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Pushin' Bits
I guess as we become more and more computerized more of our lives are going to revolve around pushing bits.
Case in point: my new camera.
For a long time, I have been fascinated by this new HDR thing. HDR is basically where you take many shots of the same scene, and then use image-processing tools to get more detail out of the picture than normal. When done correctly, it can really make a picture "pop"
When done poorly, your pictures look like cartoons or worse. Such images are called "over-processed" and cross the line from photography into photographic art. In either case, HDR is neat. Someday soon our home theaters will be HDR and HD, and people are going to go nuts. HDR takes imaging to an entirely new level.
I've been excited about where the technology is going, so I finally bought a camera that will let me take HDR pictures. Hey, I'm no Ansel Adams or anything, but I want in on the action! Yesterday and today I read the manual (who makes these things, anyway? Swiss watchmakers? My camera has more buttons than the Apollo Space Capsule) and walking aroung the yard.
Walking through the back yard
HDR is really meant more towards static subjects, since you have to take a few pictures (called bracketing) I wonder if it wouldn't be possible to use HDR in aerial photography? I bet during the fall colors the view from, say, 1500 feet along the Blue Ridge would be spectacular.
We have a couple of hawks around here, but the vultures were the only birds that weren't camera shy today
The interesting thing is that this entire endeavor of photography used to be more chemistry and physics, now the chemistry is gone and it's all about capturing and processing bits. Same results, only it's all computerized now. Same goes for music -- it used to be that the emphasis was on the physical skills, but now the tangible part of music performance is giving way to moving clips around on a screen somewhere.
Same woods, only this time I played around some with "tone mapping"
To me, this is a bit overprocessed, as it is not faithful to what my eyes saw.
I could continue bit-twiddling until I had something that would look more like a cartoon than a picture
In the late 1800s and 1900s we were all factory workers. I guess in the 2000s we're all going to be bit-pushers, right? Might as well get started pushing!
What camera do you shoot with? Just wondering what the inherent dynamic range is.
I'm shooting with a Nikon D-80 and a 18-200mm VR AF lens. It brackets automatically. I've found that it's better to bracket around an exposure that is a little high to begin with, as that pulls out details in the shadows better.