I had very specialized blood tests done to reveal what if any petroleum and dispersement chemicals I had absorbed.  Unfortunately I was off the charts in a bad way.

I’ve seen neurologists and homeopathic docs throughout the southeast.  Even a doc that was previously a neurologist that converted to homeopathic medicine because he got tired of treating the symptoms and patients returning so he ventured off to figure out what to do to prevent dis-ease in the first place.  But I digress…  I’m spending a fortune on this meanwhile BP has denied all my business and medical claims.  No surprise there.  Meanwhile they run false commercials about how they are restoring people here.  Typical Wall Street Corporate lies.

My biggest apology goes to those who are in my beta training group “HDR for Architectural Photography” because I went nearly two months with only a few videos released.  The good news is I’m recording new episodes tonight after I post this and more this week.

Another reason I’ve been completely covered up is I have an 18yr old cat about to turn 19 which is in failing health.  Coco.

She requires a half  dozen pills and liquids addressing liver and body functions administered nearly every hour, 24 hours a day.  It’s been this way for almost a year now.  I was able to handle it between friends and family filling in while I was shooting.  However, being extremely sick and traveling to find my own health solutions, while trying to take care of her, has been quite the challenge.

Unfortunately she’s been diagnosed with a form of lymphoma showing up in blood work and there is no recovering from this one I’m told.  She is showing exhaustion and has lost her spunk completely in the last 48 hours.

So at some point in the next week, I’ll have to put her down.  I’ve never had kids, but nearly 19 years with this precious creature has really had an impact on me as a person.  Tough to lose my little buddy.

The only upside from here is that I’ll have more free time once my nursing duties go away.  I know I don’t want to sit around and get emotional thinking of her, so I’ll probably get myself busy to keep my mind off of her.  So even though I’m apologizing for not posting much, I might end up posting more in the coming weeks than I am currently imagining.

This BP Oil Spill is still dumping the equivalent of an Exxon Valdez spill every few days. BP has run out of options to cap it now.  Only the relief well they are drilling which is scheduled to be complete in late August will stop the oil leak (possibly).  Currently it is still spewing 35,000 to 60,000 BARRELS of oil a day into the gulf of mexico.  The grand total is north of 150,000,000 gallons of oil so far in the last 60 days.

I can’t believe it has ‘only’ been 60 days.  It feels like 6 months to me.

Nearly all my clients are in real estate and most of them are in the beach vacation rental business.  They are getting decimated right now.  And in turn so am I for business.  So is my family which is in real estate rentals.  My parents rent an investment home they had bought years ago and the income they get from those rentals is a part of their retirement income.  Since the BP Spill disaster began in April they have  had 10 out of 13 weeks cancelled which started May 1st.  BP has paid them nothing thusfar. BP has a great PR campaign saying they are doing the right thing, but I’m hearing and seeing otherwise right here in Florida from family and clients I’ve shot for who have also submitted claims to BP.

This BP Oil Spill is like a hurricane that won’t go away.

Several weeks ago I naively said I’d have more time and would be updating this blog and on twitter more frequently, but that has not been the case at all.  No end in sight either I’m afraid.

In fact I just got a call minutes ago.  A new client wants to begin shooting a day sooner, so now I have to turn gear and pack to leave this afternoon when I wasn’t supposed to do so until tomorrow afternoon.  Time to kick it in high gear and make some more coffee.  I just got home (literally) from shooting a mansion at night (shot sunset, then night exterior, then interior shots through the night).  So I’m running on 3 hrs of sleep and not a day off in months and now gotta get ready to head out of town this afternoon for this multi-day shoot.

And I am thankful.

I’m grateful that I’ve been able to find work at all even though I’ve had to compromise health and to some extent, fair compensation. With so many out of work and hurting throughout the country and the world, I’m thankful and grateful to at least have gigs to shoot.

I’m not sure when this will all settle down or if at all, but wanted to update that the reviews of gear and applications (HDR apps) I had mentioned in past posts have been put on hold until time permits.

IDIOT!!!!!

Totally my fault.

I apologize to anyone that used that form to send me a question or message and wondered why I never got back to them.

Now I finally understand why people use my photography’s website email to contact me regarding HDRIBLOG.  Yet nobody every mentioned to me or asked me why I didn’t respond to their questions submitted through HDRIBLOG.

I am so sorry.

I can capture HDR and Tonemap, but clearly challenged by wordpress and web basics.

