A cemetery meets HDR

When it comes to HDR I like to look for contrasty or more specifically items with lots of texture. One area that was new to me is the detail HDR can bring out with overcast skies. It brings an immense sense of mood to the table. Dina had a project to do here so I tagged along and tried to see what I could do. We visited the Moravian Cemetery on Staten Island. It is over 250 years old and encompasses over 113 acres of space. You can truly get lost in this place. It contains some amazing history and fantastic subjects. Of course when your there try to be as respectful as possible and not walk or trample on any of the grave sites. We are guests there.

I really love the detail and how well the HDR technique works with grave stones. All of these photos were taken with my Sigma 10-20mm. I envisioned the type of images in my head before I even set foot on location. Knowing the possibilities in Photomatrix pro 3 and what it can do to even to a single image creating a pseudo HDR image I was set. Like I have mentioned before about HDR; for me texture is key.

This is an image where too wide might be too much. We tend to approach the world with a wide angle and want to capture all its majesty. This possibility doesn’t occur all too often. With so many elements it is hard to distinguish your focal point. The goal is to simplify and only include items that will complement, not compete with your subject. Here my subject was the priest on the tall stone you may see in front of the bench. The tree trunk to the left for me competes with the scene. What I would do is go back and get closer. With extreme wide angle lenses, the closer is usually better. Let your subject smack you in the face and the surrounding area complement the subject.

This is an alternative orientation to the one previous to the previous image, . A lot of times it will pay to have different orientations to a scene. All to often we get locked into a horizontal plane. Why not throw it vertical, you might be pleasantly surprised.

This is an example about bringing your subject closer and using the surrounding elements to complement your subject. The subject is this angel with a broken left wing tip (hard to see the broken tip here.) The trees towering her surround the subject. Emphasizing the cloud cover encircling our angel. You’ll also notice I shot this photograph lower to the ground. Giving a bit more attention toward the ground rather than the sky portion of the image. I didn’t get right on top of these statues and stones however as I was a guest here.

I really enjoy this one personally. I think its simplicity that gets me and addition to detail training the direction of your eye.

This last image is a bit of HDR gone out of control. I brought the overall light smoothing down very low if not to its lowest. Kinda plays with your eyes a bit. Throws the background out of focus real hard, but the trunk of this tree remains much more clear to draw your eyes to itself. Definitely a more experimental piece.

One other tool I used in my images was a polarizer. It was a tool that I used to cut down on any shine that might be present from the midday sun and also added a bit of saturation (not its main purpose.) I personally haven’t shot an HDR image with a tripod yet. They sure recommend you using one though. I would have to agree It is for the best when you can. Sometimes the situation just doesn’t allow for it. So the key here is using your in camera bracketing. Set it for a 5-frame bracket or even a 7 or 9-frame bracket. Whatever you feel the dynamic range of the situation is going to call for. At a high zoom artifacts can be noticeable in some images. I believe this is due to not using a tripod. The auto-alignment works very well provided you hold still and use proper hand holding technique. Can’t hurt to lean on something at the same time to increase stability either. Will be doing more and more tests with this. Now many may ask if HDR always has this look? Nope it sure doesn’t. It is a highly selective movement of many, many sliders (don’t let that scare you.) I personally like bringing in that black point as I find the more photographic looking HDR image just looks awfully strange. Of course this all changes as we meet and greet new subjects in our photography. Has any of this inspired you to try it? Awesome. There is actually a free fully functional tutorial here. Have fun!

On a side note I have some time in the coming week to make a quick side trip. We’re thinking anything within driving range of 6-8hrs in any direction from NYC. Anyone have any suggestions? We were thinking Cape Cod, but it might be a tad early for the humpbacks, and Maine sounds awesome, but I’d hate to rush it. Feel free to drop a line!