Image Info

For this HDR “making of”, 5 exposures were taken with a Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4 G ED VR with the following settings:

exposure time: 0.6s (0EV), 1/6s (-2EV), 0.3s (-1EV), 1.3s (+1EV), 2.5s (+2EV)
focal length: 16.0 mm
aperture: F10.0
ISO: 200

Before taking the shot (see location), I waited for a bus to come into the frame for the longest exposure. Fortunately, the Lexus was parked and wasn’t moving in any of the frames, making the contrast between the car/bus trails and the motionless car more striking.

RAW exposures

HDR Exposure (realistic version) processed in Oloneo PhotoEngine

HDR Exposure (extreme version) processed in Oloneo PhotoEngine

The Final Result (full HD wallpaper)

Workshop Announcement

There are still a few places available for Paris HDR workshop on May 21-22nd. If you wish to learn what you’ll see on this video, make sure to make your reservation now!

A workshop will take place on May 28-29 in Nice, France. Official announcement of the workshop in Montreal will be done in June 2011.

The Making Of

The Video

The steps

For this making of, the following steps were undertaken.

1. Image alignment: it so happens from time to time that the tripod is moved slightly in between exposures. To fix this, I used the “load files into stack” script in Photoshop and repasted the corrected TIF into its original file.
2. dual HDR processing in Oloneo PhotoEngine (if you haven’t checked the review, it’s here): The first tonemapping was fairly realistic and would be used as a basis for the image, then a second tonemapping was applied and would be used for certain parts of the image.
3. manual blending of the two HDR generated
4. semi-automatic blending of the sky of one of the exposures using selections composites.
5. manual blending of the bus/car trails and hot spots
6. local contrast adjustments using blending modes such as soft light and normal blending modes
7. sharpening and edge sharpening using low and high radius high pass sharpening
8. special effects

The mini PSD

Want to see how it’s done in Photoshop, email me and I will send you a mini PSD containing all the layers.

Full length video

This full length video of 35+ minutes will be available with text commentary and explanations on the DVD of the HDR workshop. It may be available for individuals, message me for more information and prices.

Agrandir le plan

As usual, pictures were taken with a Nikon D700 + Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4 G ED VR and HDR were processed in Oloneo PhotoEngine and minor adjustments in Photoshop.

• beautiful sculpture and mural at the entrance of the Rockefeller Center, NYC

• Center alley and stores of Rockefeller building at dusk, NYC

• Teuscher Chocolatier, rockefeller center store, NYC

• the flags of Rockefeller center, NYC

• another view of the rock, rockefeller Center, NYC

• yellow cab in front of Rockefeller Center, NYC

Thanks for viewing!

I just had time for a quick series of pictures.

All pictures were taken with a Nikon D700 + Nikkor 16-35MM VR F/4.0 and edited in Oloneo PhotoEngine Beta version (standalone HDR application available on PC) with the following settings:

Lors de mon dernier séjour dans la ville de Québec pour un workshop Photoshop, nous avions planifié une session à l’heure bleue avec le club photo dimension et la soirée était parfaite.

J’en ai profité pour faire une petite séries de photos  entre la rue Saint-Louis et la Rue des Jardins.

Tous les photos ont été prises avec un Nikon D700 + Nikkor 16-35MM VR F/4.0 et éditées dans Oloneo PhotoEngine (application HDR disponible en version beta sur PC) avec les réglages suivants:

• Quebec City, Epicerie fine Richard et Edifice price, rue des Jardins

• Quebec City, Epicerie fine Richard et Edifice price, rue des Jardins

Quebec City, Restaurant Café de la Paix et Epicerie fine Richard et Edifice price, rue des Jardins

• Quebec City, Restaurant “aux Anciens Canadiens”, Rue Saint-Louis

• Quebec City, Restaurant “aux Anciens Canadiens”, Rue Saint-Louis

Curious about creating great pîctures at the blue hour? I would strongly suggest to check this post too!

The Location

Located at the end of Colorado Street, Santa Monica Pier is the city’s most prized and one of the oldest landmarks of the City.

Agrandir le plan

In the city for a business trip in November 2010 and staying in Santa Monica, I had to capture the beauty of this place at the best time of day: the blue hour! I was surprised and lucky because it was a quiet night and contrary to my last trip in the summer, it was not overly crowded. After parking at the entrance, the first building to photograph was the Bubba Gimp Shrimp Co Restaurant.

Then going up on the Pier, I was fascinated by the scene of the Surf View Cafe  and for a more dynamic scene, I let a few people walk into the frame. The result is amazing!

The view towards the end of the pier shows beautiful colours against the blue sky.

Then you get to the amazing entrance of Pacific Park where you’ll see a big octopus dominating the scene.

A few dozen meters further, on the left part of the Pier, you get this wonderful view.

