To HDR, or not?

I've been considering of late the benefits and risks associated with using HDR techniques for property shots.  I'm pretty happy with the use of HDR for exterior images, but am becoming increasingly dubious about the advantages of this technique for interior shots instead of using flash or studio lights.

7 shot HDR blend processed in Photomatix Pro

It was a comment from one of the agents that really made me think that HDR for interior shots may not be the best solution.  The remark was that the images looked "dark", which I didn't really think was the case.  However, "dirty" may be a better description!

Some shots seem to work OK, but are they really better?  In cases where there's many reflective surfaces the use of flash is quite challenging, but in "normal" rooms I can't help feeling that HDR techniques produce a less than realistic impression of the scene.  It tends to have a more "artistic" or painted look about it, which in some cases is entirely appropriate.

Tone mapped interior shot to balance window light and interior light.

HDR blend to emphasise the warm tones in the timber interior of this Lockwood home.

Is it quicker to produce an HDR image as opposed to using lights?  Well, in some cases yes, but in others most definitely not.  One bit problem I find is with whites.  I've played with HDR photography for several years now and have worked my way through the various effects achievable yet still find it awkward to produce "clean" whites as well as provide the necessary contrasts in the image.

Single frame HDR image to illustrate the "grittiness" or "dirtiness" achievable with HDR techniques.

Single Frame HDR image the accentuates the textures in the concrete.  "Dirty" perhaps?

Speaking of being "easy" or less time consuming consider the image below.  This was shot with a single light source, a 300W studio light with a 1m ball diffuser attached.  The aim being to scatter light all around the room and present the impression a clean, bright, white kitchen.  Little to no post processing and ever so easy to setup the lights and camera.  Would I be able to obtain the same effect with HDR?  I suspect not ... but perhaps you could!  If you can, then perhaps let me know how!!

Single shot image using a single studio light and ball diffuser.

Just for fun, lets take a look at two shots that may help illustrate what I mean by "dirty".  When working with HDR processes I've often been amazed by the extra details that appear in the processed images.  When looking for clean whites the unfortunate effect here is the details appear dirty.  Below are two shots taken at a wedding reception.  I'll let you decide which is HDR and which is not!

OK, so perhaps I've been a little enthusiastic with the HDR processing, but I think you can see the "dirtiness" in the second image.  The first image has no hint of this grubbiness on the walls, whereas the second seems to accentuate it.

As I said at the start, I'm still contemplating the relative benefits of using lights and HDR for property shots.  As such, comments, hints and tips are, as usual, most welcome.

Music in the Parks ...

Wonderful hat design at the park today!

A few folks grumble about the way Auckland Council performs, but the Music in the Parks initiative is something that I think is something quite special as well as something for which they should be congratulated.  During the summer months the council provides free concerts in its parks at which some web know New Zealand artists perform.  It's wonderful, and judging by the people at today's event on Onehunga, well liked and appreciated.

Today's event had Bella Kalolo supported by Funkommunity and was really very good indeed.  Such a relaxed atmosphere, easy parking, very family friendly and best of all, great music!  I'd not heard Funkommunity before but was quite impressed with their performance.  Perhaps checkout their website as there's options to hear their performances on there.  To be honest, I'd popped along to see Bella.  Such a gorgeous voice and quite an entertaining lady on stage too!  I'm still sorting through the shots of Bella and her band and will post those in a subsequent posting.  for now I'll leave you with a few of shots of Funkommunity.

A walk with my daughter :-)

Out for a walk at Duder's Regional Park a little earlier today.

I can't say I was feeling the best at the start of the day, so the suggestion that I went for a walk with my daughter seemed a much better idea than working in my office.  We headed off to Duder's Regional Park which is between Clevedon and Maraetai here in South Auckland.

My daughter enjoying the view.

