Category Archives: training

HDR Training Seminars

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I’ve been running a video training program (in Beta) for using a HDRI Pipeline for Architectural Photography and Real Estate Photography, since August of 2010.  It’s been slowly building videos to the archive since then.  In fact I recorded more sessions this week to release in mid May, but that is not what this blog post is really about.

What this blog post is targeting, are those who would like to either attend an all day seminar or get one on one training from me covering my real estate shooting workflow.  My HDR Pipeline if  you will.

So if you’ve been following my blog and have been wondering how I achieve these final images without using elaborate lighting setups, then email me.  Message me through the email linked at the bottom of my home page:  http://www.digitalcoastimage.com

This way I can actually plan on any such seminars or visits to various cities depending on demand in that region.

I’ve had a handful of students recently request one on one training despite having access to all the videos.  I get it.  Each person has their own camera and lots of specific questions.  So email me and let me know where you live so that I can plan accordingly.

Because of health issues I’ve been considering shooting far less than I have been and spending more time leveraging my time with others in the process.  Hence this blog post.

Nearly confirmed locations for one-on-one training are in the following regions:

  • South Florida
  • Philly
  • Hollywood / L.A.
  • Houston
  • Conneticut

None are fully confirmed as of today, but bookings are in play for a few of them. When and if they do book, it would mean that routes to and from would be and could be potential candidates for either a group seminar or one-on-one training.  So email me your location if you’d be interested in being added to a mailing list that would ONLY receive emails about training information relating to my HDRI pipeline.

Also, I recently started a Flickr account.  Mostly to show how high end work can be done with very affordable entry level equipment when you employ my workflows. Here is a fraction of what I’ve shot with a Canon T3 and Canon 60D with a Sigma 8-16 f/4.5-5.6 lens.

Michael James

Canon 60D musings and AEB discussion

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Random comments in the YouTube video about my new Canon 60D and using the Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 DC HSM.  Also discussions about 3aeb vs 9aeb and Canon’s 1D/1Ds 7aeb custom functions.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma7TUysv7l8[/youtube]

Topics discussed:

  • Canon 60D
  • Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 DC HSM
  • Nikon D3
  • Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G
  • Promote Control
  • 1D / 1Ds AEB functions
  • 3aeb sucks

Last Call for HDR Training

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Last call for HDR Training for Real Estate and Architectural Photography.

This offer expires December 1st!

Shooting and editing for real estate and architectural interiors is a whole different beast than landscapes and non-commercial work.  The list of gotchas is long, here’s the short one.

You know the culprits… mixed lighting, massive dynamic range scenes most HDR apps choke on, reflections and glare, shooting directly at glass/windows/mirrors where flash is not an option, regaining window frames from massive back lit situations where light wrap causes loss of detail, shooting real estate with live talent in frame (no strobes), and on and on goes the list of fun shooting interiors.

I’ve been getting emails asking if they missed the launch of my HDR Training for Real Estate and Architectural Photography.  You didn’t miss the official announcement… it’s getting closer, but right now only those in the initial beta group are getting the training videos.

Why is it taking so long to get the training finished? Simple,… because I am a working photographer.

Yes, it has been coming along slowly thusfar, but it is about to kick into high gear.  I’ve cleared the decks for December.  I am ONLY creating training during the month of December.  The official launch of the HDR Training and when the site will go live is now targeting January (URL to be provided at time of launch).

The training I’m providing allows you to have access to me to ask questions via email and even via phone if we can match our schedules.  Ditto via skype for out of the country english speaking folks.  Hence why this training is not dirt cheap.

In fact one of the training videos already created and available for download now was created because one of the photographers in the beta group asked me to show how to incorporate live talent with HDR for an architectural interior product shoot.  It is possible that one of your questions might end up turning into a video tutorial as well if I think it will benefit the group.

I’ve gotten emails from a few of you asking if you can join the beta now even though all the videos and training are not fully complete. The answer is yes, BUT only if you understand that there is no concrete date as to when all the videos will be done. The target is by the first week of January.  Currently there are over two hours of training finished and available for download.  They are 1280×720 hi quality H.264 movies for viewing on a computer.

