This is the product of 9 bracketed exposures, tone mapped in Photomatix, and edited in photoshop. The HDR panorama is the next shot.
Notice something different about these photos? Yep, you got it, I shot these HDR photos of a Vermont barn in the dead of winter without my coat on! Few, mystery solved. Why that’s significant is because the temperature was around 24°F. After a weekend in -25°F weather (no joke! even now I shiver at the memories) photographing Montreal and also dining with HDR guru Ken Kaminesky (interview with transcript here) it was pure bliss to romp around in the balmy barely-sub-freezing paradise of Vermont to bracket the shots for these photographs. This was a good example of us passing something photo worthy on the roadside, then me waiting 5 minutes before asking Lori if she minded if we turned around. We’ve all been there, was that a good shot?! maybe… but we’re already so far past it… I know but what if that shot is what finally gets Trey Ratcliff to notice me!!?? … Ack! There’s just too much at stake… “Honey, do you mind if we take 5 (or 20) minutes and head to that barn back there?”
Sidenote: This is the first post where I’ve shown images taken with my new Tokina 11-16mm f2.8 which I purchased after struggling to capture this 30 shot HDR panorama of a Christmas Tree.
This is 3 HDR photos each the product of 9 bracketed RAW files. That's a total of 27 photos.
Initial Photoshop Auto-Align of Source HDR Photos
After auto-aligning the source HDR photos, this time in Photoshop, Edit > Auto-Blend worked reasonably well and I decided not to manually mask and blend the Auto > Aligned layers.
Manual Perspective Adjustment in Photoshop
Recently Charles Laprica recommended the panorama software PTGui to me which would bypass all this manual perspective adjusting madness. There is a trial version that leaves a watermark, and the full version of the software is less than $100. It’s on my shopping list, but for now I’m sticking with Photoshop since it gets the job done and my rent doesn’t pay itself. Anyone out there had any experience with PTGui? Apparently it will also output 360VR panorama quicktime .mov files as well. I would love some feedback on that product.
Final Photoshop Edit with Adjustment Layers
Before/After Photoshop Edit of Final HDR Panorama
(Move the slider to compare before/after)
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this is ragedy!
Wow – these shots are amazing!!
And no coat – brrr!
Great shots! Very well done.
Really cool shot! I like the sun shinning through the barn, really nice touch. I love the Tokina and it is on my list to buy one day. I’ve rented it a couple times and really enjoyed it.
Thanks Adam! Rent? Wow I didn’t know people rented lenses. Makes sense though. Thanks for the idea. Keep it up on your blog too. I enjoy tuning in regularly.