HDR Photography How To- "On Golden Pond"

Click for larger image.

First of all, I'd like to thank Tom aka Fishing Guy, from Kent Ohio, and Heather of the Hills, for inspiring me borrow the original "On Golden Pond" film from the library. I was explaining that I'd never seen a loon at Little Pond, Maine, and Tom was surprised, since the movie "On Golden Pond" portrays them as a regular sight and sound for the Thayers. Not so for Little Pond- I just don't think it is big enough to support loons.

Getting back to the movie- Megan and I watched it, and although it is a bit dated, a bit slow, and a bit cheesy- it was really worth our time. The movie does a superb job of illustrating what the lake life is like in Maine- idyllic.

Now, onto how I created the picture above. Obviously, this type of view is something that an ordinary camera cannot capture with a single image. However, using a photographic technique called high dynamic range photography, or HDR, we photographers can take multiple exposures of the same scene and merge them in a software called Photomatix. The resulting merged image can then be tone mapped, also using Photomatix, to allow the bright areas and the shadow areas of the image to be exposed as the eye would see them in nature.

Let's see how this works- here are the three images that went into making my On Golden Pond- Little Pond photograph-.




The three shots are not exactly impressive are they? One reason for this is that they're minimally processed RAW files, straight out of the camera. Photomatix, with a great deal of input from the user by adjusting many features with sliders and buttons, can really make magic.



Tom

P.S. I'll give 10 points, yes, 10 points, to the commenter that can correctly identify the scientific name of the deciduous tree prominently featured in the right hand portion of this image.