I hope I’m not boring you with all my photography posts..

But I tried HDR for the first time today! And I have to say, holy crap it’s FUN! The colors just pop from a pretty dull greyish photo and it just looks vibrant and alive. The photo to the left is a “real” HDR, composed of three exposures. I tonemapped both photos in Photomatix which is where the colors just popped, so much fun I then edited curves a bit in photoshop and applied the unsharp mask to make it a bit more crisp. I also enhanced vibrance and saturation in the sky in both pictures. The photo to the left is a “pseudo” HDR, an HDR from a single RAW file. I took the RAW file and saved three jpg versions of it with exposures +2, 0 and -2. I think I actually like the photo of the barrel better, probably because it has more different colors, the rust on the barrel, the dry yellow grass and cloudy sky.

Do come with comments and suggestions on how to improve I might have overdone the editing a bit, but I like the surreal effect of HDRs

I have uploaded the original, unedited, version of the pictures. Original of Real HDR and Original of Pseudo HDR, you really should take a look, the difference is amazing!

To share something more “personal”, I’m visiting my mom this weekend. I came home (to my mom) yesterday and I’m already having a great time. I met a friend I haven’t seen in well over a year and it was great to catch up It’s so nice to be home, not having to (or choosing not to) think about school at all, and just relaxing. Have a great weekend!  irate: