Trying Photomatix Pro 4.2.2

If your camera offers Auto-Exposure Bracketing (AEB), select the Continuous Shooting mode, make sure the camera is set to Aperture Priority, and select an exposure increment of +/-2. The camera will automatically vary the shutter speed each time the shutter button is pressed, taking several exposures spaced by two-stop increments. I do, so I did:

  

LIGHT EXPOSURE ABOVE

DARK EXPOSURE NEXT, ABOVE.

...AND AS AEB DICTATES OUR MID-RANGE EXPOSURE ABOVE 

 Preprocess and merge the photos The next window lets you specify options for preprocessing and merging the photos. If your photos were taken hand-held (MINE WERE), check the Align source images box and select the By matching features method. The three photos of the Grand Canal were taken using a tripod, but we still check the alignment option to correct for small alignment problems that may happen even with a tripod. If your scene includes moving objects or people, check the Reduce ghosting artifacts option. The semi-manual option is recommended for better results. If the bracketed photos you loaded are RAW files, check the Reduce noise option with the on source images selected. You may also check this option

with jpeg or TIFF files. 

  

 ABOVE is what the HDR photomatix process produced, all-be-it my first real try at it. I wanted to compare the dark shot with some touch-up with iphoto as well plus no water marks, I liked it too. Was it better?, always subjective, was all this fun?, HECK YES! HERE IS THE OTHER SHOT TOUCHED WITH IPHOTO: 

Oh, What is it? A very young Apple Tree with apples and blooms on the same branch, is that normal apple people? I sure don't know but it is beautiful!

The Daguerreotype and the Beginnings of Photography

Fox Talbot Museum Curator Roger Watson talks about his love of the Daguerrotype and discusses who was the true inventor or photography. 'The Beginnings of Photography' is part of the Lives of the Great Photographers exhibition which showed at the National Media Museum, Bradford in 2011 The Lives of Great Photographers was a compelling new exhibition drawn exclusively from the Museum's extensive and diverse Photography Collection, including works from The Royal Photographic Society Collection and the Daily Herald Archive. Together this exhibition presents a selection of photographs by some of the greatest photographers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Light Painters Perform on America’s Got Talent

 Light painting photography is going more and more mainstream. A light painting photography team from San Francisco called the “Aurora Light Painters” recently auditioned for America’s Got Talent 2012 in Austin. It was quite a hit with the audience and judges alike. (via Laughing Squid)

 The Aurora Light Painters 

The Aurora Light Painters strive to create an incredible visual experience. Through the combined talents of the troupe they create hauntingly delightful visual vignettes. They are always pushing, adding and inventing new techniques to create shimmering and mysterious imagery. What is Light Painting Photography? Light painting is an innovative, and magical photographic technique. The images have a dreamlike futuristic feel. Who are we? We transformed the basement of Julian and Jackie's house into a Victorian parlor where an incredible number of fun and spooky effects were set up to delight the over 400 children who made their way through the experience. From interviews with a gloomy spirit down a haunted hall to a joke telling disembodied head, we found we had incredible fun working together on high artistic and highly technical projects. How did we become The Aurora Light Painters? Our Troop Leader, Julian Cash, is a renowned portrait photographer, who began light painting in childhood, and has made a career of it. Julian's 25+ years of experience in this medium were the original inspiration for our act. When Julian heard America's Got Talent were in town, he floated the idea forming a Light Painting troupe, and we enthusiastically agreed. Our original Aurora team consists of Julian Cash, Jackie Cash, Eso, Jett Atwood, Lisa Eller, and Ron Halbert. How Is It Done? We don't digitally create the images. The effects are created by "light painting" - that is, moving colored light in the dark. Light Painting as a technique has existed since the invention of the camera. The first photographers quickly discovered that a camera with an open shutter will show the path of light in a dark room. In the most famous example of this technique, a photojournalist handed Pablo Picasso a lightbulb and asked him to draw in the air. While several members of our troupe have light painted with both film and digital cameras for years, light painting with a digital video camera has only recently become possible. This hand-made aspect of our work is why we emphasise these are not simply "computer graphics". It takes quite a bit of effort and speed to make these pictures dance before your eyes. We hope that you enjoy seeing our images even half as much as we enjoy creating them in this exciting new medium!

A QUICK TRICK FOR FIGURING OUT WHICH OF YOUR EYES IS DOMINANT

One tip that instructors often pass onto the beginning photographers is to use their dominant eye (i.e. the eye they prefer seeing with) to look through the viewfinder.

 

 If you want to find out which of your eyes is the dominant one, here’s a quick test you can do: extend your arms straight out and form a small triangle with your hands. Looking through the triangle with both eyes open, frame something nearby (e.g. a doorknob) and place it in the center of the triangle. Then close your eyes one at a time without moving the triangle — your dominant eye is the one that placed the object in the center. Interestingly enough, many people (myself included) choose to use their right eye for their viewfinder even though the left one is dominant — likely because it’s the way they started shooting from the beginning. (via Reddit)