Sunday, October 24, 2010

More HDR (updated)

Update: here is an older post which shows how non-trivial this is to do if the camera doesn't do it (and only a few cameras do, yet). 

Here is one of the clearest examples I'd done where you can see the advantage one can get from High Dynamic Range technology, even the one built into the iPhone 4. (I'm starting to regard that device as a camera with a built-in phone.)
You can see that in the standard shot, most of the indoor red color is lost, and the color in the highlights and the blue sky are virtually all lost. These are saved in the HDR version (a combination, in-camera, of three exposures).
They are not computer-manipulated except for slight cropping.






(The first to comment on the quality of the window washing wins the opportunity to come over and prove he can do it better.)

19 comments:

Monsieur Beep! said...

just wait for the next down-pour, eo.
not a problem.
or would you risk your life to clean a few stupid window panes??

greetings.

(:-))

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

No, *me*?? I don't give a flying rat's ass.
Only I know some people don't have more important things to do than comment on things like that.

felite said...

Here is an innovative iPhone accessory with an innovative funding pitch:

http://goo.gl/f8Is

Years ago I bought another innovative product, a potato based product, from a German manufacturer. Applied to outdoor glass it repelled dirt. It worked very well (Teutonic precision engineering and all that) but it never seemed to catch on in the market.

I think perhaps the Amalgamated Union of Window Washers, Shammy Wringers, and Wiper Blade Operatives may have put the kibosh on something that could impact their revenues so heavily. So I suppose the trick is to create something that makes friends of existing vendors (iPhones and mini tripods manufacturers in the case of the Glif) rather than makes enemies like the Dyson vacuum did.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes. I have ordered the Glif. And I like their funding idea too. I also pitched in for the little iPad TV.

Tommy said...

TC, I just tried to go to that web site and my anti-virus (Trend Micro) issued this message..FYI:

"The website you wanted to see might transmit malicious software to your computer, or has done that before to someone else. It may also show signs of involvement in online scams or fraud.

Address: http://snipurl.com/1c59mz
Rating: Dangerous"

Tommy said...

Question on HDR. If you don't own a camera with this feature, is there any software (aka. Photoshop) that can provide this. I'd think that you could accompllish this digitally.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, but last I tried I was not impressed. See:

http://eolake.blogspot.com/2009/12/combining-exposures.html
Or:

http://thurly.net/07ov

Tommy said...

As it turns out, my camera does HDR. I checked in the manual and sure enough. I haven't tried it yet, but I certainly will. I have a Pentax K20D.

Thanks. Color me guilty, I guess I should have checked before asking...

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I think that'll be of the kind where the images have to be pre-aligned. In other words, tripod only.

TC [Girl] said...

Tommy said...
"TC, I just tried to go to that web site and my anti-virus (Trend Micro) issued this message..FYI:..."

Interesting! I have Norton 360 and didn't read a peep! :-( Thanks, Tommy!

Sorry about that! Eo...would you mind taking that off, please?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

A-ight.

Anna said...

This is so cool ! Is your i-phone better than my beloved Pentax K-x? Can I do this on my Pentax ?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Better in one aspect, yes: the iPhone does not need a tripod to do this. The K-x can do it, but only if the pictures are perfectly aligned. (Though even on the iPhone the camera and subject needs to be pretty still.)

The two new Pentax cameras, K-r and K-5, has the extra bit so you don't need tripod.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

It's pretty intensive computing, and I'm impressed they've put it in the iPhone.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

(And thanks to the honored Miserere, Pentax expert, for clearing up for me earlier that the K-x has that part of it.)

Anna said...

Hum... interesting. And how do you do it? I do have a tripod.

Otherwise I may just do two versions of the same picture in some picture editing program. Is there any photoshop application that does that?

Would be fun...

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

I never stumbled over it in the K-x's menues, but it must be in there somewhere. I guess you must dig in the manual, look up HDR.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

It can be done in Photoshop without automatic software, but it's a whole science in itself.

There was a link in a recent post about this, to an post from last year, where I tried some software.

Anna said...

Ok, I'll check, thanks ! :)