tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-105576612024-03-13T10:37:33.220-07:00Kaddi's ManeAll my ramblingsSudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.comBlogger111125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-46684411958139002011-05-23T10:31:00.000-07:002011-05-23T10:31:24.149-07:00Image Rollover TestTesting the Before/After image rollovers. Hover your mouse over the image to see the before version.<br>
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</a>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-76941890163509232302010-11-23T19:08:00.000-08:002010-11-23T19:08:04.381-08:00Chase<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/5202675811/" title="Chase" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5283/5202675811_fb0ceab2b4.jpg" width="500" height="342" alt="Chase" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: <i>Nikon D300s, Nikkor 70-300 @210mm; f/5.3 with ISO 400 for 1/500 sec</i><br><br><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/5202675811/" title="Chase 2" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4152/5203278986_6b5a2871ac.jpg" width="356" height="500" alt="Chase 2" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: <i>Nikon D300s, Nikkor 70-300 @70mm; f/4.5 with ISO 400 for 1/500 sec.</i><br><br><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/5202675811/" title="Chase 3" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5207/5203280378_edd3822b50.jpg" width="342" height="500" alt="Chase 3" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: <i>Nikon D300s, Nikkor 70-300 @170mm; f/5 with ISO 400 for 1/2000 sec</i><br><br><b>Meet Chase</b>: He is our neighbour's pet, pretty laid back in life, doesn't get too excited (often) and seems to enjoy his life. He is very moody though and only my elder daughter has the right to mess with him. I have to use treats to remind him of me when I'm returning from a long visit, but my daughter gets recognized right away. She is allowed to mess with his eyes, ears and even his tail and all these things are off limits to others. Overall he has a very pleasing personality and everybody around just adores him. Of course he gets more mentions from my daughter (which was quite obvious) as the feeling is pretty mutual there.<br><br><b>About this shot</b>: These were taken as part of an impromtu portrait session near our house. The light was kinda perfect with warm evening glow. Of course to get him crisp, I had to keep my shutter speed to 1/500 of a second or more. So increased my ISO to 400 and opened up the aperture as wide it can go. For portraits I really like the shallow DOF given out by the wide apertures. For the full pose, I had to increase my shutter to 1/2000 of a second as Chase is dominated by white color under his mouth and belly.<br><br><b>Processing</b>: Other than the usual contrast adjustment that I do on all my pics, these needed a slight desaturation. I'm not sure whether it was my monitor problem or the color rendered by the 70-300mm glass. But I've never de-saturated a color pic before, so I'm guessing that it might be a problem with my monitor and the ambient light used during the post. With that done, all I had to do was re-size and upload it for the web :)Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-78870707110294275942010-11-15T15:42:00.000-08:002010-11-15T15:42:20.896-08:00Fresnel Lighting of Pigeon Point Lighthouse<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/5173806803/" title="Fresnel Lighting of Pigeon Point Lighthouse by kaddisudhi" target=_blank><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4145/5173806803_b50f5a893e.jpg" width="500" height="341" alt="Fresnel Lighting of Pigeon Point Lighthouse" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: Nikon D300s; Tokina 12-24 @24mm, ISO 200, f/6.3 for 250s<br><br>On Saturday 13th Nov, 2010 - I had my shot at the famous annual lighting of Pigeon Point Lighthouse. It has been a long wait. I was away in India when I came to know that this year they are going to have the lighting and was thrilled. Luckily I was scheduled to return to the bay area on the way week. So I started thinking about the logistics of heading to this event.<br><br>This place is about 40 miles from where I stay and it would around 1/2 hour to reach there without hitting any traffic on the way. But that has never happened as there are bound to be some congestion points along the way. So I gave myself about 2hrs for commute. <br><br>Once the drive was addressed, then I had to worry about getting there early enough to find a spot. The place would be crowded with photogs and its really hard to find parking space (both for your tripod and the car). So I figured if I could reach the place between 1-2 pm in the afternoon, I should have a decent head start. The lighting would happen at 6 PM, so 4-5hr lead time was good enough. I had a composition in mind for so long that I didn't want to make any stupid logistical mistake in getting it.<br><br><a href="http://www.bayareanightphoto.com" target="_blank">Bay Area Night Photography</a> group also had planned an event for this. The group collected $4 from each participant and donated the amount for the state park. It is these little things that I like about this group. Whenever there is an opportunity to donate something to the location authorities, they do it. Also people are so friendly and fun to be with. So 4 of us got together for carpool and our designated time to leave for the event was around 2:30 PM. This got me little worried, but our driver (Illeana) did an awesome job of getting us there, taking care of the parking the car while we souted for spots. She deserves a BIG Thank You.<br><br>The shot I was going after was the one with the fence starting from the bottom right and leading upto the lighthouse, with enough space for the beams to be included. I was also hoping that there would be little fog which would have made the light beams stand out. So with this composition in mind, we reached near the fence and setup our tripods. After like an hour waiting there, I had a peek at another photog and was jealous of his composition which looked neat. But I was too late to grab that spot, so we stood in our initial locations.<br><br>The lighting of the Fresnel Lens starts at 6 PM and they keep lens stationary for the first 5 mins so that photogs can take pictures of enormous beams. So you have 5 mins to get the shot you have in mind for it. My initial shot went for about 2 mins and that was way underexposed. I even tried a portrait orientation and managed to get some "ok" kinda shots, but was very disappointed. I've been waiting for 2 years to attend this event and about an year and half to make a picture of it. <br><br>While taking a small break, one of the other member of Bay Area Night Photography group mentioned that they also keep the lens stationary for the last 5 mins before turning it off. So this got me thinking; the people at the lighthouse know that some of the photogs don't get it the first time and are willing to give them a second chance. So I ran back and started scouting for location again. Wasn't easy to find one, but I was running around frantically to find any kind of composition. After making onto a small nearby bridge, took a test shot and wasn't happy at all. Thats when it stuck me to go back to the original composition that I had in mind and couldn't get it right the first time. <br><br>So with all those things going on in the head, I went back to the orignal location and got this one. I was really happy by the preview on the LCD. So happy that I really forgot not to celebrate anything till I see the results on the big screen. Once I got back home, had a look at it and was reasonably happy with it. Why? Coz I can find so many mistakes in it. Its like my mind is never satistified. But this one comes very close to what I had and from that point of view its a huge success. Managed to even get a small star trail in it :)<br><br>Again in post, used curves to darken the sky a little bit and it was all ready. The overall experience of the meetup with other folks and coming back with this one was really pleasant and had loads of fun. I'm already thinking of some angles for the next event of this one - which rumours has it that it won't be happening in 2011. So whenever that happens, I got to repeat the whole set of steps again :)Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-86896182589839511432010-10-01T17:26:00.000-07:002010-10-01T17:26:38.393-07:00Wolf Snake<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/5042524563/" target="_blank" title="Wolf Snake by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4113/5042524563_1dd8922587.jpg" width="444" height="500" alt="Wolf Snake" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: <i>Single shot with Nikon D300s using 70-300m @210mm; f/5.3 with ISO 200 for 1/50 sec. Used the on-board pop-up flash for fill-in, set to 1/50 of its full power.