And walking a bit further you get these two amazing scenes. I especially  love how the HDR brings out the texture of the weathered wooden floor of the pier and how the 2 shops light up the scene against the blue skyline. The colours balance is nearly perfect.

Order an exclusive limited edition print!

Thanks for viewing!

Equipment used for the shoot

Nikon D700

Nikon Nikkor AF-S 16-35mm f/4 G ED VR

Gitzo Leveling 6X tripod GT2540LVL

Default ISO settings : 200

Using the 16-35mm was the best way to capture the place “landscape” style and shoot for HDR. What’s really important when shooting for HDR at night it’s to capture all the details of the highlights and have a base exposure with sufficient shadow details. When choosing focal lengths, staying away from 16-20mm helps avoiding distortion and stretching. Contrary to the 14-24mm from Nikon, this lens allows for the use of filters (77mm diameter).

hardware used for the editing

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bits

Core 2 Duo E6750 + 4GB memory

Samsung 275T 27″ monitor + Samsung 244T 24″ monitor

Wacom Intuos 3 tablet

The Wacom tablet is always a must have tool for editing. It allows for pressure sensitive adjustments and it will speed up your workflow once you get used to using it.

Software used for the editing

Photoshop Cs5

32-Float Plugin from Unified Colours – HDR Experts

This was my first series of tests done using this new application from Unified Colours | The HDR Experts. Contrary to other tools like Photomatix, it’s much more easier to set the black point and once you find the right “recipe”, it’s pretty straighforward to use. Colour rendition is way superior to Photomatix and overall result is more realistic. Check for yourself and use coupon code “dgphotohdr” for a get 20% off any of the products.

Contact me for questions or if you’d like to see some topics discussed in more details here!

Thanks for viewing.

As you have read in my previous post, this type of location is perfect to shoot at the blue hour, because you have more than enough to shoot before the night falls.

Because it’s the tallest building and it looks a bit like a monolith, the “tour de la Bourse” skyscraper is definitively the most important landmark there:

At its feet and near the metro entrance, you will find a cute little flower shop:

If you venture a little to the north near the Hotel W, you will find beautiful water fountains and a Statue of the Queen Victoria (from 1872) and a classic Parisian Metro Entrance by Henri Guimard, offered by the city of Paris in the 1970s.

Then at the north end of the square, you will find a sculpture from Ju Ming called “Taichi Single Whip”. The two buildings at the background are the Bell and Banque Nationale towers and were built in the 1970s.

Thanks for viewing!

Now first,what is the BLUE HOUR??? Well according to wikipedia:

The blue hour comes from a French expression, l’heure bleue, which refers to the period of twilight each morning and evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day. The blue hour is considered especially flattering for people with blond hair in photography and is often also when the smell of the flowers is at its strongest during the summertime.

Pretty simple, though if you want a more precise and technical definition, the blue hour happens usually starts 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise. The duration of the blue hour is generally around 30 minutes. For a better experience, it’s best to go shooting just after it has stopped raining. Also, the quality of light at the blue hour is usually at its best during fall season. At this time of the year, it looks almost like the sky is glowing.

Blue Hour on Old Montreal Skyline - Fall 2007

• SCOUT: Because you don’t have much time to shoot at the blue hour, you MUST plan for it and the first step is finding locations where you’ll be able to shoot different angles in 30-45min! Scouting will also help you frame the photos in your head when the sun is up and get a good feeling of distances. Squares and waterfronts or look-outs are usually the best places to achieve this rather easily. Oh one more thing, the blue hour starts to the east and progresses to the west, plan accordingly.

• USE GOOGLE MAPS and FLICKR: Well, if you can’t scout because you’re only be going there on vacation, use Google Maps to view the orientation of the locations photographed and check flickr for the best shooting locations (not doing so would be idiotic, finding new locations of places you don’t know is pretty challenging and remember that the clock is ticking… 30 minutes of good shooting!)

Blue Hour on Portland Skyline, Oregon, USA - FALL 2009

• WEATHER: If you want to get the best results, pick a day without smog. Shoot a day after it has stopped raining, The sky will be clean of most particles and impurities.

• PREPARE YOUR GEAR:

• Take your tripod: Exposures at ISO 100 and F/8.0 usually go between 4-30 seconds
• Take your remote trigger release to avoid vibrations
• Clean your lenses and put the hood to avoid flare
• Mount the lens you will most likely use ( I use a Sigma 10-20mm for architecture shoots and 17-50mm for landscapes or cityscapes)
• Set the camera to Aperture priority mode or Manual mode, ISO 200 or below (you really don’t want noise in the blue sky because of high ISO).
• Use a circular polarizer if you shoot on the shore of a river or lake (remove it once it lengthen exposures besides 30s).
• Take a bubble level

Blue Hour on Notre Dame de Paris, France

• BE ON LOCATION EARLY: I always try to be on location early (30 minutes) for two simple reasons:
  1. If I couldn’t scout, it leaves me time to check for alternate locations
  2. I’m totally relaxed. I usually bring a book with me and read while the sun is going down.

