Sunday, August 30, 2009

The Funny Farm

Funny Farm-5
This was a great week for photography.  I have plenty of backlogged photographs to process, but I promised Dianna at The Funny Farm I would get this post up quickly (BTW, thanks for generously allowing me the time to do some shooting at The Funny Farm!).
Funny Farm-4
The Funny Farm is a wonderful roadside vegetable stand and gift shop in Callaway, Maryland.  If you are ever roaming the beautiful countryside of southern Maryland, I highly recommend a stop at the Funny Farm.
Funny Farm-2
Not only has it been a great week for photography, I’m having a great time experimenting with HDR (see several recent posts on the subject).  I have not fully formulated my thoughts on HDR, but I have discovered a few points regarding the kinds of shots that are good candidates for HDR.
Funny Farm-3
So far, I find the following conditions favorable for good HDR results:
  1. Situations with a range of light that cannot be captured in a single exposure (duh!).  In other words, under a single exposure, you would either lose detail in the highlights or the shadows due to the dynamic range limitations of the camera.
  2. Lots of color.  HDR does fun things with color.  The Funny Farm pictures are a good example.
  3. Shooting into the sun.  This is directly related to the first point, but is a specific application.  We have all seen the colorful sunset pictures…that largely turnout as a colorful sky and silhouettes or complete disappearance of most anything else in the shot.  HDR lets you recapture the missing details.  See the last photograph in this post featuring a beach in Piney Point, MD.
  4. Compositions that you want to result in gritty mood.  My recent post on skateboarding at the Bridge Spot is an example.
Funny Farm
I’m certain I will learn more as I continue to experiment.  In the mean time, I am having a wonderful time attempting to master this approach.
Piney Point Beach
Go make some great photography!
Craig

1 comment:

  1. I'm liking the characteristic divisions within the same photos. These are my words and only I know what they mean. However, being good friends, I'm assuming you understand what I'm trying to say. If not, we can discuss it over a cigar and scotch.

    On another note, my purchase of a new camera recently got trumped by the replacement of an air conditioner for my vehicle here in Texas. Hopefully, it won't be too much longer before I graduate up to the D50 EOS.

    Great photos and intel on this and your more recent posts. THANKS!

    ReplyDelete