</i><br><br>As a city grows, it starts to encroach the land of the wild and snakes form the majority of them in Bangalore and most often than not, it gets killed in the name of safety to humans. There are quite a few people who see otherwise; they catch these reptiles and release them in the wild, ensuring that there is no danger for both humans and reptiles. One such guy is Karthik (A kid who we literally saw him grow up) who gets called whenever a snake is sighted in the city.<br><br><b>About this shot</b>: This little fella, a wolf snake, got his freedom during a bird watching outing in Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore. Usually very shy and hece you got to be very patient to get his head in a shot. Instead of just getting his head, I choose to include Karthik's hand to give a sense of scale.<br><br>Here is another view of him<br><br><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4146/5043146110_667342a02c.jpg" width="500" height="313"><br><br><b>Processing</b>: This was pretty simple than I thought. Just used the curves for contrast enhancement and little bit of sharpening for web display and it was all done.Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-35659145425381627952010-09-30T22:28:00.000-07:002010-09-30T22:28:30.999-07:00Up in the Air - 1<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/5039537717/" target="_blank" title="Up in the air - 1 by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4148/5039537717_76f4d4094c.jpg" width="500" height="340" alt="Up in the air - 1" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: <i>Single shot with D300s; 50mm using f/8.0 with ISO 200 for 1/1250 sec.</i><br><br>This shot was taken somewhere en route to BLR from SFO, on an Emirates flight. I've quite a lot of shots taken through the window seat on flights, so this is going to be a new series that I want to get them all done.<br><br>My memory of the first flight ever is still fresh. It was a short one (compared to now) of BLR to Abu Dhabi, a palce where I was going to start my first international job back in 1999. I was assigned a window seat and the entire 3 hrs, I just kept looking out of the window. Due to my height and the cramped economy seats, I started requesting for an aisle seat. Its been over 10+ yrs that I now want to be seated on an emergency window seat...does work both ways; have enough leg room for a comfortable journey and I get to see the wonders through the tiny hole.<br><br><b>About this shot</b>: Imagine a vantage point just above the clouds. That would be just enough to get one's juices going as you can find a range of patterns. But I wanted to include part of my vantage point in the shot; could have been anything like the window of the seat, huge turbine or in this case, the wing of the plane itself. I hope this does give the viewer an idea of where the shot was taken from.<br><br>I've sat in seats that didn't have any opportunity of including anything of the plane (with the exception of the window itself) and have taken some shots, which at that time was compelling enough, but I'm not sure whether I would process them now. Well, you'll get to see if I do in this "Up in the Air" series.<br><br><b>Processing</b>: I'm now becoming a huge fan of "Curves"; Its one tool that can do so many things, right from fixing the black & white points to color correction, control contrast and even toning. So I'm making a habit of using just that. Since I still can't do "complete" toning in curves, had to use channel mixer for it. After the curves adjustments, resized the image and applied a slight "Smart Sharpen" for web display.Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-79206760859192993412010-09-29T23:33:00.000-07:002010-09-29T23:33:50.101-07:00My Second Angel<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/5027778908/" target="_blank" title="My Second Angel - Tara by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/5027778908_69720bedf6.jpg" width="500" height="282" alt="My Second Angel - Tara" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: <i>Single shot with Nikon D300s using a 50mm prime; f/1.8 with ISO 200 for 1/30 of sec</i>.<br><br>I've always preferred to be the father of girl kids than boys, not sure why, but thats how it has been and now I can proudly say that I've what I wished for - father of 2 girls.<br><br><b>About this shot</b>: It was time that I started playing with portraits of kids - though I admit that I hate doing portraits. But you got to love kids, they keep things simple and they can give you a range of emotions to capture in a short period of time. <br><br> This was one of those moments. We were still in the hospital and the baby had to be woken up for feeding time and I had a hard time with it. Tried all the usual things like changing the diaper, tickling, picking her up, changing her dress, nothing seemed to get her up. I gave up and decided to just open up the blinds of the window. In case a very bright diffused sunlight. Diffused by the kind of blinds they had for the windows and to top it, the sheets used for the beds, pillows were all crisp and white - A perfect setup to play with high-key images. <br><br>Quickly undressed the little one and placed it close enough to get bright lights all around. Since she was in deep sleep, didn't have much trouble in positioning her on a soft pillow giving enough room for the umbilical cord. After couple of takes, she was still sleeping and I couldn't just go on, so she went back to her bassinet and I back to the laptop. <br><br><b>Processing</b>: My mind was still seeing the high-key image of her, but the moment I started processing the raw file in Lightroom, I got diverted towards B&W with a tinge of sepia in it. A simple curve for bringing slight contrast and I just stopped abruptly. At that moment I felt anything more might be really pushing it. Mom was very happy with the way it turned out. The on-call nurse was quite happy too (though I'm not sure whether she was just being nice), but I'll assume that she really did like it. I'm kinda ok with it...the reason being that its not just what I had in mind, but nevertheless I'm happy with the way it turned out to be. I'll still go after the high-key ones, probably someday I'll succeed in getting at least one processed to my satisfaction.Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-59354219705963336172010-09-21T23:18:00.000-07:002010-09-21T23:36:20.593-07:00Misty Web<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/5014125160/" target="_blank" title="Misty Web by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4150/5014125160_e986623f0b.jpg" width="500" height="335" alt="Misty Web" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: <i>Single shot using Nikon D300s with 70-300mm @260mm, f/5.6, ISO 1600 for 1/80 sec</i><br><br>I haven't had the mood to go out and shoot as lot of things have been going on. Since Hunaid of <a href=http://www.radiantscape.com/">RadiantScape</a> was conducting a workshop, I thought this was the perfect time to just get back to shooting. If you haven't already heard, I volunteer as an assistant to Hunaid and Satish (two of the photogs that I admire).<br><br>Initially we were disappointed that the entire Golden Gate and surrounding areas were completely covered in fog. We couldn't even see any part of Golden Gate - this should give you a scale of how much of area was covered in fog. I was thinking that the entire workshop would be a dull one, little did I realize that no outing for photography can result in a bad time. Probably I was too restrictive in my thoughts on some pre-conceived images that I forgot to embrace what the weather offers.<br><br>The workshop was fun. All the participants had a nice time and were happy that they learnt something new. I came back with an image that I thought would never have the opportunity to make one - a spider's web with the fog's mist in it.<br><br><b>About this shot:</b> This web was discovered on the ramp to Rodeo Beach. The light was little low for a hand-held shot and it was quite windy as well. So I had to go for a high ISO just to get 1/80 of sec exposure.<br><br><b>Processing:</b> Since it was high ISO shot, I was expecting some noise in it, but was little surprised with the amount of noise I found - D300s just rocks on this front. Did a tiny bit of noise reduction to it and a custom white balance to my taste.Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-27284649443588264742010-06-26T01:32:00.000-07:002010-06-26T01:32:54.404-07:00Sun Flower Blooms<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4734582217/" target="_blank" title="Catch some light by kaddisudhi (Slowly catching up....), on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/4734582217_869c860fbc.jpg" width="500" height="367" alt="Catch some light"></a><br><br>
<b>Tech Info</b>: <i>Single exposure with Nikon D300s using 70-300mm @300mm , f/5.6 at ISO 400 for 1/1500 sec.</i><br><br>
