Into the Vortex

A few snaps from my recent scouting mission to NYC. I hope you enjoy!

Hyper Reality

Along the same vein of the earlier post of ghosts in the shadows of under exposure, I recently came across an article on a new photo technology called high dynamic range imaging (HDRI). Without really knowing what dynamic range was, a little reading brought me to the shortened definition for dynamic range being the limits of light, detail, and shade or color a camera or other device can capture. For example the dynamic range for a digital camera is generally less than film photography and significantly less than the human eye. A digital photograph taken in very low light conditions will not have anywhere near the amount of detail compared to if we were standing next to the object viewing it ourselves because of the limited dynamic range of the camera. However enter the world of computing and big math, and apparently some boys back at the lab have come up with photographic computing HDRI software, "which allow a computer to overcome the limited dynamic range of a digital camera by selectively combining multiple exposures of the same scene in order to retain details even in low light conditions." (Wikipedia)

In my eyes the new HDRI images push the edge of photography into the realm of hyper-reality. They represent something well beyond what would be there if I was standing looking at these objects in real life, however are still anchored fully by the object. The HDRI pics are not computer generated cartoons or illustrations but rather a consolidation of images around Tokyo Japan taken at different times of the day and then combined by HDRI computing into a single image. The detail in low light is amazing to me. If you enjoy these, the rest of the 80 images can be viewed here Tokoyo HDRI, which were taken by Masata Ohta.

Not Riding but Random

lightning and rain is good for the corn

Ghosts

OK, I promise not to post every ancient image I find in the scanned negatives MO did for me, but when I find cool stuff I gotta share.
Take an underexposed image and pull every bit of light out and sometimes secret images emerge. Name those people in the background.

Chicken Butt Under/Over

Say howdy to my first go at a beer butt bar-b-que chicken. I was wondering if anyone could help negotiate the "exposure" adjustment on my computer's digital photo tool. While the overall basic over / under "exposure" adjustment is clear, I don't however understand what the histogram graph represents nor how the "levels" (very bottom) adjustment works or what I'm manipulating when its adjusted. Anyone have any input, would be greatly appreciated. I've adjusted the "levels" and "exposure" adjustments to high and low ranges, and have taken a screen shot to indicate the resulting image.

P.S. the first image is the native photo unaltered and the last image is my flame broiled product. Despite its appearance it was fantastic.

Mini-tutorial

Poorly exposed shots, either digital or film can be overcome with basic techniques in your favorite software. The example shot (a 20 year old scanned negative) was exposed for the backlight and so underexposed the face and foreground features. In Photoshop Elements this can be remedied by altering input and output levels using the Enhance tab on the toolbar. A one minute fix for a much better photo.