I went downtown last week to look at the Christmas decorations and get some shots. Maybe it's the warm weather we've been having, but it just didn't feel like Christmas and I thought seeing some lights and hearing some holiday music might help. Here is a shot from one of my favorite stops during the holidays, the Driskill hotel. They always have a big beautiful tree in their lobby.
This is an HDR shot composed from 7 exposures. I tried to keep the warm feel of the lighting as it existed in person. One of the things I've been working on as my HDR technique evolves is to allow more dark shadow area to exist. HDR offers the opportunity bring light and detail into dark areas, assuming you get enough exposures to capture the entire dynamic range. That seems neat at first, but over time I've come to realize that shadows are an important part of the mood of an image. I felt that preserving the dimly lit feel of the room helped to draw attention to the tree.
Despite the empty appearance, this is a busy lobby! I get asked sometimes how I avoid getting people in HDR shots. Well, basically it takes a bit of patience. Here, I took my time and snapped the exposures as people walked out of my frame. Some people are hidden behind the tree. For the longest exposures, I had to accept that there would be people walking through. Fortunately, as long as people keep moving, they really don't show up in a really long exposure of several seconds. Correcting what little ghosted movement that remained was relatively easy. I just used a couple of original exposures and masked them in with a brush set to darken or lighten mode as appropriate.
Merry Christmas to everyone who is kind enough to visit my blog and photostream throughout the year! I've learned a lot in the past year and I've enjoyed sharing my thoughts and images with folks.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
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