I don't fancy flowers that much and the only real time when I used them was while dating my wife and now to cool her down. But off late I've seen quite a lot of blooms all over the place and even a guy like me can't resist to take a shot at one or two.<br><br>
This was taken right in front our apartment complex. There are quite a bunch of them on roadside pavements all over the city. During mid afternoon is when these guys are at their best, petals spread wide open and catching all the sun they can get. As the sun goes down, so do the petals of these flowers and by night time, they really look like dead and dried flowers.<br><br>
<b>About this shot</b><br>
It was a straight forward one. Used a wide open aperture (f/5.6) to get a shallow depth of field, in other words - a shallow dept of field will just throw the background (or foreground) out-of-focus. Spot metered the flower to make sure that I get its exposure right with a dark background and since it was quite windy, bumped up the ISO to 400 for achieving a shutter speed of 1/1500 of second.<br><br>
<b>Processing</b><br>
While composing the shot itself, I made sure there was some space to the left of the flower as I wanted the flower to be on right. Due to the wind, an adjacent flower's petal was in the frame. Didn't realize it at the time of the shot, so in post, had to crop just enough to get it out of the frame. A simple curves adjustment to get some contrast between the flower and its background and a high-pass filter sharpening to finish it off for displaying on the web.<br><br>
<b>Note:</b> I've quite a lot of flower shots taken during our camping trip, so will process them in the coming days and get them out of the system :)Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-14694040868436805932010-06-25T01:41:00.000-07:002010-06-25T01:41:25.689-07:00Summer Time!<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4732030443/" target="_blank" title="Summer Time! by kaddisudhi (Slowly catching up....), on Flickr"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1356/4732030443_4650d73818.jpg" width="500" height="332" alt="Summer Time!" /></a>
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<b>Tech Info</b>: Single expsoure taken with Nikon D300s with 70-300mm, with f/5.6 at 1/3000 sec at ISO 400<br><br> Call it the effect of global warming or anything you like, but summer has been very late this year. Its been quite disappointing seeing the weather forecast for the past couple of months. If weather had kept its schedule to match that of last year, then April should have been a lot warmer. Sadly it wasn't. But it seems like its slowly getting warmer at this side of the world and I'm eagerly waiting for it.<br><br><b>Where was I?</b><br>I'm overwhelmed with amount of emails and flickr mails that I got when there was a big break in my posts. As I had mentioned, things were a little hectic at work and to top that, my back got really screwed'up. To add to the insult, it was freaking cold out here! So I was out of action. I've been taking some measures to at least restore some normalcy in my routines and hopefully if things continue, will surely get there. At least now I can manage to sit for little longer durations and my back seems to be co-operating well for it...touch wood. <br><br><b>About this shot</b><br>This was taken at a park when the temperatures were little warmer. While Nidhi was playing in the park, these labs were busy playing fetch in the water. They were pretty friendly too. With the permission of their master, I took couple of shots of them and this is one of it.<br><br><b>Whats the problem with this shot?</b>The problem of processing images on an uncalibrated monitor is very evident in this one. While processing this on my new Vaio laptop, it looked just fine. The colors were great and there was enough contrast. The moment I uploaded it to flickr and checked my old monitor, it was lacking in contract, colors seemed quite muted and to me the overall pic looks pretty flat. Since I didn't have any more patience to either re-edit it again or go on calibrating the laptop monitor or increase the risk of back by sitting longer, just stopped at this one. I've a huge backlog of pictures to be processed (yeah, quite a lot of them to be given out for friends), I need to calibrate the laptop monitor soon or at least get it to a level where it kinda looks like my other desktop monitor :)<br><br>I'm hoping to finish all processing for my friends this week and after which I'll get back to my regular posts.<br><br><b>What type of posts can we expect?</b><br>There have been quite a lot of requests for posts and I really can't go into all of them. It'll be suffice to say that I can cover 80-90% of the topics requested. Also note that there are so many ways to learn them and I'm no authority on it at all. Its just my interpretation of the concepts and of course the way I use it for my pics. Its a constant learning process and I'm having lots of fun with it. So if you can take what I say with a pinch of sal, then I'm sure you'll have fun too :)Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-22332294040912974592010-03-26T01:46:00.001-07:002010-03-26T01:46:59.476-07:00New York in Vegas<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4463721341/" target="_blank" title="New York in Vegas by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2719/4463721341_6fd2ab65fa.jpg" width="500" height="336" alt="New York in Vegas" /></a><br><br>For best effect <a href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2719/4463721341_28db20b958_o.jpg" target="_blank">View Large</a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: Single exposure taken with Nikon D90 using 18-105 @40mm, 5 sec at f/8 with ISO 160<br><br>This is a shot of the New York imitation found at the starting of the strip in Las Vegas. There were too many people moving and hence I had to compose the scene in such a way that there were no people in the shot. Couple of people did screw a shot as they came right in front of the lens and stood still for almost 5 seconds. So it took some time to make sure I got it right. While I was trying this, wife was busy looking at handsome hunks and Nidhi was happily dozing in the stroller<br><br><b>How was this shot processed?</b> I usually use curves to get some contrast in the images, but this one had all pixel values in the entire luminosity range. So couldn't use curves to compress the range anymore. The next option was to use levels. Also since the scene contains lots of lights, they pretty much tend to get blown out. While taking the shot, I had made sure that the amount of highlights that got blown out was almost nil. In post, all I had to use was a little bit of dodging and burning to recover details from those highlights and shadow areas and use layer masking to blend them together. After that it was the usual border and watermarking the image.<br><br>I'm in love with the blue hour shots and for some reason I just love long exposures during that time. I've way too many shots in the archives and hopefully someday I'll get to process them. For now this one was done to take a break from my Yosemite series :)Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-71688664363473262952010-03-23T22:35:00.001-07:002010-03-23T22:35:25.108-07:00Yosemite Tunnel View Panorama<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4458588511/" title="Tunnel View Panorama, Yosemite. by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4458588511_cbc62ef4ba.jpg" width="500" height="172" alt="Tunnel View Panorama, Yosemite." /></a><br><br><a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4049/4458588511_b2f4f93987_o.jpg" target="_blank">View Large</a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: Five image panorama stitched manually. Each image was from a Nikon D300s with Nikkor 50mm, f/8 for 1/750 sec with ISO 200<br><br>The five images used to create this panorama was taken on the second day of the Yosemite visit. It was still drizzling and we had to shield the camera equipment with anything we could get from the rain. I was using a good old black umbrella (the one used by Grandpas..) and some of the wide angle shots here got the tip of the umbrella in them :-p<br><br>This is my first panorama and probably the last one that I'm going to stitch manually. Its way too time consuming and difficult to stitch. The auto stitching programs were cutting off most part of the stitched image, but since I didn't want to loose them, went the manual way.