HDR IMAGE

High Dynamic Range Imaging (more often called HDRI or simply, HDR) is a process in which a greater dynamic range of light is captured throughout the lightest and darkest areas of an image.  HDR Photographs are generally created by shooting multiple photographs using exposure bracketing.

 

 I must admit I love this technique and however my style is some what unorthodox for many. I love the grittiness and vibrancy of colour this technique also allows an ordinary photo to be jazzed up just like doing up a sports car

Although I'm only just beginning my journey in mastering this fantastic way of bring out and beautifying the light that is already in the phot by tack to another level

here is one of my modest creations , like I said I have a lot to learn in thin method but definitely finding my way

 

Compared to original photo,

 

 

I Love the fact that if not enough light was available to get the shot I wanted from the camera, the option of HDR is there to manipulate the image using Photoshop which has built in HDR Plugin software the shot  bove a series of photos were taken on a tripod each varying the Aperture , then load them into HDR processing software which gave options to change Shadows , Tones, Highlights etc

The stock of photos used to create varied light ranges in the final HDR shot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Median Rendering

Median Rendering In this case involved filming a crowded scene to demonstrate how to make unwanted crowds disappear

If only the crowd I was filming in a casual manner and discreet, only knew that the purpose of the exercise was to make them disappear, some of them were getting quite anxious about a  camera pointed in there general direction, and giving me a nasty look straight through the lens, most unnerving,

maybe I should have wore a sign saying "I'm Photographing You , to make you disappear

Camera was set up at Civic Park in Newcastle NSW, ( On a rainy Day) and was taking photographs of Newcastle Library, The one that used to be hidden by our beautiful Figs that were cut down,

 also managing to capture crowds that walked by to eliminate them later in post production by a very clever and simple means in photo shop however in does take lots of images for the to work

the process involves a technique called Image Stacking

 

IMAGE STACKING

 

Create an image stack

For best results, images contained in an image stack should have the same dimensions and mostly similar content, such as a set of still images taken from a fixed viewpoint, or a series of frames from a stationary video camera. The content of your images should be similar enough to allow you to register or align them to other images in the set

1. Combine the separate images into one multi-layered image.

An image stack must contain at least two layers.

You can also combine images using a script (File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack).

2. Choose Select > All Layers.

Note:

To make the Background layer selectable with the All Layers command, you must first convert it to a regular layer.

3. Choose Edit > Auto-Align Layers and select Auto as the alignment option. If Auto does not create good registration of your layers, try the Reposition option.

4. Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.

5. Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Stack Mode and select a stack mode from the submenu.

• For noise reduction, use the Mean or Median plug ins.

• For removing objects from the image, use the Median plug in.

The output is a composite image the same size as the original image stack. You may need to experiment with different plug ins to get the best enhancement for a particular image.

To change the rendering effect, choose a different Stack Mode from the submenu. Stack rendering is not cumulative—each render effect operates on the original image data in the stack and replaces previous effects.

 

Median is just one of the plug ins that achieve a certain task, upon researcrch here is a list of what tasks do exactly after being converted to Smart Object

 

Stack modes

Stack modes operate on a per-channel basis only, and only on non-transparent pixels. For example, the Maximum mode returns the maximum red, green, and blue channel values for a pixel cross section and merges them into one composite pixel value in the rendered image.

Rendering plug-in name	Result	Comments
Entropy	entropy = - sum( (probability of value) * log2( probability of value) ) Probability of value = (number of occurrences of value) / (total number of non-transparent pixels)	The binary entropy (or zero order entropy) defines a lower bound on how many bits would be necessary to losslessly encode the information in a set.
Kurtosis	kurtosis = ( sum( (value - mean)4 ) over non-transparent pixels ) / ( ( number of non-transparent pixels - 1 ) * (standard deviation)4 ).	A measure of peakedness or flatness compared to a normal distribution. The kurtosis for a standard normal distribution is 3.0. Kurtosis greater than 3 indicates a peaked distribution, and kurtosis less than 3 indicates a flat distribution (compared to a normal distribution).
Maximum	The maximum channel values for all non-transparent pixels
Mean	The mean channel values for all non-transparent pixels	Effective for noise reduction
Median	The median channel values for all non-transparent pixels	Effective for noise reduction and removal of unwanted content from the image
Minimum	The minimum channel values for all non-transparent pixels
Range	Maximum minus the minimum of the non-transparent pixel values
Skewness	skewness = (sum( (value - mean)3 ) over non-transparent pixels ) / ( ( number of non-transparent pixels - 1 ) * (standard deviation)3 )	Skewness is a measure of symmetry or asymmetry around the statistical mean
Standard Deviation	standard deviation = Square Root(variance)
Summation	The sum channel values for all non-transparent pixels
Variance	variance = (sum( (value-mean)2 ) over non-transparent pixels ) / ( number of non-transparent pixels - 1)

You can use the Statistics script to automate creating and rendering an image stack.

1.Choose File > Scripts > Statistics.

2.Choose a stack mode from the Choose Stack Mode menu.

3.Apply the stack mode to currently open files, or browse to select a folder or individual files.

Files you select are listed in the dialog box.

4.If desired, select Attempt To Automatically Align Source Images (equivalent to choosing Edit > Auto-Align Layers). Then click OK.

Photoshop combines the multiple images into a single multilayered image, converts the layers into a Smart Object, and applies the selected stack mode.