The Contact Me form now works.  I tested it a few times and it worked. Clearly, it is now idiot proof.

Promote Control

I first touched on the Promote Control last summer and then followed up with another post about it and created a couple of video tutorials showing the product and its features.  My last post about it and what it does is linked here:
http://hdriblog.com/promote-control-turns-ordinary-dslrs-into-hdr-capture-machines/

The device’s unique benefit (besides the HDR and Timelapse modes themselves) is how you can sell off your current Nikon or Canon body and flip to the other system and still be able to use the Promote Control on that supported camera body (see their site for list of compatible models).  Another interesting fact is you can buy say a Nikon D40 which has NO in camera AEB support at all and simply attaching the promote control changes all that.  Suddenly cameras which were crippled with no AEB or only 3 AEB are able to capture wider ranges and with more control over the settings.

That said, it is important to understand you are still limited by your camera’s mechanical capabilities. If your camera’s shutter speed can’t go faster than say 1/2000 or 1/4000 of a second for example, then you obviously can’t take as wide of a capture as a camera that can go to 1/8000 of a second.  It’s just common sense and only becomes a real issue if shooting in very brite sun and/or wide open.

What I neglected to cover in the post this summer was the Promote Control also sports a Timelapse Mode (separate from HDR mode).  Some folks who bought on my recommendation later emailed me with thanks for getting them to buy the Promote Control simply because they were loving the timelapse feature that their cameras don’t provide.  As a side note, even though the older Canon 5D (original) is not supported for HDR Capture using the promote control, that 5D can however use the Promote Control’s “Timelapse” mode.  Just an FYI worth noting ( I used to have a 5D and loved it ).

A feature the developer is aware of that I and others have requested is HDR Timelapse.  Currently you can do Timelapse or you can do HDR Capture, but not both.  The workaround is to daisy chain two Promote Controls together in order to get HDR Timelapse, but that is of course expensive.  Basically one Promote Control has settings for Timelapse, the second HDR.  The developer has addressed the demand for this feature and has committed to taking a serious look at implementing it in a future firmware update (maybe… as in maybe they can or maybe they can’t pull it off), but they are aware of the desire for it from current customers and potential customers.  If that is a deal breaker for you, then email them saying you’d buy it if it was available and maybe they’ll act faster!

Personally I am spoiled by the fact that the D3 can do HDR Timelapse natively, but it would be nice if I could use the Promote Control instead because the D3 is limited to 9 AEB +/-1EV for HDR Capture (which is the equivalent of 5 AEB +/-2EV).  Now that may sound like a lot of range, but for shooting real estate interiors on the beach, it isn’t enough for shots with windows in frame combined with dungeon dark living space.  Each range by itself without the other is generally a full 5-9AEB +/-1EV.  So if the Promote Control can get a firmware update to HDR Timelapse, I’ll be a happy camper.

A great device for HDR Capture Mode and Timelapse Mode as is though.  Highly recommended for HDR captures.

I would never again use a camera with a < 5fps.  I could spend an entire week describing various scenes that get ruined with either fast moving clouds or a ground level breeze.  Too many variations and workarounds to go into detail.  I got tired of workarounds with my 5D (3fps) and it was one of the reasons I jumped to the D3 which has 9fps continuous.

The first requirement for a camera to qualify for this chart is the camera’s ability to Auto Bracket a scene with at least 5 AEB with 2.0EV steps or 9 AEB with 1.0 EV steps using camera defaults.  That was the minimum.  [ I have found this to be the minimum acceptable amount of range needed to be sure to cover the dynamic range of real estate interiors with windows in frame and/or very high contrast scenes outdoors ]

All cameras that qualified are then ranked top to bottom based on speed (FPS). Ties end up with cameras ranking higher if their sensor has a higher Dynamic Range as measured by DXOMark.com (and covered in prior posts).

It is a short list. I am only including cameras that can be purchased new TODAY (There are others that qualify that are discontinued).  I also included megapixels and sensor size just FWIW.  1.0 = Full Frame; 1.3 = APS-H; 1.5 = APS-C

I gathered data from DXOMark.com and then put it into a chart format.  I only looked at the digital cameras of the last 5 years (from now) so some will not appear here.  DXO Mark  does not cover every single camera.  For example, the Sigma SD14 is not listed here and I use that camera for professional work.  The SD14′s Dynamic Range is (feels) huge when I am editing shots from it.  I’d love to see where it would have fell in this data set, but DXO Mark doesn’t cover the Sigma line.