<br><br>Stitching a panorama manually is very difficult as you have to take care of the alignment and the lens distortions that might be there. This particular one had both and I'm not sure how I managed to do it. I'm happy that its done and will appreciate the auto stitch programs a lot more now :-DSudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-49084091956276799782010-03-19T00:07:00.000-07:002010-03-19T00:07:16.121-07:00Half Dome from Sentinal Bridge<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4445133448/" target="_blank" title="Half Dome from Sentinal Bridge by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/4445133448_1e5d9987b4.jpg" width="367" height="500" alt="Half Dome from Sentinal Bridge" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>: Nikon D300s with Tokina 12-24 @24mm, f/16, ISO 200 for 15s. <br><b>Filters</b>: B+W Polarizer and Hoya NDX400<br><br>Its been pretty busy at work and haven't got much time to work on photos, but today after witnessing a superb match win by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) over Rajasthan Royals (RR) got some energy to work on a picture taken during the Yosemite trip. <br><br>Another very useful filter to have is a <b>Polarizing Filter</b>. This one helps to reduce the polarizing effect and can cut the reflections. This shot is an example where the filter is at its use. Usually when water is an element in your composition, the glare/reflection from the surface would be pretty high, thereby preventing the camera to see underneath the water. A polarizing filter will help in reducing those reflections and revealing details. <br><br>In this shot, I angled the filter just enough where the scene would contain some reflections and details on the river bed. To the bottom left, you see the river bed and as the polarizing effect is reduced, you can see the reflected light. Of course when you are trying to capture the reflection itself, you would avoid this filter. But here, I wanted both of them and hence the change in angle of the filter. The smoothness on the water surface was obtained by the use of NDX400 filter. As mentioned in the <a href="http://www.kaddisudhi.com/2010/03/bridalveil-falls-yosemite.html" target="_blank">previous post</a>, this one cuts the light and helps to get longer exposures during the day.<br><br>While taking this shot on the bridge, there was another guy with a medium format camera standing next to me. It was interesting to see the way he was composing; he took some test shots with a point and shoot and then used the medium format camera to compose the scene. I think its a great idea to go about composition this way, especially if you are having trouble visualizing the scene in a 4x5 format. Of course not necessarily with another camera, but even a small cardboard with a cutout in the middle should help. It'll be interesting to try it out next time I'm out :)Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-42593742066280787062010-03-12T11:33:00.000-08:002010-03-15T23:00:36.521-07:00Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4426681163/" target="_blank" title="Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Bridalviel Falls, Yosemite" height="500" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4426681163_9538b6b9ea.jpg" width="343" /></a><br />
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<b><i>Tech Info</i></b>: Nikon D300s with Nikkor 50mm lens, f/8 at ISO 200 for 2s<br />
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This was the last shot taken during my recent visit to Yosemite. The view is from the parking lot. During my next visit, will take the short hike up to get a much closer view.<br />
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<b>About this falls</b>: Bridalveil is 188 metres (617 ft) tall and is the only waterfall that flows throughout the year in this park. All the other falls in the park peak during late spring when all the snow has melted away and taper down during the summer, coming close to non-existent. This is one though continues, but of course with varying speed. It is said to peak during late spring, but the view certainly didn't seem like it wasn't at its peak. I can only imagine how it would be during late spring when its in full flow.<br />
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<b>About this shot</b>: It was mid-day and the light was pretty harsh. Usually cloudy conditions give out a very diffused light, but sometimes the clouds open up and make way for the harsh light. This was one of those moments. In order to get motion for the water flow, I used a filter Hoya NDX400 which cuts down the light reaching the camera's sensor by 9 stops. Since my filter thread size was for my wide angle lens (77mm), I had to hand-hold this for the smaller 50mm lens. Processing was the usual one too; some contrast adjustment using levels and then resized for the web use.<br />
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<b>What are filters?</b> In short they are like sun shades we use for our own eyes. They cut down the light, minimize polarization etc. There are quite a lot of filters available and each has its specific use. They come either in square/rectangular shape which needs some holder to place them in front of the lens, or circular shaped which directly screw-on to the lens. This particular filter (Hoya NDX400) is a dark circular shaped one. Its so dark that if you screw-it on the lens, you literally can't see anything in the viewfinder. You have to compose the scene before and then screw this on.<br />
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<b>How does this filter help here?</b> In order to show any kind of motion in pictures, you would need a slow shutter speed. As the lighting conditions fade for the human eye, its very good to capture motion in waterfalls. My first experience was during the yellowstone trip and you can read about those 2 shots <a href="http://www.kaddisudhi.com/2009/12/stream-in-black-n-white.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.kaddisudhi.com/2009/12/tower-falls-yellowstone.html" target="_blank">here</a>. For those 2 shots, I didn't have to use any filters to get the motion for water as the ambient light was good enough to give me a slow shutter speed. Here since it was pretty high during the day I had to put something which will cut down the light and hence this NDX400 filter usage. It cuts down by 9 stops and thats quite a lot in reduction thereby getting slow shutter speeds. I'm in love with this filter and I'm always looking for its usage :)<br />
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If you are buying filters, don't go for the cheap ones. I do have some cheap ones and suffer from the loss of quality in the images. So it does help to get the best ones and they can cost a bit. But like most say "You get what you pay for" is very true in this case.<br />
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<b>Update: </b>Here is a shot of the same view without the Hoya NDX400 filter where the water of the falls doesn't depict any motion, but rather frozen in time due to the fast shutter speed.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7KmWW9T084c/S58eLlIyOjI/AAAAAAAAASk/yo0G_Syf8Yc/s1600-h/_DSC2009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7KmWW9T084c/S58eLlIyOjI/AAAAAAAAASk/yo0G_Syf8Yc/s320/_DSC2009.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<br />Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-61026630320796356102010-03-05T00:47:00.000-08:002010-03-05T00:47:07.000-08:00Stormy start to Yosemite<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4407640329/" target="_blank" title="Storm headed towards Yosemite by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Storm headed towards Yosemite" height="340" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4407640329_eefd74d6cc.jpg" width="500" /></a><br><br><b>Tech Info</b>:D300s with Nikkor 50mm prime, f/16, 1/3 of a sec with a EV bias of -2. ISO 100<br><br>Please view <a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4026/4407640329_5e242c045b_o.jpg" target="_blank">large</a>.<br><br>Its been just over 3 years in the bay area and I can't believe that I hadn't been to Yosemite. Its another paradise (though Yellowstone is my all time fav). This place has so many opportunities for pictures, you can just spend an entire day sitting at one location and play with the changing light. No amount of adjectives can truly describe it and you have to make a visit to experience it first hand. If you ever visit bay area, time it in a way that you can spend some days to experience the winter magic at Yosemite. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.<br><br>I was supposed to carpool with 2 more folks starting from San Jose. Since I stay a good 20-30 miles away, I decided to take the Caltrain. I've always wanted to experience this train ride and I was thrilled at this opportunity. At the same time I was scared to death. The reasons are pretty weird (at least that's what my wife says). For many folks it just a train ride taking me from northern part to the southern side. Its as simple it can be. But for me it isin't. I've been known to make a mess of simple things. As it turns out, I finally did make a mess out of this one too.<br><br>My wife did all the checking of train timings and instructed me with everything I need to know to make this short train journey. Another friend of mine drove me to the station which is pretty close to my house. Looking at my state, she even wanted to stay there till I board the train. But I insisted on her leaving as I was pretty confident of making it myself...comeon..I'm old enough to figure may out.