glenn norris

Comments please... an hdr treatment documenting a beautiful cafe in

New Hampshire, one of the many treasures that seem to be

disappearing as the corporations plunder every last town with the

same Starbucks, Walmart, and Borders Books that appear in every

other town in the country until there is no individuality left....

Spectacular result here Donibane! I really feel this is one of your better in this series - the whole thing really has a 3D feel. Is that something you have done purposely for your last two? Anyway, very well balanced all around and one again (I repeat myself) would look great in a Donibane children's book. Well done my friend! Glenn++++ Oh, and I like particulary that the car's wheels are tilted like that because it really adds to the aliveness of the image.

Looks like a very well controlled use of hdr... you have avoided all of the usual glaring halos etc and the image seems to have proper contrast. The day you shot this does not look particularly conducive to photography, and that is one of the good things about hdr, that you can shoot in questionnable conditions and still get interesting results. Well... keep going and it will be interesting to see what types of scenes your eye is drawn to and how you handle them. Good luck! Glenn++++

Thank you Jan... yes, I will take a look at your work gladly. What I meant by 'closer to the realm...' is that I believe that even though hdr can produce an artsy effect that wows people who have never seen it, the tool needs to be used wisely. In essence it needs to do what it is intended to do - capture a higher dynamic range of reality while also keeping with the basics of traditional photography... basically the image still needs to look like a photo. I enjoy using it as a way to 'paint' a scene too, but if it is ever going to gain the respect of the general photographic world it needs to do it's job of depicting a scene as well as possible. That is why I work so hard on these techniques. Glenn

*looking around at "all" of the others in the room* You are welcome Donibane. hehehe!

Shawn, thank you and you are correct on the spacing issues... it was one of those shots where there were alot of things nearby to eliminate from the view - wish I had a better angle. About the HDR, I have tried everything, all combinations of hdr and traditional, and I have brought many of my images from start to completion with the exact same steps, 3 exposures blended vs. a single traditional shot. I can say definitively that the hdr version is BETTER. There is much better detail, toning, depth, etc. and all the problems usually associated with hdr can be eliminated by proper attention to lighting, contrast, shadow/highlight functions. I have approached this as a scientist would and there is no denying the results. There is only ONE problem... the image does not display correctly on the monitor. I say this over and over again and I suspect I will say it more times, until every curious person has seen the prints vs the monitor display. I am 100% certain that this is the future of photography... however correct HDR can be much more difficult to attain but I have spent all of my time the last year working on these techniques that get rid of all of the things that give hdr a bad name.... If any of these 3/3ers saw what went into this type of work... I appreciate the comments Shawn and I hope someday you can give this a chance too. I saw your vehicle shots and they are great - those are a great subject to start with trying hdr - try it and you will see.... Glenn

What a little hobbit! Well done - Glenn++++

Excellent - amazing creativity! Glenn++++

Thank you all! LOL - after reading your enthusiastic comments expected the rating to be quite high but it looks like I was nailed by a couple of 3/3ers again! Just can't win really... Glenn

Thank you Tony - this is the one shot where I let the flare be and even enhanced it with a little curves adjustment. I have added two hdrs today that had to deal with these background blasts of light. The good news is that hdr, I believe, does a better job dealing with the light than traditional photography, where you basically lose all foreground detail. The bad news is these are much more difficult than hdr without the window light and you usually just have to tweak/play until you get it right. One clue I can give you is to use multiply and screen layers on top of each other and use your 'blend if' sliders to limit the effects of each where you need them... don't multiply too much of the light and don't screen too much of the shadow - control the light this way and you will have an image with better balance. Glenn

Once again this is HDR... I work endlessly on techniques that bring

hdr back closer to the realm of traditional photography... comments

appreciated! Glenn

Excellent portraiture with an exceptional model! Glenn

Ditto on above - a very peaceful scene... Glenn

A 7/7 Donibane abstract! Love the 3- dimensionality of the fingers at the bottom and also some of your trademark elements of the gears and the organic face. Good stuff! Glenn (Unfortunately again, I cannot rate a 7 because you have given me one and if I give 6/6 it will lower your score...)

Nice scene Donibane. Classic.

Madalina, it had been a while since your last but this is worth the wait. I love your imagery and I will always be jealous! Glenn++++

"My lowly contribution" - that is a good one! Funny. Excellent image... Glenn

Excellent eye! Glenn

OK now Donibane... this is a great shot too but my question is - How do you travel so much? Every week you have shots from somewhere in the world... how do you do this?

Donibane, this is a winner - 10/10 in my book! That diagonal composition of the penguins (and the rocks) is stunning. The bad news is that I probably will not be able to give you 7/7 because you keep giving them to me! Glenn

No 'pixel displacement' on this one (that technique is limited to extreme close-ups). Just some fun and hard work... well... a few secrets too... Glenn

Thanks Beng, this was done about 6 months ago and it would be interesting to see if I can clean it up a bit...

Thank you very much Pierre. I noticed that and I will be happy to follow your advice on this. Respectfully, Glenn

Another from my shots of Jackie who had never modeled before. Any

comments are appreciated! Glenn++++

Thank you Jo and Gustavo... My challenge with hdr is to develop techniques so that people will start thinking of hdr as a true photograph. If you look at my recent image 'Downstream from the Falls' you will see that my techniques are getting much more refined - the LARGER image is as close to perfect as I dare say but I still cannot stop the thumbnail version from looking so strange... thank you.