Recently I was invited by Mike Miriello who runs the  Real Estate Photography Podcast to speak about HDR and Real Estate Photography .  I appreciate the time and effort it takes to plan and produce podcasts and I thank Mike for his time.  I didn’t intend to spend as much time as I did focusing on exposure fusion / blending, but ended up doing just that.  If you have an interest in exposure fusion using Enfuse (which usees Enblend and Hugin behind the scenes) then this podcast will introduce you to the concept.

In a part of the interview, Mike has me discuss the workflow I employed for a few images he selected from a few samples of my work. Hence the reason he chooses a video podcast format.  He gave me the option to hand select images to discuss in depth and the workflow employed, but I opted to let him choose because I figured it might be more interesting to be surprised with his selections.

One of the four images he selected was from a private gallery link I emailed him.  The image he chose was (to me) a throw away shot I would NEVER put on my website, but it resulted in a side bar that led to me discussing a technique I use to correct for difficult lighting techniques. A win/win.

Even though it is over an hour long I feel like I barely scratched the surface regarding various HDR workflows and we never got around to discussing traditional merge to HDR workflows.  Like I said, if you are interested in exposure fusion, this may interest you.

The blog post on his website is HERE and I will attempt to embed the podcast below.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Carl Olson of 16 x 9 Cinema who runs the Digital Convergence Podcast. He interviewed me about HDR photography, HDR Video and in the process I also explained a little about how I got started and a bit about my typical workflow.

The podcast where I discuss HDR – HDR Video is linked on his blog HERE.

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Show notes & his iTunes feed is on his blog and I’ll repost that and shownotes below as well:

AAC (iTunes) version here: Digital Convergence Episode 5

RSS Feed: Subscribe to the 16×9 Cinema Digital Convergence Podcast

Subscribe in iTunes here: 16×9 Cinema Digital Convergence Podcast

Links from the podcast:

My Website: Digital Coast Image

Michael James on Twitter: HDRphotography

Jay Burlage – HDR filmmaker (Michael James cites Jay as a leading source of information on the OpenMoco project and creator of gorgeous time-lapse cinema. Check out Jay’s video below.)

Jay Burlage on Twitter: MiLapse

Jay Burlage’s YouTube Channel: MiLapse

OpenMoco – Open-Source Photographic Motion-Control

Promote Control

LR/Enfuse – Enfuse for Lightroom

Red Epic / Scarlet

Dynamic range of a camera’s sensor varies per model. Some manufacturers are better than others. The chart below shows scientific, but real world results of testing a camera sensor’s dynamic range. The tests were done by DXOmark.

Bigger is better when it comes to Dynamic Range of a sensor. It means you can capture more shadow detail and more highlights in a single shot. If you shoot architecture or landscapes you already appreciate the challenge of capturing a high contrast scene that has a massive dynamic range.

For HDR captures, this is incredibly relevant because an HDR file is only as good/clean as the RAW data you feed into the merge.

You can see below that Fuji was WAY ahead of it’s time with the S3 & S5 (fuji’s S3/S5 results apply when using the extended dynamic range feature which is controlled by a camera setting). It is no wonder that so many wedding shooters swore by that camera for shooting beach weddings and other high contrast scenes. As of now only the D3x can better the dynamic range of a S3 or S5 in one single shot.

The relevance to High Dynamic Range Imaging is the following. Lets say you capture a bracketed sequence with only 3 shots. Which of those cameras above do you think will give you the best data to work with when merged to HDR? Remember, an HDR file is only as good/clean as the RAW data you feed into the merge. If each RAW shot you feed into a merge to HDR has by itself a large dynamic range, then you increase the quality of the HDR file.

This is why I groan when I see someone shooting with a Nikon D3x or Fuji S5 Pro say you only need to take X shots to get X results.  Each camera is completely different in terms of its ability to capture dynamic range so when you limit your bracket to only 3 shots, the dynamic range of your sensor becomes incredibly relevant. As you fill in the gaps and take more shots with tighter EV steps it fills in data gaps and provides cleaner RAW data for the entire range.

I first touched on the subject of dynamic range of camera sensors about six months ago and there is a little more insight in that post which is linked HERE.  Other articles surrounding dynamic range, auto bracketing and FPS capture are linked as follows:

Autobracketing for HDR – Camera Specs

Fastest DSLRs for HDR Capture (wide AEB range only)

When I see someone say their HDR files and tonemapped images have noise issues, my first question is? How many shots did you take and what EV step between?  Because I can tell you I have ZERO, NONE, NADDA, ZILCH, GOOSE EGG issues with noise in my files.

