Category Archives: photography

HDR

by in digital art, HDR, Leigh Kemp, photography | Leave a comment

Hi everyone,

I’ve been shooting HDR for some years now, here’s a good, if somewhat extreme, example. Shot at 6:30 AM this morning in VERY dim natural light.

Two images, a single frame using matrix evaluative light metering and a 5 frame HDR covering +/- 4 EV. Using the spot metering the shadow areas needed a shutter speed of 15 seconds (it was that dark ) and the highlight areas a shutter speed of 1/8 second and the evaluative light reading was 1/2 a second. To save some mental arithmetic it can be useful to use the exposure compensation dial in both directions to quickly see how many stops either way of the evaluative reading are required to achieve the required two shutter speeds (remember to reset it to +/- 0 EV before taking the shot).

I chose this because at 1/2 second it was pretty obvious that the highlights would be somewhat over exposed and the shadows drastically under exposed with a single frame exposure, a loose-loose scenario. In borderline situations the Olympus OM-D’s great on-screen highlight/shadow display is a very useful indication as to if, and to what degree there’s any advantage to using HDR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goEhh1n–hQ

The power of HDR 

Chalk: In the single frame shot the highlights areas, as seen in the white text box on the top left monitor, nearly completely blown out and the shadow areas have lost all detail, where they’re visible at all that is.

shack side frame.jpg

Cheese: Detail in both the highlight and shadow areas.

5 frame hdr of shack very good.jpg

Kind regards

Leigh

 

ThinkTANK Emergency Rain Cover revisited.

by in digital art, Leigh Kemp, photography, Photography equipment, Travel | 2 Comments

Hi everyone,

I guess there’s no perfect solution when it comes to rain covers. I’ve had this rain cover for a while now. It’s the best solution that I’ve found in terms of size, manufacturing quality and portability. It comes with its own storage pouch with a loop and I’ve attached a carabiner  so that it can hang from a d-ring on my camera bag if required. When the cover is wet it is nice to have a self-contained pouch to stuff it back in to and keep it separate from other gear.

IMG_0553 -1.jpg

Fitting is pretty straightforward, slip the camera in and attach to the camera’s hot shoe and then tighten the cinch strap around the lens hood. Even though I bought their small sized rain cover to suit my micro four thirds gear I find that the strap is still a bit big for most lens hoods but it does the job. Fitted here to my Olympus OM-D E-M5 mk2 with Lumix 12-60 mm lens.

IMG_0542 -1

There’s good room inside to get both hands in to operate the camera controls/tripod adjustments and the large transparent top/back panel affords a good view of the LCD screen etc..  There’s also a draw cord at the base of the cover.

IMG_0545 -1

All-in-all it has proved useful on a number of occasions, it weighs next to nothing and is a worthwhile addition to my camera bag.

Kind regards

Leigh