I know I keep beating this HDR drum, but it’s a good beat.

After 2 months of dealing with health crud, I recently had to shoot in wicked harsh lighting conditions.  These days were not perfectly sunny blue sky days, but rather what I refer to as “White Haze”.  I say that because it is almost like a white sky with a hint of cyan.  Bad air, atmosphere issues, whatever you want to blame it on, the air quality has been terrible during this severe drought along the Emerald Coast of florida.

HDR to the rescue.  Many times I’m fighting the over saturation that can occur when merging brackets, but in this case I didn’t pull back at all and needed those under exposed frames desperately to pull some color that did not appear in the middle/normal exposures.

The first gallery was for a client that I first shot for in 2006 and delivered some pretty over tonemapped work.  Well guess what.  They liked that “look”.  Go figure.  So I let the first set be plenty colorful and saturated and the windows will look less blown out and more like paintings than I care to deliver these days, but what the client wants (and pays for)… the client gets.

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/resorts/2669/index.html

The second gallery was for a home that is owner occupied and the shoot could not be rescheduled. This day was probably the worst air quality I’ve seen in years. The sky was bright as can be but lacking a pure blue.  A very nasty “White Haze” persisted for the 2 hour shoot.  I had to work through cats, dogs and family running around preparing for the 4th of July weekend otherwise I’d have been in and out in under an hour.

Again, HDR to the rescue.  And even with HDR, the one living room shot I posted at the top of this blog post with windows in frame I could just not make look like most of my other work.  The sky at that point was completely WHITE to the eye.  Not cloudy, just so hazy and yet bright that you’d squint fiercely as you look out the window.  A circular polarizer didn’t help at all.  Only HDR and the under exposed frames allowed a hint of blue/cyan to come through.  And this is not some joke of a bracket like 3aeb that HDR newbies thinks can work for real estate.  This was an 11 aeb +/-1EV steps.

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/resorts/4097/index.html

Many of my clients request what most of you would call a “Run and Gun“.

Camera, Lens, Tripod …. and very limited time to shoot right at high noon (high contrast).

Click for Larger Image

It’s what I first began shooting myself and later got used to coping with.  Basically,…

• No formal knowledge of the property
• No prior prep time or staging time alotted
• No time to bring in external lighting
• No time to waste…  basically… HDR to the rescue

Here’s some typical “Camera + Lens + Tripod” shoots.  Some new, some relatively recent…

VRBO Listing for new client wanting to stand out above the rest

Sandestin Burnt Pine MLS Listing

VRBO Shoot for existing client that values (through bookings) high end photos

MLS Shoot for Existing Client (has sold 90% of listings I shot in 60 days or less)

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

I’ve gotten this question via email almost  a dozen times.  So I’m going to cut and paste the response I send to folks.

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The Question they ask? All are along the lines as the following one… (and asked because Canon’s manual doesn’t cover it well).

“”"Can you help me out as I have not been able to find anything in the manual on how to increase the EV spacing between frames when in bracketing mode (for HDR Capture) with my Canon G12.”"”

ANSWER:

When I’m in AV mode, I press the center button “Func.Set” to bring up the menu.  White balance is the top choice and I scroll down one to the bracketing so that it now shows the three options.  When you select bracketing to be turned on you can immediately press the “DISP.” button to bring up the AEB options.  The scroll wheel on the back of the camera is what you turn to change the settings for the +/- for AEB.

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The pain in the ___ for me is when.. lets say I have bracketing currently set to do +/- 2EV between shots and I want to go back to +/- 1 between frames…

… you again press the Func.Set button and if I had turned the camera off at some point it defaults to selecting WB and I have to scroll down one to get to the bracketing.  Once there in the bracketing as long as the camera is in bracketing mode, you can then hit the DISP. button to bring up AEB and then use the scroll wheel to change it to whatever is needed for that scene.

I mostly just leave it in +/-2 because I’m usually using the G12 for landscapes, but when I do want a less aggressive bracket for a mild scene, that is a lot of button pressing to do just to get to the AEB options… but for a point and shoot, I guess I should just be pleased I have that control at all  :)

(complaining over)

A quick video showing a 7aeb with the Canon T3/1100D using the promote control.

This is just a quick video clip to show that the T3 is working properly with the Promote Control when adding the extra shutter release cable.  It works at a slower capture speed (FPS) when using USB only.

For some reason this was not working with the T2i/550D (the extra shutter release cable).

KEY POINT: The T3 is shooting RAW and the T3 can only shoot 2 Frames Per Second in RAW capture and a buffer of 5 images shooting RAW.  So the slight delay you hear after the first 5 RAWs captured is in fact due to the buffer being hit in the 7aeb.

