Machinery 2.9 example

Further to yesterday's post, I thought I'd show a quick example of a single exposure enhanced with Machinery HDR 2.9. It's not the perfect example since there's some moderate JPG artefaction happening but overall I think you can see the effect. Nothing too dramatic, just a basic preset easily toned down if it's thought to be too strong (it's probably a little over-sharpened) but comparing it with the base image on the left, I think it definitely adds a desirable enhancement.

Machinery HDR 2.9

One of the things I like about the Machinery HDR software is that it's clear that it's continuously being improved and developed behind the scenes. It seems as though every other time I start it up, there's a new version to update to. We're now on version 2.9 which professed "improved ghost removal" (something I'd commented before was weaker when compared with Photomatix). I'll be honest, I'm still not seeing it but the overall improvement in HDR quality from, say, v2.6 means that I can often remove the single exposure that's causing the ghost and I'm still able to get the overall effect I want from only two (JPG) exposures. Of course that doesn't help if you've got movement between all three frames, but it's something worth having nonetheless.

As I said, the overall improvement to HDR is great- it achieves an increasingly 'natural' HDR look (something they've always strived for). Blacks are well preserved, something I always struggled with in Photomatix where it would make my pictures look washed out, the famous HDR halo effect is all but banished entirely and, perhaps most surprisingly, it's able to achieve great effects from a single JPG exposure. Even for non-typical HDR subjects such as portraits. I'm now using it as a generic post-processing tool for pictures I wouldn't describe as HDR per se (e.g. the snap of Sacha, above). I'm seeing it really emphasize depth in a number of shots and it definitely bears further experimentation.

More Italy & San Marino pics

Venice & San Marino

I got back from a trip to Italy (primarily Venice) and San Marino about a week ago. Plenty of photographic opportunity, particularly for my speciality of HDR urban landscape. I think I'm reaching a consistant standard in this type of photography now, time to identify the weaknesses and target some work to improve on them.

More Machinery

I'm continuing to use my new HDR software, Machinery, mostly to revisit shots from my 2013 trips to South-East Asia and the USA. The above shot is one which has come out favourably from the process, especially compared to its former Photomatix equivalent. The natural HDR look that Machinery pitches for (as of v2.8) totally eliminates the 'halo' effect that so frequently plagues HDR output as well as getting truer blacks. I'm certainly getting better shots out of it. I still intend to do a proper like-for-like Photomatix vs. Machinery at some point, though.

HDR Machinery update

I'm still using Machinery for my HDR processing. Overall I'm really happy with the software, particularly in contrast to Photomatix which it beats hands-down in terms of speed and transparency of process. It's ghost removal isn't anywhere near as good but I suppose you can't have everything.

That said, it's had a couple of updates lately up to version 2.8 which have seemingly removed a couple of features that I routinely use to achieve the particular look that I want. First, the 2.7 update (or possibly 2.6) removed a 'midtones' slider from the HDR processing panel and 2.8 seems to have shifted the 'lights' and 'shadows' slider to post-processing rather than having them affect the HDR process itself and I'm struggling to achieve my usual look as a result.

Hopefully I'll find a method to recreate what I could do before, I'd hate to think the product update has meant a genuine loss of functionality.

Update: Seems like the the light/shadow sliders are actually feeding into the HDR process as they did before but I'm still not still not sure that I'm able to use them to get the same contrast in, for example, clouds as I used to be able to without making items in the foreground unworkably dark. I'll keep plugging away at it and also maybe see if I can find an installer for v2.6 while I'm at it. Being able to dual-install both versions would be nice but I don't know how workable that is.

HDR compare and contrast

I stumbled upon HDR One magazine the other day and obviously it's a great resource for the type of photography that I most commonly do. As well as the articles themselves, it's also provided some great suggestions of HDR software out there. I've picked up a demo of Machinery to try it out and it's definitely an interesting contrast with Photomatix. Machinery does profess an intent towards natural HDR, which isn't usually what I aim for but maybe I should. All the more reason to experiment.

I must emphasise at this point that I have, at time of writing, only had to run a couple of images through it so there's lots more exploration to be done but here are two images- the first done in Photomatix, the second done in Machinery: The difference is obvious- Machinery certainly does create a more naturalistic HDR image. Also look at how crisp that bastard is! Not only does Machinery provide built-in sharpening but the halo-ing effect (so often the bane of HDR) is reduced, presumably due to the more natural look. Take a look at the streetlights on the left of the image, for example (both in the foreground and the BG) and the superior detail on the shelf of Buddha figures. It's also astonishingly fast and does a genuine live change as opposed to Photomatix's two-stage 'guestimate' process, which has always bothered me, to be honest.