The plan was to take the usual route up the hill to get some views from the high points in the reserve.  However, tempted by a route to a beach, we headed for the water.  As it happened, the tide was out, so we managed to walk right the way around the headland.  It was wonderful.  We had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the walk.  We'd always been much higher up looking down at the sea, but now we enjoyed quite different views.

View from the coast as we walked around the headland.

Getting back to the car was rather more of a challenge than we expected.  Some challenging hill climbing was necessary to get back on the track and thankfully neither of us was injured nor was anything dropped.  I must admit that the hill was significantly steeper and higher than we originally thought.  Views from the top were quite special, but as you can see from the photos ... we need rain!

Most of the images may be viewed larger than you see in the post if you click on them.  The first image should go quite large.

My daughter enjoying the view from close by the trig point

View from the trig point.  As you can see ... we need rain!

Looking out toward Kawakawa Bay.  Such lovely blues in both sea and sky.

At the Temple ...

Fo Guang Shan Temple, Flat Bush, Auckland, New Zealand

I'd gone to see the Police's Family Day at the Sir Barry Curtis Park, but it was pretty hot with no shade and I soon decided a change of location would be a good idea!  Just across the road is the Fo Guang Shan Temple which, I have to admit, is a bit of a sanctuary of peace and tranquility.  Plenty of shade and quite a lovely place to just unwind.

There's a number of buildings on the site and I really wanted to take some images that gave the viewer the sense of space inside the complex.  The first shot in this post was taken with a fisheye lens and gives a wonderfully wide view of the place.  The next two shots I've added so you can compare the difference between the fisheye and a 24mm lens which, when I was much younger, was a dream wide angle lens to have in your kit bag!

Fo Guang Shan Temple with a 24mm lens

Fo Guang Shan Temple with an 8mm fisheye lens

I haven't attempted to correct the distortion on either image.  The 24mm shot seems surprisingly free of distortion, but the 8mm lens is very bendy!!  Maybe let me know what you think?

One thing I do find difficult with the fisheye lens is exposure.  I'm not sure if it's because, as the field of view is so large, the difference in light levels within the scene is often greater than my camera can capture with a single shot.  As such I usually bracket the shots (5 with the sun behind me, 7 when shooting into the sun) and then blend them together later.  Each of the fisheye shots above are 5 image blends done with Photomatix Pro.  The 24mm shot is a single shot.

Orford Lodge

Orford Lodge, Manurewa

Quite a surprise to see such a lovely old building amongst the more modern buildings in the Hillpark area of Manurewa.  Built in 1910 by the lawyer Mr. Edward Russell this building carries the name of its 1928 purchaser, the Earl of Orford.  Interesting to note that the Earl of Orford was a descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of England.  Not just an ordinary house then, but one with quite a bit of history associated with the people who have lived here as well as the structure itself!

The grounds to Orford Lodge were quite extensive at over 20 acres and a team of up to nine gardeners would maintain the immaculate grounds.  I'm not sure what happened to the gardens during the war as both the lodge and grounds were used by the US Army.  The gardeners cottage and "garage" was used as the officers' mess and apparently many of the officers' signatures remain on the fireplace.

The attached image to this post is a five shot HDR image processed in Photomatix Pro and then antiquated thanks to Silver Efex Pro.

Car park view.

Carpark rooftop view, Auckland, New Zealand

I must admit that when matters medical arise I prefer to leave.  Today I was required to visit the hospital for a checkup which didn't exactly fill me with glee.  Thankfully, all is good, so the visit was short and sweet.  Just the way I like it!  Parking on the top floor of the hospital carpark afford some rather pleasant views however, so I thought I'd take a few images to share with you folks.

Looking towards Skytower from Auckland's Hospital

I took a fisheye lens with which I must admit to finding exposures awkward.  As a result I usually bracket the shots, and then ... well ... they usually end up being processed in Photomatix Pro.  That's what's happened here.  I often find the clouds look VERY ominous and black with a very heavy and dark feel to them.  Hopefully they're not too bad in these images.