Just some useful added information added to you on your toes

Here are some of the shots with crowd  show below

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see the crowd has disappeared that were walking past, the To remaining people sitting down in the park demonstrates that , becasuse these people were not moving  they have remained in photo

 

 

 

Displacement Mapping

Had a lot of fun with this one and came up with one and came up wth some interesting results based on textures mapped around a portrait of my face,

Being a fan of Abstract, Surreal, and any chance to manipulate a figure even if its me gave me great joy

This texture will be mapped on a portrait of my face

First selected  channel with the best contrast

which in Skin tones always happens to be Blue

Then we duplicate the channel

This bring up duplicate channel Dialog box and selected new for document option

apply the Median filter to displacement map image

apply the Gaussian blur filter

 

 Convert image to Grayscale and save as a psd file

Then selected face on photo

Saved the selection

to select and save selection

when selecting after drawing around the face with selected tool

to select the eyes hold own alt o option in windows and selection automatically jumps to negative so eyes can be cut out

Saved the selection

which allows easily loading

now we copied the texture photo over original image

opened the photo using as texture

made sure texture layer was selected by clicking inside document window

then duplicated layer, named copied layer texture

loaded the selection

from the selection we saved earlier added a layer mask

changed the blend mode to Overlay

then selected the texture layer unlinked the layer from layer mask

applied displacement filter

selected displacement map portrait we created earlier

 and here are some iv had fun with that have been created ealier

 

 

 

 

Because of my attraction to photo manipulation this method will prove handy in my methods and hope to develop my own style, I find this the most reward as I've always just loved to doodle with graphics

 here playing with more specific areas

Brick Lips, I was surprised how weird this made me look , but I swear, I not wearing Lippy nor am I a Cross dresser lol







Focus stacking

I have always found Close Up Photography , very fascinating but never been in inspired enough go an buy a Macro lenses. because of costs and weighing up how much use I might actually get out of it,

Focus Stacking I found to be a good introduction to close up and detail photography before outlaying a great deal of money first.

In this exercise many subjects were photographed but none made the grade as interesting subjects go until photographed the Watch, it been done so many times before but still am amazed at the amount of detail bought out by this procedure

When to Use Focus Stacking

When a photographer requires more depth of field, they typically just increase the f-stop setting of their camera lens. While this is a simple and effective technique, choosing a higher f-stop also has its disadvantages. It increases the necessary exposure time, and in extreme cases, it can also reduce image sharpness due to diffraction. Furthermore, one might desire a greater depth of field than a particular lens's maximum f-stop is able to provide. Specific example scenarios may include:

 In This case the watch was laid upon the background , Being a brown fabric Lounge, matching the gold in the watch madde nice composition,

A Tripod was set up to take image of the watch at different focus points one being very slightly different from the next,

Focus stacking works in three general stages:

1. Capture

 

2. Align

 

3. Merge

1. . If the subject is composed of only a few distinct layers (such as the sphere example above), then this can be performed manually using layer masks. Otherwise Adobe Photoshop CS4+ or specialized software packages such as Helicon Focus, TuFuse or CombineZM are required.
2. 1. Several photos are taken by gradually incrementing the focusing distance across the subject. The number of separate photos ranges from a couple (for two distinct layers of subject matter) to as many as dozens (for expansive scenes). In general, moving subject matter should be avoided.
   2. These photos are then aligned so that their content is overlaid pixel by pixel. This step is necessary even when using a tripod, since changing the focusing distance always causes misalignment (more on this later).
   3. A composite image is then created based on the sharpest regions from each of these separate photos. If the subject is composed of only a few distinct layers (such as the sphere example above), then this can be performed manually using layer masks. 
    I Began by taking Several photos gradually incrementing the focusing distance across the subject. The number of separate photos ranged from a couple (for two distinct layers of subject matter) to as many as dozens (for expansive scenes).  as I has learned In general, moving subject matter should be avoided.
   2.These photos were then aligned so that their content is overlaid pixel by pixel. This step is necessary even when using a tripod, since changing the focusing distance caused misalignment
   3.A composite image is then created based on the sharpest regions from each of these separate photos
3. The finished result

 

 

Some of the different focal plane that mad up the shot

 

 

Best Friend

The Best friend exercise, where I was first introduced to some Photoshop magic.

called Best Friend because our mission was to place  a self portrait and merge with the photo of a celebrity bringing the two image together to form one photo.

In this case, my friend was a photo of Iain Hewitson celebrity cook and a photo of myself with some kitchen props,

having to work ne my own , it took a while to get the best shot as was introduced by this project to the self timer and endless getting the shot I was happy. Lucky for me I have lots of patients here is the finished result 

 

This exercise was an introduction the  world of Photo Manipulation, to which as a result has given me an interest in furthering my career in this field, 

Mutiple Exposure

Multiple Exposure is like a lucky dip creating surprising special effects with the never ending possibilities, with the addition of Layers and masks with Blending Options that can be manipulated, wrapped between layers. theirs no limit to what you can create except your own imagination, the image below was manipulated using a Nikon D5100 and photos from Honeysuckle Newcastle,
I quite often find myself DOODLING with images coming up with endless kaleidoscopic results, The res no limit to the images that can be used for Album Covers , Book Covers.
I find With Multiple Exposures it is possible and quite a lot of fun to build a Self Portrait not necessarily with a photo of your self but by using Exposures Multiple Exposures describing yourself by the Effects it create , the color etc.

 

 This Multiple Exposure describes me as well a Photo being that I come from a Boilermaking Welder Background and favorite colors are Purple and Blues as they are Soothing cooling which i also love  use in in my paintings

This is the image from which a Multi Exposure Resulted

Ghostly Composition

This ghostly composition  gives great practice in understanding in the use of masking and layers

On practice can we gain a firm understanding of the use of Masking , Layers and even blending options and Opacity Changes can  take a rather dull photo into the world of of the super natural and could be straight from the cover of a Stephen King Novel, 

prctice makes perfect and this is a fun way to master the many uses of masking and layering , which in many cases when fully understood can enhance photos tremendously