09-08-2010

Nik HDR Efex Pro Hobbyist Review Part 1

Calm After the Storm

I’m always looking for a better way when it comes to HDR processing. The techniques and tools available continue to expand at a feverish pace in the marketplace. For the past few months, I’ve been evaluating Photomatix Pro 4 Beta and the new HDR Pro feature in CS5. Photomatix Pro 4 and CS5 both have their strong points and weaknesses. CS5 has awesome low noise but the results are flat. Photomatix Pro Beta 4 continues to produce vibrant HDRs but produces a ton of noise even with new built-in noise canceling. In recent weeks, Nik Software started sharing sneak peaks of their upcoming HDR Efex Pro product.

I’ve recently had the great pleasure to beta test Nik HDR Efex Pro beta! I’m happy to report it appears to be the real deal and lives up to the industry hype. Nik has a done a great job creating a ton of buzz regarding HDR Efex Pro. I’ve also seen several popular Pros start to talk about HDR Efex Pro which I’m always skeptical with a new product until I can get some hands on experience. I can vouch from a hobbyist perspective, this product is going to level the playing field in HDR processing. The interface is very intuitive and the results are stunning!

Highlights:

  • Lightroom integration is killer and greatly speeds up my HDR processing workflow.
  • Custom sliders and control points are incredibly powerful and very easy to use.
  • Alignment performance rivals the results of CS5 and toasts what I get from Photomatix.
  • HDR processing speed of Nik HDR Efex Pro rivals that of Photomatix and blows doors off CS5.

Downfalls:

  • Lack of built in noise canceling; however, I’ve found that the noise is less then Photomatix but more then what I get with CS5 and easily cleaned up with built-in noise canceling in Lightroom 3.
  • Lack of batch processing. Not a show stopped for me as I rarely have need to processes HDRs in bulk.

End of the day, even the best designed interface and fastest product are not enough because its the final image that counts and Nik HDR Efex Pro delivers! I can’t wait for the final product not only to use it but to see the results from fellow HDR enthusiasts. I highly recommend any HDR hobbyist to take a serious look at Nik HDR Efex Pro when its released in October!

In the meantime, above is a 9 image HDR that I captured using my Promote Control advanced shutter release and processed with the beta of Nik HDR Efex Pro.

Photo 177 of 365 photo project.

Canon 7D
Canon 24-105mm @40mm
ISO 400, f/11.0
9 Image HDR

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Where are the redwoods? » Unified Photography

[...] customization during the HDR render process. I’ll be posting Part 2 of my ongoing Nik HDR Efex Pro review in the near future along with a new HDR workflow [...]

09-06-2010

Precision Design Spudz Microfiber Cleaning Cloth Review

I’ve gone through dozens of lens cloths but I almost always misplaced them and without fail when needed they would be totally lost. Then I discovered my favorite lens cloth the Precision Design Spudz Microfiber Cleaning Cloth. The beauty of the Precision Design Cleaning Cloth is its built-in clip which can be easily attached to a retractable security badge clip. When I’m out in the field, I’ll attach the clip and cleaning cloth to my belt so its always at arms reach and securely attached thus (knock on wood) I’ve yet to loose it! It was a life saver last weekend while shooting in the blowing sands of the Sleeping Bear Dunes. I highly recommend adding this one to any photographers gear list!

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09-05-2010

iPhone HDR Tutorial

The exciting world of High Dynamic Range aka “HDR” photography is now a standard feature on the Apple iPhone starting with iOS 4.1. Steve Jobs stated during the September 2010 Keynote “for some photos its (HDR) is pretty great” < I couldn’t agree more!!! I’ve been experimenting with HDR over the past year when a few iPhone HDR apps showed up such as Pro HDR and True HDR. The basic concept of the HDR apps is to leverage the exposure selection feature within the iPhone 3GS and 4 by taking two images: one darker image and one lighter image. This is accomplished by selecting an exposure point in a dark area of the image for the first image; select a lighter area of the image in the second exposure; then merge the two images together into a final HDR result.

The new HDR feature built into iOS 4.1 is similar to the 3rd party HDR apps; however, Apple focused on keeping it simple with only one option of turning on or off the HDR feature. When the HDR feature is on, the iPhone will automatically take two images during a photo capture and it will automatically generate a composite HDR image. By default, the iPhone will save both the non HDR and HDR images. There are no post HDR customization sliders within the native iPhone HDR feature to adjust saturation, brightness, etc thus selecting a good exposure point within the image before capturing is critical to get a good result.

I’m delighted to see Apple bringing HDR to the mainstream by making it a standard feature; however, the new native HDR feature falls short when compared to the more advanced 3rd party apps such as Pro HDR and True HDR. Nevertheless, the new native HDR will feature will open endless creative HDR adventures to a whole new audience of users and I can’t wait to see the results! Below are some example results with some tips when using the 3rd party apps and/or new native HDR feature.

