![]() I’ve accepted that you can’t please everyone, and, quite frankly, the opinion of anyone who dismisses an entire form of art out-of-hand probably isn’t worth worrying about, anyway. Some people might be dismissive of any work in the HDR style, but HDR can be utilized in so many ways that it makes little sense to lump all applications of HDR together. I’ve finally accepted that not everyone is going to like every style of photography (I know plenty of people don’t like my normal style!), and just because some HDR can have halos, grungy skies, or look like “clown barf,” that doesn’t totally invalidate the style. However, many of my friends in the Disney photography community were creating truly amazing HDR Disney photos that worked really well with the fantasy nature of the parks. I had avoided HDR in the past because of the negative stigma of HDR in the photography community, which was caused by a proliferation in heavily manipulated HDR photography. In the past year, I have been doing increasingly more HDR photography editing as I’ve strived to try new things with my photography. I periodically tested plugins and other programs from time to time, but that was my go-to combo. For a while, this had been the extent of my workflow. After this, I save the full size image and a web size. These tweaks usually only amount to about 5% of the changes in the photo’s look, but can take significantly longer to complete (it’s definitely a ‘diminishing return’…I might spend 30 minutes or longer adjusting something that most casual observers would never even notice). From there, I open the shot in Photoshop CS6, and do additional tweaking as appropriate, usually with a variety of adjustment layers. These steps have the impact of expanding dynamic range, even if they’re not HDR. I’d say about 95% of my editing comes in Adobe Camera Raw, usually via minor tweaks on the presets I have saved (this phase of the editing usually takes only a minute or two!) ![]() These presets vary, but the focus of each is recovering highlights, opening shadows, increasing contrast/blacks, and increasing vibrance. Generally, I start by opening photos in Adobe Camera Raw (many people use Lightroom–the two programs use the same processing engine, Lightroom is just a bit more robust) and applying a preset based on the type of photo. ![]() People often assume my Disney photos are HDR, and that’s typically not the case.Ī single blog post on my editing work flow would be impossible since what I do varies on a case by case basis. ![]() I receive a lot of questions about photography (mostly people asking about my equipment recommendations) and while I’ve covered a lot of topics and offered a lot of tips in blog posts here, I haven’t really delved into post processing. I’ll conclude with a look at Photomatix 5, including how it makes HDR easy for everyone. In this post I share some of my HDR photos, along with a basic look at my post processing workflow, and how HDR can fit into that. While faux HDR is easier than ever thanks to iPhone apps and other programs, true HDR is still a challenge for many photographers. The Disney theme parks lend themselves to the whimsical and vibrant post-processing style often associated with HDR photography, making this no surprise. HDR Photography is becoming increasingly popular, as are Disney HDR photos. ![]()
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