<br><br>I head to the booth to buy my tickets. You insert your credit card or cash into the machine and select some buttons and get your ticket. But I got stuck in the first step; the machine wasn't recognizing my credit card. I kept trying and trying and finally it read the damm thing and gave me my ticket. Being little frustrated at the booth for behaving like that, I made my way to the platform and waited for the train to arrive. It was supposed to make the stop at 10:06 AM and they keep it pretty punctual. I see a train arriving and I'm all set to board it. As the train came near by, I realized that the train had 3821 as its number and the one I'm supposed to take should be 236. Just to make sure, I saw a guy with the Caltrain jacket get down and I asked him, politely, as to what was the train's number. Again, not sure why he was so pissed with that question, he just pointed his index finger to the big board which said 3821 (to his fairness it probably was a dumb question to ask). I mustered some courage and asked another guy who immediately responded "I don't know". But seeing the disappointment on my face, he went to a nearby board and started checking something. About 40s later, he says "its 236". On hearing that, I started to run towards the door, but wasn't quick enough to make it and the doors got shut. Initial instinct was to whistle (yeah, I can whistle quite loud) to the driver to open the doors, then realized that those things hardly matter here. The only train in the morning going towards San Jose left the platform with me standing with my luggage on the platform and yeah, having bought the ticket for it too :(<br><br>All my friends tell me that I should have just got on it...irrespective of the train number. How am I supposed to know that the train number doesn't matter here. Its like you want to take a train to Delhi and you are standing on the platform waiting for it eagerly and the train that comes by (at the same time) has got a board of Nagpur or some city in the same northern direction. Would you take it? Of course not. You would wait for the train with the right board to arrive and thats exactly what I was going to do. But now I learnt a thing about Caltrains; numbers don't matter. So next time I'm going to board the train and then ask questions :)<br><br>Since I didn't make it to the carpool, I had to drive all the way to Yosemite, alone in my car. It was fun in its own way, but I would prefer to avoid it anytime :)<br><br>The weekend's weather was pretty bad...snow storms and rains throughout saturday. As per the prediction, it was supposed to start on Friday at 4pm. So my wife made sure I understood that if I've to avoid driving in wet conditions, I had to reach the place before 4pm. I started pretty late, but eventually made it to the destination at 3:30pm. I guess thats why my wife was pretty scared of me driving alone. All iz Well in the end.<br><br><b>About this shot</b>: En route, you could literally see the storm clouds getting formed. I stopped at a pullout and decided to do an HDR of the scene as there was so much amount of drama unfolding in the sky. Used my umbrella to protect the camera gear and took some shots. The movement in the clouds was so fast that I couldn't avoid it with having a gap of 1s between the shots. That's the least amount my remote cord can function at. So I chucked the idea of HDR and used a single exposure to process. It isin't that bad as it does give you an idea of how the weather was going to be. Bad weather sure does give you some interesting shots :)Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-40579629171287649002010-02-20T21:26:00.000-08:002010-02-20T21:30:03.495-08:00Golden Gate North Tower<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4374226425/" target="_blank" title="North Tower Window, Goglen Gate by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="North Tower Window, Goglen Gate" height="341" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4374226425_48e6bd2745.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<b>Tech Info</b>: Nikon D300s with Nikkor 70-300 lens @70mm, ISO 200, f/8 for 30s<br /><br />
For best effect view <a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4064/4374226425_436e600884_o.jpg" target="_blank">large</a><br />
<br />In June 2009, I came across a similar picture like above and was highly inspired by it. After showing that image to my wife, I told her that some day I should be able to take a picture like that. Well that some day was indeed last weekend :)<br />
<br />Couple of friends got together and we decided to head to Muir Woods. Since I my friends know how much I hate driving, we all got into his van and headed out. It was just a pleasure trip, no plans, just roam around. To get to Muir Woods you have to pass through this famous bridge, I thought I might try that shot which I had in my mind. My friends agreed to stop by this place for some shots.<br />
<br /> Usually this place has very gusty winds and on <a href="http://www.kaddisudhi.com/2009/07/golden-gate.html" target="_blank">my previous outing</a> I had a hard time. Last weekend it was just perfect. Absolutely no wind at all, little bit of chill in the air (of course its San Francisco). Add to that now I was equipped with a stable tripod which seems to hold on to the weight of my heaviest lens ie 70-300mm. <br />
<br />One of the reasons why I'm so happy about this shot is that it turned out exactly how I had in mind. I did spend quite a lot of time going over the settings in my mind over and over. I guess rehearsing so much did make it seem very easy in the end as I didn't have to fiddle too much with the camera. The very first shot itself was pretty close. After a view at the histogram, some additions to shutter speed, it hits right. Plus I got lucky with the wind :) <br />
<br />Processing this was also straight forward. Some adjustments to contrast using levels and a Tungsten setting for color temperature. Hope you guys enjoy it too.Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-47851763735046416342010-02-17T17:54:00.000-08:002010-02-17T17:55:37.875-08:00Boston Skyline<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4366090415/" target="_blank" title="Boston Skyline by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4366090415_2ec556a6ea.jpg" width="500" height="362" alt="Boston Skyline" /></a><br />
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For best effect view <a href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4003/4366090415_51b80a06c1_o.jpg" target="_blank">large</a>.<br />
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<b>Tech Info</b>: Nikon D300s with Tokina 12-24mm lens @15mm, ISO 200, f/8 for 10s<br />
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Again this is from my recent Boston/Hanover trip. To get to Hanover, I had to take a flight to Boston and then drive down the remaining distance. Its a good 2½ hr drive. My friend had taken a bus and arrived at the airport to pick me up. From there we just took the rental and drove all the way to Hanover...well, he drove and I took a nap :)<br />
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One of the conditions that I put forward before visiting him was that he would take me to a nice vantage point for me to capture the Boston Skyline. After some googling around, we finalized on this location and he literally drove like a maniac to get me to this location (back from Hanover) before the blue hour expired. The roads were pretty slippery, but yet he managed to get me on time and I must add..in one piece :)<br />
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The weather pretty much matched that of Hanover - icy, cold and windy and the wind chill going as low as -45°F. At these temperatures, if the skin gets exposed to the chill, they just turn numb. And thats what happened to my fingers too. Its like the mind is telling the thumb to rotate the dial, but the thumb has got a mind of its own which is sleeping. This was the hardest "chilly" weather I've ever faced. Inspite of all this, if I ever get a chance, then I'll do it all over again :)<br />
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This picture is from a single exposure. At the location, I did manage to capture more frames in the hope that I'll do some digital blending, but I'm not yet up to it. So for now will have to settle with this single frame shot.Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-40650376674843275552010-02-10T18:42:00.001-08:002010-02-10T18:42:54.589-08:00Hanover Star Trails<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4345842244/" target="_blank" title="Star Trails over Hanover, NH by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Star Trails over Hanover, NH" height="352" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2645/4345842244_2b8ddf64eb.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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Here is another attempt of star trails taken during my Hanover visit. The entire day we were busy skiing and in the night we just headed out to a nearby falls to take some pictures, which I'm yet to process them. While taking those shots is when I realized that the light pollution which we get in the city was very minimal in this place. I was getting a clear view of the stars in my long exposures of the falls.<br />