Why?  Because I bracket big and tight.  Sometimes I’ll bracket a scene with 13 images at .7EV between steps or even more shots with only .3EV steps between.  And yes, it takes a lot longer to merge to HDR, but it also means the averaging that occurs in software from darks to lights between the RAW data you feed it will result in BOTH cleaner data (less noise) and milder hue/saturation shifts (better color reproduction).

I get asked weekly how my images look so free of noise, natural and how I control saturation levels.  That last paragraph is HALF the battle folks.  It took me about 2000 HDRs to finally figure that out and even though I recently crossed 13,000 commercially delivered images tonemapped from HDRs, I’m still learning and tweaking.  I’m far from satisfied with my own results.  It is a constant challenge for myself even to fight “overcooking” images to the point that a client comments “it looks fake”.

It is critical that you understand my goal is to get to the point that someone can’t tell I’ve employed a High Dynamic Range Imaging workflow / pipeline. I’m not there yet.  If your goal is to create colorful and possibly more saturated images than I am gearing for then you might not want to bracket tighter like I do because when luminance ranges get stretched in software using only 3 shots from an AEB sequence it by default will create hue shifts and saturation issues that you might actually want for your images (particularly if you are going for artistic and/or grunge looks).

Even if you don’t shoot for HDR I hope the chart at least enlightens you to the abilities of those camera models.  I’ve purposely eliminated the medium format cameras that DXOmark has on their site.  If you go to their site and want to check these stats out yourself then look for the following tab on their site (image below). When you do, that data will populate the field on the right so you can see the various cameras and how they stack up.  The X axis shows time so you can see when each was released in comparison to others.

HDR tutorial requests about my high dynamic range imaging workflow have come in via email (my photography site email) for a couple of years now. Again a couple more last night, but this time through the form on this site that I finally “fixed”.

So my question is… what do you need help with the most? Use the Contact Me page to send me what area you need help in the most whether it be HDR Capture (camera settings), choosing a camera for HDR Capture, HDR Post Production like HDR in Photoshop or HDR in other apps, Tonemapping, or otherwise.

In 2006 when I first heard about HDR there was very scarce information online to work off of.  HDR Tutorials were geared towards grunge looks and I was seeking to provide my clients nearly photo realistic looks for real estate work. Back then there were very few players in the market for applications and I decided to just use Photoshop from Merge to HDR – to tonemapping – to final tweaks.

Late last year weather turned bad here for weeks so I took some time to peek around the net and even some books at Barnes and Noble just to see what was out there in terms of HDR Tutorials and HDR Training.  I was amazed to see so many “gurus” or folks posting tutorials either slamming Photoshop for HDR work or quickly moving folks on to Photomatix because the sliders are easier to work with for beginners.  The slider issue I understand totally, but the steering away from Photoshop for HDR work I don’t get at all.

For example, one of the many things I like about using Photoshop for HDR is it is a complete high dynamic range pipeline from raw to final output.  That and you can view the entire exposure range in pieces simply by opening up multiple windows of the same view.  You navigate to the top menu to WINDOW>ARRANGE>NEW WINDOW and presto, another window of the same file you are working on opens in a new window.  If you just merged to HDR here in 32 bit space in Photoshop, then this second window has another exposure slider at the bottom to change at will that has no impact on the file, it is simply for viewing purposes.  You use the slider at the bottom of that new window to adjust the exposure range of the image you want to view in that one window.

That slider  is NOT some kind of adjustment layer, it is just for viewing purposes.  So you can open multiple windows, place the exposure slider to various under/over exposed settings so that as you make changes to the document here in 32 bit space, those changes update in each window.  This way, you can make local or global changes using various adjustment levels over either parts of the image or the entire image and see the results across the ENTIRE exposure range via viewing the multiple windows you’ve opened.

Here is a screen capture to understand what I’m talking about.  What you see is nine windows opened and I’ve adjusted the exposure slider at the bottom of each window.  I took that screen capture after I had merged to HDR and before I made my tweaks in Photoshop in 32 bit space.  Once I finished my adjustments and then tonemapped out to a 16 bit TIFF, I made some final tweaks right there in photoshop and the image on the bottom was the result.

Photoshop is VERY capable at creating photo real images as a single application pipeline – from Merge to HDR to final output right in Photoshop.  I would say if Photoshop’s pipeline has a major fault it is that it is TOO GOOD at keeping saturation levels under control and makes creating grunge and technicolor images a more difficult process because it doesn’t over saturate colors and it doesn’t create wacky artifacts like other applications do.