Here is an example of an image captured and processed with the Pro HDR app on an iPhone 4:

Darker Image

Lighter Image

HDR Result

The HDR result is created by merging the details from the darker and lighter images which preserves the highlights and shadows that otherwise would not have been possible to capture in a single image. Depending on where you select the exposure points for the darker and lighter image will greatly impact the final result. I’ve found it best to pick an exposure point on the edges of the bright and darker areas. This helps balance out the highlights and shadows which results in a much more natural looking HDR result.

Here is an example of an image capture and processed with the native HDR feature on an iPhone 4 running iOS 4.1:

Original Non HDR image

HDR Result

In the above image, I just used the default center point for the exposure. It did a good job balancing out the exposure between the bright sky and dark trees.

iPhone HDR Selection

To bring out more details in the trees, I selected an exposure area in the darker “shadows” area; however, relatively close to the bright area.

Alternate HDR Result

As you can see, by selecting a different exposure area in the scene will dramatically change the HDR result which is an even bigger deal with the native HDR app because it does not have the post HDR adjustment slides that are available in the 3rd party apps. In a nutshell, the best advice I can give is to take a couple HDR image captures using different exposure points and hopefully one of them will turn out with your desired results.

Here are some more examples of HDRs taken on the iPhone over the past few months:

Traverse Bay Sunset

Tahquamenon Lower Falls

Chicago Navy Pier

Chicago Skyline

Meadowbrook Hall Garden

Posted in Blog, HDR Tutorials

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My Top 5 Photography Apps | Ben Neumann Photography Blog

[...] but this one is my fav. My friend Ken Snyder the “HDR Guy” has written a post about it here. Take a look to learn more about HDR iPhone Photography. You can pick this app up for [...]

unifiedphoto

Thank you for the kind feedback!

Ken

Sweln

Impressive to see how you manage to get good HDR even with an iPhone!

09-02-2010

Long Exposure HDR Tutorial

In this HDR tutorial, I’m going to share the process I used to capture a recent Long Exposure HDR of the Chicago Nighttime Skyline. It was a challenging yet very fun shoot! I’m also going to try sharing my processing workflow via a video instead of a bunch of screenshots. I hope you enjoy it!

Final Image

Chicago Nighttime Skyline in HDR

Shot Setup

The image was capture from observation deck in top of John Hancock building in downtown Chicago. The building doesn’t allow tripods so I left my trusted Induro tripod behind and intended to use my Joby Gorillapod. The Joby is steady and small thus I was hopeful it wouldn’t catch the attention of security. Unfortunately, I forgot to remove the Induro tripod mount from the bottom of my camera so I was forced to improvise. The next best thing available was my Kata photo bag. I set the bag on the floor and positioned my Canon 7D camera with the camera lens pushed tight as possible to the glass window.

Backpack Tripod

On the flip side, I thankfully remembered to bring my polarizing filter which I adjusted by rotating to remove most of the reflections on the glass. Next, I setup to take the HDR bracketed series of images with my Promote Control advanced shutter release cable. First, I set the camera in Av mode to set my focus and take a meter reading of what my normal exposure would be in the series of bracketed images which resulted in a setting of f8 at 30 seconds. Without the Promote Control device, this would be a show stopper for an HDR bracketed series since Canon cameras will not shoot longer then a 30 second image in a bracketed series. The Promote Control gets around this huge limitation in Canon DSLRs by supporting the ability to shoot the bracketed series in Bulb mode. Since it was so dark, I programmed the Promote Control to take 5 images with 1 stop between and set the normal exposure to 30 seconds which resulted in a bracketed image range of 9sec to 121sec between the first and final fifth image. Then I flipped the camera into Bulb mode and pressed ‘start’ on the the Promote Control to initiate capturing the bracketing series which uses both a USB and shutter cable to control the camera. On the camera settings side, I setup the camera with auto whitebalance, evaluative metering and I switched into manual focus before setting the camera in Bulb mode.

HDR Tools Used

I used the following tools to process the image:

  • Adobe Lightroom
  • Photomatix Pro 4.0 Beta
  • Adobe Photoshop CS5
  • Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0

HDR Processing Tutorial

In this video, I’m going to walk through the HDR processing workflow that I used for this image.

Posted in Blog, HDR Tutorials

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Freddy Ng

Dear Ken,
Great DOF at F/8.
May I know where and how you determine your point of focus?
Freddy

Ruel

Nice work again Ken, this is awesome, I live in Chicago and always want to take this kind of image. Thanks for this tutorial. It helps a lot. Keep on posting.

Wayne in NC

Thanks for the informative tutorial. It will help me work through issues in the future. Low volume issue easily solved by using ear buds. Just start at a real low setting and adjust up.

Renny

Thank you for the tutorial on the beautiful hdr shot. I wish the volume can be increase so I can actually hear what you are saying. I really appreciate it very much.
Aloha,
Renny

unifiedphoto

Thanks for visiting and the kind comment!