Once all the videos are done it will encompass everything I do from capture to post.  What is complete and available now are a handful of techniques that will be used in the full workflow/pipeline.

What is being shot this week is …. what I take  to a shoot, do at a shoot (and why) and then I show you various workflows to edit in post. For post production, I’m showing various workflows that work on both Mac and PC.  It is important to reiterate that the training I’m offering here is ongoing… as in perpetual. I say perpetual, but a more accurate statement would be that the training will continue until I no longer need to implement a hdri pipeline simply because in 10yrs it will probably all be done in camera and in one shot anyway.

Until then, I can promise you that you’ll always have my best imaging pipeline for High Dynamic Range Imaging.  What I’m teaching will either slightly alter in the coming months or change completely.  That means in the future I’ll need to create new videos to replace the current ones as I improve my workflow or find cool work arounds.  Hence the reason this training is not dirt cheap.

As hot as HDR is currently and is getting, .. it virtually guarantees that new apps will appear or existing apps will get updated.  I test the heck out of them and many of the companies creating them invite me to their betas so I usually have an opinion or a leg up on the apps when they release.  I’ve found little workflow enhancements that you probably have not implemented yourself that will give you better results for editing in a HDRI pipeline. Some of what I’ve shown in the videos have already helped those currently in the beta group despite some of them being very experienced in HDR.

My current preferred pipeline for post production changed dramatically a couple of years ago and new ones have emerged as well.  I have a few post production workflows I’ll be showing.  One of which I use for what I call “quick turns“ where a realtor needs pics turned quickly and I have automation steps in that workflow.  (This is a video that releases in about mid December).

Another workflow is going to show my pipeline for HDR Timelapse sequences shot for architectural interiors.  And another two pipelines showing my highest level of quality for magazine level submissions.  Many of my approaches are specifically geared for dealing with the nightmares of shooting architectural interiors.

“Been there done that“.  I’m not bragging, just saying I’ve suffered more than you!!!

I’ve been shooting real estate using a high dynamic range imaging pipeline exclusively since 2005. I’ve run up against all the problems you likely already have yourself, or haven’t had the displeasure of experiencing yet. You don’t need massively expensive gear, but technique and post production are key.

I’m incredibly anal and I tinker with apps and new approaches all the time.  Always looking for a more efficient pipeline.  A few photographers that thought they had settled in for a workflow they created have either completely changed gears or implemented the tweaks I’ve shown them once I revealed some workflow enhancements.  You’ll see.

I had nobody to learn from when I started with HDR, I just tinkered with every app there was and found ways to get commercially viable images.  I never found anything online about HDR because in 2005 there wasn’t anyone using it exclusively for real estate.  So I never knew some folks had created dos and don’ts and rules about bracketing.  I would just test things out without fretting about what you are or are not supposed to do or how to treat RAWs or files in post.  I would just think about what I needed to do to best exploit the scene and best compress the dynamic range down.

The video training is currently distributed via temporary download links from YouSendIt, etc. You just click the link and download the hi res videos to your computer for viewing.  Eventually all of these will also be online once the website is live. The site isn’t online yet and as such neither is any online payment system.  So if you’d like to join the beta, you can send me a check, pay via paypal, pay me by sending me an Amazon Gift Card, or pay via visa/mastercard through my business merchant account (either with a form I’d email for you to fill in and fax back or I could take your credit card info over the phone).

The emails I use for PayPal and Amazon are not the same as the one you’d email me to join the beta.  So start by sending me an email asking about payment options to digitalcoastimage@gmail.com

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To join the training with the rest of the beta group now, is $499.

The price for the same training when officially launched will be $750 per student (that’s not a typo).

I’ve already found that the amount of time I spend answering emails and phone calls warrants the tuition to be as such. And it is worth repeating again.  The training is ONGOING.

HDR Training for Architectural Photography

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If you’ve been utilizing a High Dynamic Range Imaging workflow for Architectural Photography, then this might be for you. The training I’ve created won’t be linked from this website so email me if you want details (read on for details).

The training is specific to implementing HDR techniques.  It is in no way, shape or form about how to frame your shots or anything along the lines of the business of architectural photography.

