Tag: HDR

Shooting in Low Light with the iPhone

October 30, 2012

Roger Waters - The Wall

 

This is a shot I took during The Wall concert up here in Seattle.  My girlfriend, a big Pink Floyd fan and I went to the concert and were lucky enough to get seated on the floor about 20 rows from the stage.  I took this with my iPhone 4S not expecting it to turn out, but with a steady hand and the HDR feature turned on, I think it came out fairly well.  Though I’m happy with the snap, it was very noisy as can be expected with such a small sensor and shooting in the dark.  I did run this through Topaz DeNoise in Photoshop before I posted it here to reduce some of the noise, nothing else was done to the photo.  Not bad for a photo to post to the web.

Remember, you don’t always need the top of the line photography equipment to get a great shot.

Great concert, by the way.

Shoot with the Camera You Have

October 18, 2012

I tend to carry different cameras at different times depending on what I’m doing.  I consider my iPhone 4S a camera too.  I currently have 4 cameras; a Nikon D700, Nikon D200, Fuji x100 and a Panasonic LX3.  The LX3 used to be the camera I carried most often, but now that I have the x100, I tend to take that camera with me, but I always have my phone.  I do get lazy and in a hurry and I don’t always take a camera and sometimes I neglect to remember that my iPhone is also a camera.  I have many apps on my iPhone including timelapse, HDR and photo editing among other photographic related tools.  The camera doesn’t have the resolution of  a DSLR, but it’s not bad and probably compares to a point and shoot from a few years ago.  I work on the 19th floor of an office building and there are some amazing views.  Last night the sun was setting, reflecting off the lake and strongly illuminating some buildings that I thought was interesting.  I had wished I had my x100 with me, but all I had was my iPhone, I wasn’t sure the iPhone could capture  exposure range, but I gave it a try.  I ran the Pro HDR app and then applied one of the black and white filters.  I’m very happy with the result.  It’s nothing that’s going to win any awards and I’m sure it probably isn’t a print candidate, but it looks great on the web.

Here is the image.

I like the reflections, hard light and resulting contrast.  I think the image turned out well especially for a camera phone.  My lessons from this experience?  Use the camera you have with you and shoot every day.

 

Guest Post – Linda I’Anson

February 8, 20120 Comments

Guest post by Linda I’Anson. Linda’s avid photography interests include street photography, landscapes and travel photography.

My Yosemite Visit
El CapitainEvery time I’m in the Fresno area I make Yosemite a mandatory stop before going home. I used to hate this place. I thought it was overrated and was so sick of hearing about Ansel Adams this Ansel Adams that.

Coming to Yosemite in the winter changed my mind. Freshly fallen snow on the trees and mountains is breathtakingly beautiful. The crowds are gone and the wildlife are plentiful, even near the roads.

Yosemite is a two hour drive east from Fresno. You take Route 41 for the first hour to the park entrance. Then another hour to get to the meat and potatoes of the park. When you come out from the park’s tunnel you are struck in the face with the most grand awesome landscape in the world.

I have been coming to Yosemite 4-5 times a year now. Typically, the two parking lots for Tunnel View are full. This last weekend there were about 3 cars in the parking lot. And when I left the Park, zero! Unfortunately, this winter has been particularly warm and dry. I was hoping to get a shot of tufts of grass in the snow and the the stream iced over.

The easiest thing to do is park the car along the north or south roads, walk off into the woods, and you will find heaps of photographic opportunities. Every time I go, I find something new. I won’t go hiking in the mountains unless my husband joins me (to carry all my gear).

I barely made it for sunset at Valley View. When I arrived, a Japanese photography workshop was there. Thankfully, they didn’t go to my favorite tripod spot, to the right, at the base of a fallen tree trunk. But quite a few in the group were smoking and I had to yell at them in my best Japanese. SMOKING IN YOSEMITE???? Anyway, the sunset was brilliant. The sun hit the face of El Capitan in a gorgeous orange glow. Another photographer showed up afterwards and I told him he missed out on the most glorious sunset. I then showed him what I shot. Lesson learned the hard way, show up on time! My husband is laughing at me right now, as he reads this because I’m not a morning person and hate waking up for sunrise shots. He is always chastising me for not being a “true” photographer and calls me the “lazy faux-tographer”. Continue Reading »

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