• USE A LEVEL: I always have a bubble level on my flash hotshoe to make sure the camera is levelled.

Blue Hour on Monpazier, Dordogne, Perigord, France

• BRACKET: even if you don’t plan on blending exposures in Photoshop or doing HDRs, bracketing make sure you won’t miss any exposure. Take as many possible as possible.

• EXPOSE CORRECTLY: If you use matrix metering, in aperture priority, compensate between 0.7 and 1.5ev. Otherwise shoot in manual mode and check the result at the back at the camera so that you don’t have too many dark shadows. The histogram should have a clear dome at its left (which means you haven’t clipped the shadows too much and that the image is not too dark!

Blue Hour on Seattle Skyline, Washington, USA

• INCREASE YOUR AWARENESS: You want to make great photos, relax, breathe and feel the smell in the air, the wind on your skin, the flow of water and let your intuition guide you.

• RUN!!!: Damn it does not last long so if you can, train yourself at being able to run like a crazy monkey with a big tripod looking for your next shot! LOL

Blue hour at Union Square, San Francisco, USA

Now this is not over. Taking the photos is a good thing, but processing them is key to get the best results… stay tuned for part 2!!!

Book me for:

• a portrait session or a portfolio, or
  
• an assignment (architecture/urban landscape), or
  
• a Photoshop training lesson (english and french)

View my portfolio and contact me now!

Photos and videos are all rights reserved – David Giral 2010.

• Snowy backyard somewhere on the Plateau Mont-Royal

• Snowy alley of the Plateau Mont-Royal

I’ve always loved those lonely photo walks, listening to audio books, while trying to find secret places and different angles to what everybody has already photographed. I’ve had already come by that book store and taken a photo but never published it. On that night, it was really different, when I saw the bookstore again, with the yellow light coming from inside the store against the white snow and the blue sky, it really made an impression. It was the right moment to take a photo. After figuring out the perspective I wanted, I then set up my tripod in the middle of the road, took a look left and right to make sure no one would run me over and then took 3 different exposures (from 1.6 to 6s) with my Nikon D300 and a Sigma 10-20mm zoomed at 16mm and F/10.0.

I knew that this photo had something more than the others I took that night. When I get that feeling,  I usually like to wait a few days or months to process the photos, because I want it to reflect exactly the impressions I had that night. Like I say to my friends, it’s not about the technique, it’s about using the technique to reflect what your feelings were and just go with your intuition. Like demonstrated below, I don’t see HDR as a technique, my photomatix processing is really basic and the core of what I do is micro-contrast management using curves until I get the result that I want, without any second thoughts. This particular example mixed HDR and DRI and a bit of Photoshop. Enjoy!

• Final result:

• Baseline exposure:

• Making Of:

Book me for:

• a portrait session or a portfolio, or
  
• an assignment (architecture/urban landscape), or
  
• a Photoshop training lesson (english and french)

View my portfolio and contact me now!

Photos and videos are all rights reserved – David Giral 2010.

• Ranked 10 | The hilly Streets of San-Francisco II | HDR/RAW

• Ranked 9 |  Classic Seattle Skyline,  Washington, USA

• Ranked 8 | Spooky Evening in Bodie, California, USA | RAW

• Ranked 7 | San Francisco at Night from Russian Hill, California, USA

• Ranked 6 | Rush Hour on Rue Royale, Paris, France

• Ranked 5 | Blue Hour on Hawthorne Bridge and Portland, Oregon | DRI

• Ranked 4 | The Streetcar of Powell Station, San Francisco | DRI

• Ranked 3 | The old Plymouth on the road less travelled, California, USA

• Ranked 2 | Blue Hour on Vancouver, BC, Canada | DRI

• Ranked 1 | The Big Rocks of Klamath Beach, California, USA | HDR

Enjoy! You are welcome to use them as wallpapers.

All those photos are available as prints and some as stock photos at www.davidgiralphoto.com !

During my last trip to San Francisco, I had the opportunity to take a few photos at the blue hour in San Francisco before heading out on a road trip to Seattle, Wa.

The photo above was taken at Union Square and pictures the amazing facade of Macy’s store along Geary Street.

The three photos used were taken at 13mm with a Sigma 10-20mm lens mounted on a D300 and a Gitzo tripod. Exposures ranged from 1.6, 0.8 and 6s.

The particular challenge with this pĥoto was to correct
1- Level the photo accurately,
2- Correct the perspective using the lens distortion filter,
3- Blend the photos together via layers.
4- make various corrections.

Here is the making of of this photo – 3min 10s  (22 min in realtime) :

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to check my portfolio and my stock photos at http://www.davidgiralphoto.com