Shutter Tripping Podcast - Cleveland, Clubs and Compliance

Please have a listen to episode #4 of Shutter Trippings podcast with Tom Baker, Kevin Pepper and guest, Gary Simmons.

http://shuttertripping.com/2012/10/03/cleveland-clubs-and-compliance-shutter-tripping-episode-4/

New Podcast discussing photography related topics

I am happy to announce that Tom Baker and I have developed a new podcast to discuss all things photography. The new podcast website is www.shuttertripping.com and has a home on facebook at www.facebook.com/ShutterTripping.

Tom Baker is an accomplished travel and nature photographer based out of Toronto, Ontario. Over the years Tom has travelled across North America, The Caribbean and Europe capturing compelling images in his unique style.


“I love being outdoors. I love getting out into the thick of things. I’ve never had a desire to be in a studio. I want to watch the sun come up over the ocean, or discover hidden gems in whatever city I’m in. That’s what inspires me. Travelling the world and exploring it through photography is my passion. “

When he isn’t shooting for clients or for own projects, Tom spends his time helping people learn the art of photography. He regularly writes tips, product reviews and photo how-to’s on his website, as well as various social media outlets. He has also helped lead numerous workshops and, especially in his adopted home of Florida.

Currently , Tom is working on his first book, a photographic history of his home town Cleveland, OH.

Kevin is a nature photographer and teacher at heart. No matter what the season is; the draw of being out in the outdoors is what inspires him to take photos and take amateur photographers on one of his photography workshops. But you will also see other styles of photography in his portfolio.
From street photography, to urban exploration of abandoned buildings and architecture, he loves to capture it all with his camera for his corporate clients and his growing personal portfolio.

Kevin also operates the “Photographers Lounge”, a company dedicated to teaching photography. Through “The Lounge” you can learn from some of the best photographers of our time.

Together Tom and Kevin will discuss various photographic topics and periodically invite guests on to discuss relevant topics many photographers want to know more about.

Please listen in and and enjoy the podcasts at www.shuttertripping.com

is HDR artistic impression or another editing tool to create a proper exposed image?

There has been a lot of chatter lately about HDR... is it art, does it diminish the photographic talent of the photographer... is it too fake looking, why do it... and ON, and ON, and ON.....

For me, its just another way to express your artistic expression... if you do not agree, well, you are entitled to your opinion and you are more than welcome to comment below.

After talking to a lot of people, I believe what they do not like is the surreal looking grunge photos that almost mimic an Andy Warhol painting, but much MUCH more expressive...

Look at the photo above for instance... its a 5 image HDR edited in photomatix and CS5. It does not look too surreal, its not grungy. In fact it gives the image a complete tonal range and allowed me to get proper exposure throughout when I did not have a flash or reflector.

This was 5 images at f16 and 100ISO at 1second, 1/2 second, 1/4second, 1/8 second, 1/16th of a second exposures.

I created the HDR in photomatix, saved as a TIFF and then opened that image up in the RAW editor of CS5

Some non evasive dodging and burning, some minor color correction and a few further exposure tweaks and I had the base image.

I then took this image and overlayed the middle image of the original 5 and did some layering to bring back a bit of the original image.

When done I ran a 1.5 pixel high pass filter over th eimage to bring out some of the details on the truck and voila... a pretty decent looking image at 11:30am when the sun was high in the sky and washing out the scenes at the auto wreckers.

But hey don't jsut listen to me, join Rick Sammon and Tom Baker as they discuss HDR and lighting techniques on September 22, 23 in Kitchener, Ontario. See the details of the event here...  http://www.photographers-lounge.com/seminars/rick-sammon/

If you have an opinion on HDR I would love it if you shared in the comments below.