It blows me away when I see “gurus” poo pooing photoshop as being lacking for editing HDR images.  There are so many things you can do right there after merging to HDR waaaaaaaay before you ever go to the menu to choose IMAGE>MODE>16 bit to tonemap it down.  And you can work in layers in 32 bit mode just as you can in any other mode so if you know photoshop well already, then why are you taking your HDR images to other applications, then bringing them back to photoshop when you could just do everything right there in Photoshop?

Give it a chance.

I can’t provide a link to an online tutorial showing how to take advantage of the full capabilities of Photoshop’s HDR workflow because I never found anyone else using it like I do.  I’m sure others use it this way and they are either too busy shooting to create tutorials (I can relate to that) or such tutorials do exist and I never found them.

Like I said, with nobody to turn to in 2006, I just starting farting around in Photoshop and eventually figured stuff out on my own.  Even Photoshop CS4 still has ZERO help files for working this way in 32 bit space, which is probably why so many folks use Photomatix Pro and the like.

HDR Video is something I started toying around with in 2007.  The post production side of it was a challenge and a whole series of blog posts to touch on what I’ve found to be “best practices” for me.  The image below shows one single frame of the video. Each frame actually consists of 7 shots taken on continuous shutter release at 9fps on a D3.  Each frame was merged to HDR and tonemapped and then laid down in Final Cut Pro’s timeline.  The D3 was on a tripod with a fluid head and it was a manual (not perfect) tilt move.

I started doing the HDR Video segments for architectural shoots for builders, architects, realtors, rental companies, vrbo … the kitchen sink.  I had exported them out for video CD-Roms and marketing DVDs. The problem then was that the whole HD-DVD versus Blu-Ray DVD was a battle that had not been fully settled yet.  So I didn’t bother exporting out the segments to high definition.  I’m going back to old hard drives and bringing that footage back online into Final Cut Pro and doing that now so that I can export out to 720p for Vimeo and 1080p for YouTube.

The first one I converted to HD was not an architectural interior, but rather a segment I shot near the back yard of a client’s home for sale that happens to bump up against a state park here in North West Florida called “Eden Gardens”.  I’m still exporting and uploading the YouTube 1080p version and that won’t be done until later tonight after the Super Bowl, but the Vimeo 720p version is live now.  I’d let it cache and watch it full screen.  There is also a link to the right and below that allows you to download the video to your computer if you want to see it in much greater detail.  It is 720p, H.264 quicktime at 30fps.

I’m not even going to embed it. You really need to view this at full rez.  Here’s the link:
HDR VIDEO on VIMEO – 720p HD

I’ll be uploading more videos in the coming weeks.  All were shot from 2007 to 2009.

HDR for Real Estate Photography is my world. The comparison below is to show you the difference between trying to use just one RAW image to process versus bracketing multiple shots from a tri-pod to later merge to HDR, then tonemap.  Now this is not the most dramatic high dynamic range image I’ve faced, but it is one that realtors and architectural photographers face from time to time.  A property where the sun rises behind it and never hits the front face of the home even at sunset.

The image on top was the final shot delivered to the client.  It was a bracketed series that got merged and tweaked then sent to Photoshop CS3 for final tweaks.  In Photoshop I removed some clutter on the ground and the dead tree sticking in frame at the top left of the shot.

The image just below the top image was the best single image of the bracketed series. I took that one single RAW into LightRoom and jacked highlight recovery all the way up to the max of 100% to try and get back as much sky detail as possible.  I also took the fill light slider all the way up to nearly 50% to attempt to raise shadows as well.  The  challenge when doing this is that it not only flattens the image (reverse contrast per se), but you pull up noise in shadows badly and in some cases you get strange color hue shifts. That bottom image was tweaked as heavily as I could in RAW before then taking it to Photoshop.  In photoshop I then used the Highlight/Shadow filter to try and further tame the highlights and help bring up shadows.

More details after you view the two images below

Some agents would be perfectly happy with the picture below, but my clients would shoot me if I delivered a photo like that. It is not that the lower image is horrible, it is just not showcasing the property as well as it can be shown.  The top image reduces the overblown sky and driveway.  The lower image has your eye drawn to those bright regions which detracts from the home itself (the focal point of the shot).

Just so you know, this was for a builder, not an agent. The builder chose this exact location to shoot from after we tried finding various angles.  The sign which covers a piece of the home he was not willing to pay extra for me to photoshop out… so I tried to aim it to land in between the windows.  Also, this was taken later in the afternoon and as the sun goes down the sun nails that metal roof and windows and reflects towards where I’m standing thereby making that angle impossible later in the day even though a smidge more light gets to the front of the home.  The sun rises behind the property and to the left so this house never has light shining on it from the front.  Hence HDR to the rescue.