Canon T3 / 1100D sample image.  Created with the trusty Promote Control to bracket much larger than a Canon can do natively.  Shot with the Sigma 8-16mm f/4.5-5.6 DC HSM (at 8mm). (O.K. so I forgot to move the hand soap directly ahead which fills the doorway…. sue me!)

Once again the promote control turns an entry level DSLR into a HDRI capture device.  Brilliant.

I know it’s been awhile since I posted anything on the blog or on Twitter.  I’ve been dealing with terrible health challenges.  I’ve spent more time getting treatments, tests, blood work, chelation therapy, detox programs and on and on.  It has consumed my time the last couple of months.  Hope to be back soon, but the docs can’t pin point the exact issue aside from high levels of toxins and metals in my blood (hence detox and chelation therapy).  I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.  I have about 4-6 hours of energy a day… sometimes less.  Dizzy spells keep me off the computer too.  Geez.  When your grandmom tells you that you’ve got nothing if you don’t have your health.  She ain’t jokin’.

The only reason I have the T3 is a real estate photographer wanted into my HDR Training for Real Estate Photography beta even though it is still not finished.  So I told her if she drop shipped a new T3 kit so I could test it, I’d let her in.  I didn’t actually expect her to do it!!!  So here’s my first use with it and a few comments.

This is NOT a full Canon T3 review, just my quick take.

• Dynamic Range seems to be no better than XS / 1000D
• Image Quality seems to be no better than XS / 1000D
• Video and higher ISO abilities make it a great upgrade to the XS / 1000D
• Body is made of a smooth plastic and reminds me of a child’s toy (hate it)

I’ve had quite a few photographers ask me about shooting for realtors.  Yes I do.  I’m not sure what they are looking to hear for details, but yes I do market to and shoot for realtors.  Here are some MLS shoots specifically.  These were shot in the last couple of months to keep food on the table.

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/DBTS/index.html

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/403/index.html

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/egroup/niceville/index.html

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/77_Siesta_Bluff/index.html

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/DBTS_4647/index.html

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/egroup/ssands114/index.html

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/egroup/waters_edge/index.html

I’ve also shot for custom home builders, etc, etc, … but this is just a peek at MLS specific shoots.  You’ll notice nearly every shot is full wide angle view and no tight crops. The reason is Realtors can easily get tight crops with their point and shoots, but they lean on me to get WIDE.

I’m very excited about this lens.  Moreso to use on the coming Sigma SD1, but I have been very pleased with the results on my Canon 60D.  A few samples here on this link:

http://www.digitalcoastimage.com/sigma/8-16mm/index.html

The new FD glass sigma implemented deals with glare quite well.  Perfect for bracketing for HDR in difficult lighting environments.

Previously I had discussed using the 60D with the new 8-16mm:

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

This needs to be repeated.  Yes I’ve blogged about this for nearly 2 years now, but I can’t drive home this point strongly enough…

If you are trying to follow someone’s HDR tutorial, you will DEFINITELY get different results than they got if you are not shooting with the exact same sensor.

A single shot on a D3x is like taking two separate shots with an older Canon Rebel about 1 EV stops apart and then blending them in post.  So if a D3x shooter says you only need 3aeb with frames at +/-2EV, you actually need 6aeb at +/-1EV with your older Canon Rebel to get the same gorgeous post production results.  How do I know this?  I’ve shot with both!!!

So you can’t follow tutorials of someone shooting with a D3x if you only have an older Canon Rebel.  Here’s a chart showing some recent DSLRs and their sensor rankings.

What is extremely important to understand is that these numbers show ONLY the absolutes.  Even though a camera may have light show up for 10+ stops does not mean the data is clean throughout the entire histogram.  There is noise in shadows on all of these models.  And the noise print is dramatically different.

If you are shooting with even a brand new APS-C sensor, it more than likely will not have shadows as clean as even a 3yr old model with a full frame sensor.  Even at 100 ISO on both models.  Its just physics.

You can yank FILL LIGHT up to 70 on a Nikon D3 shot and the same scene shot with a Canon 60D might only be able to have FILL LIGHT pulled up to 30 or 35 before breaking down badly.  So the 60D shot never gets to be lightened up as much as the D3 shot.  Again, its mostly physics.  An APS-C sensor is simply much smaller in size than a full frame sensor.

For example, my Canon 60D is a 2010 camera, but its APS-C sensor can not hang at all even at 100 ISO with my 4 year old full frame Nikon D3 sensor shooting at 200 ISO.  And my old and crusty full frame 5D from many years back has better shadow data than the 60D as well (100 ISO on both).