I’ve posted a full 24 minute review of one HDR application that I use mostly for HDR Timelapse. The video is not as structured as my training course, but it at least lets you hear my voice and get a feel for a new application in the process.

I’ve been putting together video tutorials for the last two months behind the scenes and I’m creating more in the next few weeks as well.  All revolving around various workflows and strategies for capturing and editing high dynamic range scenes typical with shooting architectural photography (especially interiors).

Many of my clients are rental companies that rent condos and homes along the florida beaches where I live.  Some of my rental company clients encourage me to over crank their shots to brighten the rooms up as well as over saturate the scenes slightly to create an emotive feel (their terminology, not mine).  Hence why you’ll see some very heavily processed shots in this 120 image sample gallery of employing HDRI for Architectural Photography.

Even though the various workflows I’ll cover will focus on architectural interiors, the techniques are applicable to virtually any high dynamic range scene.  I’ll also be covering landscapes and shooting / editing HDR Timelapse.  This is an example of some HDR Timelapse I shot over the last year.

If you are interested in receiving notification about the training when available, email me using the email at the bottom of this page (from my main site) and title the email HDR Training or something similar.

I’ll be covering various workflows using various applications so it would be helpful if you tell me what operating system you primarily work on (Mac / PC and what version of operating system like 10.6 for OSX or say Windows XP Pro for PC).  Also include what apps you currently use for typical raw processing workflow and what version of photoshop you are using as well as any 3rd party HDR plugins or applications you use.

Now contributing on HDRLabs.com

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I am pleased to announce that I will be contributing over at HDRLabs.com as a co-blogger. Christian Bloch (author of The HDRI Handbook) has invited me into his world of “HDR Nuts” as he calls it. I choose to view us as pixel warriors or digital knights. Regardless of the geeky analogies, the truth is we are all fighting the war on exposure and trying to defeat the same enemy.  It is a challenge for photographers, cinematographers and VFX artists alike.  I’m thrilled to be a part of the site and hope to make a positive impact in the months and years to come.

I do not plan to abandon this blog.  I will likely mirror many of the posts over at HDR Labs here and I’m sure there will be times I want to discuss non-HDR information that might just be basic photography gear or such, and will post those here rather than clutter HDR Labs blog.

Many of you have also expressed interest in some form of training from myself and I have actually been working on a few projects at once so I’ll share what is going to emerge in the weeks and months ahead.

I have just crossed the threshold of having shot roughly 14,000 HDRs that I tonemapped into final JPEG/TIFF formats for commercial delivery for clients (mostly incredibly high dynamic range real estate scenes).  Because of this extensive experience with tackling exposure day to day for going on 5 years now, I have a unique view of HDR from a production pipeline point of view.  I’ve also shot and edited well over 1000 landscapes which were bracketed, merged to HDR and tonemapped, “for fun”.  I’m quite familiar with the dos, don’ts and work arounds relating to HDR Capture and Post Processing.

That said, a few things are in the very early stages of planning for eBooks, Video Training, Workshops and/or One on One Training.  These are the concepts I’m working on:

  1. A beginner’s guide to HDR from my vantage point (from capture to final edit).  I’ll cover the best HDR apps to merge to HDR and tonemap (on both the PC and the Mac).
  2. Advanced techniques for going beyond basic tone mapping and extensively tweaking RAW images as a 1st step BEFORE merging to HDR.  Also, how to utilize layers in 32 bit space in Photoshop “BEFORE” moving on to tonemapping or luminance blending techniques. How to sweeten and further enhance tonemapped TIFFs in Photoshop for perfect color clarity and color balance of mixed lighting and/or final exposure issues.
  3. A workshop specifically aimed at Real Estate and Architectural Photographers (either group workshop or one-on-one training). I won’t be teaching basics or staging. The focus will be about how to either shoot exclusively with only available light in a HDR post production pipeline or how to integrate HDR along with your flash / continuous lighting frames taken to enhance lighting and add a new touch to your work. I will open pandora’s box and show you all the tips and tricks I use from capture through post production.

HDR Workshop

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This is your chance to help determine where and when my first workshop will likey be (city).

