if you shoot there, that time of the day. There are good times, locations, and lighting environment where HDR truly shines.
3. Bright daylight where pretty much everything in your frame other than your wheels and your undercarriage is brightly lit has minimal for you to enhance.
   tip: Night shots with multiple light source results in amazing results if done right.
4. Shoot RAW. Don't argue with this one... just do it.
5. Shoot with a tripod, always. If you're serious about photography, invest in a better tripod and spend at least $150 or more for a decent one.
6. Color balance is extremely important in HDR. Make sure you don't end up with multiple shots of different color balance and end up with a weird image.
7. Shooting the image, combining them in PS/Photomatix, etc, and Tone Mapping is only HALF WAY OF THE PROCESS! I'M SERIOUS. You should spend at least the equal amount of time or MORE in post processing to finish editing the image. The unbelievably great looking HDR images you see do not come out straight from just Tone Mapping.
8. Last but not least, always go back and compare it with the original shot, and I mean it. The HDR process is not supposed to create a silly halo effect that looks plastic paint. It's a treatment to achieve the ultimate surreal exposure that not even our amazing human eyes could do. Make sure your treatment and post processing is doing something constructive, instead of making it worse than it originally looked before the process.

Hope it helps.







hdr

My first HDR

Subaru WRX, originally uploaded by hermanau.

Finally got around to get my first ever successful HDR shot. I stopped by the parking lot of a close by theatre at night a couple days ago and took a series of shots including this one which I got 4 exposures. I've been trying different HDR techniques and failed miserably using Photoshop to create this type of shots. This time I read an article explaining the process in depth and clearly showed why the shot would turn out to be out of whack during the process. I just kinda closed my eyes and just ran past that obstacle and finally went back to Photoshop to recreate that original type of lighting back into the picture so that it's got a breathe of life instead of looking like a 3D image that looks over exposed. Oh and also the saturation was toned down by about 40!!! Tell me what you think... *smile*

Subaru WRX Wagon

Subaru WRX Wagon, originally uploaded by hermanau.

My first night parking lot shot. I've always wanted to try these but I don't have wide angle lens, and so I tried a few with my widest 28mm. That kinda limited myself to what I could shoot, but i'm quite pleased with the results. If you want to attempt this type of shot, make absolutely sure you have at least a half decent tripod, that would save you a world of headaches. If you don't have a remote or shutter cord, you could do what I did using a self timer. I set the timer to 2 seconds so i wouldn't have to keep waiting for 10 seconds for it to shoot.