When bracketing you only get extremely clean data in the center/sweet spot of each capture. A camera like a Nikon D3x gives you more clean data in the middle part of the histogram than even a Canon 5D Mark II. So if you have to bracket a huge dynamic range scene with 11 frames spaced 1EV apart with a D3x, you might want to consider bracketing only 2/3rds steps between frames with a 5D Mark II (and increase the number of shots to cover the same dynamic range).  With an APS-C sensor you will often need to go down to 1/3rd EV jumps between frames and take far more shots to cover the same dynamic range in order to caputure the same clean data throughout that range. Basically, the sliver of perfect data of each sensor (per capture) decreases as you move down the scale of the chart provided.

I know this because I’ve delivered nearly 15,000 commercial images that were originally fully bracketed series of 7-15 shots per image.  And I’ve used dozens of cameras from various brands like Pentax, Nikon, Sigma and the worst of dynamic range brands… Canon.  So I’ve done a ridiculous amount testing to try and find the holy grail of HDR capture.  In the end, there is no one camera sensor or system that is perfect, but what I’ve found are general rules that allow you to make sure you get the entire dynamic range of a scene nailed with what system you are currently using.

Sigma SD1 breakdown as reported from Japan.  The camera is developed there and prototypes have been previewed and used by some there so I’ll cut and paste some specs from that japanese blog post below.

I’ve seen the full sized fashion shoot photos done with the 46mp SD1, and the details are stunning.  One of the top master printers in the USA who did the printing for Sigma has stated that the SD1 out resolves every single pro DSLR available today (think Nikon D3x or Canon 1Ds Mark III), but he said it falls shy of medium format.

Before you poo-poo the camera, consider this… the target price for body only is $1600-$1700 US.

• X3F RAW file sizes range from 45-50MB
• The JPEG in RAW+JPEG mode are around 7MB
• There is little to no difference between write times for RAW+JPEG and plain RAW
• One RAW file takes about 10 seconds to write to card
• At present the camera is verified to utilize UDMA Mode 6 cards
• They (Sigma?) is currently verifying UDMA Mode 7 cards and these should be faster than Mode 6 cards.

• A new version of SPP will be needed to process SD1 RAW files. (You get an error if you try to open SD1 files in the current version of SPP.)
• The RAW processing algorithms are completely different.
• SPP for the SD1 is currently under development (It will support RAW files from current cameras.)
• [ed: hmm...] An additional “Adjustment RAW mode” will be added due to the increased complexity of the RAW data coming from the SD1
• In “Adjustment Mode” you won’t be able to use the loupe or magnify the image, however, processing speed will be increased ten-fold.
• You will be able to use this mode with current RAW files, but there won’t be an equivalent speed increase
• The workflow will be where you modify a RAW image in “Adjustment mode” then you convert it to a Full RAW file.
• Sigma is looking into a Kelvin-based white-balance adjustment, but they are finding it difficult to achieve. This is mainly because with Bayer sensors you deal with a two-axis adjustment, but with Foveon it is a three-axis adjustment.
• High sensitivity is an algorithm with a goal to keep as much color information as possible. So with the current Foveon sensors (in current cameras) produce a large amount of noise as sensitivity increases. With the new Foveon sensor there is barely any noise.

• ISO sensitivities from 100 to 6400
• ISO800 produces almost no noise and ISO1600 is very usable
• ISO6400 is available in “Extended Mode”
• The SD1s shown at CP+ had a Firmware version of 0.5. It looks like there are quite a number of incomplete functions and a number of bugs remain.
• The back-side AF button was on the camera, but it currently doesn’t function.
• Autofocus on the demo units was clearly faster than the SD15 and will only improve over time.
• All 11 AF points are twin-cross sensors and every sensor is equally sensitive.
• The AF sensor was announced to be sensitive from -EV2 to 18, but the final unit will be sensitive from -1EV. [ed: there was perhaps a typo here. I couldn't tell if the announced sensitivity was -2EV or just 2EV...]
• AF Micro-Adjustments will be available on a per-lens basis, but it’s not clear how many lenses worth of storage the final unit will support.
• The top LCD was removed from the SD1, but each button will display information on the LCD screen when pressed.
• The SD1 specs show the rear LCD to be the same specs as the unit on the SD15, but the LCD on the units at the show seem to be different and much better.
• All of the SD cameras have been easy to hold, but the SD1 is even more so.
• There is a mysterious menu item selection that seems to indicate that you will be able to change the lens information (this is unknown and may not even end up in the final product)
• Even though the camera might record the lens information, Sigma does not and will not apply and lens corrections to the files in-camera.
• There is a “Cleaning Mode” in the menu system (The feature was in previous SD cameras, but it was never easy to remember how to do it.)
• The shutter sound is even quieter in the SD1
• Mirror-shock is smaller (even though it was small enough even in the SD15)
• The viewfinder looks even brighter now that the crop-factor is 1.5x instead of the 1.7x in other SD cameras.