HDR: First Step

A friend told me about HDR this week.

The principle is the following:

1- Taking three RAW pics on a tripod of the same thing

2- AEB -2 / 0 / +2

3- Upload the 3 pics in a magic product [photomatix]

And magic, a new pic is born.

Photomatix: Bad. I’m sorry to have to say that, but it creates a lot of color artefact, spoiling your image.

I started thinking … the concept is wonderful. It can be used. But it should be used like all other image manipulations. Meaning via layers.

I read on a blog someone doing it using MERGE TO HDR in photoshop. For your information, photoshop displays the following message when you try to use it … “Quality will be lost; you should not use this feature” …something like that.

This is my first HDR pic. I did a very big mistake, which explained the poor quality. My ISO was set @ 640. I forgot to change it from my last photo shoot. It should be the lowest possible. 100 or even 50 if your camera allows you to do so.

You have to use the following layer in this order:

• Copy of the backdrop
• Layer +2 (overlay or light)
• Layer -2 (overlay)
• Layer 0 (which is the perfect exposure)

Do not hesitate to play with the blending.

Why do I copy the original pic on top of the other layer? To reveal only the interesting color of the HDR and keep the quality of the original pic.

(of course, this pic is a bad example since I was using the ISO640!!!)

But the concept is here …

Cheers,

Thanks Photoshop…

My previous two last posts (6 pictures about Thaipusam) have been taken with around 1 million people around me.

So how come there is no one around this woman?

I guess I used only 0.5% of the photoshop features to clean it up. This was the original pic …

Cheers,

The faces of Thaipusam

We woke up at 2:00am this morning, Sunday 8th of Feb 2009 and left for Batu Cave [Malaysia] to try to get nice shots of the Thaipusam festival. We came back at 6:00am, slept a bit and started to post-process the pics at 10:00am.

First results…

I will process more after lunch,

Cheers

Post-process a raw chicken

Hi,

I wanted to post-process my friend’s pics this morning when I opened by mistake a very old folder. And suddenly appeared … A Chicken!

No much to say about the pic, except it has been taken and abandoned by the photographer, which had absolutely no knowledge in photoshop at the time the picture has been taken.

Well, things have changed, and I decided to cook my raw chicken with an image adjustment auto, a gaussian blur, a multiply and finished by adding to the recipe a sharpening.

All these made this old pic a bit more tasty.

Cheers

Post-processed

Original pic

Capturing the first moment

Hello,

Nowadays, pregnancy includes surfing. Not with a board, but more with a mouse.

The future mum and dad are very busy googling and yahooing to find a name!!! the baby name.

Sorry for adding to your surfing, but have you thought about capturing the first moment with your baby.  What about a fine art photography of your baby, or you and your baby.

This will be your first family picture.

Close google and yahoo.  Visit my website :

http://LumiereArtPhotography.GeraldBlondel.com

Because baby portraiture is something I have never done yet, I will not charge the first 5 clients for my time.
Only for the pictures you want me to print will be charged.

EVEN BETTER !!! I am giving to the first baby 5 prints free.

(do not forget, I am based in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 😉

See you soon,

Hi,

Lumiere-art-nude has been renamed. It is called LumiereArt Glamour and is accessible via the following links:

http://lumiereartglamour.geraldblondel.com/Welcome.html

http://www.lumiere-art-nude.info

Cheers,

www.geraldblondel.com

Hi,

Chinese New Year gave me the necessary time to complete my website. It was not an easy thing, but it’s done …

Enjoy the visit and talk to your friend about it 😉

Rie, same picture, but post-processed

Hi there,

I tried to re-post-process the pic of Rie I posted before…

Cheers

Learning Experience in Bangkok

Hi There,

You can always learn by yourself; but what best can you achieve? I don’t believe in a self-made artiste. Being trained by someone much better than yourself is part of the learning process.

It is the reason why I flew to Bangkok.

Why Manny and not another photographer? Because he is a master in post-processing. And the post-processing, it is something I do not really do.

Those who have seen my past pictures will be a bit surprised.

I took and processed these pictures last Saturday…

Important tip: Do you really need a powerpack strobe @ USD3000 when you have a reflector at USD30? NO…keep your money for something else. Of course, you need the sun. Outside Malaysia where it is summer the whole year, you may still need a fake sun…

Cheers,

From Stewardess to Model

I met Rie during a business trip. She was a stewardess on my flight. The first moment I saw her, I thought ” I want to shoot her “. But it was not during this trip I proposed her to take her picture.

How many chance do you have to get the same stewardess going and coming back?

Well, when I boarded to come back home, she was there. You can be stupid once; it is forgiven, not twice.

So, I asked her whether she was doing modeling; she replied no, but I will do it for you 🙂

This is my favorite pic…

Cheers,