Tag 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

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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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!

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/

Pentax k-x review

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I’ve recently used the Pentax k-x a bit more to test out the in camera HDR feature.  At first I was under whelmed, but like usual, I messed with settings on my own until I got results I’m happy with.  Maybe not elated with, but happy/satisfied.  First I’ll post a few images, then I’ll explain how I tweaked camera settings to get to a warm, happy place.  Again, these shots were not single frame captures, they utilized the Pentax k-x merge to HDR (in camera) feature and then I tweaked them quickly in post. (They were all taken with the Pentax K-x “kit” lens)






I initially discussed the Pentax k-x some time ago and you can see my comments and test shots from that post: http://hdriblog.com/pentax-k-x-initial-test/

I still do not like the results from using the “HDR Strong” which is also HDR 2 under the two in camera HDR settings.  ”HDR Standard” which is also HDR 1 under the menu settings is less dramatic and the following workflow is what I used to get the image results above.

If you’ve never tried this k-x setting you need to do a few things to your camera settings…

1. Press the MENU button to go into the Menu settings and change file format to JPEG and press the menu button again to get back to the typical LCD settings.

2. Then press the INFO button which is just above the Menu button. On the top line over to the right four squares is the menu option “HDR OFF“.  You can change this option two ways.  You can highlight that option and then use the scroll wheel with your thumb moving it to the right to flip to HDR 1, then HDR 2  –OR– you can highlight HDR OFF and press the OK button and then a screen pops up with the three options and just select the one you want and hit OK again.  Obviously, the fastest way to do this is the first way I described.  Highlight HDR OFF and then use the scroll wheel to change it to HDR 1 or HDR 2.  You’ll see shortly why that scroll wheel is the better option.

Each of the images above are a combination of two captures that I brought into photoshop.  Those two captures which were shot from the EXACT same location on a tri-pod were taken by….

1. First taking a shot using the “HDR-1″ setting (also called HDR Standard).
2. Press and hold the shutter so that it takes the 3 consecutive shots (it is auto bracketing and will then immediately process the three shots over the next 10-12 seconds).
3. Then hit the INFO button & scroll the wheel to the right once to select “HDR-2″ (also called HDR Strong) and again press/hold the shutter to fire off the second bracket.

Now here’s the key… Before taking each exposure I forced the exposure compensation to at LEAST +1EV for each of the above outside shots and adjusted the interior shots up by almost +2EV.  That can be changed by using your right index finger and holding down the button just to the left of the shutter then use your right thumb to scroll the wheel to the right to increase the EV number.  Why do this? …

.. because I found if you fire off the camera when in either of the two HDR modes with exposure compensation set at ZERO, the merge to HDR and in camera tonemapping seems to over crush the highlights and you end up with very “dirty” mid tones and darker shadows than you would want ideally.

The camera is of course firing off three images. One under exposed, one middle, one over exposed.  It then merges those 3 bracketed shots to HDR in-camera, it then processes and tonemaps the HDR and saves the result as a JPEG.  You can’t get anything but a JPEG as a final file (unfortunately).

When I got back from shooting, I would then open the first shot (HDR 1 / HDR Standard) in photoshop.  Then FILE>PLACE the second image  (HDR  2 / HDR Strong) over top of the first image. I then drop the opacity of the top layer (HDR Strong) to about 30% as a starting point and then change its blend mode in the layers palette to either OVERLAY or SOFT LIGHT.  Then I just adjust opacity of that layer up or down to get the feel of the image to a satisfying level.  Save and export.

You may find that you like the HDR Strong layer better than the HDR Standard (your call and whatever floats your boat).  If so, simply reverse the layers so that the bottom layer is HDR Strong image and with the standard NORMAL blend mode and then have the top level be the HDR Standard image and change its opacity and blend mode as described above.

GOTCHAS - If you moved the camera slightly when you switched the camera menu settings between shots, you may need to use Photoshop’s align feature.  You click the bottom layer and shift select the other layer so they are both selected.  Then from the file menu EDIT>AUTO ALIGN LAYERS to have photoshop align the pixels.

UPSIDE:
You don’t need to do any MERGE to HDR and tonemapping because the Pentax k-x HDR Mode is doing that for you.

DOWNSIDE:
Fast moving objects make this two pronged approach a challenge and works best with static scenes. You need to use a tri-pod for best results. The time the k-x takes to process each shot can slow you down when shooting like this. You need a program that utilizes blend modes like Photoshop or a free application like GIMP (which is an open source, photoshop “like” app).

HDR and HDR Video – Digital Convergence Podcast

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I had the pleasure of speaking with Carl Olson of 16 x 9 Cinema who runs the Digital Convergence Podcast. He interviewed me about HDR photography, HDR Video and in the process I also explained a little about how I got started and a bit about my typical workflow.

The podcast where I discuss HDR – HDR Video is linked on his blog HERE.

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Show notes & his iTunes feed is on his blog and I’ll repost that and shownotes below as well:

AAC (iTunes) version here: Digital Convergence Episode 5

RSS Feed: Subscribe to the 16×9 Cinema Digital Convergence Podcast

Subscribe in iTunes here: 16×9 Cinema Digital Convergence Podcast

Links from the podcast:

My Website: Digital Coast Image

Michael James on Twitter: HDRphotography

Jay Burlage – HDR filmmaker (Michael James cites Jay as a leading source of information on the OpenMoco project and creator of gorgeous time-lapse cinema. Check out Jay’s video below.)

Jay Burlage on Twitter: MiLapse

Jay Burlage’s YouTube Channel: MiLapse

OpenMoco – Open-Source Photographic Motion-Control

Promote Control

LR/Enfuse – Enfuse for Lightroom

Red Epic / Scarlet