Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Playing with Portland Pictures

My husband and I recently took a week-long trip to Portland, Oregon. As I always do, I brought my camera to record the scenery. However, this time around, I had HDR in the back of my mind. Needless to say, I took most of my photos in threes (+2, 0, -2 exposure). Though you can technically create a fake HDR photo using one RAW exposure, I've tested and compared the two techniques, and taking three differently-exposed shots from the camera itself (even if they're jpeg and not RAW) provides more detail and clarity in the photo. What did me in was not using the tripod each time. Though the software can align photos to an extent, mine still came out slightly blurry due to my unsteady hand. But to me, taking the time to set up the tripod each time, especially in areas without flat surfaces on which to balance it, wasn't worth it. [Note to self: invest in a better tripod when you get a full-time job.]

Let's get to it though. Here are a few before and after HDR photos:
As you can see, using three exposures to create a photo with more light/detail in both the foreground and background can have its advantages. What's also cool is you can create somewhat crazy pictures with it as well - pictures that may not look quite true-to-life.

And finally, I took some of my pictures (mostly HDR images) and played around with the tilt-shift technique:
You can find all of my photos from the trip, both manipulated and not, at my photography overflow album. Photos are sorted by date, so you'll find my newest stuff at the top.

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