Obviously this image comparison also depends on the settings and post-HDR-processing each image has been run through. They've both had the contrast lowered and brightness increased. The Photomatix image was sharpened a touch and the Machinery one had it's saturation upped a bit since lowering the contrast left it a little washed out (or maybe I'm just too used to Photomatix output).

Overall, perhaps as you'd expect, it seems that the different softwares both have areas in which they are superior but it certainly seems that the de facto industry standard position that Photomatix seems to enjoy can be challenged. In any case, I definitely need to do some more experimentation with Machinery to see what I can get out of it but first experience has definitely left a positive impression.

Southeast Asia trip #1

It's been a while since I posted and at least part of the reason for this is that I spent the first part of the year touring around a large slice of Southeast Asia.

I took a huge number of photos of course (around 3000) so it's taking forever to process them. One thing I've found myself doing is taking nothing but HDR cityscape and architectural study. These do tend to be some of my stronger pieces but I do need to be mindful that I don't miss opportunities to capture other subjects better suited to different techniques.

Anyway, even the HDR ones are proving tricky, possibly because I still need to better understand my HDR software but I'll continue to plug away at it. In the meantime, here's one that's come out successfully- the view of Ho Chi Minh city (Saigon) from the bar at the Sheraton hotel. And happy New Year, everyone!


Unfortunately I had to take the shot freehand- no tripod available, which would have made it crisper but it came out well, considering.

Contrasting views

Not a huge amount to say by way of photographic updates but I've had a couple of nice sunsets viewable from my apartment so here they are captured in HDR. The first one has an off-the-shelf filter applied beyond the HDR process whereas the second is straight-up HDR with only the usual brightness/contrast/sharpness tweaks.

D600 revisited

I've continued to follow the D600 after its ridiculously pricy UK launch and, at time of writing, it's come down in price 21% on Amazon to a much more reasonable £1540. This puts it much more within my price range for what I'd be prepared to pay for a camera at this level, i.e. entry-level full-frame, but there was one more disappointment when we had the release announcement which is that it only does three-stage Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB). For those you who aren't aware, AEB makes HDR photography (which I do a lot of) very easy- I switch it on, hold down my shutter release and my camera will take three photos at varying levels of exposure for my HDR software to combine.

...and that's my point, this is what I do with my current camera, a D7000, and the D600 doesn't give me any more exposures. The D800 will let you do up to seven so I was hoping for at least five from a camera that costs twice as much as my 'humble' D7000.

Or so I thought, but then reading about how the D600's sensor already has a superior dynamic range and so each of those three exposures is still delivering more from an HDR perspective. Just how much more is a bit more difficult to quantify.

I also realised that, in order to get the benefit of the new camera, I'd also have to replace all my DX (cropped) format lenses so I'd be looking at at least a £3000 spend in total.

Maybe not something I'll be doing too soon, then...

Derwent Valley

I went hiking in the Upper Derwent Valley with a friend on Saturday. It's the first time I've been hiking in quite a while. Since I took up photography, in fact. I rarely have an opportunity to shoot rural landscapes so I relished the chance and got some decent photos, quite possibly some of my best, despite still suffering from lens artifacts. I'll do the usual of trying to clean up the source images before pushing it through the HDR process again and I'm going to invest in a proper camera cleaning kit (or just pay a professional to do it for me).

HDR and freckling

A colleague who is similarly photographic suggested we go out of an evening to take some HDR shots. I think she knows I do quite a bit of HDR and was keen to see what it was about. I got some good results but my I'm struggling with freckling in some many shots taken later in the evening. The HDR process exacerbates the problem but I can see the marks on the source images. I've cleaned the lens and am certain it's spotless, I've even cleaned my mirror but the freckling still occurs. So it could be my sensor or failing that, I'm left with the terrible prospect that it's dirt inside the lens itself. Whatever the cause, it needs to be sorted before I go away for new year. I'll try to test the theory by taking a shot that freckles on my wide-angle lens, replacing the lens and seeing if it still occurs. If it does, it's the mirror or sensor in the camera body, if not, it's the lens. At least that'll give me a better idea of where I stand.