Ken

unifiedphoto

Thank you for the kind comment! Yes, I built my website on my own; however, I do have an Information Technology background so it was pretty easy for me to pick up. I think the easiest way to get a blog going with little technical knowledge is to use Google Blogger, Tumblr or Squarespace.

Ken

Photo tote

Hi, maybe I will be a little bit off topic here, however I had been reading your website and it looks outstanding!. I’m creating a website and attempting to make it interesting, however everytime I touch it I screw something up. Did you build and style the blogsite by yourself? Can anbody with very little knowleadge do it, as well as add updates without messing it up? well, info on here, extremely helpful.

Steve

Very informative on the various tools available

unifiedphoto

Thanks for the feedback Gavin! I'll try and 'boost' up the volume and repost :)

Gavin Adams

Thanks for the tutorial. One thing I noticed is that the audio is really low. I turned up the volume to 100% in both Vimeo and my MBP and still could barely hear it.

Appreciate the tips on cleaning up reflections, that's something I haven't done before in my HDR photos.

xdex

Thank you so much for this!

08-01-2010

Ultimate Auto Bracketing Solution for HDR Photographers

Promote Control

I recently discovered an exciting new advanced shutter release solution for HDR photographers. It’s called the Promote Control which will make life much easier and open doors for new creative opportunities for any serious Canon or Nikon HDR photographer. I’ve been evaluating it over the past few weeks and all I can say is it rocks! My first big test using it was during the recent Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk and I shared one of the 11 shot HDR images in a recent blog post. Here are a couple of feature highlights:

  • Totally eliminates the 3 shot auto bracket limit for Canon DSLR shooters so those of us with a fancy new Canon 50D, 7D or 5D Mark II are no longer filled with envy over our peers capturing 9 bracketed images on Nikon DSLRs. I’ve previously shared some quick tips auto bracketing work arounds for Canon shooters but the Promote Control solution hands down crushes any other auto bracketing trick / hack around.
  • Nikon shooters will be excited to know that you can even exceed the 9 auto bracketed shots max and even more exciting the Promote Control adds the ability to adjust how many steps between each bracketed shot in increments of .3 stop. 20+ bracketed shots is now a possibility for both Canon and Nikon shooters!
  • If the top two haven’t won you over, maybe this one will! The Promote Control has the ability on supported Nikon and Canon cameras to capture in Bulb mode! No longer are Canon and Nikon shooters limited to 30 seconds as the max length exposure in an auto bracketed series. This is huge for landscape or architecture HDR scenes where there is subtle detail lost when limited to 3o sec max bracketed exposures! I was holding out picking up this device until I saw the beta 1.8 firmware posted which now allows Canon 7D shooters to capture long exposures using the Bulb mode and it works great!

In my opinion, the $299.00 price tag and the extra gear to tug around are the only two major downfalls. I also found it kind of goes haywire when I forget to set the mode button to manual or bulb mode i.e. I left it in Av mode and it rattled off like 50 shots before I reached up and shut off the camera and control. It was also a little quirky to upgrade the firmware but I captured some screenshots of the process and will post in a future blog post. All in All it is an incredible solution that would be a great item on the gear list for any Canon or Nikon HDR shooter! On flip side, I still hope Nikon and Canon will wake up and take notice of the exploding HDR popularity and enhance the built-in HDR / auto bracketing capabilities. In the meantime, I’ll be using my favorite new HDR camera gadget!

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HDR Auto Bracketing Tip for Canon 7D DSLR Users » Unified Photography

[...] Update 8/1/2010: Ultimate Auto Bracketing Solution for HDR Photographers [...]

Michigan White Pine Star Trails » Unified Photography

[...] Haven, MI and setup for the shoot. Setting the Canon 5D Mark II camera up on my tripod with the Promote Control shutter release cable attached. I manually set the Canon 16-35mm lens focus to [...]

Nik HDR Efex Pro Tutorial – Moonscape Example » Unified Photography

[...] dialog box will pop up requesting how many stops between exposures. For this series, I used my Promote Control shutter release to capture 11 images at 1 stop between each [...]

Horseshoe River » Unified Photography

[...] wasn’t enough to capture the entire grand view so I decided to try a HDR panorama. I set the Promote Control to capture 7 bracketed images with 1 stop between exposures. Then I locked in the focus and [...]

Comparing Photomatix Pro 4 Beta vs CS5 HDR Pro vs Nik HDR Efex Pro Beta » Unified Photography

[...] the final HDR image. Example 1 is a 7 image HDR shot with a Canon 5D Mark II on a tripod and using Promote Control to auto bracket. Example 2 is a 3 image hand held HDR shot with a Canon 7D. Example 3 is a 9 image [...]

Nik HDR Efex Pro Hobbyist Review Part 1 » Unified Photography

[...] the meantime, above is a 9 image HDR that I captured using my Promote Control advanced shutter release and processed with the beta of Nik HDR Efex [...]