I get emails weekly with questions as to how I’m achieving my results and about my HDR pipeline.  I always defer to just watch the blog for any information about workshops and/or any video training online or off.  That ends up leading to more questions about what kind of training I plan to provide.  One on one, workshops, online training, etc.

I also get asked what books I have read or who I trained under to learn what I know about HDR.  None and nobody are the answers, therefore I can’t point you in any direction to learn what I know.  Everything I have learned and will teach are techniques, tricks and work arounds that I had to figure out on my own.  When I started looking around at what others were teaching about HDR, that was when I first realized how little information there was about pipelines/workflows for commercial work.

Willow Chic Boutique

If you are looking to just use HDR for artistic images or creating grunge, that is so easy.  Just use Photomatix and ramp up the sliders. There really is no hard core training needed for that genre if you are just looking to create grunge.  There are some teaching how to take it a step further in post, but from what I’ve seen they are actually teaching you photoshop techniques and most of the magic they are teaching are photoshop tutorials, not HDR workflows.

I have no issues with that look personally, but The Robb Report, Architectural Digest, duPont Registry and other publications demand realism.  And the first time you shoot for an interior designer, custom home builder or architect… I can promise you that they will NOT tolerate hue shifts and color saturation issues.  Your repeat business from them will largely be determined by how well you can represent their product.  My experience has been that they expect their work to be represented as precisely as they created it.

Real Estate Photography

Most folks that tap my shoulder requesting training are looking for something different than what they have found out there already. So let me start by addressing interest and needs.  I get requests about my workflow from two sets of photographers.

The first is those that are INTERESTED in creating realistic looking images via my HDR pipeline, but it isn’t do or die for them.  Interests are everything from landscapes to HDR portraits. Most of these photographers who have emailed me are either advanced amateurs or shooting professionally part time.  In either case, they are serious about quality and want a more definitive recipe to get better results.

The other camp is comprised  of photographers either shooting full time and looking to add real estate / architecture to their current services or photographers that are already shooting real estate, but want to know  how I’m tackling all the annoying problems associated with shooting interiors.  This group NEEDS (and wants) all the little tips and tricks in my pipeline from capture to final image to better tackle exposure issues associated with shooting interiors.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

If you would be interested in attending a workshop covering any of my workflows, then shoot me an email and let me know what the nearest city to you is (with an airport).  I’m not against traveling abroad if there is enough interest.  However, if I’m going to fly into an area, I will do so only if there is enough demand in that region to make the time for a workshop.

The last time I posted my email here I got spammed badly so I’ll just ask that you use the email linked at the bottom of my home page http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/

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Gulf Oil Spill – HDR

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Yes this will impact HDR as it relates to me and future blog posts, tutorials, etc.  I’ll explain in a moment. LINK to BP OIL SPILL IMAGE (Before it began poluting wildlife and major fishing regions).

I live in North West Florida along the Emerald Coast. I’m a couple hundred miles from where the BP (British Petroleum) oil rig blew up. It has been spewing oil at an alarming rate per day and it is so deep it will take many weeks and possibly months to cap it.  Already predictions are saying this will dwarf the Exxon Valdez disaster. The big difference is the Valdez ship had a finite amount of oil on it.  This uncontrolled hole in the gulf of mexico is gushing many thousands of barrels of oil a day.

NEARLY 40% of United States seafood is fished from the Gulf of Mexico.  Many of the bayous already being hit with oil are major migration points of birds that fly from Canada/North America down south for the winter.

So how is this HDR related?

Because it has already impacted my world and means I’ll be more active on this blog in coming weeks.  Why?  Unfortunately not for positive reasons.  Some background…

About 5 years ago when I was looking at how to best run a real estate photography business I was seeking ways to not have to re-create the wheel with marketing and the constant trolling for new clients.  So when I decided I was going to move from Atlanta to the Emerald Coast of Florida I looked at affluent areas that had expensive homes for sale and beach rentals (high end trophy properties).

I quickly connected with companies that rented high end properties.  These gulf front homes rent for $5,000 to $15,000 per week in peak season. That’s not a typo.

