Welcome to 2011

Happy New Year! 2011 is going to be a very large year! I would like to start by saying that in the ending months of 2010, my time on Lenshare wasn't as great as I had wanted. When someone gets as busy as I had, things some times get put on the back burner. This was the case starting around September 2010. From September till just about now I have been consumed with exhibits, weddings, other photo projects and searching for a studio. The location I was in during the summer did not work out once fall came. In December we moved into a smaller, more intimate studio than we had in the summer. This space is just the right size for what we planning for 2011. Over the past four months I have also devoted quite a bit of time to a personal project that I began back in late spring 2009. Vacancy is a socio-economic documentary project that opens this week at the Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke, MA. The opening of this exhibit is first step towards the completion of this project.

Below are some of the highlight images from the last few months. I have a lot more, however, that would require a very large gallery. Time constraints would keep me from producing that at the moment. In 2011 as part of my newest business plan, Lenshare will be revamped and I plan to write one article a week geared towards a topic in photography. Next weeks article will put a focus on Vignetting. I will also be working on setting up a newer much sleeker look for the site as well. I hope 2011 is a great year for you as well!

HDR Portrait

HDR portraits can be very simple or they can be very complicated. By simple I mean using one image, photoshop, and a few techniques to do a pseudo-HDR process. You can take one image and run it through an HDR action or you can run it through some of the filters and plug ins that are available. In Lightroom, there are presets that mimic what HDR is. But as well all know mimicking is not the same as the real thing. Or you have the option to  make the person you are photographing stand, sit, or lay very still while you make the needed bracketed exposures. 

I have two examples of HDR portraits. 1. the person asked if they could be photographed for HDR. Gladly I said yes, and stand very still, do not move at all. Which he did not. He essentially held his breath, posture, and stood motionless for 3 exposures to be made. What I was left with was my first HDR portrait.

Example 1 The image on the left does not have as much shadow on the face as you can see in the example on the right. Both are HDR portraits that were made by having him stand still. The one on the right was the first image made. He stood comfortably leaning against the wall.

Example 2 The portrait was made before I started integrating HDR into a part of my regular image making. I photographed him in passing while on a trip to Provincetown, MA, Cape Cod. This photograph was made using a pseudo technique that I created.

There are, like I mentioned, a few different ways in which you can create an HDR portrait. Lighroom and Adobe Bridge, as well as Adobe Camera Raw all have the ability to create them. My technique more closely matches what you would get if you were to shoot for HDR. (bracketed exposures)