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It was very considerate of my friend to bear the freezing weather while I tried my star trail attempt. Initial thought was to get 1/2 hr worth of exposure time in it with the falls in the foreground. So I set my intervalometer with the desired settings and started the first exposure. Ignoring the thought of getting cozy in the car, I kept waiting near the tripod to make sure that things were going on fine with my exposures. After the initial one, the intervalometer decided to go crazy. It suddently switched to a "count-down" timer mode with some random number. The first reaction was like "What did I screw up now?" But after a closer inspection, found out that I had set everything correctly and yet wasn't getting more than one exposures.<br />
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We returned home for dinner and I cursed myself for not bringing the manual of it (still thinking that it was my fault with the settings). But then again, I was very sure that I had got it right. So while at the dinner table, took my intervalometer and started playing with the controls. With couple of attempts, I was sure that the internal clock on the device is not right and hence its stupid behavior. With couple of more tests, was able to find a workaround for it. But we had come back from the location and I didn't have the nerve to ask my friend to take me back there :) <br />
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Since I was so desperate to get one, went out, setup the tripod right in front of his house, stuck to a simple composition to make sure that I can watch the camera and tripod from within the house :) and after all the processing, got this one. I'm reasonably happy with it as 90% my mental image is present in this<br />
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From my earlier start trails pics, I had learnt that its better to have some foreground to the overall composition. So I had to account for that during this attempt. Identifying pole star was very easy (my friends were more avid star gazers than me during our schooling times). I was scared of leaving the camera out of my sight, so the initial composition that I had in mind was ruled out. Also I would be making frequent visits outside to check on things which would ruin some frames.<br />
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After the elements of the frame was decided, I had to get the focus right. It was a moon lit night, but still not enough contrast for the camera's autofocus to lock onto something. So I asked my friend to stand on the deck with a flash light pointing right to the camera. Its a simple LED flash light, just enough to get my auto focus to lock on and later switched to manual focus. Each frame was with an f/8 and 61s exposure. Due to my intervalometer's limitation of having a minimum requirement of 1s, I wanted to have a longer time than 30s, which would mean I'll get a more even trail than a dotted one. All of the 99 raw frames was converted to TIFFs and then fed to a program <a href="http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html" target="_blank">Startrail.exe</a> The program stacks each image which gives you the trail effect. The final image was given a boost to its brightness using curves in Photoshop.<br />
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<b>Processing: </b>Here are the steps that was taken to get the above image:<br />
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<b>-</b> All of the 99 images was converted to TIFF using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). Since I needed all of them to contain the same settings, just worked on one frame and copied it over to all the others.<br />
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<b>-</b> The resulting TIFFs was then fed to <a href="http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html" target="_blank">Startrail.exe</a> to generated a single composite image.<br />
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<b>-</b> The composite image was then given a boost to its brightness in Photoshop.Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-52596739272140188932010-02-05T00:35:00.000-08:002010-02-05T00:35:04.391-08:0010 Questions on HDR<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4299406630/" target="_blank" title="Stormy Clouds over Ryan Park by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Stormy Clouds over Ryan Park" height="286" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4072/4299406630_63c8be79f4.jpg" width="500" /></a><br />
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<b>Tech Info</b>: Nikon D300s with Tokina 12-24 lens @12mm, ISO 200, f/5.6 for 1/1500 sec<br />
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A day long skiing event, coupled with long flights has taken a toll on my disc. I'm pretty much tied to the bed lying flat to give some rest to it. Sad news is that I won't be able to play the weekend game. Also I'm not in any mood to process my pictures. So I thought will use one of my old pics to answer some questions which are asked by my friends. Hopefully it'll be useful to you and you can get the jargons cleared when people talk about HDR pictures.<br />
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<b>What is HDR? </b>Its an acronym for High Dynamic Range :)<br />
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<b>Why HDR?</b> Modern cameras are not equipped to capture all the information of a scene which has a high contrast in hightlights (bright areas) and shadows (dark areas) of a picture. Most of the time, you'll have to risk having a blow-out areas (completely white or black) in your pictures. So HDR imaging is a way to capture all the details of the scene by using multiple images and then blending them together.<br />
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<b>What is tone mapping?</b> We don't have any monitor (that a common man can acquire) which can display an HDR image. In order to display those images, we got to compress that large dynamic range into an 8 bit image which can used to displaying on the web. Tone mapping is the name given to that method.<br />
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<b>How do you make an HDR image?</b> Like with any new imaging, there are multiple ways to get this done, but the most common method is to use the built-in feature of modern DSLRs called Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) for your shots. The camera automatically takes shots with +/- EV values based on your setting which can then be used to generate a HDR image.<br />
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<b>What'll be the workflow for HDR?</b> After you have your bracketed set of shots, you feed them to a tone mapping software program like <a href="http://www.hdrsoft.com/" target="_blank">Photomatix</a> to generate a .hdr file. Then you would further compress that hdr image by tone mapping using the available options with the program. The resulting file would be a tone mapped image which can either be used directly or further processed depending on your taste.<br />
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<b>What do you mean by those numbers?</b> When you bracket your shots, you'll have a base shot which is seen as the correct exposure by your camera. Now this wouldn't be the capture of the complete range, so you would start capturing more frames by under/over exposing from the base value. This is usually done by varying the shutter speed. So if the 0 EV image (the base image) is at 1/1500 of a sec, then a +1 EV would be one stop more ie 1/750 of a second. You would continue this to get a number of images. Usually people take equal number of frames on either side to get the complete range. So in the above picture, I got 5 frames starting from +2, +1, 0, -1 -2. The exact number of images would largely depend on the picture.<br />
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<b>How do you decide on the number of frames?</b> You can take the complex route of determining the luminosity values of the areas in your picture, or simply use the camera's histogram to aid you in determining the number of shots. Typically you want the histogram to cover the three areas (shadows, midtones and hightlights) with good amount of detail without clipping on either side. So take as many shots to cover that entire range.<br />