The first thing that will blow your mind is how far ahead of the curve the Fujifilm S3 Pro really was (and still is) in terms of capturing plenty of light in one shot.  It is no wonder that so many wedding photographers I’ve bumped into rave about it and the S5 Pro.

What is important to derive from the chart (relevance) is if you are trying to follow a High Dynamic Range Imaging workflow taught for VFX or Tonemapping.  Obviously if your Guru has a D3x and you are copying their steps using a Canon or Olympus… mathmatically there is no way you can get the same results.

I cringe when I see someone post (or say on a podcast) that you should always take “X” shots…. or you ONLY need “X” shots at “X” EV.  Then later I find out they are shooting with a D3x.  UGH!

They don’t even realize they are accidentally misleading the droves of followers who will now go attempt to recreate images made with shots taken with their own cameras which have inferior sensors for capturing a wide dynamic range with the same number of shots taken.

If there is anything I have learned in the last 3+ years of day to day HDR capture and editing pipeline… there is NEVER, EVER, EVER a scene exactly like the last.  That said, I’ve gotten to the point where I know when to take 5 shots where 1EV jumps will be perfectly fine and other scenes require at least 11-12 shots taken with 0.7 EV jumps or possibly even 15-17 shots at 1/3rd EV steps.

Even basic landscape shots vary greatly depending on sun/shade and then considering the content trying to be captured.  I’d really have to do a workshop or video to show you what I mean and how to easily evaluate where to start your bracketing for the base exposure’s exposure compensation and approximately how many shots and how wide/tight to make the EV steps.

What this chart (and blog post) doesn’t show is how many shots each camera can handle in an AEB sequence.  I”m going to cover that in a future post because that is as important (if not far more important) than the DR of a single image captured.

Even though tonemapping uses pieces of each of the images captured, if you take fewer shots to cover the same dynamic range of a scene someone else takes or if your sensor has a lower DR than that of another camera taking the exact same number of shots, then your tonemapping will be pulling from noisier shadows of the underexposed image(s)  and pulling from more blown out highlights of the over exposed image(s), thereby causing undesirable saturation and IQ issues.  The extreme example of this is when you try to process an image from one RAW (faux HDR).

Also, if you shoot JPEGs for sequences instead of RAWs, then you will also need more shots with tighter EV jumps to match a RAW workflow.  If you plan on doing a lot of pre-processing of images prior to merging them to a HDR file, then you will also benefit from tighter stops… and there are very good reasons for this kind of workflow as well.

Also… I am so focused on extremely high DR scenes given I shoot interiors for a living, that this becomes absolutely paramount for professional HDR workflows.  You can get away with a lot on landscape shots. Landscapes for me is childs play.  I’m not saying that to be cute, they are just a total cake walk compared to shooting dark interiors with blazing bright light spilling in through windows or open doors.  Apples to Oranges.

I have never encountered a scene in over 10,000 tonemapped HDRs now that did not benefit from taking more shots with tighter EV jumps.  Low contrast landscapes where the sun is not in frame are not the kinds of shots I’m talking about here.  I’m talking high contrast landscapes to interior shots with large DR scenes.

I’m also talking about creating more realistic and more natural tones for tonemapped images.  If you are gunning for surreal then I would say the easiest way to accomplish that is to ignore anything I teach.  Because if you stretch your shots too wide (large EV jumps) … you are guaranteed to easily get oversaturated and surreal hues that will look like technicolor art renderings.  If that is your final goal, then don’t shoot with a sensor with a high dynamic range and then purposely max out the EV steps.  So for you,  virtually any Olympus or Canon body and using 2.0 EV steps is perfect.  Because 2.0 EV jumps is too big and Canon’s and Olympus’s sensors are of the narrowest range in the industry… so that combo will help you create surreal arty photos using AEB sequences.

To create more realistic renditions of a scene (tonemapping) you can of course use the same Canon, but simply tighten up the steps and increase the number taken to appropriately cover the dynamic range of a scene.

For architectural work with blazing bright light spilling into windows and deep dark shadows… I won’t go over 1EV steps when I bracket.  The place the tonemapping suffers the most from shortfalls of a capture is that window/door area itself.  The edges.  In fact I rarely go over 0.7 EV jumps for such scenes.  When I do test out 1.3 and higher EV jumps for those shots, I inevitibly get an image that has more noise being pulled from the shadows and the window/door edges suffer quality issues.  Also,  large EV jumps will cause the saturation of the upper range to experience strange hues (false to our eyes, not the sensor).

