More Metro Retro Conversions

I went out in the hot hot heat over the weekend because I was bored. I won't make that mistake again. I took a few photos from the Retro Metro website and did a few more blends.

The first one I really had to do some major photoshop work. It is basically impossible to get a straight on shot of this building as it stands now because of the trees. So I took it from a far right angle, then did a perspective correction, straightened, and resized to get the correct angle so I could clone the old photo on top. 

The other two were much easier. More when it cools off. As always, click on the picture for a larger version.

Some "Then and Now" and a Now

I saw a couple of photo's on Steve Lackmeyer's OKC Central blog that came from the Retro Metro Oklahoma City website and thought I would blend them together for a different take on "Then and Now." I also added a new downtown photo that shows the progress of the Devon Energy Center..

A Little HDR Tutorial

HDR (or sometimes HDRi) stands for High Dynamic Range image. So what the heck is it and how do you do it?

Let's start with the a photo I took one day at a Civil War battlefield site. This was taken with a general middle ground setting on the camera. It averages out the bright of the sky so you get some clouds and a little of the porch. It's okay but due to the harsh light and the shadows you lose a little detail.

Next take a look at this photo. Here it was taken a stop down so the clouds have more definition. But overall the photo is too dark and you lose almost all detail of the porch.

Then this next photo is taken one stop up. Now you can see the details of the porch better but the sky is whitewashed.

I could play around with the three photos and come up with something decent, but in this case my best method would be to combine all three photos using the best parts of each one.

 How to do it? It is best if you shoot using a tripod but I hardly ever do. I just try to hold the old camera as steady as I can and snap away. My camera can be set to automatically bracket three shots and it's my preferred method of shooting.

Next you have to have the software to combine the shots. You can search the web and find software although the best is probably Photomatix. I use the software that came with my Corel Photo Pro x2. There are plenty of good free trial versions available but they will generally leave a watermark on the finished project.

Load the three photos with your software. You usually have to align the images, some software will do it automatically. Then generate the image. What comes out is generally a flat look photo that needs a little bit of help. 

But once you tone map it and do some post process work (in this case I did a clarity adjustment, added some color saturation and a little sharpening.) Now the photo has the full detail of the clouds and the porch and looks much better than any of the three originals.

I only use this process on about 10% of my photos and I try not to go too overboard with the adjustments. Some critics really hate HDR but I see it's place in the digital world.

The American Barn

This one was taken off the side of the highway somewhere between Joplin, MO and Kansas City, MO. It is a three shot HDR with a barrel distortion correction.
I have no clue where this on is, probably in Arkansas, three shot HDR of a hay barn.

Between Springfield and Joplin, another three shot HDR converted to B/W.

The American barn is one of my favorite things to photograph.

The Beast

An old truck I saw one day. Blackened the background using a technique that someone once taught me.

Nuway Cleaners

HDR

SIlver

This Chevy is in a field outside of Hillsboro, TX. I spent an hour or so in the hot blazing sun shooting about 30 old cars there. During postprocessing I wanted to desaturate the greens a bit and quite by accident I desaturate everything except the reds. I absolutely loved the results so I stopped right there. This was taken with my Sony point and shoot camera.

Coca Cola Classic

Taken in West Texas, I don't really remember what town. There were a couple of trucks in this garage station and no one was around. I used my Sony point and shoot camera and converted it to black and white.

Big Job F800 with Fangs

I found this bad boy one day when I was driving through West Texas. It was in the town of Guthrie, TX parked in the lot of an abandoned gas station. It was a cloudy day and I used my point and shoot Sony camera.
I did a curve adjustment to darken the shadows and give the truck a deeper red tone. A clarity adjustment made the clouds more menacing.
One thing I think is cool is the front V8 emblem resembles Dale Earnhart Jr's old #8 logo.
Did you notice the bird?