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<b>What tools do you need in the field? </b>You would definitely need a camera with custom controls. A simple point and shoot camera with pre-definited control knobs only won't just do it. The camera needs to have either Aperture Priority or Manual mode. Of course a tripod would definitely help a long way. You can try doing it hand-held by using the burst mode in the camera. But a tripod goes a long way in making sure the elements of the scene are aligned properly. A scene with more static objects are suitable and that also helps in getting the pictures aligned properly.<br />
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<b>What programs can you use for HDR?</b> Any software that can aid you in combining images can be used to a dynamic range in the picture. But the most widely used software is <a href="http://www.hdrsoft.com/" target="_blank">Photomatix</a>. You can also use the open source program <a href="http://qtpfsgui.sourceforge.net/" target="_blank">Qtpfsgui</a> to get that done.<br />
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<b>How did you process the above image?</b> The tech info above mentions the 0 EV frame. The five frames used was from +2, +1, 0, -1 -2. After generating the tone mapped image, I used it to layer over the 0 EV frame and did some work on revealing the underlying 0 EV using a paint brush.<br />
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The following are some of my HDR images. I've shot quite a lot of them, but haven't yet got to processing the remaining ones. Some day will get them out :)<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4216410665/" target="_blank" title="Pigeon Point Lighthouse by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Pigeon Point Lighthouse" height="68" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4023/4216410665_45fe5b1d12_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4197017121/" target="_blank" title="Foggy Sunrise, Foster City by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Foggy Sunrise, Foster City" height="68" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2509/4197017121_df36c5df13_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4190130971/" target="_blank" title="Hoover Dam at Night by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Hoover Dam at Night" height="67" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2596/4190130971_a9cb1bce85_t.jpg" width="100" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4173845698/" target="_blank" title="Clock Tower, Foster City by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Clock Tower, Foster City" height="100" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2699/4173845698_b47dcc61f7_t.jpg" width="66" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/3834955916/" target="_blank" title="Fire trucks at Hogan Lake by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img alt="Fire trucks at Hogan Lake" height="66" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2659/3834955916_84c08106a7_t.jpg" width="100" /></a>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-49650379614730749552010-01-29T23:26:00.001-08:002010-01-29T23:58:34.970-08:00Its fixed, atleast for now :)<div>Imagine not checking your email for about a day and when you do, you find some 50+ unread mails in the inbox. All of them said one thing and it was that the site www.kaddisudhi.com was getting redirected to some other site stating that the domain has expired. </div><div><br /></div><div>I checked the site registration contract and it doesn't expire till March of this year. So the first thought was that my account got compromised. After ruling that out, the only other suspect was about the third party template that I was using.</div><div><br /></div><div>Earlier before I added the "Read More" options to my posts, I had the "views" option. After one of my friend found out that it was buggy, I had disabled it by commenting it out. Since my xml skillset is next to nothing, all I had done was just take out that text of "views" from the template. So the buggy code was getting executed all along and of course it hadn't come to my attention...till now.</div><div><br /></div><div>I never knew that so many people were regularly checking out my posts. This is definitely a surprise. Also thank you all for the appreciation showed. This started as a place where I could document my notes on a new found hobby, never did it cross my mind that it would have its own set of readers. I'm glad that you find it helpful and informative. I'll try to keep that in mind for my subsequent posts.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now this new template is not something that I like, but have no time to pick something new. Hopefully will do it by next week. Currently I'm in Hannover, NH vising a friend. I've just finished a star trail attempt and the initial preview on the LCD looks promising. I'm not going to trust that as I've been bitten by it many times. So I'm hoping that it would turn out ok. Also my legs are so tired after skiing for most part of the day that I have no strength to even search for anything in the house...let alone on the net for some new blogger templates. </div><div><br /></div><div>This template is going to stay for atleast a week now...bear with it :) </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-28386438537359868532010-01-23T10:32:00.000-08:002010-01-23T10:40:10.593-08:00Flickr: Camera finder found my night shot<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7KmWW9T084c/S1tA9U6SU5I/AAAAAAAAAR0/HyhCdIiMS2k/s1600-h/Final.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 258px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_7KmWW9T084c/S1tA9U6SU5I/AAAAAAAAAR0/HyhCdIiMS2k/s320/Final.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430005198054642578" /></a>Flickr has a tool called as camera finder which aids a lot of people in research for buying cameras. The page also displays some interesting shots taken from the camera model you have selected. Guess what, one of my night shots appear on that page :) I got to know about this from a friend who was using that page for his research on Nikon D300s.<br /><br />To view, go to <a href="http://www.flickr.com/cameras/nikon/d300s/" target="_blank">Flickr: Camera Finder: Nikon : D300s</a> and select "Night" from the drop-down list box for Now Showing and you should see my pic :)<br /><br />...yeah, I know...was in a bragging mode today and a little bit of that is ok for general health :)<span class="fullpost"></span>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-20926310918512527732010-01-21T15:03:00.000-08:002010-01-21T17:45:01.886-08:00Vintage look of SF skyline<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4294195698/" target="_blank" title="vintage SF Skyline by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4294195698_fea52eeb0a.jpg" width="500" height="340" alt="vintage SF Skyline" /></a><br><br><b><i>Tech Info</i></b>: Nikon D90 with 18-105mm lens @26mm, ISO 400, f8 for 1/500 sec.<br><br><span class="fullpost">Some of my Bangalore friends had made a visit to CA over work assignments. Of course the weekends were reserved for sight seeing and I joined them for a SFO tour. Till date, I hadn't been to SFO that much, other than visiting known places like Golden Gate and the wharf. So I tagged along with them to get first hand experience of driving around SF.<br><br>One of them also has photography as his hobby which made it very clear that we were going to stop at places where we could snap away to glory :) The other two didn't put up a fight and were happy to tag along. First stop was at fisherman's wharf. We used that to grab a quick lunch too. Next we headed to Coit Tower. I hadn't even heard of this place before and kept searching for "Quite Tower" in the GPS. Finally somebody got the address and only when we reached that place, did I realize that its "Coit Tower" and not "Quite Tower" as I had assumed :-P<br><br>The Tower is about 210 feet (64m) on top of the telegraph hills. Its named after a woman Lillie Hitchcock Coit who was a firefighter. There is an elevator which takes you on top for a small entrance fee. Once you reach on top, the view of SF skyline is just gorgeous. Since tripod wasn't allowed, this had to be done hand-held. Before I took this shot, I knew that it had to be in B&W and processing it wasn't that much of an effort. A simple B&W conversion and it was all done. <br><br>Another shot that I do have in mind is to get the skyline during the blue hour. That may not be possible as the tower is closed after 5 PM. I'm not sure what days or even how many days are there in a calendar year to get the blue hour before 5PM. So I'll have to check for other vantage points around this tower to get that kind of a shot.