I actually took another image the following morning which made for even more dramatic HDR needed.  The ramping in post caused for it to end up being what I consider “over cooked” for my taste.  I gave it to him and to my surprise he LOVED it.  He actually freaked out about how much it looked like an architectural rendering of sorts and gladly took that one as well as the afternoon shot.

That morning shot I overcooked is this one.

HDR Portrait of a friend and her niece below. I have done a couple dozen portraits like this the last few years, but don’t advertise it per se.  Prior to the shoot she asked if it would be possible to “photoshop” the image to look more like a painting than a photo.  Enter HDR.

Knowing that’s what she wanted, HDR was going to make creating that look quite easy.  I could have toned down the colors or not tried to crush so much dynamic range into an 8 bit range, but I ramped it in there because she LOVES color. If you saw her home you’d be a believer.

Could I instead just have blasted them with flash from the front to try and balance the blazing sunset? Yes, but if you’ve shot directly into the sun like this yourself then you know I would have had to have HAMMERED them with flash and the shot ends up having an entirely different feel to it.

Here is a larger version linked below (hosted on my photography website):
http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/hdr_portrait.html

The technique is a bit tricky.  This is what I do.  There may be a better way, but without a tri-pod and because I’m dealing with humans not a static subject, this is what I’ve managed to piece together.

It’s hand held, I’m shooting with a heavily back lit subject directly into a blazing sun.  I say tricky because I am firing off flash on the first image of the bracketed sequence.  The D3 allows you to choose the order of an automated exposure bracketed series and I chose to have it shoot “normal” for the first frame, then move to under exposed to over exposed. The D3 shoots at 9 frames per second and the SB-800 can’t recycle fast enough so the flash only has true power on the first blast so when the second frame fires the speedlite is spent momentarily so the camera is rapidly ripping through the under to over exposed shots before the flash can fully recycle.  Now depending on your camera, and the speed at which it shoots (FPS) + the type of speedlite you are using + the settings you have the speedlite set to, etc…. your results may vary. The camera is set to shoot on continuous shutter release for this automatic exposure bracket.

Post production for these shots can be handled in a ton of different ways, such as either beginning in LightRoom and using the Enfuse plugin to fuse images, alternatively one could take individual frames into Photoshop and layer them and mask in pieces needed, or one could merge to HDR and tonemap the image which will be the background and again mask in the flash image.  Regardless, the editing ends in photoshop brining in the first frame with the flash fired to mask over the properly exposed background (and your subject will be underexposed in that non-flash image).

The biggest issue is whether you were steady when you fired off the burst because the quality of either fusing the image or merging to HDR will depend largely on that.  Even though images can be “aligned” in post, that process does compromise the image quality to some degree.  Movement  also complicates masking in the single/flash frame in post, although you’d be surprised how much wiggle room you actually have if you are pretty good at dealing with layers and masking in photoshop.

I probably would not attempt this technique with a camera that shoots slower than 5fps, but I have not attempted this with a camera that shoots 3fps so I can’t say for certain.  The margin for error with the longer time between frames means either you or your subject is more prone to movement.  I’ve occasional had difficulty holding still even at 5fps on a 40D (some time ago), but I have never attempted this at 3fps and probably would have a higher failure rate with those longer moments between frames.

Additionally, your subjects need to understand how critical it is to remain still.  Good communication and/or with a countdown helps.  Blinking is not as big of a deal after the first shot fires because you’ll mask in that first shot anyway.  However, if they drift at all during the capture, then that movement can be problematic aligning images in post and obviously both you and your suj

I always shoot these sequences in RAW because obviously the white balance of the flash hitting your subject may be an issue with the other shots that follow not synching with whatever ambient lighting exists.  You’ll definitely suffer more if shooting JPEG when dealing with exposure adjustments and color balance issues this technique requires.

If you choose to attempt this in a more normal lighting environment, then obviously using flash might not be needed at all and you would just treat the shot like any hand held HDR capture.

HDR PhotoStudio™ Review will have to wait ’til another day sadly.

Despite having 12 gigs of ram, beefy graphics card, etc., etc. I unfortunately fell just shy of system specs to run HDR PhotoStudio because it requires a minimum of an Intel dual-core 2.5GHz, but my MacPro is only Intel dual-core 2.0GHz so I unfortunately won’t be able to review HDR PhotoStudio™ anytime soon.

Having just bought a Canon 5D mark II and about to purchase the $2500.00 Canon TS-E 17mm f/4 Tilt Shift lens, I don’t have the cash flow to buy a new beefy computer to test out HDR PhotoStudio™.  Bummer.  It looks very promising.

