Tag: HDR

Before & After Updates

Before & After Updates

Amongst everything else, I have managed to start an update to one the only part of my website that didn’t get an overhall, namely the HDR before and after section.

I wanted to try and and more info in the HDR section explaining what it is and also how I have created some of my HDR images. I also though wanted to show the before and afters of pseudo HDRs and Topaz enhance images.

So as a start, I have removed the old before and after pages and just upload 1 initial pages each will be a template for the rest of them.

It shows an image from 2004, when I visited la Alhambra in Spain. This was just a normal jpeg, that I turn into an ‘HDR’

You can see the ‘How I did it’ here: First Before and After Page

A Break in the Storms

A Break in the Storms

As I mentioned in my last post, we recently spent a couple of days on the Isle of Wight. As we all know, the weather has been very stormy recently and it was a bit hit and miss as whether we could get across and what sort of weather we would get.

Well, as with most of our trips there, we where lucky and had a few days of non stormy weather and even some sunshine.
On the first day we got down on to Bembridge beach. I always wonder just how many beach huts are still there each time we go.

This one look liked it had suvived intact, although getting to it might be a problem!




Day two took us in search of dinosaur bones on the southern coastline. I’d done some research into which of the beaches & bays would be good to find them on and it was a place I’d never been to before. Getting there was another issue though! The storms had caused the undercliff road to fall away, which meant a bit of a detour, up a very steep road! An hour after setting off we got to the narrow lane to take us to the car park at the very end, but blocking this single track lane, was a lorry doing some work on someones garden. This made it totally impassable! Giving up on that, I thought I’d try a couple of the Chines along the military road.

This is what we found




So we gave in and went to a fossil shop in Yarmouth. At least I got that photo from the cliff edge being buffetted by the wind. I was pleased with the result!

Day three, took as to the Dinosaur Isle Museum and then on to Havenstreet. That was closed as they were doing maintanance work on the tracks, even though it was half term. We were still allowed in to look around though.




That evening, we headed back to Bembridge beach in the hope of a bit of a sunset. I was quite lucky and got a couple of shots like this.



So, we had ok weather, but our plans were thawted a little by what had gone before.

More HDR photos from the Isle of Wight can be viewed here Isle of Wight HDR

A Short Break

A Short Break

We had a short break on the Isle of Wight. We visit there once or twice a year, but this time was the first time that our youngest was walking around on his own, so he throughly enjoyed exploring all the places we visited.

I had wanted to visit some of the southern coastlines to get some interesting shots with rock in the foreground and long exposured water, but as with most things, time conspired against us.

So we I had to settle for the scenery where we were visiting, or where we were passing. As usual with the island, it didn’t disappoint.

Robin Hill adventure park was great for kids, but it was also great for scenery!

I had wanted to try some more vertorama photography (2 or more photos, vertical panorama), so I tried it out on a couple of occassions. This is a view at Robin Hill


View at Robin Hill

Another view that is great is Brading Down, so I tried the another vertorama


View from Brading Down

I have now created a few of these, so I am going to create a Vertorama section to the website, under Creative

Rural Life Centre

Rural Life Centre

After dong the Floral Fringe Fair on Saturday, with our friends from Home Front History, on Sunday we took the kids to the Rural Life Centre.

They had an event on ‘Days Gone By’ where they had lots of old things! We saw Steam Rollers, mini steam driven merry-go-rounds, steam engines as well as a steam train ride and a tractor ride to a nearby milking farm.

Amongst the steam engines and old cars was this gem. An large American Truck.
American Truck

The kids loved the day out and it was all very enjoyable.

The above image is a bracketed HDR image from 3 RAW files and processed in Photomatix v4

1st Vertorama

1st Vertorama

I finally managed to process my 1st ever vertorama! Its of Freshwater Bay on the Isle of Wight

A vertorama is a a panaromic photo but it is made up from vertical images instead of landscape format. This creates a large square format photo, which I really think shows of the subject of the photos.

I took these photos back in 2010, so its taken a while to create this final version, but I think it was worth the wait! It’s made up of 3 vertical images, mannually alligned and blended together.

Freshwater Bay Vertorama

I then went on to create another of Brading Down. Now I have created these, I just need to take more photos to make more Vertoramas!!

Another Instagram’d HDR

Another Instagram’d HDR

When I went to the War & Peace show, I took many images. A few weeks ago I thought I’d try an experiment with one of the photos.

Firstly I’d created my HDR image, then I thought I’d send it to my phone and run it through Instagram. Instagram has some great filters, and its so easy to use, but it does have one major draw back. Your resulting image ends back being a lot smaller in resolution size. The final image is then only really good for web or printing small.

However the result was really good and even with the resolution being less then the original it is still good enough for coaster. Of course Instagram images are square too!

Here was the result

I posted it to Flickr, and it seemed to be instantly like.

Last week a created a second. I think I’ll create a set for use in my coasters.

 

War and Peace Show 2012

War and Peace Show 2012

I can’t believe its the War and Peace Show again. The year seems to have gone so quick.

I got some great images last year, so it was a bit of a challenge to try and match it.  Although I didn’t take as many photos, I think I managed it.  I seem to have lots to still work up.

Here’s a few to start with

Russian T34 Tank

Battle Event

Ahh, Venice…

Ahh, Venice…

Ahh, Venice
How I miss you,
Your crumbing walls,
Your vivid colours,
Canals so green,
Buildings so bright,
Bridges to islands,
Islands to bridges,
Alleyways to squares
and doors to nowhere.*

* (C) Lee Orchard

Still Needed a Goodwood Fix!

Still Needed a Goodwood Fix!

As I couldn’t get to Goodwood this year, I needed a goodwood fix!  So I raided the archives and found this.  I was very dark to start with, so I put it through photomatix, then made it black and I.  I like the result!

Saab Rally

Look into my Eyes…

Look into my Eyes…

I’ve been going through old photos again!

A while back I saw an image taken at Sedlec Ossaury (The Church of Bones) in the Czech Republic that was processed in black and white and I thought it really suited the topic.

So, I thought I’d try a similar process on one of my photos.

Here is the result!

Skull @ Sedlec Ossuary

Please let me know what you think

The Vyne

The Vyne

Last week we visited The Vyne in Basingstoke.

Its quite a nice place, with a river running through it and a woodland walk. The house was interesting, but what took my interest was the summer house.

I spent a bit of time taking a few shots, but didn’t really get what I was hoping for. So, I did a bit more processing and played with the colours a bit.

It was a bit of fun, and of course looks nothing like the colours when I took it, but I like the result.

The Summer House

New Before & After Section

New Before & After Section

After updating my HDR section of the website and learning lots of new things, I decide then to go and change the before and after section to make it a bit better!

So, I had to decode what I have done, then fix and issue to remove with all the hacks I’d put in for IE (as it doesnt work like other browsers) and tidy up the code.

It was all then ready to put in the new feature.

This of course caused more problems as coding does, but I managed to work it all out.

This is the new snazzy before and after function. Click on the photo to go to the gallery!

Before & After Gallery

Let me know what you think.  It surprising how much detail it bring out in some photos.

Seeing the Potential

Seeing the Potential

When I took this photo, I saw the potential in it.  The problem was, the image out of the camera just didn’t do it justice.


So after straightening it, turning the jpegs into tiffs and putting them in photomatix,  I then made it black and white and this was the result.  The potential I saw was revealed!