An HDR Field Trip in Black & White : Part Two ~ The Return

We have finally returned from our field trip, and although the turnout was not what I had hoped for, we still had a great time. Regarding the incident on the bus involving the flame thrower and photos of various boy bands, well, we will just keep that to ourselves.

I would like to thank Michael White from RoryMad Studios and Lani Khong of Lani Khong Photography for their contribution and feedback. I learned a few things from this experience, and I hope those involved did as well.

My first upload was an electrical tower in a corn field, which I was not completely happy with. As I studied the photo, it became clear that it was too “thin” for lack of a better word.

I needed something with substance which led to my second upload. I chose a patch of flowers outside my home that were bunched together giving the photo some depth and substance. As someone with a graphic design background, I compared the two photos to typography. To effectively design the headline of a newsletter a heavy bold font is needed for readability purposes.

To analogize further, I can “read” the flowers clearly, they are big and bold, however, the tower makes me squint and reach for my glasses.

Bryan used Photomatix for the HDR / Adobe Lightroom 2.7 and  Silver Effects Pro for the black & white treatment

Lani Khong uploaded the next set of photos and made a very important discovery regarding texture. She wrote, “As I looked through other photographers HDR photos I learned that shooting texture adds more interest to the image. This is my first attempt, called Addison Park but for this particular image too much texture looks too busy in black and white.”

Lani also uploaded two other photos called “Lake” and “Chill” respectively, which are shown below. I think these photos came out decent for someone just learning black & white HDR. Remember, this trip was to “experiment” with different techniques, so perfection was not part of the equation; thoughts and ideas were the goal of these photos.

Lani used Photomatix to create the HDR and Adobe Photoshop for the black & white treatment.

Michael White uploaded the next photo, which was very impressive, especially since it was hand held. He took five shots at various exposures and processed the images in Photoshop CS5’s new HDR Pro feature. I especially love how the clouds seem to “pop” out of the photo. Michael must have very steady hands!

There are two goals that I wanted to accomplish with this experiment, the first was to invite a handful of photographers that were new to HDR (black & white HDR to be more specific) to join my Flickr pool so we could share struggles, thoughts, and help each other become better with HDR. I did accomplish this, albeit on a small scale, however, it was accomplished.

My second goal involves the article you are currently reading. I would like critiques on the above photos from readers who have been shooting black & white HDR and consider themselves professionals or extremely enthusiastic hobbyists at the very least.

I would encourage you to share your thoughts on technique, software, preparation, etc. Please try to be as brief as possible, and above all “critique with class.”

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To see more from Michael and Lani, whom I think are exceptional photographers, please visit the links below:

Lani Khong

Lani Khong Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook

Michael White

RoryMad Studios | Twitter | Facebook