glenn norris

I like the overall setup though there seems to be an imbalance in the brights across the page - the image at the top left is considerably dimmer than the others... and since it seems to be one of the larger images it seems strange that it lacks the impact of the others. Hope my opinion helps! Take care - Glenn

I am honored that I could help to inspire you in a small way. I really like the color balance in this one and now I have to study YOU to learn how to do exterior landscapes better! I have been telling people that hdr does not work very well in these types of shots and you have proved me wrong. I really wish you the best - Glenn

My feeling about the image is that everything is as it should be. To me, the scene has an almost apocalyptic feel, almost. Somehow the presence of the furrows brings to bear that man and machine had an effect on this landscape... the tree(s) are dying and seem to bend under the weight of the sky... even the presence of the diagonals in the lower right contribute to the feel that the natural order has been broken. There are plenty of images of this type with oversaturated skies, majestic peaks (instead of worn hills) but what would that do here? The 'thin' color tones and unorthodox crop also are consistent with the subject matter and create an image that is perfect and broken at the same time. Just enjoy it.

I really like this style you are using here - I think that as you refine it more and more you are going to hit on a few masterpieces! Good luck and I will be watching and hoping! Take care - Glenn

Another of my interior abstracts - this man and his wife have run

this shoe repair business for 35 years or so... and the place has

never changed. You may look at a space like this and think "what a

horrible mess!" But when you really start to see these kinds of

spaces, you realise that they are like maps of these people's

lives... and each space has it's hidden beauties. Take care - Glenn

First fashion shot? I just checked out your portfolio and I would say that with your technical skills you can shoot just about anything you choose to and do it quite well... great work! Glenn

Patrick, you probably already saw but I posted the technique under "White Fire Tools." It involves going back into the universally lit image and recreating the lighting with gradient layers. It is not a perfect recreation of the lights in the least, but it does have the effect of directing the viewer's eye with the shadow toward the light... kind of like vignetting.

Patrick, I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of the HDR tools to date. I am looking forward also to the next advancement on that front. We already know that CS2 did a horrible job with it's add-on tonemapper and that is why companies like photomatix jumped in and took advantage. In addition, I mentioned earlier that our monitors do not have the ability to display these images properly - I had a link to a company that builds HDR monitors (the first of their kind) and I would love to see one of those.... I posted an interior called "Cafe Rendezvous" this morning and to my surprise it seems to be doing quite well. If you look at it, I want you to notice first of all that the tonemapping is ALOT more subtle/realistic but also that I have used gradient techniques to recreate a more realistic lighting. It seems so ironic to treat an image with hdr and create a universally lit look and then to go BACK and recreate the light, but that is the road I am exploring right now in some of my images. I can give Rarindra Prakarsa credit for that since I studied his/her techniques quite a while to learn better how to direct the eye with shadow and light. Anyway, I could talk about the techniques all day but I just wanted to thank you for your interest and your frank assessment of what you saw here. It is much appreciated. Glenn

Comments welcome - if you have any experience with hdr, I would

appreciate your thoughts on whether this image feels 'realistic' to

you...

Patrick, above I wrote: "I just have a LOT of fun and I have decided to call my work abstract because I like the play of color and light." When I wrote this I was implying that I was not trying to produce a "realistic" image. I have used this technique you described of adding in an original shot at reduced opacity to get realistic hdrs but again, that was not my purpose here. Today, I am posting a few of my hdrs that I shot with the intent of having a realistic looking image and if you want to find these and add your critique, that would be nice. I would be interested to see by their scores whether you and others consider these good or 'bad' HDR. I certainly do not consider them to be as fun and pleasing to me as the image I produced above. I believe the image above has scored highly because it is "pleasing." I am sure it is the same with photonet artists such as Natalie Shau, Oleg Dou, and Rarindra Prakarsa - each of these produces pleasing images that are not 'realistic.' I am pretty sure if you suggested layering in one of their original shots so the image did not look so much like a painting, or so much like a digital manipulation, or like it had been oversaturated and color dodged that they would probable not agree it was a good idea. When you said that you saw my image and instantly thought "Bad HDR" were you giving your opinion or were you speaking technically that this image displays many of the weaknesses of HDR? As far as I have learned, HDR images can have the following 'errors' - exposure errors (generally washed-out look), strange halos (prominent in areas of high contrast), chromatic aberrations at the edge of the frame (red, purple, blue halos around solid objects like tree branches), pixel artifacts (red or black clusters of pixels usually in extreme shadow areas), oversaturation (especially with cyans in extreme light areas), unrealistic lighting (universally lit images.) As far as I can tell my saturations may be high and the image universally lit - which was the effect I chose...

