Recently, Lori and I spent a very full 24hrs in Boston. We drove in on Friday evening (which is how I snagged that grim looking blue-hour HDR photo of Harvard Yard above) and then packed in as much as possible from 5:00am until sundown on Saturday. Why such a cramped schedule? Well, for one it’s more fun that way (arguable, I know); and secondly, Boston has so many photographic hot spots that it would feel like a waste not to. Don’t miss the sub 3:00 minute photo montage video below to be amazed by our super-human stamina and see all 1100+ photos from our 24hr adventure ^_^.
Getting back to what you’re really here for though… the photography (I hope). Harvard’s campus had a lot of cool buildings and Lori and I had to drive several loops through the campus before we finally settled on calling my friend Scott (who you may remember from Japan By Bicycle) to ask for a recommendation. Scott happens to live about 8 minutes away from Harvard and is fairly familiar with the campus. He’s also familiar with my photography habits from our bike trip, and patiently waited while I took photos until my memory card ran out of space (jk, but I like to think he’d be cool with that). To me, Harvard Yard at sundown was the epitome of creepy/cool (crool?). Although I’m sure it’s a totally friendly place, I was really getting a Tower of Terror vibe and tried to play that up in the editing (more on that after a short video break).
Epic Video Time! 1142 Photos in Under 3min
Post-Processing of the Lead Image
To create the lead image of this post, I followed my usual workflow outlined in my series The HDR Lifecycle. 7 Bracketed photos tone mapped in Photomatix and then blended and edited in Photoshop. This sucker took about 2.5 hours to finish and also as usual I did a jig when it was done.
Straight out of the Camera
(This is the +2 bracketed exposure)
Final Photoshop Edits
Before/After Photoshop Edits
(Slide the slider to compare the before/after shots. Best viewed in Firefox.)
The left side is after layer blending, but before adjusting contrast and color. The right side is the final HDR photo
[beforeafter]
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You are doing a great job. The photos are so stunning. So, fantastic HDR.
You had a great idea doing this photography..I love the shoot its really perfect for me..Hope you can share more photo..Thanks for sharing with us..
Such a beautiful HDR image! Great job!
Great use of HDR here, Andrew. This is the sort of image, together with your explanation, which should be used to sell the virtues of HDR and show people how to produce realistic images and not the over-blown, highly saturated ones.
Really super image Andrew. Beautifully processed and shows why HDR is a great process when used right. You are a bit of a lightweight though – only 1,200+ images (this coming from someone who was in Boston overnight to see Springsteen and did’t shoot more that 50 images). Cool video too, looks like you had fun.
Love the video Andrew. The picture is fantastic as well. Nice work with the detailed explanation as always my friend!
Love the processing on the HDR man and that video is so cool! Love your style of writing as well. Awesome post.
Hi Andrew,
I agree with other comments, you’ve done a great job. Keep it up. I’m sure you’re gonna be real famous.
Great work Andrew. Also love the montage, I got tired out just watching it. Whew! I think I’ll go take a nap now.
Pretty cool man, totally enjoyed the post
And the slider on the last image is darn cool as well!
I am getting more and more excited to try the HDR bit myself and see what all can be done…seems exciting and the world really seems to be moving in that direction…
Great HDR-work!