Unless of course it's both lenses.

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

These are some more of the photos from my recent Austria trip- HDR shots of the state hall from Austria's national library in Vienna. A blogger working for Vienna university library was kind enough to feature them on the university library blog. I didn't have my tripod with me (nor do I particularly have a reason to think I would have been allowed to use it if I had) but the HDR has come out crisply regardless. Some loss of sharpness in the foreground of some shots so I still need to refine my technique but I think I'm improving my HDR overall.

I can't help wonder if there isn't some duplication in the shots, though. Do I really need all six? What do you think?

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

It's been quite a while since I updated and at least part of the reason for that is that I've been travelling again, this time to Ireland, Austria and Slovakia. I've got some of the best photos I've ever taken from that trip so I think that over the next few updates I'll be sharing some of those with you. The above is from the long room of the Austrian National Library, perhaps the most beautiful and moving building I've ever stood in, which is especially remarkable given that it is not a religious building.

Tech upgrade

So the new laptop has arrived and I've got busy with Photomatix and GIMP. Particularly GIMP which I've not really used much before. I've obtained some scripts to replicate some of the effects I used to use with Picnik- Ortonography and Vignette, mostly. I even still dip into Aviary in Flickr when it suits.

Both Photomatix and GIMP run faster than on my old machine (even when it was at its best) but not quite the breakneck speed that I was perhaps expecting but it's ok, I'm happy with the step up. I'm still not entirely happy with how Photomatix operates, though. It comes up with a preview image which you tweak before instructing it to process the final image. The problem is that the final image doesn't match the preview, which is no end of frustrating. Can anyone recommend any other good HDR software? Photomatix is great but it does let itself down in a big way with this one issue.

As for the images that accompany this post, they're more examples of HDR efforts around la Sagrada Familia and one more atheist's love affair with the buildings of a religion he doesn't subscribe to. Christianity does provide some good photo ops, I'll give it that.

Barcelona and laptop upgrade

I've just returned from a stag do in Barcelona. Not exactly a perfect photography holiday but I've got a few that are nice. Most notable was the trip to la Sagrada Familia, a modern cathedral designed by Gaudi with an interior intended to resemble a forest. Very well thought out- the columns are made from different coloured/shaded stone so that from the back it gets darker and darker towards the front until there's a golden sunburst intended to represent God. Even as an atheist, that's impressive.

I was looking forward to creating some HDR images I took there but computer problems have meant that it's running very slowly and HDR processing is lengthy at the best of times. I use Photomatix for HDR and it's taking a full 10 minutes to get through to the preview stage. After that, I have to tweak the presets and settings and tell it to process which takes another couple of minutes. If the image doesn't come out quite right, it's back to the start. Long story short, I decided that enough was enough and bought a new laptop so I look forward to powering through the rest of the HDR work and improving on the image above.

HDR Town Hall

Just another HDR image from my home city. This was taken very much off the cuff and I'm amazed that it came out as well as it did. Especially since the overexposed shot was so blurry. The HDR process helps to restore that.

Technicolour bridge

Just a bit more HDR experimentation. This bridge is, well, colourful. It comes from the same location as the previous entry and, being shot close up, likewise escaped the fog that plagued the rest of the shoot.

The Lowry Theatre

Another unreal landscape from my native city (well okay, it's from our sister city over the water but that's kind of a semantics thing as far as I'm concerned). I went to a show here last night, arrived early and took some shots while I waited. Again, forgot the lens hood and didn't bring the tripod and the area was blanketed with fog (not, it turns out, good HDR material) but I still managed to get this shot, easily the best of the bunch. The lights in the bottom left of the frame bother me a lot since they really distract from the main focus of the picture. The vignette effect helped to mute them a bit but I couldn't eclipse them without compromising the composition. Even so, I'm happy with the shot overall, especially after my usual less than subtle post-processing effects.

My basic HDR process

Following on from my last entry, I thought I'd give a little insight on the comparatively basic process I use in creating images such as the one I posted.


So this is the raw image that my camera took, having assessed the light in the scene etc.


This is the HDR image having mixed in one overexposed and one underexposed shot (D7000 only supports 3-step autobracketing).


...and this is the image after further post-processing. A little sharpening, exposure/contrast and filters and you get this less-than-subtle fantasy skyline.