HDR photography in Venice

In photography, "dynamic range" essentially refers to the range of brightness and darkness in an image. Take an indoor picture of a person standing by a window on a sunny day. The picture you get either has the person looking perfectly exposed and the window overexposed and "blown out", or the window is perfectly exposed and the person in way underexposed and dark. I'll bet you have dozens of these shots in a shoebox less than 100 feet away.

The problem is the limited dynamic range of film or a digital camera's image sensor. In contrast, our eyes, have an ability to see an astounding range of lights and darks. And that's where so many casual photographers go wrong. When they trip the shutter, they expect to get back what their eye saw. Problem is there eye is usually seeing much, much more in the way of dynamic range than their cameras can record.

When I was in Venice in July, I experimented with a relatively new form of imaging called HDR (high dynamic range) photography. The basic concept is simple: take a series of shots of a scene at varying levels of lightness and darkness, then combine them together. There's a wonderful program called Photomatix that radically simplifies the process and works ideally with digital cameras.

My first go at HDR photography was inside the place we rented in Venice last July. The apartment was amazing. Venetian antiques. Six windows that overlooked  Campo San Vidal, the Franchetti and the Accademia bridge. A bedroom that looked on out onto the Canal Grande. A sweet terrace, Murano chandeliers (if you like that sort of thing), great kitchen, air condo. Perfect.

Here are 4 HDR images of the apartment. It seemed like a good application of the technique because the magic of the place was both indoors and outdoors, and conventional photography would totally miss this context.

Here's our bedroom. You see a hint of the Accademia bridge and a palazzo across the Canal Grande.

Here's a shot in the living room, with the Palazzo Cavali Franchetti in the background, across Campo San Vidal. (This is the first shot I ever made with the HDR method ... darkish but has a nice mood.

Here's the room my 4 year old son, Miles got. It's a space where the HDR technique shines. The room is rather dark, as it is covered with that shiny green fabric. It's mainly lit by a single light bulb and any natural light. This is a scene that would have a huge amount of pure black in the shadows. With HDR imaging, however, literally every corner of the room has detail   -- even under the stool.

Here's another one, looking from the study onto the terrace (and the Dutch consulate). That's a cool print of Joseph Brodsky on the wall.

Comments

[Faith]

Totally awesome! Welcome back!

[linda]

Astonishing! Usually we can only see the entire picture by painting the scene- this is truly amazing and could make studio painting more "of the moment"..Pictures (digital) taken while in venice have left too much to inaccurate memory for studio work- Thanks for this awesome tip!

[Kurt]

Is this the Palazzo Barbaro?

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I wish!

See today's post.

[Garry Platt]

If when taking photographs you shoot in RAW then one photograph is suffecient in many cases to undertake HDR Tone mapping. The following web site explains the process: http://petemc.net/hdr-guide/

And this link provides some excellent advice on shooting HDR:

http://www.popphoto.com/howto/3046/tips-for-shooting-hdr.html

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quite right, Garry. My experiments were using JPEGs. Most folks who are non pro would probably use JPEGs too. I'm getting ready to do it with RAW.
Norman

[Venedig Blog]

It's definitely not the Barbaro.

[Garry Platt]

I came across this concerning raw processing and tone blending.

"Tutorial....

Open a RAW picture and optimize the exposure for the sky, complete your RAW adjustments for exposure, sharpness, contrast, whatever you want from the RAW editor. When the picture drops into the full editor, make sure the color space mode is 8 bit and save it as "SKY." and close the file.

Open the same RAW original and use the "same as previous" setting in the raw editor for exposure. This will take you to where the last picture was. Now adjust the exposure for the ground. When you are happy drop into the full editor and change the color space mode to 8 bit. This will be the GROUND picture. You can save it with that name, but it is just one less step to just leave the file open.

Open the picture saved as SKY. Select all and copy. Close that file. Change back to the GROUND picture in the edior. Use Edit, Paste. You should now have two layers, in the same picture. One for the sky, one for the ground.

Now it is just as simple as erasing (I recommend a soft edged brush for blending) the top layer to show through what is on the bottom layer.

A better approach for the blending is to use a layer mask. Insert a levels adjustment layer between the GROUND and SKY layers. Select the top layer and use Layer, Group with Previous. Now select the levels adjustment layer again and paint on the levels mask with a black brush it will remove the top layer, paint with a white brush to put it back.

If you have questions, post back... Here's an example I put together for sharpening with a mask, much of the same principle applies. I used the layer mask to show the sharpened ram over the unsharpened background on the bottom layer.

http://www.pbase.com/citylights/image/50241012

That example shows two different ways to mask, the left layer set is masking with a blank layer, the right layer set is masking with a levels adjustment layer like I described for you.

Good Luck!

Oh, heres a link to a luminos landscapes aritcle on blending.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/digital-blending.shtml "

[nan]

Norman, I'm delighted to learn about HDR and PhotoMatrix. Who knew that browsing a Venice blog would also augment my (amateur) photography knowledge!

tanti saluti,
nan

[tracie b]

hey, nice house :)

[Baldwin W Walker]

I too would like to learn more about HDR.

[mauro cordioli]

Hi! if you like Venice HDR photos
that is one I have taken the 12ndJune2007
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cordioli/544733289/

[Steve C.]

I'm very interested in geting more info concerning the place you rented. (The one you took the HDR photos of) Can you please tell me who to contact about renting it? Address? Price?
Thanks!

[JoAnn]

I'd also love to know the contact information on the beautiful apartment you rented.
grazie

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Looks as though the company that rented it is out of business, alas.

N.