So for rental companies that are getting 20-40% of each weekly rental as a fee for managing the property for the owner (again, not a typo), they have money to spend on marketing (photography being #1).  And photography is absolutely critical when 90% of the bookings are coming from out of state and those folks are making their vacation decisions based on photos they view online.  So…

I decided to contact and work with many of the rental companies that rent the higher end homes and some of the more exclusive / high end condos.  I also contacted several of the top producing real estate agents and real estate companies that deal with multi-million dollar listings. Then slowly got around to contacting builders, architects and interior designers.  Again, my goal with the rental companies was to tap into the turnover that was inevitable with them and the new properties they’d need shot yearly or rooms of units to reshoot because beds/bedding, furniture or repainting took place.  How did my little plan work?  Perfectly until the oil spill.

Rental companies have been getting vacationers calling in to cancel their May/June bookings due to watching the constant coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill on CNN, The Weather Channel, FOX, you name it.  National coverage on every media outlet including print/web.  Even if the impact is not as bad as they are predicting now, the damage for me is done.  These rental companies are playing it safe and canceling/postponing new shoots, indefinitely.  Some have resorted to just grabbing point and shoot pics for now to “wait and see what happens” with this oil spill.  I’m not out for good, but the outlook for this oil spill is bad enough that it is impacting MY clients.  Shit happens.  To me in this case.

Since moving to the Emerald Coast I’ve shot over 1000 properties.  But I didn’t bracket all those properties to then merge shots to HDR and then tonemap.  I’ve “only” shot about 700 properties employing a full HDR pipeline.  I’ve averaged about 20 shots per property so I’m probably as I type this crossing the 14,000 mark for tonemapped images from HDRs merged from brackets.  I’ve learned a few tricks along the way.

Obviously these rental companies are savvy.  There are many photographers in the area that shoot real estate so the rental companies can beat me up to some extent on pricing.  However,  for the level of work that I deliver, they can’t get cheaper. I make more money than any of the other real estate photographers in the area not employing a HDR pipeline.  Likewise, there are amazing architectural photographers that live here who can blow me away , but they charge far more than I do and use lots of lighting gear and/or professional level flash units.  They also take all day to stage and shoot a trophy property.  I’m the middle ground option here.  Not cheap, not expensive and you get a high quality product.  HDR allows me to get in and out of properties with only a camera bag and a tri-pod and move quickly through a shoot.

Tapping into those rental companies meant a constant flow of properties and when I got emails from followers of  this blog asking when am I going to do some kind of workshop, video training, personal training, … my response has always been… “someday, but I’m too busy shooting/editing”.

It was a great run.  Its not over, but this oil spill has spooked all the rental companies. In the last few days I’ve had 27 shoots cancelled.  This is going to be a hell of a test on me.  I have savings I put away for retirement and will likely have to tap into those if I can’t re-market myself rapidly with new clients.  I’ll likely start considering out of state shoots as well given there is no telling how long this oil spill impact will linger.

How this relates to HDR is that I will now have more time to spend testing all these apps for merging/tonemapping and review them.  I’ll also likely setup some kind of weekend workshop for those interested in learning how to shoot/edit high contrast scenes employing a High Dynamic Range Imaging pipeline.  I’m only 3-5 hours from Atlanta, Jacksonville, Birmingham, New Orleans and Mobile as cities go, but only a 3/4 day’s drive from Orlando and Tampa.  Those would likely be cities I’d hold a workshop in.

I’ll also be thinking long and hard about online training options.  Currently I”m assisting with a few of the Background Fundamentals Classes covering HDR basics over at http://www.FXPHD.com and I’ll be thinking about expanding my online presence to more online training for sure. I’ve never written a book and I have no contacts in that industry so I’m not sure that will be an option unless I decide to self publish.  Lots to think about in the coming days, but I won’t drag my feet.

Regardless.  The Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill means I’ll be spending more time yapping about HDR both online and off.

