[Nutty Nair]

@Clevermax - You meant Veli bridge, right? And thanks for the tips. It is very noisy, isn't it? Need a tutorial from you, guruji!

[royalcruiser]

Originally Posted by typeOnegative

@robi, royal cruiser:
Nice shots. Where were these taken. Wait a minute, royal you said that you would be off to Ranganthitoo.

Originally Posted by shajufx

Even in my sleep I can recognize this place although gone only once. First pelican shot is beautiful.

Thanks guys. Yep was at Ranganthittu this morning. Weather was a tad dull (cloudly), but considering this was my first attempt with birds, was well worth the time spent. Will post some more later ..

[MadBiker]

Sunset - Yelagiri, Tamil Nadu

[robimahanta]

Originally Posted by shajufx

Doctor sir, I missed commenting your previous birds shot, it was a beautiful one (the birds in flight touching the water). This one is a keeper too. Never seen a similar one till date. Good catch and good shot. Are you more into birding these days ?

Well Shaju..you can say that..as of late I am mostly into birding/nature trying to improve my skills. Bird photography really helps you to improve your panning skills and be really quick with camera controls.

Just to throw in some variety..a pic of the Sydney Opera House at night from my recent Aussie trip..shot handheld with support of the parapet from the rooftop terrace of Hotel Intercontinental,Sydney.

[typeOnegative]

Originally Posted by Nutty Nair

@royalcruiser, robimahanta, typeOnegative - nice bird shots.

Thank you. For the HDR, please use a tripod or anyother stabilizing surface. Perfect replication of the framing is difficult otherwise. Also, if you shift just a bit and are on Auto mode the camera might act funny. On the other hand, did you do the bracketing within camera or did you adjust the EV on a RAW file outside the camera? You could try QTPFSGUI as an alternative to Photomatix if you want to get rid of the watermarks. The process is long winded, but should be okay. Also, de-noising depends on the algorithm used as well as the amount of time you can spend post processing.

With regards to the bridge, yes it is the Veli bridge. But many people still refer to the location as Aakkulam as there used to be a boating club there by that name.

[Nutty Nair]

typeOnegative - Thanks for the tips. I did the bracketing within the camera itself. And next time I will be definitely using a tripod.
Btw didn't know that you are a mallu.

[v&v]

Originally Posted by Nutty Nair

typeOnegative - Thanks for the tips. I did the bracketing within the camera itself. And next time I will be definitely using a tripod.
Btw didn't know that you are a mallu.

Also one more thing i read about HDR is , should be shot more of stationary objects, as motion will leave shadows while processing.

Can some one update on the same.

[typeOnegative]

Originally Posted by Nutty Nair

typeOnegative - Thanks for the tips. I did the bracketing within the camera itself. And next time I will be definitely using a tripod. Btw didn't know that you are a mallu.

A stable surface will work wonders. Will await your next attempt.

I am half a Mallu (my dad is full, but yeah, I am a Mallu at heart with a fondness for kappa and meen curry). Studied at the CET at Kazhakuttam from 1994 to 1998 which is my longest stint in Kerala.

Originally Posted by v&v

Also one more thing i read about HDR is , should be shot more of stationary objects, as motion will leave shadows while processing. Can some one update on the same.

You are correct. Moving objects will lead to ghosting.

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Nutty Nair

typeOnegative - Thanks for the tips. I did the bracketing within the camera itself. And next time I will be definitely using a tripod.
Btw didn't know that you are a mallu.

The built in bracketing in your camera may not be good enough in most of the situations. I'd suggest you my workflow

Use manual mode - select an aperture and it must not change between individual shots for an HDR.

With spot metering, meter different areas of your frame and get an idea of the dynamic range in the frame

Use ISO 100!

Take 5 or 6 individual shots in RAW, almost covering the lowest metered shutter speed to the highest metered shutter speed, you can increase two steps at a time in most cases where there is high dynamic range. Better to take that many pictures than ending up with a bad HDR of the only two RAW files you clicked!

Make sure that you click all these in the same orientation keeping camera steady

Back at home select three of these shots based on visual appeal (not too dark, not too blown out) and let Photomatix eat them. (You can try changing this selection if you don't like the HDR output)

Make sure you are aligning by features and not by horizontal and vertical shifts

After Photomatix processes individual images, do a lot of trial and error with the controls like light smoothing, saturation highlights, lowlights, blacks, etc etc. until you are satisfied with how the photograph looks - this is where most of your creativity comes into play while processing

Save as 16 bit Tiff

Give it to Photoshop and do your final touch up. Some creativity goes here too. The output here can still look a lot different than what was Photomatix's output. Hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S to save a jpeg version to post.

This is just my way of dong it, and there can be better and efficient ways to create stunning HDRs!

@typeONegative: Altering the EV of one single RAW file to make two or three individual files and processing HDR is as good as pseudo HDR processing on a single RAW file I suppose..

[typeOnegative]

Originally Posted by clevermax

@typeONegative: Altering the EV of one single RAW file to make two or three individual files and processing HDR is as good as pseudo HDR processing on a single RAW file I suppose..

To my understanding it is. I have tried it and the images look different - less smooth. This is because the sensor records according to settings. When you change the EV in the RAW file, then you are doing a pseudo HDR which is based on one sensor reading rather than three or five or nine or whatever.

The method you have suggested is technically correct, but there would be shifts in the framing which is why for starting out using the AEB function is better.

These are my thoughts and experience and I may be way off the mark.

[gd1418]

Thank you Clever. Could you explain this a bit more?

Originally Posted by clevermax

I always wanted to take such a picture.. a road leading to the evening sun. Good one! More dynamic range would have made this even better!

Thanks Shaju. The cam & I are see ing the sun & rain a lot recently..

Originally Posted by shajufx

Could not agree more, GD saab, keep them coming ! Happy that you are on the move with your cam.

[Chevy_lover]

Some pics from Goa...

The Sun in her palms!



God's best creation!



A spectacular sunset!

[typeOnegative]

@Chevy_lover,
Great pictures especially the first and second ones. Clever_Max will tell you that the pictures are too warm though. Hee hee.

[gd1418]

Well if you have the Sun in the picture, then it is bound to be warm. No?

Originally Posted by typeOnegative

Clever_Max will tell you that the pictures are too warm though. Hee hee.

This one from my side -

[robimahanta]

An HDR..view along the Great Ocean Road,Australia


Back to birding,

Spotted Owlet


Ruddy Shelduck