Regardless of all the arguments of whether or not Prakarsa's techniques make these images true photography or not, technology is going to continue to advance and the public is going to be watching to see how artists use these new technologies... Apologies to the purists but I doubt that the public is waiting with baited breath for another coffeetable book of work that looks like Ansel Adams! Rarindra Prakarsa's works are breathtaking and before I was a member here I used to log in every week just to follow his/her progress. The image being discussed is quite simply a fantastic example of this new marriage between art and technology and deserves very much to be Photo of the Week. Glenn

Thank you all again for the comments, and thank you Jefferson for your very politely asked question. I have had alot of fun using the HDR techniques and I am the first to admit that my images range from the 'kitsch' to something a little bit closer to 'reality.' The situations that I have chosen to use this technique have been very, very low light interior scenes which would usually require a professional and expensive light setup to capture correctly. In fact, the antique store where the bulk of my recent images were shot has been visited by photographers with a full complement of lights and still has never been shot to the owner's satisfaction. I can walk into this clutter, set up my tripod, adjust my camera settings, snap a sequence, and leave in under five minutes. I think it is fair to say that nobody has much trouble seeing any of the objects displayed in the shop in the shot above... and that is the point as far as the owner is concerned. I also shoot exterior architecture using this technique too. And yes, they look a lot closer to reality than some of my portfolio shots because I do not get paid by these people to 'play artist' - I shoot for detail, I shoot in questionable lighting situations, and this technique saves me time. I have enjoyed seeing your samples Jefferson and noticed that in two of them the HDR was used on architecture. In my opinion, man-made, metallic, stone, wood surfaces are the most friendly for this technique. For portraits, hdr is questionable. For landscapes, as I have said, it can be useful sometimes but is mostly unnecessary because there are better techniques. I have tried HDR on just about everything. Mostly, I just have a LOT of fun and I have decided to call my work abstract because I like the play of color and light. Jefferson, I am not sure what you mean by 'my photos could be amazing' - maybe if I showed you an original shot from one of these dark corners of the shop you could be amazed at what a mid-range digital camera, a tripod, and tonemapping can do for such a scene... again, the owner asked me to do a job and I used the best/most efficient tool I could find. One last thing, there are many, many images on Photo.net that use classic painting techniques probably with the aid of software like Painter and these score extremely highly. These look alot farther away from a 'photo' than the image above and yet they are acceptable to most. So the old issues pop up again - what is photography? what is art? LOL - open a dialogue? Again?

Steve, you can do this with any camera - most cameras have auto-bracketing and this is used often as a way for a photographer to have backup shots just in case he mis-takes the correct exposure (often happens in tricky lighting situations.) Photomatix is optimized for shooting for 2 stops above and below the correct exposure. In traditional photography you might shoot only 1 stop above and below or perhaps just a third in either direction. If your camera does not have auto-bracketing, if you have a sturdy tripod you can try to manually change the stops. I have talked to photographers who use as many as 7 or 9 shots at different exposures to blend into one - seems to be a pretty good option when shooting into extreme direct light when you want more of the foreground exposed and in subtle gradation - but most of the time 3 shots is enough. HDR is getting a bad name because of those people who throw their shots into the hdr grinder and are wow'ed so much by the cool new effect that they forget that the image is still a photograph and needs to look like one. Take care guys and I am happy to answer emails if you have any more specific questions. Glenn

Thank you both. Isaac, it starts with owning a program like Photomatix - it has a standalone product that can tonemap or a plugin that works with photoshop CS2. To shoot, you need to use your tripod, shoot three exposures (at least), use your cameras autobracketing to shoot one exposure at the correct f stop, the second exposure 2 stops down, the third exposure 2 stops up. Then merge the three photos and play with the settings until you get the look you want. Then do your postwork to 'tighten' the image. Good luck. Glenn

One more of my Interior Abstract Landscapes - please enjoy!

 

Note: When you rate this, please keep in mind that a print of one

of these tonemapped shots is much more pleasing than the monitor can

show. Your monitor does not have the ability to display the dynamic

range inherent in these images - only a print at 300 dpi or higher

can do this process justice... so please, take it easy and if you

want to learn more about this process, JUST ASK. I am happy to

share. There is a reason why new DSLR manufacturers are starting to

incorporate 'expanded dynamic range' into their newest cameras...

Take care - Glenn

Thank you Massimo, yes - tone mapped... one of my earlier images treated with a little less polish than some of my more recent ones.

Very uniquely original Hell-N! Not sure what critique would apply other than perhaps asking for a straightening of the perspective, but that may spoil it to make it perfectly flat and symmetrical... I like it alot and think it would make a great print or poster for the wall - add a cup of Mexican Shade Grown coffee in the morning for a quick wake-up. Take care - Glenn

One of my Interior Abstract Landscapes - comments welcome of

course. Take care - Glenn

A break from my usual stuff - something different again... hope you

like. Glenn

Wonderful atmosphere here! Well done.

Very well done - love the tones in this... makes me want to go search for some old buildings. Take care!

Thank you much for all the recent encouraging comments on my

Interior Abstract Landscapes... hope your eye finds pleasure in this

one too!

Another of my Interior Abstract Landscapes... hope you can enjoy -

take care!

Alan, I left a comment on an image you posted a few days ago that felt a little too busy to me... well this one feels much more balanced - very well done! take care, Glenn

I like the image well enough - great composition and tones... the reflection (of the glass case perhaps) that halves all the compasses in the top row bothers me though. Is there any way for you to get this again but to block off the case with a dark blanket or something? If you cannot go back then I would try selecting each of those lower compass halves to do some clean up. Respectfully, Glenn