Those of you who follow my work, know that I love HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. I’m especially fond of pushing the limits, with HDR portrait, wedding and other non standard uses. I started experimenting with HDR people shots in 2007. I also use it for nearly all of my nature work.
I have a bunch of favorites, and have finally compiled them onto one page on the Seim Photography site. If you’re intersted in HDR stop by and maybe you’ll get some ideas. I know I’m not the only one shooting HDR however. If you know of other great HDR, share them in the comments... Gavin Seim
I really enjoyed the book Purple Cow. It’s a book about making your business stand out in an world where paid advertising is failing. It got me thinking about what we do here at Seim Effects. Aside from saving time editing, I use the effects to help me stand out more. I made the above photo bad to get your attention. It probably worked, but I wouldn’t suggest using that effect to get new clients and it’s not included with my collections.
I think as photographers we sometimes feel that automating parts of our business takes away from our creative edge. That does not need to be so. If we did all our editing manually, we would use far fewer effects, and because they would take so much longer. In the end the results might not be as good because we would be in a hurry. Also by being fast in my editing my client gets their pictures fast. This is a Purple Cow in itself because clients often have to wait toomlong for their pictures to be ready.
So I for one am looking for more ways to stand out. Here’s a few things on my mind for Seim Photography as well as Seim Effects
1. Am I being extraordinary in the products and services I sell?
2. How can I make it even better?
3. What does my target market really want?
4. What can I do to give simple added bonuses? ( the prize inside)
5. What can I do that’s daring and amazing?
I have various answers to these questions rolling in my head like marbles. We’ll talk about those later. The bottom line is this. If I can answer the questions above, and then take action, I can be a purple cow that everyone is amazed by and telling their friends about. That’s FREE MARKETING.
Do you do anything in your business to be the Purple Cow?
Updated 07/2009: Revamped & improved article. Added a new segment dealing with movement and blur (towards bottom).
by Gavin Seim: In 2007 I wrote an article about using true HDR techniques with people. Yep, portraits, fashion and wedding images can be utterly amazing using High Dynamic Range. HDR is not just reserved for nature and still life. We’ve been using it at Seim Studios for some time nowand it blows clients away.Heres some of my secret sauce to get you started with HDR portraits and a few of my own images.
What’s HDR All About?
First lets cover basics. If you’re already an HDR master you can skip this part. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. It’s better seen than described, so other than the images I’ve included in this article, you can see more on my website.
HDR is the combining of light and dark tones of multiple images taken at varied exposure levels and then blended using software like Photomatix, Photoshop, or another HDR program. Photomatix is the most popular among HDR fans and we have a deal worked out with them. You can save 15% with promo code PPS15. Basically this software blending allows the photographer to selectively choose how much light he wants in various parts of the image. You’ll have a light to dark range that’s much higher than that of a normal exposure, thus giving you much more control over the final image.
~ Check out Gavin’s 3 day HDR workshop coming Fall 2009.More details here.
So you’ve probably heard about HDR photography, and you may be wondering what you can do with it and why it’s so cool.
By Gavin Seim: This is not a short article but it will explain a lot about HDR photography and why its so amazing. Today we’re going to talk about the editing techniques I used to create “Look To The Wind” the bride on the beach image that you probably have heard mentioned on Pro Photo Show, and maybe seen on the net. Also below are some additional links for things relevant to HDR.
HDR is a method of taking multiple images and combining them in a high dynamic range file. Lets say you take three images of the exact same scene, at various exposure levels. Standard images are only around 8 bits each, basically meaning that their ability to correctly expose dark scenes while keeping bright scenes from getting overexposed is limited.
So to make an HDR you might take one image that’s underexposed, one image over, and one with correct exposure. Then using software you can combine the shadow and highlight details from all the images into a single image is called an HDR, It’s the combined bits of these images, and is usually a 32 bit image when converted. What does 32bit mean to you? It means it can contain far more light. Even though the actual resolution of the image is not increased the details inside it are much higher. The HDR Photography technique is most often done with nature or still life images, but I have been doing extensive experimenting with this technique in portraits as well with good results, as we’ll see today.
So lets look at an example. In this image I took three shots of the bride on the beach using continuous shooting mode with auto exposure bracketing. This along with a model holding as still as possible, and a fairly wide angle scene made “Look To The Wind” Possible possible (click for a larger version) You can read more about HDR portrait techniques in my HDR portrait article.
There a a few ways to take the three images and make an HDR from them. First take your images in unedited raw form. You could do it with jpegs, but raw will give you the best results. Don’t correct the raw files before converting to HDR. There is a very basic tool in Photoshop for converting the images called Merge To HDR (File/Automate/Merge To HDR) This allows you to select you images, and it will combine them into and 32 bit image. You then can use tools to adjust the levels, and curves of the image mix to try and get a good result.
. It’s a book about making your business stand out in an world where paid advertising is failing. It got me thinking about what we do here at Seim Effects. Aside from saving time editing, I use the effects to help me stand out more. I made the above photo bad to get your attention. It probably worked, but I wouldn’t suggest using that effect to get new clients and it’s not included with my collections.