Looking across to the city from the carpark I can't help thinking some night time shots with all the tower blocks illuminated may be a good idea one day.

No tripod today, but plenty of things on which to rest the camera ;-)

Mellons Bay

Mellons Bay Reserve, Howick, New Zealand

I couldn't decide whether to take my camera or not.  When going to the shops I never like to leave things in the car, and I often feel a bit self conscious when I'm doing some shopping with bags of camera gear in tow.  Problem was, if the shopping finished early I might miss a photo' op'.  In the end I took the D300 and a 12-24mm lens.  The shopping was quick - just the way I like it and I did have about 10 minutes spare time before I had to collect my son from school.  Great excuse to head down to Mellons Bay and see if there was anything worth shooting.

In some ways I was disappointed that I hadn't brought a longer lens as the light on Rangitoto was really quite lovely.  Rangitito is the green volcano you'll see in the distance.  The clouds were lovely and, to be honest, I could have stayed a lot longer if I wasn't required to collect my son.  Maybe next time I have to collect him I'll take a picnic and stay a little longer ;-)

I'll close this post with a few more images from my brief pause at Mellons Bay.

Clevedon Jazz and Wine Festival

The Alan Brown Project on a somewhat "rural" stage.

After being somewhat challenged shooting Alan and the band at the Grand Central with very low light levels, a chance to take photographs during the day seemed like an opportunity not to be missed.  New challenges now though!  As you can see from the first image in this post, the stage setup was a little different to say the least.  Tractors, Ambulances as well as a very large rescue boat were background objects not normally found at a jazz performance.

Nathan Haines

A special treat for the listeners was the appearance of Mr. Nathan Haines performing along with the Alan Brown Project.  On vocals we were treated to the very lovely Cherie Mathieson.  So there you have it, a wonderful line-up, but something you can enjoy every other Thursday at the Grand Central in Ponsonby.  Maybe I'll see you there one day ;-)

Thankfully, unlike today, the weather was warm and sunny, with stalls providing plenty of food and drink to help make it a lovely afternoon.

I'll just leave you with a few more images of the band on stage and encourage you to take a look on my Facebook page where you can see some more photographs.  Perhaps you might "Like" what you see ;-)

Karika Turua

Andy Smith

Alan Brown

Cherie Mathieson

Cherie Mathieson

Jono Sawyer

Jono Sawyer

Well and truly delighted.

Nikon D300, Nikkor 24-70mm @70mm, ISO1600, 1/80sec, f2.8

At last I've had a chance to try a D800 in the field under the types of conditions that have frustrated me with my D300.  I had a couple of lenses to use, a Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 on the D300 and a Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 on the D800.  The event was the Gospel Summit at Takapuna, Auckland at the Harbourside Conference Centre. A really lovely venue, but as is usually the case, the lights are more set for a stage show and aren't that intense.  This means high ISO and slow shutter speeds.

Using the D300 I try to keep ISO 2500 as an upper limit wherever possible as things soon start to look a little noisy and gritty.  Problem then, however, is that performer movements or camera shake cause blur.  It's been a challenge and I've often wished I could use higher ISOs and get the colours I wanted.  Last night was a chance to see what the D800 would do!

I put the 24-70mm on the D300 as I thought I'd use this for wider shots that I wouldn't be cropping.  The 70-200mm would be used to capture closer images of the performers that may be cropped to get just that little bit tighter.

The first noticeable thing to me was the weight.  The D800 with the 70-200mm isn't the lightest of combinations and after a few hours working with this setup you begin to think weightlifting at the gym may not be such a bad idea after all.

So, what did I think of the D800?  Is it a keeper?  The short answer is yes.  Focus was snappy and precise.  Face detection works a treat and performance at higher ISOs was very good indeed.

Nikon D800, Nikkor 70-200mm @200mm, ISO2500, 1/125sec, f2.8

I took two shots at practice time of one of the performers with each camera as I tested out the light levels.  The difference is clarity between the two images is quite stark.  Granted there's some motion blur in the D300 shot and this will be due to the slower shutter speed.  The D800, however, with the 70-200mm with VR switched on was a gorgeous combination.

