Messing Around at Lunch With a Priest . . . and a Camera

Update - I just had to mess with the last picture and change it. Played with saturation and hue levels.

Hey, hey - the title was meant to grab your attention, nothing prurient was intended . . . just a literal description of what I did today.

I have been playing around with High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography, using Photomatix Pro 3.1 and Adobe Photoshop CS4. I find that I can do a variety of things with images shot in RAW format on my camera.

But it occurs to me, which is best? And I have reached the conclusion . . . all and none. Or none and all. Because while some people like the TLM, others like the Novus ordo, and each can be done beautifully . . . and each can be done dreadfully. But let me explain what I am doing with my camera.

I had lunch today with my good friend, John Moneypenny, whom in my posting below I identify as a photogenic person. Again, this is not to say that you'd find him on the calendar "Men of the Diocese of Orange 2010" - trust me, I really don't think it would be a best seller - but because his face can carry a spectrum of expressions. Everyone's face can as well, except some people naturally have muted expressions. Think of some people - like Fr. John here - having 32-bit faces and other folks - like myself - having maybe 16-bit faces, and still others having 8-bit faces. The level of expression is more pronounced on certain people. But enough about the model, other than to conclude with the fact that he works cheap (a burger and a beer, and he's yours).

This first shot is a straight, "shot as is" conversion from RAW to JPG format, with a balanced exposure setting. Not bad, but rather ho hum - although if you are taking pictures "for the memories," there is nothing wrong about this. Expect this from your typical point-and-shoot camera, although you may get something different if you put it on "shade" setting, in which case the camera will likely slightly overexpose your shot to compensate for the lack of light (there's always the built-in flash, which can be effective for "fill lighting" when someone is in shade, but try it with a Kleenex covering it for some diffusion).

The next is also a conversion from RAW to JPG, but I fiddled around with the various sliders, such as exposure, contrast, and clarity during the conversion. A little bit better and great for, say, a web site showing pictures of an event where you want to simply record what happened (by the way, if I recall correctly, he's yelling at the waitress, "Yo, hot lips, whaddaya got on tap?" Okay, maybe not).

Now to have some fun. I shot the picture above using three different exposures - one for shadows, one for highlights, and one for midtones (and as shown in the pictures above). Using Photomatix, I merged the frames to create an HDR image. This is different than taking three exposures and layering them in Photoshop and then "masking" out each layer to capture the details in the highlights, midtones, and shadows. The HDR process literally merges pixels and creates a 32-bit image. Which is great, except that the average monitor and printer - you know, those Best Buy or Costco specials we have sitting on our desks - can only display an 8-bit image. So after creating an HDR file, a person has two choices: compress the tones or enhance the details.

Tone compression creates a more realistic looking file. Here is the HDR processed for tone compression. Of course, you play around with the controls when doing it to find, well, what looks good to you. And if it doesn't, use the undo command. You cannot waste film or chemicals.

Different from the custom RAW conversion - more depth to color and contrast (and again, I set the controls, and someone else might want something different). In my opinion, it makes a better picture for display or conversion into black and white.

Detail enhancement - depending on the range of shadows, midtones, and highlights - can get funky. HDR images processed like this take on a drawn picture quality and some surreal effects can be had when you start taking controls to their extremes.

But that's the whole point - you may want to because you like it like that. I personally like this shot done with detail enhancement. After messing with it in Photomatix, I brought it into Photoshop and played around with a Levels adjustment layer.

I like this and I purposely saved the HDR file so I can play around with it more. With the processing, it looks more like a painting and the FDNY t-shirt and the beer barrels in the background make it seem like Mikey O'Donahue just got off his shift with Engine Company 66 in the Bronx and stopped for a boilermaker on his way home, and has spotted a friend on the other side of the bar.

What's your preference? There are basics that must be followed: always work at getting the best you can in composition, framing, lighting, focus, exposure, etc. But that rule sometimes will not apply when a blurred image may be best for invoking a sense of movement, or a heavily "solarized" picture with blown-out highlights and black shadows brings back the "acid rock" mood of the 70's. Photography is art. Not everyone likes Monet, not everyone gets Pollack. Shoot what makes you happy.