This is all a result of the tonemapping pulling from images that have larger jumps between due to using wider EV steps.  It is forcing the tonemappers to pull from larger areas of luminosity from each individual image.  So you can imagine that this is where using a camera with a larger dynamic range becomes very valuable!!!  Garbage pulled, garbage displayed.

By feeding a merge more images, the tonemapping pulled from the sweet spots of the histogram of each shot.  Hence why the more the shots taken with smaller EV jumps, the less often the tonemapping pulls from the wide ends of a single image’s luminance range (where shadow noise is worse and highlights are more blown out).

The chart below  is especially useful if you are considering a camera that only has 3 AEB.  Look at the DR of say a Nikon D5000 versus a Canon Rebel series.  Heck a D5000 has a wider range than any of Canon’s flagship bodies.

You could tripod off two cameras (like a Nikon D5000 versus a Canon 500D) from the same location, but the same 3 AEB capture using say a +/-2.0EV is going to be a dramatic quality difference.  Consider the fact that the D5000 is capturing a full 1EV more per image! That means when a tonemapper is dealing with a large DR scene and it was only fed 3 images, it really, really, really, REALLY matters what the quality and range of each of those 3 independent images can deliver.  Take a moment and think about that.

See why I am always groaning about Canon now?  It has everything to do with HDR capture issues (for professional work).  I am actual quite keen about Canon otherwise.  I own three 580EX II flashes and a ST-E2 wireless unit.  I have created my best portraits in my portfolio with Canon’s cameras!!!  I really do love the look off of Canon’s sensors, but for HDR work… they are behind Nikon and Sony for sensor DR.

Now look at a D3x versus Canon’s flagship model.  Same story.  Same number of shots on a canon versus the Nikon D3x will result in less range captured.  However…

… let us not forget that regardless of the sensor’s Dynamic Range reported below… each of these cameras perform differently in high ISO environments.  There are multiple considerations in the end.  Dynamic Range, Noise Performance and AEB capabilities of the camera.  Actually FPS is very critical for certain shooting conditions too.  The faster the FPS capture, the less of an issue of things moving/zooming in and out of frame during a capture. This chart only considers the raw data collected showing the full dynamic range captured on each camera’s sensor.

Enough chatter… chart below speaks volumes.
The larger the number, the more (stops) dynamic range of a scene captured:

———————————————————————————————-

Camera Sensor Dynamic Range

The 2009 follow-up article to this blog post is linked below

Camera Sensor Dynamic Range (continued)

(As of 8-17-09 I have not yet tested this unit and present it to you only as something I’ve been looking at for over a month now from a distance)

If I end up testing this device I’ll provide a full review here on HDRIblog.com or on Digitalcoastimage.com

Many of you who follow me on Twitter know that I prefer Nikon for HDR capture work simply because many of  their cameras allow for up to 9 brackets in AEB mode whereas Canon restricts theirs to 3 AEB except for their flagship models.  The Promote Control unit overcomes that limitation and could potentially take your High Dynamic Range Imaging to the next level.  While not cheap, it is very fairly priced for what you benefit in added EVs and Dynamic Range capture from its use.

DISCLAIMER:  Again… I have not tested or reviewed this device yet.

Here is a list of features taken right from their product page:

• Replaces and extends manufacturer-specific remote controls
• Allows for unparalleled flexibility with automatic >30 second exposures in “bulb mode” – even in HDR sequences *
• Advanced easy-to-configure “Time-Lapse Mode” with optional sequence start delay
• Optional user-defined Mirror-Up timeout available in all modes *
• Improved user interface featuring flexible user-definable settings
• Optional multi-tone audible feedback
• Large, easy to read liquid crystal display featuring RGB backlight of variable intensity
• Weather-resistant design for water and dust resiliency
• Powered by 2 AA batteries, the most easily obtainable power source
• A passive camera pre-focus and release functionality remains functional as a backup even when the remote control is out of power *
• External DC power jack for timing especially long exposures for astrophotography and other similar applications
• Device firmware updates can be applied from a personal computer via USB interface.

I always knew this was the future…  more Dynamic Range over Megapixels.  Exciting times ahead! Someday this will trickle down into more affordable units. Years probably, but “someday” always seems to come faster then it seems possible.