Colour rendition was good, noise levels were quite low and I was well and truly delighted by the way the camera behaved.  It's a dream.

I've attached a few more shots for you to consider taken with the D800 and 70-200mm lens. These images have been cropped yet still provide some lovely detail even though they were shot at a higher ISO (3200) to get a faster shutter speed (1/250sec).

Somewhat confused :-(

85mm at f8

Yesterday I was getting quite concerned about the accuracy of focus on my 85mm lens.  I'd taken a few photos in the front yard of cherry blossom and felt that the focus wasn't as accurate as I'd hoped for.  I came inside and tried a few things with a tape measure and "AFS Fine Tune" that seemed to suggest the camera/lens combination was focussing slightly in front of where it should.  I tried autofocus with my 18-200mm and this seemed spot on.  I then tried a manual focus with the 85mm lens and this was spot on.

Using the AFS Fine Tune was quite straightforward, but didn't seem to fix my problem.  Even at the fullest extent of the fine tune my image still seemed to be focussing in the wrong place.  To check out the camera/lens combination seems to require a few days, so that can't happen for a wee while, and it would appear from the brief tests I've done that I should really check my other lenses as at least the 18-200mm is spot on.

Anyway, hoping I'd made a mistake and was imagining the problem, I went into the backyard to take some shots of the kowhai blossom.  The first shot was taken at f8 with the 85mm lens.  Camera and lens mounted on a tripod.  This is pretty sharp, but at f8 I'd expect it to be!  Also the leading flower, pretty well central to the image seems nicely focussed.  Interestingly my attempts at manual focus didn't give as sharp a result as the autofocus attempts.  This was the opposite to last night's ruler experiment shots.  Not pleased with the busy background, I opened up the lens and tried again at f1.4.

85mm f1.4

Using autofocus again on the leading flower but this time it seems acceptably sharp (bearing in mind the lens is wide open and the there was a little breeze).  My attempts at manual focus were not as accurate as the autofocus and I'm beginning to wonder if I'm imagining things.  To get the camera and lens checked will take a few days and cost at least $100.  Is it worth it I have to ask and how much better would the images be if the setup was tuned?  As I said at the start ... somewhat confused :-(

Flash :-)

A long time ago ... perhaps before a number of you were born ... in a land far away from where I now live, I bought a flash gun.  Yup, 1980, Coventry in the UK, I bought myself a SunPak Autozoom 3600 Thyristor.  In those days, to get a flash with enough power to let you bounce light around the room required what was referred to as a hammer head flash.  It didn't attach to the hotshoe, but via a bracket under the camera and wire to the x-sync socket on the camera.  I loved it.  It served me well whilst shooting film with my Pentax MX.

The shot you see in this post was taken back in 1982.  Kafka the cat.  Sigma 80-200mm lens on the Pentax MX and shot on Ilford FP4 monochrome film.  What you see here is a scan from a 10x8 print I made in the University darkroom the best part of 30 years ago!

I'd mount the flash on a tripod and use extension cables to allow me to move away from the flash.  It was great.  I didn't get the horrible shadows behind the subject and there was a lovely even light to the shots.

Move on to the present and the Autozoom 3600 is still in working order.  Problem is the Nikon D300 isn't warranted to connect to this flash due to the high voltages returned from the flash.  The solution?  A Phottix Aster Wireless Flash Trigger Set.  I got mine from Progear in Newmarket.  I needed an adapter from the old x-sync connector to the 3.5mm jack used on the Phottix receiver, but now I can shoot with flash ... without wires!  Pleased?  I'm stoked :-)  After the frustrations at the Mangere Arts Centre the other night it's great to have a combination with which I'm familiar and works!  Watch this space for a few more flash shots over the coming weeks.  Oh, and let me know what you think of Kafka :-)