HDR PhotoStudio™ Now available for Macintosh!

I’ve been waiting for the Mac version for some time now.  Finally available!  Of course Murphy’s Law… I’m right in the middle of a huge edit and can’t/won’t mess with it to test until later this week, but rest assured I’ll be reviewing this app.  Why do I like this app?.. or at least find interesting?  This paragraph from their website:

HDR PhotoStudio is the only solution capable of creating HDR images that truly unlock the full range of color as perceived by human vision. The software grants complete control over the colors within an image and provides a comprehensive toolbox to address the effects of merging multiple exposures, while simultaneously improving workflow.

Here’s some geeky system/spec info:

Version: 2.15.28 build 4449.
Download size:
Mac OS: 21.9 MB.
Windows 32-bit (x86): 11 MB.
Windows 64-bit (x64): 12.5 MB.

System Requirements:

OS: Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard)/Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7.
CPU: Intel dual-core 2.5GHz minimum, quad-core, 2.8GHz is recommended for best performance.
RAM: 2GB minimum, recommend 4GB.

LINK = HDR PhotoStudio™ Now available for Macintosh!

More to come once I’ve played with it

If you’ve followed me over the last year on Twitter you know I entered the realm of HDR in 2006 in order to get better results shooting real estate.  Why HDR for real esate photography you say? Simply because real estate photography and shooting interior architecture has been and still is one of the most difficult exposure challenges to solve in the realm of photography.  Consider this…

In many cases a shot needing to be captured to showcase a property needs to capture the exposure range of the interior and the range of the exterior. My question to you would be… “Have you ever shot landscape photography?”.  The reason I ask is because if you have, then I’m sure you’ve experienced the vast exposure range of the bright highlights and the dark shadows in those landscape shots.  Well, the shadow region of that landscape shot in 9 out of 10 images will be brighter than the brighter parts of an image for an interior shot.  Which is why when you need to capture the dynamic range of an interior and exterior for one image, you’ll begin to appreciate why HDR is utilized in real estate photography.

Here is a link to a recent shoot I just completed for a builder.

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/comps/ws/index.html

That day was one of those incredibly hazy days with a ton of glare.  The kind of glare that makes you squint badly when you are outside even when not facing the sun.  It seems to spill everywhere and bounce off of anything and everything.  Well, that light was blazing in through windows into the rooms pictured.  Even when rooms with ample window coverage allow light into the room it doesn’t fully solve the contrast ratio issue.  HDR to the rescue.

Can flash be used? Yes. Always? No, not always.  Sometimes rooms are so tight or full of mirrors and using flash isn’t just a pain, but nearly impossible because of reflections and the inability to even get the flash units into a room let alone try and keep them out of frame.  There is definitely a place for flash and I do use it from time to time for specific uses ( especially this issue YouTube Video LINK ), but because many of my shoots are for rental companies I don’t always have much time to shoot units and a run and gun style works best.  Basically bracketing and moving from room to room quickly and then editing via HDR/Tonemapping in post.

Back to the topic I started…. if you think it is difficult to capture well exposed shots shooting landscapes and you’ve never attempted to shoot interior architecture / real estate, then you haven’t experienced PAIN yet!  LOL!  Seriously.  Until you’ve attempted (regularly) to shoot real estate in daylight hours (not sunrise/dusk, but bright daylight), then you haven’t yet found out why HDR is so important and useful for architectural / real estate photography.  Because that is when you will find out the dynamic range from highlights to shadows indoors with no window in frame can be wide enough by itself and difficult enough to capture by itself that when you add an entirely new brightness range of outdoors into the mix, the reality of what digital sensors can capture becomes clear.

Again, flash can and does present itself as a solution.  But with reflections, shadows created by flash units, etc… flash is not always easy or realistic.  That said, HDR isn’t always the best option either.  It just so happens that HDR is what saves my butt in 90% of my shoots.

I’ve actually been surprised at how many photographers have emailed me inquiring about learning what I am doing.  I don’t know if it is because of the economy that photographers are looking to add real estate to the mix or if they just haven’t used HDR in their workflow before.  My challenge is that I remain so busy shooting and editing with my client base that I haven’t seen the need or the time to consider tutoring others or creating training. But I have noticed the interest level nonetheless.

The challenge is that I can’t teach what I do on a phone call or through an email and I have had to turn down even those who were offering payment for either or email/phone support.  Maybe in 2010 I’ll find some time to either create training or possibly do some kind of workshop, but as of now I’m (thankfully) looking at a very healthy shooting schedule this winter and spring.  Summer is usually my slowest time of year being I live in a summer beach town and when rentals are 100% occupied, there is less to shoot