</span>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-52989188269801063762010-01-19T17:53:00.000-08:002010-01-20T11:24:36.600-08:00East Bay Hills<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4286957173/" target="_blank" title="Looking Up by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4016/4286957173_85d572317a.jpg" width="500" height="340" alt="Looking Up" /></a><br><br><b><i>Tech Info: </i></b>Nikon D90 with 18-105mm lens @18mm, ISO 200, f9 for 1/200 sec<br><br><span class="fullpost">Sometime back I had to take Nidhi out to a playdate towards east bay. It happened to clash on a game day. So the earliest that I could take her was sometime in the afternoon. So we headed out and just before going out, realized that I had nothing to do during the entire time she spends out there. So it made sense to take the camera with me as I could drop them off and head out scouting some locations.<br><br>On the way to the playdate's house, noticed quite a lot of clouds over the hill and it was pretty close to the place where we were going. So after I dropped them, I took a winding road hoping to reach to the top of the hills, but had to stop right at the entrance of the hill due to a sign which said "PRIVATE PROPERTY...blah blah". I had no other choice but to turn back. Since I've made a new rule to myself of not coming back without any clicks, stood at the entrance and paid attention to the hills. They had nice green color, reddish middle ground and a nice set of clouds in the sky. The lighting also wasn't bad as it gave warm tones throughout the scene giving me this picture.<br><br>On a completely different note, I got a surprise delivery of a package which contained a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Joby-Gorillapod-Focus-GP8-Flexible/dp/B001GCU0MY/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1263954341&sr=8-5" target="_blank">Joby Gorillapod</a> yesterday and it was from a friend who sent it as my b'day gift. Thanks Venkat :)</span>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-70398072430308128762010-01-17T08:31:00.000-08:002010-01-17T10:11:21.981-08:00Lens: Tokina 12-24mm<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4278658678/" target="_blank" title="Metro Tower, Foster City by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/4278658678_9e48c18c99.jpg" width="500" height="417" alt="Metro Tower, Foster City" /></a><br><br>Like to view large...click <a href="http://bighugelabs.com/onblack.php?id=4278658678&size=large" target="_blank">here</a><br><br><i>Tech Info</i>: Nikon D300s using Tokina 12-24mm @24mm, ISO 200, f/8 for 20s<br><br><span class="fullpost">Finally got my new wide angle lens. Its a Tokina 12-24mm lens with a maximum constant aperture of f/4 throughout the focal range. <br><br>For a long time I was contemplating on getting a wide angle lens and hadn't really made up my mind on what I wanted as there were quite a lot of options. First on the list was a Nikkor 12-24mm. It had to be taken out as its way beyond my budget. <br><br>Next on the list was Sigma 10-20mm. I was positive about Sigma for a long time due to the wonderful images I saw from it. Even though a lot of people liked it, there was one common complaint, about its build quality. It seems like the lens feels that its made out of cheaper plastic. When you pay hundreds of dollars for the lens and finally feel that its made out of cheap plastic, then for me it ain't worth it. I take very good care of things which I love and my friends know that too well-remember the times when I kept telling you how to turn the page on the book without getting any kind of crease on it ;). Inspite of that I was really hesitant on the "cheap" feel of it and decided against it.<br><br>Next to consider was a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens. First attention would go towards f/2.8, which means that its a fast lens (don't know what f/2.8 means? read <a href="http://www.kaddisudhi.com/2009/06/simple-picture.html" target="_blank">this</a>) Since I plan to use this lens for doing some star trails, the fast aperture is a big boost to keep my exposures short. The drawback was the minimal focal range. 11-16 is too short for my taste right now. Also the price was beyond what I had budgeted.<br><br>One of the flickr buddies suggested the Tokina 12-24 and even though it can only open up to f/4, for the price he said it was worth it. Along with its price, everybody appreciated its image and build quality to be on par with Nikon's wide angle 12-24 one. It was like a nikon lens but with much lower price. Instead of renting this one from a local store, I decided to get one and test it out; if I didn't like it, then I can always return it before the "return period" from the merchant.<br><br>I'm highly pleased with just one test shot using it. Couple of more tests are still pending and I'm hoping to complete it by the end of next week. But for now, the feeling is that I don't have to return this lens :-D</span>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-34617802483890299652010-01-14T12:53:00.000-08:002010-01-14T12:55:04.859-08:00Ready to take off<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4274149095/" target="_blank" title="Ready to take off by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4274149095_1c50bf0943.jpg" width="388" height="500" alt="Ready to take off" /></a><br><br><i>Technical Info</i>: D300s using 70-300mm lens @ 270mm, f/8 for 1/750 sec with +1/3 EV<br><br><span class="fullpost">Here is the first shot from my D300s...well not exactly THE first shot, but you get the point. This is the humming bird that was fighting with a sparrow last week. Little did I know the reason, but today it was very clear why they were pecking at each other so much. This one was claiming its territory to house its nest and it sure did win the fight as it has its nest now. The nest is still getting some finishing touches to it, but its pretty close to completion.<br><br>Last year when we moved to this apartment, the same tree had another nest of humming bird. This year too, the same tree has been chosen, but the view from my balcony is not that clear and this makes it really difficult to get a shot. The nest is pretty much in the shade and also the view has too many obstacles for the auto-focus to work correctly.<br><br>When I got the camera out, it already had a high ISO on it due to my previous setting. Thanks to D300s noise performance, its no longer a worry ;) Also the body has very high fps compared to d90, so that helps too. The only work I had to do was to get the focus right. Since auto-focus wasn't doing good, switched to manual mode, took a test shot and set the right shutter speed, keeping it short enough to avoid any kind of shake. It needed a boost in EV compensation to expose it right. While I was fiddling with the buttons and dials on the camera, the bird came home and I completely forgot about changing my aperture. If I had managed to open up the aperture, then I would have got a nice shallow dept-of-field, but for now I'll have to live with f8 for this shot and remember to change it for next attempt. </span>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10557661.post-8277517426456246602009-12-30T00:31:00.000-08:002009-12-30T01:08:31.364-08:00Waves of Sand<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhi_yhoo/4226342313/" target="_blank" title="Waves of Sand by kaddisudhi, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4056/4226342313_73125bacfd.jpg" width="500" height="371" alt="Waves of Sand" /></a><br><br><b>Exposure</b>: 0.002 sec (1/640)<br><b>Aperture</b>: f16<br><b>ISO</b>: 200<br><b>Lens</b>: 18-105 @ 45mm<br><br><span class="fullpost">During the weekend crazy trip that I made with couple of other crazy friends, we stopped at this beach on the way back. Its a very long beach with cars/trucks/RVs/4x4s ...etc driving on the beach. The beach has a speed limit of 15 mph and is supposedly strictly enforced.<br><br>The reason why we stopped at this beach was to take pictures of the sand dunes. Yeah, there is a small set of dunes which are preserved with barb-wire fences. They also allow bikes and other rides on the dunes, but some of them are part of the preserve and not for recreation (good in a way as the dunes are not contaminated by footsteps :)<br><br>All 3 of us (three idiots) decided to head out to take some pictures and did a short hike to get close to some dunes. These are small dunes and not as big as what you would find in Nevada, but they are beautiful. Though we weren't at the ideal time for the light to be right, we were good to get some test shots or at least make an attempt at it. During the short hike, you would come across these sand patterns which looked like waves, of course they are formed due to the strong ocean winds coming mainly from the pacific ocean. The dark/light combination was really pretty and the picture doesn't do justice to the sight we saw. I could only imagine how it would glow during sunset or even the light falling on them at an angle. Hopefully when I visit the big sand dunes, I'll make sure that I stay either for sunrise/sunset. But for now, will be happy with this one :)<br><br>...and yeah, the title is named after the guy who drove us all the way for the crazy trip ;)</span>Sudhihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06063984270641459677noreply@blogger.com2