I’ve already downloaded Photoshop CS5 beta and have been using it to test out the HDR Tools.  I’ll have more to share once I’ve used it more in depth tomorrow and Monday.  More to come…

NAB in Vegas – Come say Hi

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I’ll be speaking briefly about HDR and HDR Video at NAB via an invite from Mike Seymour of FXguide.com.  It falls under their time slot in the Post Pit at the NAB Show. If you plan on being at NAB, come say hi  :)

Tuesday April 13th, 4pm – 4:30pm.  Lots of topics going on at the Post Pit Mon-Wed linked here:
http://www.nabshow.com/2010/education/post_pit.asp

I’ll be in Vegas from Friday April 9th (land 5pm) and leaving Friday April 16th (afternoon flight).  A “Work-cation”.  I’ll be shooting far too much and often to consider it a vacation.  But this is what workaholic geeks do in their spare time!

Dynamic Range of Sensors

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Dynamic range of sensors varies from camera to camera. You might be surprised by the (updated) chart below because the dynamic range of sensors is not as directly related to camera costs as you might think. You’ll notice that some mid level DSLRs are way ahead of the curve over other camera’s pro level cameras when it comes to dynamic range of the sensor.  This test was conducted by DXOmark.com and you can go there to read about how the tests were conducted.

|||—— UPDATED FOR NEW CAMERAS TESTED BY DXOmark.com —–|||

What is important and relevant to HDRI is the dynamic range of your sensor. It really matters.  Unless you taking large and tight brackets of each scene then it really, really, REALLY matters even moreso than you think.  If you are following a technique taught by someone using say a D3x and they tell you all you need is X shots, but you are using a camera at the bottom of the chart below and taking the same number… there is no way you can match that person’s results. Its mathematically impossible.

I get asked all the time how many shots do I take when I shoot, but nobody asks me with what camera.  Everyone assumes they are all about the same for HDR.  They aren’t.

Gear used for capturing brackets for HDR is even more critical if you are only taking 3 shots.  It will directly impact the quality of your HDR file. IF YOU ARE SHOOTING FOR VFX WORK THIS IS SLIGHTLY LESS CRITICAL THAN IF YOU WILL BE TONEMAPPING FOR REALISM (only slightly less though).

I’ve captured and tonemapped over 13,000 images for architecture, real estate and commercial shoots.  I’ve forfeited all my vacation time the last 4 years just to do intensive testing about what works better.  Gear, post production, you name it.

I’m pretty obsessive compulsive about trying to get a realistic looking image for real estate interiors and I’ve bought and/or rented about 40% of the cameras on this list below. DXOmark.com seems on the mark as far as my personal results are concerned.

Dynamic Range of Camera Sensors (I chose to focus on modern day digital models only)

No test is perfect. DXOmark has attempted to do this objectively, but because ISO/Noise and how cameras can handle scenes, colors and other differing factors, this should not be the only way to base your purchasing decision.  For example…

Someone could use the Canon 1000D (also known as the Canon XS) plus a piece of gear to get pro HDR captures.

If you bought that entry level Canon 1000D/XS for $400+ and a PROMOTE CONTROL for $299, (which will soon be adding HDR Timelapse to its functions in addition to HDR capture and standard Timelapse), then you could take very large and tight brackets with the Promote Control attached to your 1000D/XS that will capture well beyond what the in camera AEB capabilities of every single camera on that chart above.  Yes, including a D3x or 1Ds Mark III.  Sometimes the piece of “kit” you add to the mix can make a lower end device perform very well (dynamic range speaking here).  Of course the pixel quality of a D3x/1DsMarkIII is easily better than a Canon XS, but at the cost of $8000 it should be.

Interview (online now)

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I was interviewed by Scott Wyden about a month ago and it just hit is feed this week (blog post).  It was actually a list of questions that I answered and submitted a handful of photos as well.  If you’ve listened to the recent podcasts I was on ( Digital Convergence Podcast – http://hdriblog.com/hdr-and-hdr-video-digital-convergence-podcast/ ) and ( Real Estate Photography Podcast – http://hdriblog.com/real-estate-photography-podcast/ ) then you have heard some of what I covered in this interview.  Scott’s interview went a little deeper in some areas so there is new content/info you didn’t hear on the podcast interviews.

If you wanted a deeper and more in depth look at how I migrated into HDR and Photography, then you can read the interview on his blog:

http://scottwyden.com/a-photographers-interview-with-michael-james/